Rob Marchant has labeled me “a well-versed observer of the dark arts practiced in the corridors of power’’ who possesses “an interest in the scheming, ambitious, grandiose side of American life.’’ Rob, flattery will get you everywhere. In a complimentary profile on front page story in Sunday’s Journal News—the big Gannett paper in Westchester County, where I make my home—Rob recounts my career, talks about how I came to write The Coup, coerces some friends and neighbors to say nice things about me, and correctly describes my family’s prodigious livestock holdings (for the record: two dogs, four cats, two snakes, one rabbit.) Thanks, Rob.