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The Saipan Tribune has today, Friday, published this as news: Fitial in pain.

This news report is predominantly spin, with some very lame excuses:
1. The DOC chief Dolores San Nicolas takes responsibility. She tried to reach the AG and a U.S. Marshall first, but couldn't.
2. Fitial was in severe pain.
3. His wife was present throughout.

On #1
Of course Dolores San NIcolas is responsible for her role in this. But her job security depends on the Governor, and he called her and "asked" for the prisoner to be brought to him. He is also responsible.

Both should face consequences for their actions. Those consequences should include both employment discipline /loss of their jobs and criminal contempt/other charges.

Also, the veracity of their statements should be thoroughly tested. I hope the Feds get the communications records to confirm whether San Nicolas made such phone call/attempts to the AG and the US Marshall. Can records show this?

On #2
It makes no difference how the Governor felt as to the abuse of power. You don't get to use prisoners for your personal needs because you have personal needs and are the Governor.

Also, is this believable in light of his conduct public appearances on that day and the next? The Governor has had medical problems; and those do relate to his back, which means he could be in pain. It's plausible. Yet there are no reports that he seemed in any way to be slower, in pain, uncomfortable on the days leading up to this or the next day.

On # 3
It makes little difference what his wife did to the Governor's abuse of power. The abuse is getting a federal prisoner out of detention for your personal services. I'm sure in the public's eye that massage is less scandalous than prostitution, but both are equally weak as legal support for the Governor's actions.

There there is the question of whether this is believable. Quite frankly, I'm having trouble believing it. But I wasn't there, and don't know. But then I keep going back to the photograph of the first couple, and the anger and unhappiness in the faces of Josie and Ben. At the inauguration, when they should be celebrating.

Just makes me skeptical.

So what do we call this scandal? I've seen "rub-a-dub-dub gate" but I don't much like that, because it makes me think of bathtubs not massage. Other ideas? "Chingching gate" or "Pain-Relief-gate"?

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"Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us."�Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas," The One Un-American Act." Nieman Reports, vol. 7, no. 1 (Jan. 1953): p. 20.

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So Lee Isreal's book, Can You Ever Forgive Me?: Memoirs of a Literary Forger is out. No link, it is not worthy. I am have a soft-spot for literary crime [when it does not involve...er...me]. There are some great stories of brilliant forgeries, elegant frauds and clever manipulations. Of course the punch line is that, in order for the stories to be "known", the evil-doers have been caught and the work/inscription/letter has been relegated to the "forgery files" (mind you, a collectible area in and of itself).

For every "great" forger, there are doubtless a dozen or so marginal ones, passing off Dickens' signed in ballpoint pen...a random search on ebay at any given time will doubtless offer up a wide selection of "inscribed" of dubious veracity. Somewhere between the two poles rests the likes of Ms. Isreal. She is/was, in brief, a book thief and a forger. I did not know her personally, though there are many in the book world that did/do. I have read a galley of her book and will not bother getting a copy. I was planning to review it, as I have been reading a great deal about literary forgeries of late, preparing for a presentation, but then I read Kevin MacDonnell's review on one of the ABAA listserv groups. It is better than any I would have written and he was kind enough to allow me to post it here:

It's 125pp of over-written chatty arrogance, heavily padded with facsimiles of what she considers her best forgeries, of which she is brazenly proud. She describes her forging career as "fun" and drops celebrity names faster than a flasher can drop his trousers, a simile that comes to mind because by the end of the book you feel like you've been assaulted by a forger-flasher.

Although she churned out some celebrity biographies years ago, she happily calls her forgeries "her best work." The closest she comes to explaining why she did it is that she fell on tough times, needed money, and besides, she was alive and the people whose letters she was stealing and/or forging were dead. No further reasons given. At one point she uses the phrase "screw with history" but never gets around to confronting her immorality, and many of her behaviors that she describes at length with glee are appallingly sleazy.

With the exception of Catherine Barnes she describes most dealers as greedy and stupid. The closest she comes to admitting guilt over the thefts is when she says that guilt is mitigated by her help in recovering the stolen letters of "drunken American writers." But she makes very clear that she has little or no guilt over her forgeries. She has contempt for the court system, and readily admits that she never attended AA meetings that were a requirement of her probation and calls community service "bullshit."

Her account of Alan Weiner is that he extorted her for $5,000 in return for not testifying against her, but Alan's conversations with me at the time made clear that he pressed harder than any of her victims to get her convicted, was disgusted by her, and wanted her to spend a long time in jail. I mentioned previously in this list that she left a vile message on his answering machine after his death for the sole purpose of bringing more pain to his grieving family.

Much of her account also relies heavily on what she claims Jack, her accomplice, did or did not do. Both Alan Weiner and Jack are dead, so the reader can draw his own conclusions on whether to trust this account by a convicted thief and forger. By the end of the book it's clear she doesn't want to be forgiven; she wants to be admired. But the reader will find it impossible to find anything to forgive or admire in this vulgar display of narcissism.

This sums her and the book up as well as any could... It would be interesting to find out if she is still under the terms of her probation...as she explicitly states that she has violated the terms and actually having to serve out her sentence would probably be a good thing.

If you want a good read about better forgers, read Charles Hamilton's Great Forgers and Famous Fakes (1980 or the 1996 2nd Revised). A fair number of them I can forgive...for the art of their work, the chutzpa of the attempt and/or the humor of it...but I really find no reason to forgive Ms. Isreal. While it makes a cute title, I don't think she actually wants or cares about forgiveness, nor do I think she deserves it. [Again, thanks to Kevin for his permission to reprint his review.]

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Because the chaos of trying to get ready for a major show is not enough....

So, I was already a bit tweaky because I had the NY shows (ABAA and Westside Shadow) this coming weekend and the MARIAB Boston Fair the next weekend. This would normally be enough to bring me close to the edge.

On Friday, I committed to flying to the west coast to visit a client...leaving Monday and returning on the redeye Tue/Wed...landing in NY (where, I hope, I will meet my wife who will drive the van down...with the books...on her birthday). Flight, hotel, car arrangements are all made...I should be packed for the show tomorrow and all will be well *twitch*.

I met today with new clients with some truly exceptional items...that I must catalogue between now and...you know...Thursday. While packing, driving, flying, twitching, twitching, twitching.

I love what I do...truly, deeply, passionately....perhaps masochistically. Wish me luck, I should be in rare form by the Boston weekend. *twitch* No loud noises or sudden movements.

Anyway, I may be a bit silent here for a bit...I will, however, do my very best to blog the three fairs.

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Hi guys...sorry been missing in action. It's been quite hectic at the homefront lately. I've missed you guys :) I am a huge fan of Edward Gorey and so this is a little rendition of Edward Gorey's famous Alphabet Book: The Gashlycrumb Tinies. Cheers!

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