Correspondence: Guns, cajones, & other disturbances

NRA-recommended weapons
for mass assault

Edited by Moristotle

[Items of correspondence are not attributed; they remain anonymous. They have been chosen for their inherent interest as journalism, story, or provocative opinion, which may or may not be shared by the editor or other members of the staff of Moristotle & Co.]

Correspondence: Attitude

Edited by Moristotle

[Items of correspondence are not attributed; they remain anonymous. They have been chosen for their inherent interest as journalism, story, or provocative opinion, which may or may not be shared by the editor or other members of the staff of Moristotle & Co.]

The Loneliest Liberal:We need to rebrand

By James Knudsen

The United States of America’s system of government allows for periodic modifications. The process of amending the Constitution is well known and has been used 27 times, including for one amendment, the 21st, that repealed a previous amendment, the 18th. However, getting an amendment passed, first through Congress and then through the required three-quarters of the state legislatures, is a lengthy process and, unless it’s something really important – like the right to get blind drunk without running afoul of the local constabulary – you’re probably not going to be very successful. Did you know that over 11,000 amendments to the Constitution have been introduced in the U.S. Congress since 1789? I didn’t.

Roger’s Reality: Dancing with the Devil, Part 3

The other shoe

By Roger Owens

In 1861, before the start of hostilities in the American Civil War, both sides held their fantasies, those delicate, oh-so-vulnerable baskets into which we are forevermore enjoined by our mothers never to put all of our eggs. The Johnnies said the Union boys didn’t have the sand for one real fight, let alone a real war. They didn’t have the honor, the pride that would sustain the Southerners through the few months it might take to kick those invaders from the sacred soil of Dixie. The Union fellows told each other they had the vast advantage in manufacturing, which would provide the railroads, the cannon, the powder and shot and food and horses and rifles, and those Rebs wouldn’t have a chance. Many of the Union boys were from the cities, and they saw themselves as legion. How many Rebs could there be, after all? Just a bunch of farm boys. Neither side listened to their mothers, as so many generations have not, to their everlasting regret. So, as the shooting started, each side marched smartly off to disaster, figurative baskets of eggs clutched uselessly in their hearts and minds.

Movie Review: Lateness in Art and Life

A late review of Late Quartet (2012)

By Jonathan Price

This film foregrounds music in ways that are rarely done in American cinema, though it uses the focus to trace the elaboration of a 4-way intimacy. It’s a quartet, not a tercet, so it’s not the traditional romantic triangle, but there are three men in various involvements with a single woman, all of them playing classical music together for 25 years as a group designated “The Fugue.” This one woman is in various stages and types of love with the three men; however, we don’t see a great deal of bedroom antics onscreen – a brief fling by the married man with a much younger woman; a longer affair between the one offspring generated by the two married members of the quartet and its chief violinist. So the focus is primarily on relationships and music rather than bedroom acrobatics.

Thunder Down Under: The Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia

Map of RFDS regions in Australia
[click map to enlarge image]

By Vic Midyett

I have mentioned the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) in more than one previous article. The RFDS uses two types of planes in Western Australia: propeller planes, of which it has 16, for landing on dirt strips on farms or on highways, and a jet, of which it has one.

Thunder Down Under: RMS Queen Mary 2 ocean liner in Fremantle

By Vic Midyett

The arrival of the ocean liner RMS¹ Queen Mary 2 in Fremantle with the high tide on Monday caught me by surprise – I wasn’t expecting it here again so soon, after being here only last year. And it didn’t stay long, only about twelve hours, leaving with the high tide that night. While it was here, it refueled, and a line of taxis and buses of all sizes picked people up to show them around. Shirley talked to some folks from England who just walked around Fremantle.

Movie Review: The Post

The war goes on

By Jonathan Price

Perhaps it’s just my imagination or prejudices, but it seems to me an inordinate number of recent feature films – supposedly a form of film fiction, and hopefully art forms in themselves – are either infinite sequels of mildly successful previous films, or retellings of actual events (history or news in some sense). What’s missing, more frequently than before, are fiction films that create characters that probe deeply into what’s behind history or human character or behavior. I suppose to some extent, this is a false dichotomy, and there have been very good films made from actual historical events: I could mention, e.g., Patton. But when I go through my deep mental catalog of great intriguing films, they are nearly all fiction films, even if their origins are murky or dubious or quasi-historical: The Rules of the Game, Shoot the Piano Player, Citizen Kane, The Godfather, McCabe and Mrs. Miller. This is a brief list, but for me it seems representative.

Adventures from Bulgaria: Summer in the Mountains – Days 2 & 3

Leaving Rila

By Valeria Idakieva

[Sequel to “Day 1,” published on January 24.]

After a cup of coffee, I left the lodge in the morning and met the first strangers for the day.

Thunder Down Under: Office Clouds

Detail from “Office Clouds”

For calm negotiation

Painting by Shirley Deane/Midyett

Text by Vic Midyett


Shirley did one more painting for her friend. “Office Clouds” hangs in the main conference room, where Shirley’s friend conducts conflict-resolution meetings. We all hope it will have a calming effect on the negotiators!

Poetry & Portraits: San Francisco

Drawing by Susan C. Price

San Francisco
By Eric Meub

She was an athlete, finely tuned.
How fat with pastries she ballooned:
a courtesan to raise an itch
upon the impotently rich.

Thunder Down Under: Let’s go for an airplane ride!

By Vic Midyett

Last Sunday, our neighbor Jamie took Shirley and me for an airplane ride from Perth International Airport to a smaller but busier airport 40 miles away where all the maintenance for the larger airport is done. The photo shows the plane we flew in; Jamie was delivering it for maintenance.

Thunder Down Under: The Aussie Kookaburra

[detail from first painting]

Two paintings of the King of the Bush

Paintings by Shirley Deane/Midyett

Text by Vic Midyett


Shirley very recently did two paintings of the Kookaburra, an Australian bird that is a member of the Kingfisher family:

Correspondence: From the King James Bible, to Shakespeare, to composing behind the wheel

Edited by Moristotle

[Items of correspondence are not attributed; they remain anonymous. They have been chosen for their inherent interest as journalism, story, or provocative opinion, which may or may not be shared by the editor or other members of the staff of Moristotle & Co.]

Correspondence: Trumperspectives

From “8 Common Thinking Mistakes Our
Brains Make Every Day and How to
Prevent Them” [Buffer Social]

Edited by Moristotle

[Items of correspondence are not attributed; they remain anonymous. They have been chosen for their inherent interest as journalism, story, or provocative opinion, which may or may not be shared by the editor or other members of the staff of Moristotle & Co.]