Category Archives: Commentary

Opinion or analysis concerning whatever’s on my mind.

Personal Goal

Posted on August 20, 2018 by JMN

When I was a student of literature I recall being influenced by a school of critical theory (Rene Wellek?) that said an author’s biography was irrelevant to a consideration of his or her text. Once it was loosed from the … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Tale of Two Treatments

Posted on August 18, 2018 by JMN

I once took a poetry writing seminar conducted by a prominent American poet based at the time in Colby College. She was already an eminence in the early stages of her career and has achieved Olympian status since. I lunched … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary | Tagged | Leave a comment

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 →

Posted in Commentary | Tagged , | Leave a comment

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 →

Posted in Commentary | Tagged | 2 Comments

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.]

Posted in Commentary | Tagged | Leave a comment

Wikipediaphilia

Posted on August 9, 2018 by JMN

It’s a boon to have fingertip access to all knowledge. I can quote from the Critique of Pure Reason hands down. But many times another person pivots continually to smart phone in order to referee a fact fight during just … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary | Tagged | Leave a comment

With This Facebook Like, I Hereby Acknowledge That You Got Married | The New Yorker

Posted on August 8, 2018 by JMN

Jeremiah Budin offers a humorous explanation of why wedding photos get so many Facebook likes. — Read on http://www.newyorker.com/humor/daily-shouts/with-this-facebook-like-i-hereby-acknowledge-that-you-got-married

Posted in Commentary | Tagged | Leave a comment

From the Jargon Log: “negative treatment”

Posted on August 8, 2018 by JMN

NYTimes, 8-6-18 — Under Israeli law, the prime minister alone is authorized to approve an assassination operation, euphemistically known as “negative treatment” within the Mossad. [Copyright (c) 2018 James Mansfield Nichols. All rights reserved.]

Posted in Commentary | Tagged | 2 Comments

Tip of the Day

Posted on August 6, 2018 by JMN

http://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/26/magazine/how-to-have-sex-in-a-canoe.html “Three words: center of gravity….”

Posted in Commentary | Tagged | Leave a comment

The Gallego

Posted on August 6, 2018 by JMN

The Gallego, or native of Galicia, is by nature very reserved. For example, if you meet a Gallego in the stairwell, you will not know whether he’s going up or going down. [Copyright (c) James Mansfield Nichols. All rights reserved.]

Posted in Commentary | Tagged | Leave a comment