Happier Valentine’s Day than this!

By Moristotle

“Unhappy Valentines: romantic holiday disasters” [various, Guardian, February 11]. Few things conjure up the idea of romance like an exotic trip with a partner, though the reality can be excruciatingly different, as these writers discovered....:

Correspondence: Resisting Trumpery

Edited by Moristotle

Thanks for occasionally sharing a live “Resistance Report” from Robert Reich, which have been very informative and inspirational during these depressing times.
    The reports seem to be a permanent archive on Professor Reich’s “Resistance Report” Facebook page, for anyone who would like to check them out.

Happy Birthday

By Moristotle

Greetings to everyone whose birthday is today, particularly to my wife. We celebrated at home, where the weather was perfect for lunching on the back porch, with Siegfried, whose bowl we move to his (lower) table before we sit down to eat.

Poetry & Portraits: Odysseus

By Eric Meub
 







 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
His every sentence pitted mortal thought
against that ruthless, terminating dot,
as if annihilation might precede
a new Aeneid no one needs to read.

Boldt Words & Images: Ham on Nye (a poem)

By Bob Boldt








Bill (the Science Guy) Nye runs into his old nemesis,
Ken Ham, waiting for the Senior Buffet to open at a Delicatessen

in an alternative universe, or Miami Beach (whichever is closer).
Both miscreants are under 65 and not entitled to hog the “Seniors Only” lane.

Correspondence: Yet more Trumpery

Edited by Moristotle

“Trump Accuses Media of Not Reporting Voices He Hears in Head” [Andy Borowitz, New Yorker, February 7]. Excerpt:

Why so much sestina?

Psychiatry session in sestina

By Moristotle

[This poem was originally published on June 12, 2013, in a time during which I fairly frequently wrote sestinas. As I don’t seem to have written another, the question might now be, “Why no more sestinas?” – a question I intend to answer soon, in my first sestina in three and a half years. I miss writing them!]

Susan to the Moon

“Tree of Joe” (detail)

By Moristotle

Congratulations to our good friend Susan C. Price (see “Past Members of the Staff” in the sidebar), who has a painting on display in Women Painters West’s “Love in Deed” show, at Topanga Canyon Gallery, open now through February 19, with a reception this coming Sunday afternoon (February 12).

Correspondence: More Trumpery

Part of the “Evolution of Civilizations”
mural in the dome of the main reading room
at the Library of Congress

Edited by Moristotle

Good points by the outstanding NY Times conservative commentator David Brooks: “A Return to National Greatness” [February 3].
    We the People will have to “return to greatness” despite the Trumpestuous interference we are confronting. Excerpt:

Labels

By Victor L. Midyett

My DNA heritage is Argentinean, German, French, English, and most proudly, Cherokee. I have predominantly olive skin and in the right circumstance could possibly pass as an Iranian or Middle-Eastern terrorist. What would my label be on sight? What would you call me? “Half-breed”? I have been called that, and so be it, even though it is biologically and mathematically impossible.
    I recall that when I was younger than ten, adults in my father’s home state of Tennessee referred to all African Americans as “niggers.” In my early teenage years I was part of the government’s mandate to desegregate the schools. Suddenly my friendship world grew. My learning, acceptance, tolerance, being better informed, and fun times grew with it. During that time I do not recall ever labeling any of my African American friends by anything other than their given names. The white “adults” in the community, however, still labeled them the same way they always had. This habit gradually diminished, and the label survived mostly as hush-hush and in “safe” circles.

As the World Turns: Shit storm

By Ed Rogers

I keep waiting for the shit storm to settle down that was released the day Trump won the election. But it seems to get wilder each day – his team is even inventing words to explain the stink coming from the White House. How did Papa Bush— Or was it Reagan who called it a shining city upon a hill? We once knew it as the White House, but I believe it needs a new name now.
    I have been wondering about the people who think the new President is a genius. It’s hard to believe, but there are a lot of them – many more than I would have thought possible. What is bothering me is I’m trying to ascertain if they are crazy or could it be me? Crazy people don’t think they are crazy, so I guess it could be me. After all, he was elected President of the United States. In a way it is easier to believe I am insane and everything is going along just fine.
    If I lived on the West Coast, I could roll a fat one, turn on, and tune out – it worked for me during Nixon’s time in the White House. But now I live in the forward-thinking State of Mississippi. “Go Rebs!” “Hotty Totty!” (For those not in the know, those are cries of football fans at Old Miss.)

Boldt Words & Images: Dreaming a Hurricane (a poem)

By Bob Boldt








What was the name of that girl I stood up
way back then? Julie, June, Jackie?

What difference would it have made anyway?

Outside the Box: I hate digital technology

By Anonymous

[Editor’s Note: This article would have been an item of correspondence (anonymous, as is the custom in a “Correspondence” column) if it had stopped with the first email we received, but it kept growing...into a longer piece (but still anonymous) just right for “Outside the Box.”]

Correspondence: Trumpery

Edited by Moristotle

After Trump’s executive order , the author of this article visited an icon of welcome for immigrants: “Checking In on Lady Liberty” [Sam Hodgson, NY Times, January 31]. Excerpt:

Outside the Box: Robotics and the jobs paradox

By Chuck Smythe

I’m afraid I only know about robotics what I read in the science magazines (which don’t pay enough attention to applied technology) and articles like “How to Make America’s Robots Great Again” [Farhad Manjoo, NY Times, January 25], from which I share this excerpt: