A couple of you have written to me about a recent (and explosive) article in the L.A. Times about the Magic Castle that said it's become a hotbed of racism and sexism. This is distressing to me as a forty-year member of the place. Actually, one is not a member of the Magic Castle. One is a member of an organization called the Academy of Magical Arts. The Academy operates the Magic Castle as its clubhouse…so by being a member of the Academy, I have access to that clubhouse when it's open, which it is not at the moment.
From what I can tell as a member who's uninvolved with the management of the place, the article is right about some things, wrong about others and a bit outdated on a few situations which have since been corrected. Lawyers, we hear, advised the Academy's Board of Directors not to respond to the reporters' questions and that may be sound legal sense but it's bad Public Relations sense. In any case, I have confidence in the current Board to fix what needs to be fixed and at the same time to deal with the alarming financial crisis created by the Castle being closed due to you-know-what.
I may or may not write a post here one of these days about sexual harassment, which I think is sometimes a too-nice euphemism for sexual molestation. Seems to me there are many varieties of it — some worse than others but all unacceptable — and that too many people lump them all together. Then they try to treat them all with one miracle remedy that might be effective on some types but not on all. I don't know how you can truly solve a problem when you don't really understand it…or try hard enough to.
Thanks to those of you who have sent donations of money to support this blog. I have a big bill coming up and what you've sent will help. Do not expect anything special here week after next when newsfromme hits its twenty-year anniversary. I may light some candles, close my eyes and blow out the Trump Administration.