Welcome to what will hopefully be the first of the “Weekend Edition” of The Melt. These will be shorter than the weekday ones. No long essays or anything like that. I still don’t know what I’m going to do with this newsletter. I might do one for paid subscribers and another for everybody, but I don’t know. Maybe I’ll just keep it free and easy. We’ll see.
“Everyman Timepieces”
I don’t ever want to have to write about politics. I’m just not good at it. I have my beliefs and you can probably guess what they are (hint: I said if as many people spent time fighting for medicare for all as they did coming up with a clever sitting Bernie meme then…everybody would have access to good healthcare!), but a New York Times article looking at Joe Biden wearing a Rolex…to his inauguration…instead of an “everyman” watch like…a Shinola (those start at $500 a pop), then yeah. I’ll take a shot at that. As Allegra Hobbs pointed out, yeah, it’s just a NYT “Styles” article. Not exactly some hardcore political takedown.


I guess the framing was a little off to me and I guess I was a little annoyed at the biggest paper in the country publishing a piece about a 78-year-old guy who took the train to work for most of his career owning a nice timepiece. I love a nice Rolex. It’s a status symbol, sure. But I’ve learned in life that a lot of people can own a Rolex, but not many can really wear one. That is, there are people that buy one because they can, and there are others that make a choice to be like “I want this on my wrist.” I was trying to think of the best way to frame it, but I like what Whet Moser said about it on Twitter:

Cam Wolf at GQ made sense of the selection:
At first blush, Biden’s choice is a bit perplexing. Consider that he was just elected President and there is an actual Rolex watch, the Day-Date, nicknamed the President—that one feels like a no-brainer. Instead, Biden’s new Rolex is the more entry-level Datejust model with a black dial. But this might be more advanced maneuvering by Biden. While it’s the Day-Date that now shares a nickname with Biden it wasn’t actually the first Rolex to make its way to the Oval. That honor actually belongs to the…Datejust.
To me, the watch goes with his whole look. The aviators, the cut of his suit, all that stuff. Thinking about it in the context that Moser puts it in, it’s pretty hard to fault him for that.
The other thing that bothered me was the whole “Past presidents like Obama and Bush were into inexpensive watched” bit. You do a tiny bit of research and you find out that just isn’t true. Obama is wearing a Rolex Cellini in his Kehinde Wiley portrait for crying out loud! And before you say Barry O. should wear a baller watch in his portrait, the guy appreciated nice timepieces even before he took the Oath of Office. The NYT piece, meanwhile, says Obama “avoided heirloom-level timepieces.” Not sure that’s totally the case, but I’ll leave it up to you to decide.
All that goes to say, this could all be cleared up if Biden just said the Rolex was an inauguration thing and he starts rocking a Seiko.
The King Is Gone
Larry King passed away. I’m sure you read this by now. I loved King’s interview style, his suspenders, but especially love that he got his start in the 1950s interviewing people from Pumpernik's, one of the greatest, lost Miami Beach delis.
If you’re looking for something to read, Larry kibitzing with his old Brooklyn buddies at Nate 'n' Al's at the start of Rich Cohen’s Tough Jews was excerpted by the Times way back in 1998.
Joan Being Joan
Lucy Feldman at Time did a good job interviewing Joan Didion. The thing is, she interviewed Joan Didion and I don’t take Joan for a big talker. I’ve been trying to figure out if the interview was done over the phone or if she sent questions to the publicist working on the new collection of Didion’s work, Let Me Tell You What I Mean. My guess is that it was probably the submitted question route, but I could also see Didion giving these answers over the phone. Either way, I really like these little nuggets that the writer gives Feldman. Short, honest answers. She seems so bored with the whole thing, but that makes it all the more fun to read.
Do you ever reread your past writing? If so, what do you think?
Sometimes I do. Sometimes I think something is well done, sometimes I think, Whoops.
What more could you want?