Harvard’s idea of diversity is for everyone to look different and think alike.
–Harvey Silverglate
Silverglate, a distinguished lawyer and a long-time liberal, helped found FIRE, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.
Sadly, it is not just Harvard. It is virtually all elite liberal-arts colleges.
Articles chosen with care. Your comments welcomed.
Linked articles in bold purple
◆ Irma Exodus: 1.4 million ordered to leave homes, largest mandatory evacuation in US history (Daily Mail)
The winds are ferocious and the width of the storm is enormous, producing floods and wind damage across a huge swath, no matter where the eye hits.
The Florida Keys are particularly vulnerable. But they are hardly alone.
◆ When idiots blather….I seldom pay attention
So, you won’t see “news” about Jennifer Lawrence’s views on what causes hurricanes or Rep. Maxine Waters views on anything.
Stephen Colbert’s decision to give a Nazi salute to Pres. Trump on the Late Show (Daily Beast) is worth mentioning, though, because it shows how low our public discourse has sunk.
But you didn’t need additional proof of that.
◆ Human interest: 16-year old turns in high-school math assignment…which has an elegant new theorem and proof (From the Grapevine)
Tamar Barabi, an Israeli who loves dancing and paying popular music, came up with the “Three Radii Theorem”:
If three or more equal lines leave a single point and reach the boundary of a circle, the point is the center of the circle and the lines are its radii.” Believe it or not, that’s the simple explanation. To compose the actual theorem, Barabi had to write up three proofs, a series of conclusions and some sample exercises.–From the Grapevine
◆ New York Times prints long essay on how awful the affluent are (New York Times)
The screed says it is aimed at the 1% but actually refers to New Yorkers whose incomes could not buy a modest two-bedroom in Manhattan.
Comment: It turns out that some of the really wealthy have nannies.
The op-ed stops just short of urging the guillotine.
◆ NY Mayor Bill de Blasio says a big problem for him is “the way the legal system favors private property” (New York Mag)
Comment: Fortunately, if you donate to him, he can help.
More serious comment: There are two deeper points here
This lawsuit can proceed because of an act of Congress. Normally, such suits against foreign governments would be prohibited.
Hat Tip to
◆ Cheryl Brownstein for the story about the 16-year old math student
◆ Tom Elia for story about rich New Yorkers
Along those lines, there is a famous story of Clare Boothe Luce holding the door open for fellow author and renowned wit, Dorothy Parker.
“Age before beauty,” said Luce.
“Pearls before swine,” replied Parker.
Luce was not only famous in her own right–she was a Congresswoman as well as a writer–she was married to one of the most important publishers in the country, Henry Luce, founder of Time magazine. It was Henry who coined the phrase (around World War II) that the 20th c. would be “America’s century.”
Together, Henry and Clare were New York’s power couple before the term was invented.
Actually, Mrs. Luce was the subject of another famous reply, this one by George Bernard Shaw.
Luce’s play, “The Women,” was opening on Broadway and Shaw was there for opening night.
Luce was flummoxed at meeting the great author for the first time:
“Oh, Mr. Shaw, without you I wouldn’t be here.”
“Ah yes,” Shaw replied, “what WAS your dear mother’s name?”
A brilliant riposte.
But there is more to the story, and Shaw didn’t know it.
Mrs. Luce did not know who her father was.
We all know how deeply divided the country is.
Sometimes, though, a small, seemingly-insignificant item can reveal the depths in a new way.
That’s how I felt when I read this.
This is a paragraph in a New York Times news article (link here) about Megyn Kelly and the controversy surrounding her bumpy rollout at NBC, most recently involving the interview with conspiracy theorist and radio personality, Alex Jones.
But the comment was not about Megyn.
It was about a small, playful incident (utterly forgotten by me) involving Jimmy Fallon and Donald Trump.
“It’s Jimmy Fallon tousling Trump’s hair,” said Martin Kaplan, director of the Norman Lear Center for media and society at the University of Southern California, likening the Kelly-Jones tempest to the moment last fall that is widely considered to have caused lasting damage to Mr. Fallon, NBC’s “Tonight Show” host. –New York Times
Lasting damage? Good Lord.
Apparently, even playing with and humanizing Donald Trump is unacceptable to the other side.
You do not have to support Trump–or even like him–to find that a startling piece of news about America’s divide.
So many windmills.
So few knights.
–Leon Kass
Prof. Kass knows the metaphor all too well.
He has fought many a worthy battle and defeated more than a few windmills.
Some actors fear if they play Sherlock Holmes for a very long run the character will steal their soul, leave no corner for the original inhabitant.
–Jeremy Brett
Brett was a wonderful Holmes in the BBC series (1980s-90s)
Tip of the Hat to my friend, David Larkin, who found the quote in one of Abigail Parry’s poems
Should the hat be a Deerslayer?
We see it in movies, but it doesn’t appear in Conan Doyle’s books .
Norm Macdonald thinks he’s found it.
With Manson, his biggest flaw was probably his blood lust for slaughtering people.
–Norm Macdonald
Notes from an early TV show, Face The Music, have recently been discovered and include an appearance by the great Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy.
According to the notes, Ollie informs Stan that the television program has an audience of six million and that host Henry Hall is “going to introduce us to them”.
Stan replies
That’s going to take a long time, isn’t it?
Hat tip to Shlomo Dror for this wonderful quote.
It’s chaos. Be kind.
— Patton Oswalt
The phrase comes from Oswalt’s new comedy act and is born from the unexpected, devastating loss of his wife and his anguish in having to tell his child that she was gone.
There’s a wonderful review of his new act here. It will be broadcast in the fall.
Here’s part of that review, one that underscores the meaning of his quotation:
In one remarkably poignant moment, as Oswalt recounted arguing with his wife about whether there’s a rational framework and logic underpinning the universe (he said yes, she said no), he noted that “she won the argument in the (worst) way possible,” a punchline that snuck up on me. Only a few seconds later did I realize that I was both laughing and crying simultaneously.
That’s more than masterful comic work. It’s a next level of intertwining comedy and tragedy where both are allowed to retain their full powers while neither takes precedence over the other. –
-Zach Freeman’s review of Patton Oswalt’s new comedy set
Whether or not you think it is chaos out there, Oswalt is right.
Be kind.
You’ll make someone else’s world less chaotic, gentler, more rewarding.
Your own world will brighten, too.
Anyone whose activism exceeds their wisdom, their wisdom will endure;
But anyone whose wisdom exceeds their activism, their wisdom will not endure.
– Ethics of the Fathers, 3:12
Rabbinic Teachings known as Pirkei Avot
Comment: I wonder. I wish the sages had put it the other way round.
Today, the world seems too full of activism, too empty of wisdom.
Fortunately, I need not accept the sages’ formulation, even though I honor their learning.
I come from a tradition where we discuss these things, hoping a reasoned debate will bring us understanding and, perhaps, wisdom.
Thanks to the Adam and Gila Milstein Family Foundation for sending me this quotation
