PART 1 Summary
Iron Man put Musk under the spotlight, pitching him as the inspiration for Downey’s interpretation of Tony Stark. Musk relished his rising profile and frequently showed up in the luminaries’ stomping grounds. Justine also fed on this environment. She began to dabble with her blog, detailing the couple’s family life and their interactions with some celebrities.
In the meanwhile, Musk was on the edge of an abyss as Tesla and SpaceX, with their exorbitant cost, chewed through fair share of his fortune but accomplished bupkis. The press which once fawned over him, relentlessly derided him as a failure.
Unbeknownst to Justine, Musk was consumed with excess, struggling to dig his companies out of the financial conundrum. She bore resentment and disappointment towards her husband as he turned a blind eye to their family. Unwitting to Justine, Musk filed divorce unilaterally and scrambled to go through the process.
Split up with Justine, Musk took on a trip to London for decompression. He came across Talulah Riley in a club who was then a twenty-two-year-old budding actress. In a very Muskian fashion, he proposed to Riley a couple of weeks later. Riley was overwhelmed by the romance. On the flip side, there was a hard path unfolding in front of this couple.
PART 2 Expressions
Enthusiastic employees were zipping about, fiddling with an assortment of machines.
fiddle with: to keep moving and touching sth especially because you are bored or nervous
She was at her desk in the living room, fiddling with a deck of cards.
assortment of: a mixture of different things or various kinds of the same thing
a wide assortment of friends
Musk likes to place one-dollar wagers on all manner of things.
wager: [ˈweɪdʒə] (n.) bet; (v.) gamble
wager sth on sth:
Stipes wagered all his money on an unknown horse.
SpaceX were overjoyed that a young, feisty company had arrived to needle Boeing, Lockheed, and, to a large extent, NASA.
feisty: [ˈfaɪsti] having a strong determined character and being willing to argue with people -- used to show disapproval
DiFranco charmed the audience with her feisty spirit.
needle: (v.) to deliberately annoy sb by making unkind remarks or jokes about them SYN rib, tease
I just said that to Charlie to needle him.
As each Tesla delay turned into a PR fiasco, the Musk glow dimmed.
[fiˈæskəʊ]: an event that is completely unsuccessful, in a way that is very embarrassing or disappointing, SYN disaster
The first lecture I ever gave was a complete fiasco.
Reporters who months earlier had been heaping adulation on Musk turned on him.
[ˌædʒəˈleɪʃn] praise and admiration for sb that is more than they really deserve
heap praise/ insults etc on sb: to praise or insult etc someone a lot
He heaped all the blame on his secretary.
There was a almost comical readout of that phone call from the Pakistani government saying Trump heaped praise on the prime minister and the people of Pakistan.
Musk had become all consumed with Tesla and SpaceX out of necessity, and there can be no doubt that this exacerbated the tensions in his marriage.
be consumed with sth: if a feeling or idea consumes you, it affects you very strongly, so that you cannot think about anything else
She was scared by the depression which threatened to consumer her.
He was consumed with guilt after the accident.
During moments of self-reflection, she felt sickened, perceiving herself a trophy wife.
Trophy wife is an informal term for a wife, usually young and attractive, who is regarded as a status symbol for the husband, who is often older or unattractive, but usually wealthy. Such a gentleman may be referred to as a sugar daddy. The term trophy husband is the male equivalent, although this is rarer.
Here’s one post about the lead-up to the divorce and its rapid execution: ...
The things that are done in the time before an important event
SYN run-up
The lead-up/run-up to the election
Elon, however, took matters into his own hands—he tends to like to do that—when he gave me an ultimatum: “Either we fix [the marriage] today, or I will divorce you tomorrow.”
[ˌʌltɪˈmeɪtəm] a threat saying that if sb does not do what you want by a particular time, you will do sth to punish them
The club gave him an ultimatum either he apologized, or he would be expelled from the team.
The army issued an ultimatum for all weapons in the city to be surrendered.
PART 3 Thoughts
She described a much less romantic Musk and felt people treated her as “an arm ornament who couldn't possibly have anything interesting to say" rather than as an author and her husband's equal. During one trip to St. Barts, the Musks ended up sharing dinner with some wealthy, influential couples. When Justine let out her political views, one of the men at the table made a crack about her being so opinionated. " E chuckled back, patted my hand the way you pat a child," Justine wrote on her blog.
之前看过巴菲特的一段纪录片，他已故的第一人妻子Susan在他们结婚25年为了追求自己歌唱的梦想与巴菲特分居，尽管巴菲特身财万贯并且对她一往情深。以前觉得苏珊很自我很离经叛道甚至是不负责任，但现在我越来越理解Susan和Justine的选择。一个人的自我的认同感和价值感是财富甚至感情所代替不了的。一个成功男人背后的女人不一定是幸福的。与其成为另一个人光芒下的影子或者点缀，不如自己站在一方舞台的中央，无论那个舞台多么简陋平凡。欧阳修有一句诗叫“始知锁向金笼听，不及林间自在啼”。好的婚姻不应该是个人理想的坟墓，而应该是飞翔后栖息的港湾。