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.

Ciceronian Suasion: ‘Memorable in a Matter of Minutes’

Posted on August 21, 2024 by JMN

May we be guided by hope, joy and a fierce moral imagination.(Rabbi Sharon Brous) Anyone who watches Buttigieg on Fox News knows he can boil things down with terrific lines, and it’s being memorable in a matter of minutes that … Continue reading →

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Of Note at the Convention: A Freer Shade of Free

Posted on August 20, 2024 by JMN

It did my hurt Texas heart a world of good to see Jason Isbell turn up and sing a good song in a classic tux and without a 50-gallon hat on his head. He was, after all, indoors. (I never … Continue reading →

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Calling All Cat Ladies

Posted on August 18, 2024 by JMN

What My Cat Teaches Me Crouch.ThenPounce. InThatOrder. (c) 2024 JMN — EthicalDative. All rights reserved

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A Carton of French Fries Walks Into a Bar

Posted on August 16, 2024 by JMN

This is the latest specimen in The New Yorker’s cartoon caption contest that has run for centuries. I’ve never come close to inventing a caption for an entry in this feature, but it fascinates me for what it often shows … Continue reading →

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‘I Said Hello. Then You Said You Said Hello’

Posted on August 13, 2024 by JMN

I’m guessing you think there’s a typo in my heading. I know! The use of repetition in “The Renaissance,” a poem by Trey Moody (Poetry, May 2024), was a hook for me. The thirteen-line poem starts here: I said hello. … Continue reading →

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‘Just About Everyone Needed Therapy’

Posted on August 11, 2024 by JMN

“Gathering, touching, connecting — these are Tosquelles’s methods.” This article highlights an exhibition at the American Folk Art Museum in Manhattan that will end on August 18, 2024:  Francesc Tosquelles: Avant-Garde Psychiatry and the Birth of Art Brut. The Catalan … Continue reading →

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Break Out the Tiny Fiddle, But Have Some Heart, Too

Posted on August 9, 2024 by JMN

She had the effrontery to burden the critics with her good looks. I speak of Yvonne Furneaux.  In a review of a 1955 production of Jean Giraudoux’s “Ondine,” the august British theater critic Kenneth Tynan wrote Ms. Furneaux off as … Continue reading →

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‘More Than 90 Percent of Them Were Loaded’

Posted on August 6, 2024 by JMN

“Last year the [U.S.] Transportation Security Administration intercepted a record number [of firearms] at airport security checkpoints: 6,737. More than 90 percent of them were loaded when they were discovered.” (Andrew Keh, “An Olympian’s Awkward Packing List: Toothbrush? Check. Rifle? … Continue reading →

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Survival of the Fiercest

Posted on August 4, 2024 by JMN

Various scriptural matter I read has the theme of the “test” through adversity. Failing the test consigns a person to The Fire — agony until the end of time. Flood, drought, pestilence, persecution, war, Vance, all manner of affliction are … Continue reading →

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Foggy escalator.

Posted on August 4, 2024 by JMN

This is my photo of the day (POTD), and my favorite title ever of a photograph! Foggy escalator.

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