Author Archives: JMN

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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. I like to read and memorize poetry.

On V.S. Naipaul

Posted on August 16, 2018 by JMN

He never looked away. I was with him in Wiltshire soon after my father, the governor of Punjab in Pakistan, was assassinated. I had been estranged from my father and was not sure how to mourn him. Mr. Naipaul, with … Continue reading →

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Proportion

Posted on August 16, 2018 by JMN

The most important word in art is “proportion.” How much? How long is this joke going to be? How many words? How many minutes? And getting that right is what makes it art or what makes it mediocre. (Jerry Seinfeld, … Continue reading →

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A Curtsy to the Cognoscenti

Posted on August 15, 2018 by JMN

The poetry editors of The Atlantic apologized recently for a poem they had accepted and printed. They say the poem “caused harm to members of several communities.” The author, a young white man named Anders Carlson-Wee, adopts the vernacular of … Continue reading →

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It seems as if…

Posted on August 14, 2018 by JMN

It seems as if I had to divest myself of my own library before I could start reading any of it. The sheer weight of unread books can neutralize a person. I don’t know if I ever told you the … Continue reading →

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Stoicism (I got past the gloom. Happy now. This is about reading, not suicide.)

Posted on August 13, 2018 by JMN

[Domestic strife can cause one to seek comfort in odd places. During a time of gloom and stress I found relief by delving into some writings about the Stoics. I was retail advertising manager for the local newspaper, a highly … Continue reading →

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The Art of Typing

Posted on August 13, 2018 by JMN

[Frank Bruni and I share an alma mater — UNC-Chapel Hill. I enjoy his columns. His account of learning touch typing at age 17 mirrors my own experience. One semester of typing class in the tenth grade has served me … Continue reading →

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Notes on Hell

Posted on August 12, 2018 by JMN

Flight has been prominent in my life. Not the aerial kind but the fleeing kind. I vaguely recall that Sartre’s play “Huis Clos” (No Exit) ends with several people enclosed in a room condemned for all eternity to talk at … Continue reading →

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You’re a kind ear, Joe.

Posted on August 11, 2018 by JMN

I hope I don’t wear you out with my musings. Poetry is there when you need it. It seems to rise to the occasion when nothing else will do. It concentrates the mind and the emotions, like scripture. Poets get … Continue reading →

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Maruja Mallo

Posted on August 11, 2018 by JMN

Even within artistic circles, these women were often excluded or treated as muses to male creative genius (Dalí once described Mallo as “half angel, half shellfish”). Their work, however, insists on a different story. Mallo — who never married and … Continue reading →

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From the Jargon Log: “strategically inconsequential”

Posted on August 11, 2018 by JMN

ABC News, 8-10-18 — “Another failed attempt by Taliban to seize terrain, while creating strategically inconsequential headlines,” U.S. Forces-Afghanistan tweeted. [Footnote: More than 2,200 Americans have died in Afghanistan since 2001.] [Copyright (c) 2018 James Mansfield Nichols. All rights reserved.]

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