{"id":66837,"date":"2014-02-17T16:28:55","date_gmt":"2014-02-17T21:28:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=66837"},"modified":"2014-02-17T14:28:35","modified_gmt":"2014-02-17T19:28:35","slug":"reagan-the-joker-reagan-the-joke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/17\/reagan-the-joker-reagan-the-joke\/","title":{"rendered":"Reagan the Joker; Reagan the Joke"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_66841\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/Reagan_train_tour600.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-66841\" class=\"size-full wp-image-66841\" alt=\"Reagan_train_tour600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/Reagan_train_tour600.jpg\" width=\"600\" height=\"374\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/Reagan_train_tour600.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/Reagan_train_tour600-300x187.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 62.5em) 67vw, 100vw\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-66841\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ronald Reagan on a whistle-stop train tour, 1984<\/p><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">BLOOM<\/p>\n<p>Not long ago President Reagan, who should be remembered only for his jokes because his jokes I think are really very good, was asked how it was he could have managed eight years as president and still look so wonderful. Did you see this?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">INTERVIEWER<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">No.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">BLOOM<\/p>\n<p>It was in the\u00a0<em>Times<\/em>. He said, \u201cLet me tell you the story about the old psychiatrist being admired by a young psychiatrist who asks, \u2018How come you still look so fresh, so free of anxiety, so little worn by care, when you\u2019ve spent your entire life sitting as I do every day, getting worn out listening to the miseries of your patients?\u2019 To which the older psychiatrist replies, \u2018It\u2019s very simple, young man. I never listen.\u2019 \u201d Such sublime, wonderful, and sincere self-revelation on the part of Reagan! In spite of all one\u2019s horror at what he has done or failed to do as President, it takes one\u2019s breath away with admiration.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014Harold Bloom, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/interviews\/2225\/the-art-of-criticism-no-1-harold-bloom\">the Art of Criticism No. 1<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">* * *<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">TRILLIN<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve often said that someone trying to write satirically in this country faces the problem of writing something sufficiently bizarre so that it might not come true while his article is on the presses. The Reagan Administration was difficult that way. Once, at a reception for big-city mayors in Washington, President Reagan was approached by his own Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and the president said, Hello, Mr. Mayor, how are things in your city? Now, what does that leave for me?<\/p>\n<p>\u2014Calvin Trillin,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/interviews\/1552\/the-art-of-humor-no-3-calvin-trillin\">the Art of Humor No. 3<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BLOOM Not long ago President Reagan, who should be remembered only for his jokes because his jokes I think are really very good, was asked how it was he could have managed eight years as president and still look so wonderful. Did you see this? INTERVIEWER No. BLOOM It was in the\u00a0Times. He said, \u201cLet [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9064],"tags":[9092,3768,411,1132,12890,6971,12904,12903],"class_list":["post-66837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-quote-unquote","tag-calvin-trillin","tag-harold-bloom","tag-humor","tag-interviews","tag-presidents-day","tag-ronald-reagan","tag-the-art-of-criticism","tag-the-art-of-humor"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.4 (Yoast SEO v25.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Writers Remember Ronald Reagan<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Writers laugh with, and at, former president Ronald Raegan.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/17\/reagan-the-joker-reagan-the-joke\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Reagan the Joker; Reagan the Joke by Dan Piepenbring\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"February 17, 2014 \u2013 BLOOM Not long ago President Reagan, who should be remembered only for his jokes because his jokes I think are really very good, was asked how it was he\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/17\/reagan-the-joker-reagan-the-joke\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-02-17T21:28:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/Reagan_train_tour600.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"374\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dan Piepenbring\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dan Piepenbring\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/17\/reagan-the-joker-reagan-the-joke\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/17\/reagan-the-joker-reagan-the-joke\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Dan Piepenbring\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/6b16ca558fc538230f135c3220dfd3c8\"},\"headline\":\"Reagan the Joker; 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