{really incensed me.” Barbra Sti: snd recalls. “Who was this person who was jlging us Tike that?” allthis Hollywood fone other than Leon known to the unabashed cultural elit. ists who've mastered. his occasions sies in The New Republic the Washington m at which he holds the ttle “Literary” Eilitor”™ Ie is “one of two oF three jobs in the country that allows you to enen your living as an intellectual,” — Wiesel luce” Wieseltior assigns and edits dite reviews of im ff." asserts writer David Riel reflect setibed his job as “policing the cul Photographs by JONATHAN RECKER leetual and publishing circles. “Bat wen people talk about Leon, they §)“Metlia Jose sight of that amid all the gossip.” of McNally, “I love him like a brother” the Jewish, heterosexual answer to Os- “Thus in May 1993 this Ivy League Such is the bright litle world that car Wilde. It was Wilde, after all, who land Oxford-cducated former Judaism —Wieseltier, since leaving the yeshiva in lamented, “E have put my genius into Scholar was only striving to enhance his Flatbush, has been enthusiastically oxbit- my life; all I've put into my works is my thoughtful reputation when he told ing, thereby laying claim to a mush- talent"—an observation that would seem readers of The New York Times (via his rooming extraliterary reputation. Into suit Loon Wiesetier. “Why don’t you pal Maureen Dowd) that Hollywood Los Angoles and New York, where he take ita step he suggests, “and his latest field of study—was a place visits, it's as a deep-thinking Washing- call me the “Oscar wry Wilde"?” where “politics is another way of dress ton insider who pronouness shrewdly on He's been at The New Republic since ing and talking.” and politically active _maters foreign and domestic and gives 1982, frequently deploying bis consier- showfolk were “bubble-headed” and — sage counsel to the vice president of the able influence outside his own section to “put of couch.” United States~having maide the acquain- shape the general content of the maga ‘Such a negitive, jealous, maybe not tance of Al and Tipper Gore through zine. A series of frustrated top editors— Jealous, but mean-spirited ‘attitude to- the good offices of Gore's former Har- whose superior rank on the masthead ‘ward this generality of people from Hot vard instructor Martin Peretz, current- was no match for Wiesetier’s political Iywood!” Streisand complains about ly editor in chiel of The New Republic, muscle-has come and gone. His power relic, wo nevertiles has become Wieseli's image in Washington, flows from Marty Peretz, who hed hor fiend and adver, him down trom Harvard, having been Seoding her books ON wre e ; dazed by the young scholar ove co: Salus and cro chin, Wieseltier might be the Jewish, fee on the Square. her ponies on Hetergsexual answer to Oscar Wilde, — cicrtsne ens talked abou.” reals or intellectual be who compares Wieseltor to the ve tut muiteee! ach “Why don’t you take it a step Fes oven lllnoser sau "tet TSasocweursi fyther” he suggests, “and callme =u tHe eon ein ones 8 the “Oscar very Wilde’? pe he’s open to eve hhot beneath him,” says restaurateur as Joe Alsop, Alice Longworth, Strom a pal, “You must always have a eover Brian McNally of New York's fashion- ‘Thurmond-all of them people you'd You always have to have something you able 44, ppt in a novel” can (ell people you're doing, something ‘Wieseltier returns the favor, saying In literary terms, Wieselter might be really milly.” Wieseltir’s friend pointedly 2 nar rananscn 95 aMelia adds, “When in fact what you're doing British publisher Lord Weidenfeld’s), 2c- In another letter, he reported, “Toxlay is eating peanuts in bed ‘using her of “child abuse” for making a 1 will write a bi, read a bi, receive “It’s an attack on sighing is what i€ movie out of her unhappy marriage to friends and a few strangers who have is!” Wiesel explains, “because to sigh his onetime buddy Carl Bernstein phoned to say they admire my work is, sort of, you go up, up, up, and in- More recently Wiesetier presented a (the fool! I do no work)...” stead of going the whole way you very collection of cryptic aphorisms titled cozily shrink back. 1's something be- “Against Identity,” published lst fall in 4 Fhe was going to make an attack on tween complacence and resignation. ... The New Republic to much head seratch- ff Hollywood dietiantism, then he Pm not going to tll you a lot about it, ing on the part of those who attempted It should have done it with real sub- but there's stuff shout breathing...” to wade through it—to wit: “If I cannot stance. not with a throwaway line.” says (Ob dear,” Sie Isaiah sighs. “T d explain myself to people who are not Shirley MacLaine, who frequently treats derstand it, and neither do you like me, | lose my pleasure in explaining him to supper on his L.A. visitations, “The thing is this: he began working myself to people who are like me. picking him up atthe Chateau Marmont at Oxford and he never finished,” Sir “What the fuck was that all about?” when he’s not enjoving the hospitality of Isaiah laments, “And thea he went (0 says a wellknown New York writer-a California art collector Max Palevsky. Harvard, was in the Society of Fellows, typical reaction to the essay acLaine has been chummy with fand did he got his doctorate? No? 1 “Aficr I read it I suid, Leon, I don't Wieseltcr since the early 1980s; he thought not. Academically, he's not a understand a word of what you're try made her acquaintance through their finisher” Nevertheless, Sit Isaiah adds, ing to say," Barbra Streisand recalls. mutual friend Kathleen Tynan (late wite “He's got a good, sound future asa “He suid, “You're so adorable!” That's of famed critic Kenneth Tynan), who “You always have to have something you can tell people you're doing, something really nifty.” prominent, powerful, influential, inter- his charm. He's not intimidated by me. was briefly Wiesstir’s lover after she esting journalist. Some of his views are He sees me as agit.” was seated next fo him ata dinner party very peneteating and original.” Wiesclticr is, in stm, well on his way atthe home of Loz Angoles eriminal-do- The Wieseltier oeuvre is so eclectic— to achieving the best kind of American fense lawyer Leslie Abramson. “There's from learned disqusitions on the Book —colebrty-being famous to the famous. defintely bullshit thers, but my partiou- ‘of Leviticus to an unpublished ode on “You can try Al Gore,” Wieseltier lar bullshit detector gets underneath the the joys of ladies lingerie—that it defies says, listing powerful politician friends charm," MacLaine says about her description, His academic articles fea- who will praise his advice and acumen. friendship with Wieseltier, “Leon is ture such sentences as “The undiffercnti- “He'll give you something polite. Pat comfortably in touch with the feminine ated, followed by the simultanety of the Moynihan mote probably should be side in himself. With Leon it’s like hav- uucliferemtiated with the differentiated, who T tell you to call, Pat and Liz. Call ing a gilfiend. I’ like having a really followed by the withdrawal of the und. Bill and Ernestine Bradley, although 1 very fair and honest and sometimes de- Ferentiated and the triumph of the differ- haven't seen them in a year. But you pressed gielfriend.” fentinted: this has been the pattern of know what its like” (Vice President Recalling the “bubble-headed” insult metaphysical history in the Jewish view Gore and Senators Moynihan and MacLaine explains, “I thought chat was In his journalistic efforts, such as Bradley, through their respective fanc- uncalled for, and I told him so, Leon's his atack on Alan Dershowite's Chuc- tionaries, deelive comment.) reaction was “Oh, my angel"—tha’s wh poh, he can be pithy: “IF you bleed ws, But Wieseltioe is perhaps his own best he ealls me. 'm probably one of $0 he tare we not pricks?" Not be forgotten character witness, says that (0, but I Tike 10 take it person are his quitky columns for Vanity Fair “Well, I'm back from breakfast with ally. ‘Ob, my angel, [ didn’t say you during the 1980s, published under both the president,” that is, with Havel" he were.’ Which I thought was a lite tit his own name and that of “Tristan Vox," wrote breathlesly to a friend in October At least I would have wanted a Wiesel. in which he wandered eccentrically from 1991 about the Washington visit of Uerian, eloquent ironic, cynical quip.” 4 ringing defense of his friend Shirley Czech leader Vaclav Havel. “I looked “I didn’t quite understand where he ‘MacLaine’s beliefs in reincarnation to a handsome, all in black, with a red tie was coming from,” says Streisand, grant- vicious mugging of his erstwhile dinner and brown suede boots: as usual, it ing an interview at Wiesektir's urging partner Nora Ephron (they met at was nice to stick out.” “One night after the “bubbie-headed” of ana aR anc 5Media {quote appeared] I was talking to Shirley and said, “Why don't you come over 10 dinner?” And she std, “T have Leon Wie- seltier with me And 1 sad, “Ohhh reat! Bring him over!” I said, “Look, Leon, we're going 0 have dinner with Barbra,’ MacLaine recounts, *He was to excited. He said. "We will? We will?” ve seen him do his number, of eourse-his ‘charm’ ‘number, ... [sure saw Leon's charm at work here.” “Hle was very nice.” Streisand vocals “He came with a CD of Richard Straus’s Four Last Songs, which Pve al- ‘ways liked, and he was very funny and warm, and we started getting into mudi hairspliting ys. “Yes, Lam familiar with bis ruby- red rabbit eyes. I must have hal dozen of the most ass-kissing lelters from hit begging me to write for that magazine, [never did, Wel, of course 1 ‘vas labeled antiSemitic. The Weasel is fom the ease, morning, noon, an night!” Vidal's authorized biographer, Fred Kaplan, provides two such letters: in both Wiesetier lets slip the name of Kathleen Tynan, “whom we both hav as a cose friend, It was before the full vacuity of his worldview was clear 10 me,” Wieselier explains ‘In the spring of 1988, after Vidal be gan attacking the state of Israel and CPM Woe tise“ don’t know what he's after. Hollywood bubbletends?” | guess he would like literary fame! though.” “it was ike ey knew He fas very important hair!” each other immediately’ MacLaine sos “They spoke fills Gore Vidal from Ravello. cach other's language, Ie was Tike watching these (W0 Old Talmudic Jews who met in 1912. [et early that night.” ‘And how did Wieseltier find his way home? “How does he ever get home?” Mac- Laine laughingly demands. “On his broomstick, I suppose.” Safely back in Washington, Wiesel tier regaled audiences with an account fof The Night with Barbra. To a friend ‘over lunch, he rekited how Shitley took him aside as she departed, saying, “This may be your very first Jewish gith.” Then Ralph Fiennes dropped by 10 show a videocassewte of Quiz Show, Which Leon and Barbra watched sitting together on the sofi. According to this version, he slipped his arm around her, “You've got your arm around me, Strcisand supposedly observed. “T'l re- ‘move it if you want me 10,” Wieseltier replied, “What if [ don’t want you to?" Streisand allegedly countered. Wiese tier kept it just where it was. “Barbra,” he supposedly said, “do you mind iT call you ...“Mindy'?” 0: the phone from Ravello, Italy, Gore Vidal makes alarming retching “yerECconcH!” he exclaims the mo= nent Wieseltier is mentioned. “I've not gota strong stomach! This name is liter ally nauseous, as in treating nausea.’ "Then Vidal has encountered the man in the flesh? “[F that’s how you want to put it” he its supporters in the midst of the Pales tinian uprising (Vidal spoke at a com vention of the American-Arab Anti ation Committee), Wieseltct 1 dart at the noveisi-cum-essay- ist—writing a column in The New Repu lie titled “Abu Vidal” He's & great wit!” Vidal tills from Ravello. “T don't know what he's ater. T guess he would like literary fame! That is generally denied literary editors! He has very important hair’ ‘Won't Vidal at least give Wieseltier his due for tikability? “He's a social climber!” Vidal pro- claims, “You've got to learn some skills” Wicsetir challenges. “I don’t know only the people I knew when I start- ‘ed out? All the people I know aren't from Flatbush?” He's wedged into a banquette in the back of the Palm—"Leon's table.” the hostess eally it, across the room from "James's table" (as in: campaign cow boy Carville) and “Larry's table” (a i cable talkmeister King). ‘The walls of this downtown-Washington institution tre cheek by jou with caricatures of the celebraed-and Wieselier is enjoying fan unobstructed view of his own decid- edly flattering likeness. ‘What shall I say?” Wieseltier muses, “The world has rewarded me very hand- Ge a elimiber—what does that meat somely. I am not beautiful. Tam not wealthy... Is the assumption behind ‘Vidal's question, if you come from Fat bush you're a social climber, but if You went fo St. Albans you're in your natur alelement? ... There's something abject about the whole subject.” He grew up in Brooklyn, the child of Polist-bora Orthodox Jews for whom the Holocaust was less the apocalypse ‘of Western civilization than “Tike the hight the barn burned down,” Wiesel tier says, “The most important fist fact fs not that T wus bora in Brooklyn or ‘America, but that I'm my parents’ son, My parents survived the war, both of them very badly. Mark Wiscller was an officer in the Polish army who spent the war in Siberia and went on to prosper in Amer- jen as the owner of several furniture stores, Stella Backenroth, the teenage girl who would become Leon's mother, ‘was not $0 lucky. She came from a pi- fous, wealthy farily in Galicia—their riches were from oil in the Carpathian Mountains—seho lost everything. after the Germans invaded. In July 1941, after the Jewish men of Schodnica, her home- town, were slaughtered, she was eon prlled by the local Ukrainians, many of ‘whom had worked for her family, 0 dig truss graves in a nearby forest and shov- fl dirt over her loved ones. One, day. in July 1943, she watched a Gestapo of- ficer offer lollipops to a group of stary- ing Jewish children, telling them t open their mouths—into which he fired bullets at poincblank range. To Leon's ‘mother, the murdered children looked ‘exactly Tike doll, For this reason Leon's sister, Thea, two years his junior, was rover permitted a doll when she was growing up. Ultimately, Stella escaped by hiding with several other Jews in a ratinfested cellar under a stable once coved by her family. “L was raised in a very, very specific way” Wiesellicr says. “My parents al- sways said there were two kinds of sur vivors: those who didn't want their eit ren to know anything... and those, like my parents, who told us whatever wwe could understand—and some things we couldn't.” or Wieselter, the burden of his par- nis) memories ‘tas been a crushing fone. “You feel you have to bring as much joy, as much security, as you ean to the people who survived—i.e., your parents,” he says. “Is not about Suc cess,’ The burden is much too great to be diminished by anything like a ‘eae reer.” Tthas to do with what you might an asc 95Media call ‘normaley."" Wieselticr is fiercely was also the year he wrenched his of otherness—was Mahnaz Ispahani, the Protective of his parents, now in their yarmulke from his head. “I remember it daughter of a Pakistani merchant 70s and stil living in Brooklyn. Asked was the winter,” he says. “I remember it prince, a darkly beautiful young woman for permission to interview them, he was a rainy night and Lwas on College who wore a diamond in her nose, She crupts, “Out of the question!” (He is Walk, alone. For me it was not a Kara- was getting her doctorate in internation. also fiereely combative when it comes mazovian gesture. I didn't shake my fist al relations when Wicseltier met her at to the specter of amtéSemitism, whether atthe heavens and say, ‘God is dead." To the bar of a restaurant on Harvard allegedly arising from Gore Vidal or—as this day, I fool not thatthe yarmulke dis- Square. They were soon inseparable Ee in an article published tast fall about appointed me but that I disappointed the (This is beyond hikva,” he liked to = the “Jewish Establishment” in Holly- yarmulke, What happened was that my joke, “This is Shite.") Ispahani’ gave wood-from The Spectator of Great {aith was not sufficiently strong to with- Wieselter invaluable advice as he left Britain, “You run a filthy magazine,” stand my desire to taste wine, eat food, off medieval Jewish history to write & ‘ Wieselter fumed in a leer 10 the edie and kiss women.” long article on nuclear’ deterrence, 2 tor, one of his most talked-about picees Indeed, Wiesctiec has bee linked to which filed almost an entre issue of of writing in recent months.) an astonishing array of prominent wom- The Neve Republic in 1983, establishing é His parents certainly had cause to en, among them his Columbia classmate Wiesel as an homme sérieux in Wash ; ‘evel over their brilliant, pious son, who, Nancy Graham, who later became a ington, “Mahnsz,” Wieseltier declairas : in the Orthodox manner, wore on his film producer and married movie mogul fondly, “was the Virgil to my Dante. head a cotton knit yarmulke, held in Ned Tanen; literary agent Maxine ‘They were martied in November place by bobby pins, and the zich, a GrofTsky, who was said to be the model 1985, with Ruth Bader Ginsburg con “My faith was not sufficiently strong to withstand my desire to taste wine and kiss women.” vest with eight knotted stings signifying for Brenda Patimkin in Philip Roth's ducting the civil ceremony. “It was like the bond with God. Leon soaked up the Goodbye, Columbus; Kathleen Tynan, something out of the Arabian Nights, Figorous education, Jewish and other- who jokingly called him “my son’s and says Bader Ginsburg, recalling the wise, provided by the Yeshiva of Flat- daughter’s moral tutor-and also their glitzy occasion at the Ritz-Carlion—a ‘bush, becoming fluent in Hebrew and immoral tutor”; the actress Lois Chiles, celebration of social and political Wash. devouring the Torah and Talmud (while one of the “James Bond girls"; and TV ington mixing politicians and artiss, slipping away with his schoolmates to diva Diane Sawyer, apparently a platon- Muslims and Jews. Wieseltier’s parents hear Jimi Hendrix perform). For atime ie relationship (Sawyer won't comment) seemed miserable but attended anyway, he flirted with Rabbi Meir Kahane’s in which the two shared the romance of says Leon's sister, Thea, “because they Jewish Defense League, taking part in shopping. ("I would rather be the Stufly adore their son.” antiSoviet demonstrations at the United of his tie than the woman of his life,” During ther turbulent marriage, which Nations. But asa freshman at Columbia says his friend the journalist Anna ended in divorce last_ year, Ispahani College, he was still, according 10 his Husarska, alluding to Wiesehier’s pug) proved herself as socially adept as het classmate Cynthia Ruceia, “an earnest —“I_know from a young age that 1 husband, seting up an Adist salon in and almost prudish yeshiva boy.” To could furnist myself with ideas, with their apartment in Washingion's high: Wieseltier the war of the late 1960s was choughts, with tradition, with authentic+ rent Kalorama district, and helping him not Vietnam but Israel's SixcDay War. ty, with morbidity, with memory,” Wie- seule the social heights of Georgetown, Yet by 1974, his senior year, he had be- scltier pronounces elegiacally, “Beauly leaping from Polly (widow of columnist ‘come a man of the world. was another matter. Tt hecame elear to Joe) Kraft to Jennifer (wife of art patron ‘iano “The first violation of the Sabbath me very carly on dhat one gift that Laughlin) Philips to, finally, Katharine ‘was when I called Lionel Trilling at women could make to me-not the only Graham. Every Passover, ‘meanvtile, hhome because I had a tutorial with him gift, God knows—was the gift of beau- Wiesetier presided at a Seder attended in my senior year, and I had to ask him ty... Look, U have always had a great by the likes of Ted Koppel and Estab> 4 question,” he recalls. “And the first appetite for The Other. The Other lishment lawyer Lloyel Cutler By all ac- cheeseburger I ever tasted, and it was means the soxual other as well as the counts, Leom and monogamy wete not he strangest, sickest feeling, was while ethnic other and the intellectual other.” on good terms. “Hov can The with the Patti Smith was playing CBGB's” That Such an other-indzed, the apotheosis same woman every night?” he once con ‘wha sR AsCH PS 9Media fied toa feral fiend, “Do you expect nie (cata Ue sume restaurant every night” (In point of Fact, he dl ea at the same restuan amc every sit the ttendy nomelle American bio Nora et his sprtoent) 'A Th Now Republi, Wieser’ bo havior became eexsingy erratic. Blane ing ifn deed appearance onthe Stes of his coliping marge he began tot note forall the wrong Fess Sines rl that by dee eat fen a tera Tog heh at | chit alin fturant dont be would be se repotting te conor with ater af rasky aisha. Dung a New Rep Te tah for New York governor Mario Cuomo, Wiser, acre ing prtipnt, exw when Wieseltier began dating Twykt Tharp-a woman of daunting. disci pline, physical and otherwise—he has been ‘telling frionds that he quit cold turkey. ST have nothing to say about that,” Wieseltier snaps when asked about past “If you ask me generally how Ive lived in the last 10 years, Twill say my senses have not slept,” he adds. “That's all T have to say about my-what shall wwe call i-my metadntelletual tite T've never tun for public office and I've ever lived my life thinking that ‘might, and [never put myself before the public as an exemplar of how to live.” sin goed com “He can seduce people all over Ginmo a quesion ihe ov. the place. That's a very se ro Pee — dangerous thing to discover about ating bt Sh Quocalf” gaye Diana Tiling. you've got me.” Wieselter ‘weakly rejoined. “Tm (WO es head of you.” he added, in- dlicating his whiskey. ‘According to witnesses, Wieseltier was soon bringing to the office another habit that he also enjoyed outside the workplace: Frequent cocaine use. A per- son familiar with Wieseltier’s indule yee estimates that at one point in 4903 he was snorting—from a petite si ver spoon, dangling from a chain ate tached to a vial-an entire gram a da To support this expensive pastime—all but impossible on his salary, which is in the high five figures—he regularly Joaded dozens of books he received as literary editor into the trunk of his Honda Accord and havled them to ‘Washington bookstores, selling them to finance purchases of “truth serum.” A colleague who has witnessed Wiest ticr’s snorting recalls being embar rassed into silence by the brazen dis- play. “He dares you to tell him to stop iL” the colleague says, adding that Wie- scltier's co-workers even discussed the possibility of staging an intervention. ‘At a New York lunch for Wieseltier’s friend Leonard Cohen, thrown by Son- ny Mchta to celebrate the publication ‘of volume of the singer-songwrite’s poetry, Cohen passionately remonstrat- ed with Wieseltier to stay clean, a par- ticipant in the lunch recalls, “Pm 20 years older than Leon and I do feel a certain avuncular responsibility to the rman,” Cohen says when asked about the June 1993 lunch, Since late 1993, 100 ‘ Wiesetier dismissively throws up his hhands. “Do people think, for some rea- son of another, I was dysfunctional?” he demands. “Uhey'll have to show me ‘wlien, during this alleged period of dys- Functionality, T wrote nothing or bad things.” Yet Many of Wieseitier’s friends and admirers fret about his seant liter fry output during the period wien he ‘was supposedly at work on Sighing, dis appearing from the office for days at a time-often, according to witnesses, leaving the’ production of the literary section to his stalwart deputy, Ann Hub bert, It was during this period that he consulted a therapist for writer’s block, Wiesetir says. Has Twyla Tharp helped im clean up his act? Wiesel is asked. (either Twyla nor any woman T have ever been with has been in the ‘helping” profession,” he sco My intention was to come to know this person, but certainly not to reform anyone,” says Tharp, sipping herb tea in her apartment, which overlooks the Central Park reservoir. Tharp, 53, had already been romantically involved with Mikhail Baryshnikov and David Byrne, among others, when she fell un- dor Wieseltier’s spell alter meeting him ata dinner three years ago. But they didn't start dating until almost two ‘eats later. ‘Today the name *“T. Tharp” is listed along with Wiesclier’s at the entrance to his apartment building “This is my very dearest friend! and he’s a person who Pm very close to and trust Thaep says. Last Fall Tharp staged i dance production at Washington's Kennedy Center, persuading the man agement to give her the use ofa theater in rotum for three weeks of perfor. manees, for the express. purpose of spending the summer with Wieselter For the shows that ran in September and October, Wieteltiergloried in the role of impresario and greeter, exchanging backe sage pleasantries with the likes of Kitty Kelley and Hillary Rodham Clinton, ‘who attended with Mrs. Boris Yelsin; he was listed on the program as “general counsel” and “musical adviser” He also found free housing for Tharp’s seven ‘dancers among such friends as novelist Larry McMuriry and lawyer Leonard Garment, phoning wp to let it be known, that there was nothing chie-er than hav ing one’s own Twyla Tharp dancer. Vm amazed that I didn't get that call)” says Katharine Graham, maxi ‘mum boss of the Washington Post Com pany and Georgetown's leading. lady “Leon works terribly hard,” she adds “He's writing some very eggheaded book of some kind.” But Diana Trilling, widow of the re- doubiahle Lionel and a distinguished woman of leters in her own right, as a different take on Wieseltir's exertions. ‘Team remember years and years ago,” she says, “scolding my husband and Isaiah Betlin when Leon's name ceame up, ‘Well, the two of you spoiled him, indulged him too much because he ‘was so gifted, instead of riding herd on him,” Instead of saying, “Get to work! Get to work! Where are the books? Where are the books that should have been written?” Still, Trilling says she’s been talking with Wieseltier about his editing a new collection of her husband's essays and of his writing a long introduetion for it his idea, she says “Bat Pm not sure he will got it done,” she worries. “He might be off living like a character in a_ gossip col uma... He's found that he’s charming He can seduce people all over the place. That's a very dangerous thing to discov- cr about onesell. “The way our world is designed, i's ‘great temptation to use what God gave you, all that seductive power in the ex pensive waste of the consequentialty of ‘words and in worthlessness. I worry that this all may be leading him somewhere where he doesn't need to go." ‘nay aac 95