Author Archives: JMN

About JMN

I live in Texas and devote much of my time to easel painting on an amateur basis. I stream a lot of music, mostly jazz, throughout the day, and watch Netflix and Prime Video for entertainment. I like to read and memorize poetry.

Saloon Spittoon

Posted on January 21, 2020

The bucal effluvia belched from limousine and lectern  drums the ear like the per- cussive splot of a hocked  louie slapping a saliva slick  in a saloon spittoon. (c) 2020 JMN

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You Can Pick Your Battles, Not Your Wars

Posted on January 21, 2020

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jan/21/crushed-by-brexit-how-labour-lost-the-election My title is what I extrapolate from the tersely cogent remark attributed to an anonymous Labour Party strategist: “In the end, you can’t just fight a battle and ignore your opponent. You can’t just say: ‘We’re fighting at sea’, … Continue reading →

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Getting Itself Done

Posted on January 20, 2020

http://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/20/opinion/uk-election-labour.html … The mines of County Durham, the pottery workshops of Staffordshire and the textile factories of Lancashire… Onetime Labour strongholds stretching from West Bromwich on the outskirts of Birmingham to Blyth Valley near the Scottish border… Bolsover in the … Continue reading →

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Spilt Pith

Posted on January 20, 2020

http://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/30/opinion/walt-whitman-nytimes-2020.html Such was [Walt] Whitman’s description of [President] Lincoln in a March 1863 letter to two New York friends. The president, wrote Whitman, had a face “like a hoosier Michael Angelo, so awful ugly it becomes beautiful, with its strange … Continue reading →

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Art Wins, Artists Lose

Posted on January 18, 2020

Among the biggest losers in the current system are artists themselves. With art now considered an asset class to equities and commodities, collectors are forever on the lookout for rising stars whose work can be bought at bargain prices and … Continue reading →

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“Pretty Ugly”

Posted on January 16, 2020

This tweet contrasts so starkly with the seriousness of the actual situation with Iran,” said Ben Rhodes, a former top national security aide to Mr. Obama. “We are in the midst of a roiling crisis with Iran that is largely … Continue reading →

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Intellectual Disarmament

Posted on January 15, 2020

Ross Douthat writes that when he was an undergraduate at Harvard University “our so-called ‘core’ curriculum promised to teach us ‘approaches to knowledge’ rather than the thing itself.”  It was, and remains, an insane view for humanists to take, a … Continue reading →

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