Fast & Curious: Short Takes on Random Things

The Mooch

As brushes with celebrity go, it’s not much of one, but I almost interviewed Anthony Scaramucci.

At the time, I didn’t much care when my boss decided it would be easier to do the interview herself, but in light of his meteoric political rise and fall —  I really, really, really wish I’d had a chance to speak to him myself — I could dine out on that for the duration of the Trump administration. (However long that may be.)

“The Mooch” was on good terms with my old publication, FINalternatives, in his previous incarnation as a hedge fund manager and gave it a number of interviews, including this one from June 2016 (after my time) in which he calls on Trump to, “Start acting more presidential and make peace with the so-called Republican establishment.” (Which is funny, given Scaramucci’s own relationship with the “so-called Republican establishment” in the form of former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus.)

He also offers these gems:

Will you ever run for public office?

No, I believe I can make a bigger dent in the universe from the private sector.

You have tweeted from @Scaramucci more than 10,000 times. How do you find the time?

I’m a narcissist with severe attention deficit disorder who doesn’t get very much sleep.

I guess that’s one less sleep-deprived, ADD narcissist in the White House since Monday.

 

Bill Browder

The day Scaramucci was fired, the Huffington Post (UK edition) carried a story under the headline: “Bill Browder’s Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing Could Explain Anthony Scaramucci’s Bizarre Behaviour.”

In it, senior editor Chris York suggested that Scaramucci’s antics were intended to distract attention from Browder’s testimony before the Senate committee investigating alleged Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election.

Browder, a hedge fund manager, operated successfully in Russia until he was accused of tax fraud and barred from the country in 2007. Browder claims the tax fraud was actually the work of corrupt Russian government officials who had the Russian lawyer he’d hired to investigate the case, Sergei Magnitsky, thrown in prison where he died under suspicious circumstances in 2009.

The day Browder was scheduled to testify was the day President Donald Trump suddenly tweeted his ban on transgender military personnel. Browder’s testimony ended up being rescheduled for the next day (The Atlantic has published the prepared remarks he submitted to the committee) which was when Scaramucci’s tirade to New Yorker reporter Ryan Lizza went public.

Why am I bringing this up? Because I actually did interview Browder, back in 2013.

 

Do Drink the Water

And now for something totally different…

As you may have gathered, given last week’s report on Bras d’Or Lake thunderstorms, the Spectator has moved to its summer headquarters. One advantage to this relocation is that I get to be a little less CBRM-centric, as exemplified by this story, which is set in Richmond County.

A reader, who asked to be identified as an “irate local shed owner,” contacted me to say that the water tap at the Irish Cove look-off on Route 4 had sprouted a “Do Not Drink” sign. As said shed owner has depended on said tap for drinking water for a couple of seasons now, the sign was a most unwelcome development.

It took me over two weeks, but I got an explanation for the sign (and its subsequent disappearance) from the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources. Spokesperson Bruce Nunn said in an email:

A break in the waterline occurred at Irish Cove Provincial Park, a day-use park, which necessitated the need for 2 two drinking water tests at different intervals to ensure acceptable water quality. The water passed both tests so warning signage were removed. The water is fine to drink.

Good news for the traveling public and local shed owners alike.

 

 

 

 

 

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