This new pick went by a first name that was best yet, just two strokes of the pen, J and D. And it was just his luck that his name took a change to Vance years past his birth, when at first it had a Bow and a Man to it but then his mom and dad split and his mom went back to that French thing you see when folks wed or die — nee Vance.
So now is the time to make the short word great once more, in this city of Bucks and the Crew, where they love a brew, and the state of the Pack and brats and cheese. No words of two or three or four parts, just one.
Back to Vance. The corps out of high school. Then war, sort of. His job was to talk and write for the air wing. Then back to school at the home state place where the band is known for the way it can dot the “i” at the half. Then Yale Law where he would rise to run the big time law pub, and where one of his profs, Amy of fierce cat mom fame, told him to give his life tale a try. Met his wife there, too.
The book struck a chord. Folks who had dough or led hip lives and knew not a thing about the way it was in the poor hills and dales said it taught them things, gave them a fresh look. It sold big time. It got a push from the Big O of the tube and her book club and rose week by week, month by month. Up to 5 on the Times list. And then to 1. Then a film. Ron at the helm. Glenn Close as the star.
But was it all real? Some who read the book or saw the film would opt no or yes or kind of. He did not grow up in that place, but in a town that was known as the home of “Luke” the hoop star and “Schwarbs” who could slug a ball a long ways for the Cubs and Phils. Did his book show the hills the way they were, so sad with a lack of hope and a plague of drugs? Ehhhh. That is left for the folks who live there to say.
When the big Don from Queens who once was a Dem and had five kids from three wives and made a lot of cash from things he built and sold, but lost a lot of cash, too, rode down the gold stairs and put his name in the Prez ring back in the day, the J and D of Vance said some harsh things. Do not trust the Don, he said. But then he got the bug and ran, too, and won a fine seat in the dome near Abe and Tom and George, one of only two from his state, the one with two O’s and the dot on the i, and then his mind was of a new sort. And he said Don was the man and he said it loud.
He was on the team. Make things great once more. He would talk in a way that would not make those who love the boss man and might be prone to want to hang him, not like the last vice with the short name. Trump and his new guy Vance. He had a sharp tongue for the Dems. He had the pose of pop, man of the peeps. He was young, one year short of four times ten. He had a trim beard, kind of like Don the son. Would it last? We might find out in a few nights, or a few months. The man at the top might be like the old Yanks who said no hair on the face on our team. But Lord knows, life seems so short and strange these days.
