Jane Genova: Speechwriter - Ghostwriter

Why can't these college kids be nuisances like we were

Who doesn't hurt in the voluntary youth lockup called college [and worse, grad and professional school]?  The Baby Boomers managed that hurt by being nuisances.  We tormented authority, including our parents.  A good time was had by all, except those in authority.

So, why can't the current generation of those incarcerated in the educational system also handle the situation to their advantage?  Instead, they have become Gen Suicide.  The latest in that category seems to be a young man in Manhattan. He was found to be roaming the subway, carrying in his backpack a container of toxic sodium cyanide.  No, he told police, it wasn't a terror plot.  He was just contemplating checking out. 

Previously, there had been suicides at Yale, Cornell and NYU.

Elite Irony

At the 12-step meeting in New Haven, Connecticut, home of Yale and its upper crust, a male with a patrician bearing waxed about his opportunity to teach in an exotic land light years from the U.S.  He would be glad to be freed from the sex, lies, and videotape [was he thinking of Rielle Hunter and John Boy Edwards] of America. 

Likely it never occurred to him, America is one of the few nations compassionate toward those with defective inner wiring.  If he does go to his new venture, I hope he can keep under wraps his predisposition to self-destruction.  Other lands might not be so tolerant.

Hunter on "Oprah" - So why didn't they use birth control?

That television interview the world has been waiting for and that will juice sales of Andrew Young's THE POLITICIAN left us with only one puzzle.  We already know the two - Rielle Hunter and John Boy Edwards - are perfectly paired.

The question is: Why didn't the two, one a married man who was running for president, use birth control?  It will take a shrink, who's Freudian oriented to unravel this one, but my hunch is that John Boy was heading for a exit, either from life itself or from his particular life of domestic tranquility. 

Atlanta, Pittsburgh - Anywhere but New York

The big games are not being played in New York, at least not this year and not at least for new entries to the work force.  That's what Huffingtonpost.com reports.  Better bets are cities like Atlanta and Pittsburgh.  The cost of living is lower than Manhattan where a studio can run $2500 a month and The Great Recession hadn't hit it so hard.

The wanting to start in Manhattan reflects the magical thinking that one should and can start on-the-top.  It used to be accepted, as in the time that Bob Woodward was starting out in journalism, that you worked your way up, step by step.  Today, there's more of an expectation of hitting homeruns, fast and easily.  I know of one ghostwriter, once successful who waits for that big score and turns down smaller assignments.  She is no longer successful.

Lousy to be a Kennedy

When you're a Kennedy, you can't even have your "slip" from sobriety in peace.  According to Jeff Neumann on Gawker, Patrick Kennedy, who admits to a problem with substances, had downed six vodkas at a bar.  He was badmouthing his uncle JFK, contending Barack Obama was the best president ever.  After, the bar shut him off.

Inside the Beltway: 70 the new 37

Foxy Lady Nancy Pelosi is a dead ringer for a 37-year-old news anchor.  Here she is on the cover of a politico publication.

One of your own gets her own speech published in VITAL SPEECHES OF THE DAY

Me! Not a client.  The address I delivered on April 1st at the New York State Bar Association on positioning and packaging ourselves for the new marketplace has been published in VITAL SPEECHES OF THE DAY.  Here's a copy of that speech Download NYSBAtalkinVITALSPEECHESOFDAY.

Coming ... Male Counterpart of "Vagina Monologues"

Award-winning author Mark Matousek is creating the script for the male version of the "Vagina Monologues."  He's traveling around the world, interviewing men on what it means to be a man.

In this exclusive interview with Jane Genova, Matousek explains how he got there from his start as editor of INTERVIEW in the alternative universe of Andy Warhol.

"But we're decentralized," Pope could contend

The U.S. attorney Jeffrey S. Lena representing the Pope et al. in the Wisconsin lawsuit regarding alleged clergy sex abuse of deaf boys might have come up with a novel legal defense for the Holy Sea.  It's usually the kind of concept you hear in corporate circles, not religious ones: Decentralization.

In an interview with Monica Daley of THE NEW YORK TIMES, Lena points out that the complaint rests on the assumption that the Roman Catholic Church operates top-down.  Instead, asserts Lena, the lion's share of the power is in the hands of local bishops.  They are relatively autonomous, without the micromanaging of the Vatican.

"The Good Wife" - Alicia Walks, Peter Follows

The tensions at the teetering law firm are drawing all the players together to keep it going.  And it might be just this intense bonding which spurred Alicia to tell Peter it's over.  She walks out the apartment door to have dinner with Will, her boss and lover from Georgetown Law School.   Peter follows her onto the street, violating the terms of house arrest with an electronic monitoring device.

But before we look at that crashing of a marriage, let's look at how those on the sinking ship of the law firm where Will and Diane are partners try to save it.  Rumor is already out that the firm is on very shaky ground.

Carey, though with the agenda of beating out Alicia for the permanent job, leaks information to Will from his girlfriend who works for the opposing counsel.  The latter is Stern, a former partner who ran off with one-third of the clients.  Carey also discloses that Stern was trying to poach him, as well as top-lawyer Julius and 10 other lawyers.

The puzzle here is why Carey didn't accept Stern's offer.  Stern's brandname brings in good clients.  They are unaware that he has a memory disorder.  Is Carey that competitive that he wants to win over Alicia more than he wants a secure job?  His lack of character shows when he could care less that his girlfriend lost her job because she was caught leaking.

Will and Diane confront Julius about the offer from Stern.  They match what Stern will pay him and agree to his diversity demands.  In return, Julius has to rat out the other 10 lawyers who were about to jump ship.  Since Stern really only wants Julius, those 10 will be fired by Will and not have jobs at Stern's shop.  So much for loyalty to colleagues.  Will consoles Julius about this betrayal with the reality that the money freed up by the end of those 10 salaries will be pumped into the diversity program.

Alicia uses what she learned about Stern's memory loss when she represented him in a case in a way that doesn't violate attorney-client privilege.  The way she does this is keep interrupting him in court.  What she wants to happen, happens. He loses his train of thought, can't get it back, and loses the case.

Kalinda, who's rooting for Alicia to win the contest, has to give credit to Carey for the information about case he lifted from his girlfriend.  These days what matters and all that matters is saving the firm.

Will and Diane are working better together.  They have to. 

All this has brought Alicia more closely into the drama of what's going on at work and away from the drama of her marriage.  Somehow, she has chosen not to be The Good Wife any more and to live her own life.  The audience, I think, senses it's not Will that's pulling her from her old life.  It's more she's moving toward a new one.  Will and the job are just there.  She seems to have the confidence that she can make it out there on her own. 

The coming attractions show that the police follow up on Peter's violating the terms of the house arrest.  Daughter Grace is hysterical that he might be going back to jail.  Alicia looks like she could care less.