Bret: I seem to remember Trump all but claiming to be the world’s leading expert on pools, so I find this story delicious, at least to the extent that every time Trump gets a well-deserved comeuppance it’s delicious. But, seriously, how can this possibly be so hard to get right?
Frank: Our news-side colleagues have done a terrific job explaining the complicated challenges involved. Trump didn’t create this swamp. But because it’s such an easily grasped, visually irrefutable embarrassment — and because he so arrogantly promised a quick fix while attacking his predecessors’ efforts — it has become a devastating metaphor and may be hurting him in a way that infinitely more consequential failures haven’t. There’s a thick, bilious coat of algae on his costume of hypercompetence.
Bret: Frank, before we go, I have a confession to make — a closet to come out of. I’m addicted to house-renovation videos.
The more daunting the challenge, the more elaborate the reconstruction, the more storied the structure, the better. They’re my mental-health breaks whenever I’m stuck on a tricky segue between paragraphs. And my favorite is a YouTube channel called “Escape to Rural France.” It’s the work of an English expat named Daniel Preston, who, ably assisted by a handful of friends, is painstakingly bringing back to life the mostly destroyed Château de Chaumont in central France, which once served as a refuge for Jewish children hiding from the Nazis. What I love is the vicarious experience of patient, meticulous, hands-on work; of the thought that goes into tricky carpentry and engineering and logistical decisions; of the love for something old and all but forgotten; of the excellent camera work; most of all, of the determination to give the chateau a new lease on life.
Watch it and you’ll see what I mean. We live in an age of technological magic and moral bankruptcy. What Preston offers is a return to basics, a belief in the worth and beauty of the old, and a possibility of repairing, even resurrecting, stones and spirits alike.
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