When my estranged father, who left 20 years ago, called from his deathbed, I was torn between anger and curiosity. His final wish revealed shocking truths.
I was getting ready for bed when an unfamiliar number called, followed by a text: “ALICE, THIS IS YOUR DAD. PLEASE CALL, I AM IN THE HOSPITAL.” My heart stopped. Dad? After twenty years? Curiosity won, and I called back.
“Dad?”
“Alice, it’s me. I… I don’t have much time.”
“Why are you calling now?”
“I need to explain… to ask something of you. But please, don’t tell your mother.” He revealed that my grandfather paid him to disappear because he thought Dad was a failure. “I took the money to secure your future.”
“Why didn’t you come back?”
“I couldn’t. But I watched from a distance, saw your graduation, your volleyball games.”
I felt my world tilt. “Why didn’t Mom tell me?”
“Maybe she thought she was protecting you.”
“What do you want now?”
“I need to see you, Alice. One last time before I go.”
I decided to go. At the hospital, he looked frail. “Alice,” he whispered.
“Why did you do it, Dad?”
“I thought it was the best way to secure a future for you. I wrote letters every year. They’re in a safety deposit box.”
After his death, I found the letters. They were filled with his regrets and love. I confronted Mom, who admitted she thought it was best for me too.
In the end, I used the money to start a scholarship fund in his name, honoring his memory and sacrifices.
“Go F–k Yourself” Elon Musk Is Never One To Pull Punches, Absolutely Unloads On Ad Boycott, Calls Out Disney CEO
Elon Musk is never one to pull punches, even when he’s in a good mood, and now that advertisers are boycotting X, he’s not in a good mood and is certainIy not pulling punches.
Such was obvious when, on Wednesday, Elon appeared at The New York Times’ DealBook/Summit with CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin.
There, Elon directly confronted the group of companies engaging in the ad boycott of X, Go f -k yourself. That came when Elon was discussing the nature of the economic attack on X and argued, quite persuasiveIy, that it is coming to be difficult for them to threaten him, one of the wealthiest men on Earth, with money.
Speaking to Sorkin about the issue, Musk said, “I hope they stop. Don’t advertise. If somebody is going to try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with money, go fuck yourself. Go f -k yourself. Is that clear? I hope it is.”
Elon then went on to single out Disney CEO Bob Iger, who said that he does not want Disney to be affiIiated with Musk and his comments and whose company stopped advertising on X. Directing his comment toward Iger, Musk said, Hey Bob, if you’re in the audience.
Musk also commented, during the event, on a tweet he made that some called anti-Semitic, saying, I shouId in retrospect should not have replied to that one person.
He added, Essentially I handed a loaded gun to those who hate me, and arguably to those are antisemitic, and for that I’m quite sorry. That was not my intention.
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