Monthly Archives: August 2019

Today’s Useful Moral

Posted on August 6, 2019 by JMN

If you want a clear answer, ask a clear question. Adapted from Steven Strogatz, “That Vexing Math Equation? Here’s an Addition,” NYTimes, 8- 5-19) Strogatz reprises an online debate about the answer to this equation: 8 ÷ 2(2+2) = ? … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Morbid Rumination

Posted on August 6, 2019 by JMN

The violence that erupts continually in an “advanced” country has trapped me in a morbid rumination that has two horns. First: Given our pervasive gun culture, along with the persistence of capital punishment as a remedy-at-law, why is the firing … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary | Tagged , | Leave a comment

What We Are Just

Posted on August 6, 2019 by JMN

In this essay Sara Nolan affirms with wit and grain her sense of the “godliness of the everyday” brought home by the birth of babies of any species. I glimpsed it with sugar ants. We are just creation playing its … Continue reading →

Posted in Quotations | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Feminine Manet

Posted on August 4, 2019 by JMN

My favorite touch on this painting is the mauve-against-yellow bonnet garnish — purple-yellow adjacencies enthuse me. Otherwise, the mannequin with the bee-sting pucker and doe-stupid gaze is both masterful and tiresome. Jason Farago writes about the exhibition “Manet and Modern … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Weaponized Food

Posted on August 4, 2019 by JMN

“Food is constantly implicated in economic and political processes, as well as in social and historical processes… Because of the recent events in the Middle East, even something as innocent looking as a ground chickpea ball can be used as … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthology, Commentary | Tagged | Leave a comment

“Auntie Colours”

Posted on August 4, 2019 by JMN

The influence of fashion and grooming on art (and vice versa?) is of great interest to me. The mention of Sonia Delaunay brings back pleasant memories of being thrilled at a receptive age by her work and that of her … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

“Like Meditation or Dancing”

Posted on August 4, 2019 by JMN

This year-old piece from The Guardian has some charming, free-and-easy-seeming sketching that I would dearly love to be able to pull off myself. Earlier this month, London-based artist Joey Yu headed to Field Day, a two-day music festival held in … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary | Tagged | Leave a comment

Smith at the Crease

Posted on August 4, 2019 by JMN

I’ve excerpted this piece with love and impish selectivity from Vic Marks’s excellent cricket bloviation. While [Steve Smith] is still at the crease nothing can be guaranteed… England made some solid progress: a first-innings lead of 90 and three early … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Epitaph

Posted on August 1, 2019 by JMN

Like the blogs of yore, podcasts… are today’s de rigueur medium… And yet the frequency with which podcasts start (and then end, or “podfade,” as it’s coming to be known in the trade) has produced a degree of cultural exhaustion. … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary | Tagged | Leave a comment

Bed Science

Posted on August 1, 2019 by JMN

The Bed Science Made Better Can your bed make you feel this good? (Ad in NYTimes online) Can my bed make me feel that good? Probably not. But the improved bed science created by an elided subordinating conjunction, and Henry … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthology, Commentary | Tagged | Leave a comment