The Week

Jerry Ford was right. New York City should drop dead.

At his Nobel press conference, Saul Bellow was informed that President Ford had called the American sweep of the prizes this year evidence that this country fosters intellectual achievement. “Somebody must have told President Ford that,” replied the novelist, “because I don’t think he would have discerned it for himself.” Poor Jerry Ford. He is a bit gauche, gauche enough to take Nobel Prizes without irony, not to mention Helsinki. We’ve already suggested what he should have said about Eastern Europe. About the Nobel Prize he should have said, with a languid yawn, “All very well, but I don’t think these gentlemen are necessarily the highest representatives of the American genius,” and dared Bellow to sneer that one off.

Jerry Ford was right. New York City should drop dead.

At his Nobel press conference, Saul Bellow was informed that President Ford had called the American sweep of the prizes this year evidence that this country fosters intellectual achievement. “Somebody must have told President Ford that,” replied the novelist, “because I don’t think he would have discerned it for himself.” Poor Jerry Ford. He is a bit gauche, gauche enough to take Nobel Prizes without irony, not to mention Helsinki. We’ve already suggested what he should have said about Eastern Europe. About the Nobel Prize he should have said, with a languid yawn, “All very well, but I don’t think these gentlemen are necessarily the highest representatives of the American genius,” and dared Bellow to sneer that one off.