You think I still have feelings?

Hoookay—as Bette Davis would say, it’s been a bumpy ride, hasn’t it, here in Kleptolandia? And we’ve only just got into August. What will it be like when it really starts heating up?

In case you’re not a subscriber to the Washington Post, I’m linking to a story they ran on Tuesday about the events of last week, as seen through—and told by—various players and observers from all walks of life. (Well, no Benedictine monks or Roller Derby mamas, that I could see, but there is a generally representative sampling of Americana in the quotes they give.)

They describe it as “An oral history of the Era of the Mooch—condensed and edited for clarity—as told by senators, Boy Scouts, soldiers, journalists, parents, talking heads, Wall Street traders and the CEO of an arcade-game company in Florida.”

So, yeah—Americana.

And it’s exhausting to realize that all this mishegoss happened in the space of Monday through Friday (with a bit of an epilogue). The thing is—aside from the desire to guzzle popcorn and gin that going through the non-stop rollercoaster news cycles of last week inspired—collecting these snippets of immediate responses as each event occurred is a mother lode for future historians. The Post may or may not have skewed the narrative, depending on which snippets they chose to include, but this is pretty much how we in the historying trade go about trying to patch together a reasonable quilt design when we practice our craft.

There are some bodacious quotes here; you owe it to yourself to read the entire story. A couple of my favorites are from Jesse Ferguson, former press aide for Hillary Clinton’s campaign, on the first Senate vote on some unknown quantity of a healthcare repeal bill (“How did I feel about [John McCain’s] vote? You think I still have feelings? Those died a long time ago.”); and Melissa Hanham’s description of the Slack channel for North Korea. You should read that.

Then there’s… Naw, just read them all.

With or without gin.