High Praise From an Expert

Generally we are not inclined to toot our own bosun’s whistle. In this case, though, we’ll make a happy exception.

Our Tidal Guide for September 21st included this item: “1989—The Chase Manhattan Bank accepts for deposit a check sent as a prank by Spy Magazine. Endorsed by ‘short-fingered vulgarian’ Donald J. Trump, it’s for $0.13.”

On Wednesday, this showed up on Twitter:

“The ‘this day in history’ feature in the @NHGazette is the best I’ve ever seen—and not just because one of their events for yesterday was Donald Trump in 1989 becoming the only rich American of the dozens to whom Spy sent increasingly tiny fake ‘refund’ checks to cash them all.” – @KBAndersen.

That would be Kurt Andersen, co-founder of Spy Magazine, and author of the current New York Times bestseller, Evil Geniuses. We responded, “Gonna print that out and put it in this cherished volume in our library:”

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