Category Archives: Commentary

Opinion or analysis concerning whatever’s on my mind.

This Is Now (Again)

Posted on September 1, 2025 by JMN

“He’s also piercingly smart about his place as a white observer in a Black art form.” (Jayson Greene, on Daniel Levin Becker) Before you-know-who was president, I encountered something called Twitter, ran with it for maybe six weeks. That was … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary | Tagged language, music, personal, poetry, reading | 4 Comments

How Do You Say ‘Drill, Baby, Drill!’ in Putonghua?

Posted on August 15, 2025 by JMN

“Chinese scholars… absolutely dominate research in the following fields: materials science, chemistry, engineering, computer science, the environment and ecology, agricultural science, physics and math.” (David Brooks) China cheers cheeky America’s fossil fuelish folly. Here’s why: China leads global production in— … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary | Tagged miscellaneous | 6 Comments

‘I Came Into the World Very Young’

Posted on July 16, 2025 by JMN

I discovered Satie long ago through Gymnopédies and Gnossiennes, and liked the music immediately. I thought of him as a “minor” composer, and I was drawn to perceived niche tastes. I crave even now the unmoored feeling that his music … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary, Quotations | Tagged language, music, poetry, reading | 5 Comments

‘Technically God Isn’t a “Him”’

Posted on July 3, 2025 by JMN

‘*Technically God isn’t a “him.” But the English language doesn’t provide a suitable singular, non-gender term for us to use (“it” implies an object or non-sentient being).’ (Mitch Teemley) Mitch Teemley’s observation touches usefully upon the volatile topic of “they” … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary | Tagged language, rhetoric, spirituality | 2 Comments

‘That Falls Well’: Cartoon Paean Times Three

Posted on May 26, 2025 by JMN

As a kid studying high school French, I read with delight Mark Twain’s depiction of an American’s attempt to converse with a Frenchman. Twain wickedly renders the Frenchman’s remarks in literal English, alongside his own fractured French, to comic effect. … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary | Tagged art, cartooning, language | 1 Comment

Toyin Ojih Odutola Draws Loud

Posted on May 25, 2025 by JMN

I like how Toyin Ojih Odutola assembles faces from facets, a treatment I strive increasingly, if feebly, to approximate. I describe it to myself in personal shorthand as “envisaging”: implementing visage as a sort of ‘scape rather than anatomical likeness … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary | Tagged art, drawing, language, painting | 5 Comments

Purloining With Pizzazz: Wayne Thiebaud

Posted on May 18, 2025 by JMN

This copying work helped Thiebaud figure out his own solutions to artistic problems. I blush to own it, but I was never keen on pointillism. For all that it purported to be scintillating, it has a diffuseness that feels static. … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary, Quotations | Tagged art, painting | 8 Comments

‘Machismo’ Cuts the Cheese Over Yonder

Posted on May 13, 2025 by JMN

Posted in Commentary | Tagged language | 2 Comments

You Shall Not Crucify Mankind on a Cross of… Crypto

Posted on May 11, 2025 by JMN

With apologies to William Jennings Bryan, it’s called a “rug pull”: A celebrity touts a new digital coin, prices soar and then insiders who own most of the coins pull the rug: They sell their stakes for a big profit … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary, Quotations | Tagged art, language, painting | 2 Comments

Which of These Dialogs Features a So-and-So?

Posted on May 3, 2025 by JMN

Dramatis Personae: Niamh, a lass. Oisín, a lad. Niamh: Have you had supper?Oisín: So I ate before leaving the house. Oisín: What was Waterloo?Niamh: So Wellington defeated Napoleon there. Niamh: How many capitals has Mongolia?Oisín: So I’m aware of only … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthology, Commentary | Tagged language | 2 Comments