In which I have a Victor Meldrew moment......

"I don't believe it.

Unbelievable....."

Yes, dear old Victor's catchphrase could not be more apt than it is today.

It actually wearies me to hear the news that the current incumbent of The White House has re-tweeted vile racist nonsense from a bunch of pathetic non-entities based in the United Kingdom.

Also, that Garrison Keillor, American  radio broadcaster and author of 'Lake Woebegone Days' has just been fired from his job as a result of an accusation of improper behaviour.

Good Grief.

I love his work: if you haven't read his book, then get a copy quick before they are all burned.

I don't know.

Look, if he did something or said something or suggested something that would not have made his mother proud at some point in his seventy five years, then he should say sorry and make amends.

But don't let the accusation (at time of writing not substantiated) prevent you from reading his work.

It's a great primer for the sublime prose of Kent Haruf, an author who is a fairly recent addition to Pippin's library.

Start with 'Plainsong'.

For many years, academia has been in search of The Great American Novel.

For my money, this is it.

'Benediction' is also brilliant.

I haven't read 'Our Souls at Night' yet, though.

I am given to understand it is not about the late shift at the local hospital's colonoscopy clinic, no matter what the British English pronunciation of the title may lead you to believe.......

It is a shame Mr Haruf is no longer with us.

He could have continued his superb ouvre with a book entitled "Our Souls at The White House"........

"I was glad......

.....when they said unto me, let us go to the house of the Lord this day"

That's the introit commonly used in the Anglican mass and also a traditional anthem at the Coronation of a new King or Queen.

The most famous setting is by Sir Hubert Parry for King Edward VII's Coronation in 1902.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8GJ2CWjQSc

I think it's rather lovely........

 And today, I am glad.

Yes, the North Koreans have just launched another ballistic missile....

Yes, Messrs Barnier and Juncker are currently working out how to most royally stuff the U.K. as it slides, rudderless, toward a Brexit negotiated by poltroons on behalf of non-entities.

Yes the White House is, well, ...............fill it in for yourself.......

And yet "I am Glad".

Not, of course, because of any of that bollocks................

Goes without saying, really.

No.

"I Am Glad" because a little boy I met once in 1991 (when he came round the Museum of the Moving Image with his older brother, and I had, as one of the actor guides, in Odeon Commissionaire character, to show them out of the 'quick' exit door from The Odeon exhibit to the shop because they were late for tea with their Mum), has just got engaged.

I am very glad about this.

I am also very glad his fiancee is an American.

(I fell in love with one myself back in the early eighties.... it was not to be...)

I am also very glad she is of mixed race.

And I am very glad and that she has been married once before, and that she and he will be allowed to marry in church.

His family has been, in the past, rather hide-bound by tradition, you see......

His Great great Uncle was prohibited by the family from marrying an American divorcee.

His Great Aunt was not allowed to marry a divorcee, even though he was a decorated war hero, and was very close to his Great Aunt's father.......

And they weren't terribly nice to his Mum when she and his Dad got divorced.

And he was devastated when she got killed in a car crash..........

What with that and military service in Afghanistan, the lad has been through the wringer.

But his girl seems very nice indeed, and I wish them both good luck, long life and much happiness.

Their good news has made me glad.