Since this is my last column before the election, I am nurturing a tiny flame of hope that when we meet again, Hillary Clinton will be yesterday's news -- whipped off by the wind like the pungent, oily wrap of a fish-and-chips takeaway on the Thames Embankment. If that ruthless woman, with her checkered history of deceit and incompetence, is elected to the Senate, it's only through the collusion of the major media. A fresh example: Last weekend, the New York Times finally (16 months too late) published a probing article about Hillary's 1993 healthcare fiasco. But what curious timing: The very next day, the Times formally endorsed her.

There are so many squalid examples of media manipulation that I do wonder about the odd allegations that come in to this column over the transom. For instance, several letters this month questioned the authenticity of the well-known photograph of Gore that his official Web site claims was taken in Vietnam. They insist that his gear is nontropical and would be issued only at a training site on the American mainland. They also argue that Gore was not entitled by rank to wear the dress uniform he sports in his wedding photo. I would be very interested in clarification of these matters from readers with special knowledge of military technicalities.

On the pop front, I was most gratified by the letters that poured in from readers enthusiastically agreeing with my admiration for Meredith Baxter's performance in Lifetime cable channel's "The Betty Broderick Story." Because it has principally been on TV, Baxter's work has never received the critical respect it deserves.

On the other hand, I was taken aback by the many letters upbraiding me for taking Madonna seriously, despite my reservations about her new album. Showbiz today is built on sand. Young people have little sense of the pop revolution wrought by Madonna in her glory years (1983-92). But why should they? It's all ancient history to them, even if we Madonna fans will never lose the faith. (Will the aging Madonna turn into Bette Davis? I've joked about Davis, "They had to beat that woman into the grave with a shovel!") Perhaps my most reprinted article worldwide is "Venus of the Radio Waves," a survey of Madonna's rise that was commissioned in 1991 by London's Independent and is available in my first essay collection.

I was saddened three weeks ago by the death at age 53 of Benjamin Orr (born Orzechowski), bassist for the Cars. Orr's yearning lead vocal on the Cars' 1984 hit, "Drive," combined with his dreamy performance on the ingenious, sinister video, was a high-water mark in American pop. What depth of feeling Orr had, what complex layers of artistry. The "Drive" video (where Orr sometimes resembled one of my favorite poets, Samuel Taylor Coleridge) was released at a magic moment when the now-debased MTV was cutting-edge and when rock videos were a revolutionary new art form.

Readers keep asking my opinion about the controversial white rapper Eminem. My first remarks about him appear in the current issue of TV Guide, where Eminem's devil tail amusingly ends up on the next page pointing at my picture -- quite appropriately for a lifelong fan of Their Satanic Majesties, the Rolling Stones. I also got a chuckle out of being paired with Boy George on the table of contents page. (Now there's an odd couple! I see us in a revival of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" with me as the crabby professor.)

Further items on the TV desk: For a brief, somewhat hokey moment on last week's profile of Annette Funicello on A&E's "Biography," a fortuneteller deals tarot cards from the gorgeous "Aquarian" deck designed in 1970 by David Palladini. Reproductions of Palladini's cards were once on sale everywhere as posters and postcards. The first one shown in the Funicello program (where it dramatized a childhood prophecy that she would be a famous entertainer) was "Fortitude," whom Palladini depicted as a mustached warrior in elegant, art deco armor. That very poster, along with oversize posters of the Rolling Stones, hung in my office at Bennington College throughout the tumultuous 1970s. Who, I still wonder, is the mysterious, oracular, gifted Palladini?

More on TV: I'm disappointed I couldn't follow through on comedian Joy Behar's tantalizing invitation to serve as her "lifeline" two weeks ago on ABC's "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?" Alas, the six-hour time blocks required to be on call ate prohibitively into prior commitments. Readers of my work know what a longstanding fan I am of Behar's razor-sharp, Italian-American wit, which she now exercises to often daringly bawdy effect on ABC's hit daytime show, "The View." Behar is a master of the dying art of improv.

I happily confessed my religious devotion to Joseph Mankiewicz's classic film "All About Eve" in an Oct. 13 "diary" piece for the Times of London. Every week, a different writer comments on the week's public and private events. By chance, my assigned date followed Columbus Day, so of course I waxed furious at the impugning of Christopher Columbus by leftist activists in the U.S. -- the kind of defamation that the National Italian-American Foundation will no longer tolerate.

Two weeks ago, in a talk about the history of sex at the Gotham Center of the City University of New York, my companion, Alison Maddex, announced the formation of her own organization to build an international museum devoted to sex. She has severed ties with her former business partner, Daniel Gluck. I too have terminated all professional connection with him. Let this serve as public notice that my name may not be used in conjunction with any enterprise by Gluck, nor do I endorse or recommend any project or proposal with which he is associated.

Postscript: On Nov. 11, I will be giving a lecture called "The Internet Revolution" at the Chicago Humanities Festival.

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