The four sweetest words in the English language: "I told you so."
One of my bleary-eyed readers shuffled out of an opium den long enough to congratulate me on my prescience. Specifically, the predictive wisdom found in some of my little Winter Jennings stories.
Example from "Winter's Vengeance":
Sistine said, "But ... Macklin ... it's similar to how he markets opioids. He is so aggressive with his family donations. And the whispers have started. The opioid epidemic is getting so much ink that people are starting to look more closely at the source. Sources. In fact, some galleries and museums are trying to find a way to back out. To take the Macklin name off buildings, wings, rooms."
> A "Washington Post" article from earlier this month:
"Parents whose children fatally overdosed on opioids are demanding Harvard University remove the name of a family whose company makes the powerful painkiller OxyContin from a building that housed one of its art museums."
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This reader, probably tumescent in investigative excitement, went on to list other examples. Here's one more …
In "Winter's Game":
"There's a new kind of DA in some places. Philadelphia, San Francisco. Several other cities. Gonzales down in City Hall."
"Progressive?"
"Exactly. We've had decades of 'law and order' candidates armwrestling each other to be the toughest sheriff in town. More charges, more prosecutions, longer sentences."
"Interesting."
"Yeah. And now some of the career politicians are starting to edge away from their absolutist 'tough on crime' stances. City council members, a few mayors, some state legislators."
> To counter unprecedented incarceration rates and the lengths of sentences …
Last December, in a rare bipartisan move, the US Congress passed the First Step Act - sentencing and prison-condition reforms.
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Now, will my fortune-telling talents translate to Big Clit votes? Hardly. The haters will … hate.
Resolutely not paying the slightest attention to reader scores,
Paige