Category Archives: Quotations

Things people said.

Discard ‘OUGH,’ Replace with ‘UF’: That’s ENUF!

Posted on June 22, 2026 by JMN

“I said, ‘He’s a dumb guy. Wait a minute — he’s a Dumocrat.’ That’s how I got the name. You take the ‘E’ out, you don’t use the ‘B’ — a lot of people don’t know ‘dumb’ has a ‘B’ … Continue reading →

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‘A.I. Imagery Is Hollowing Out the Very Basis of Depiction’

Posted on June 20, 2026 by JMN

The beech tree [German Buche] is a witness, a bystander, a memorial. A collection of them would be a beech forest, or Buchenwald. Today we are cursed… to live in a time of extreme image hyperplasia. Computationally produced pictures (there … Continue reading →

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In Times of Tribal

Posted on June 17, 2026 by JMN

— If you ain’t white, we ain’t open.(Dixie whistle.) “Voter fraud” is not about fraud. It is about who votes and how. It is about the breadth and scope of the political community… about who can call themselves Americans — … Continue reading →

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‘We’re More Than the Sum of Our Camera Rolls’

Posted on June 14, 2026 by JMN

“I simply think that we have not yet got over the Romantic epoch. Romanticism is far from dead. Exactly like fascism.” (Gerhard Richter, 1973) … He began to paint directly from photographs: family album pictures, clippings from newspapers or encyclopedias, … Continue reading →

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Fabulous, Difficult Individuals Aren’t ‘Divas’!

Posted on May 31, 2026 by JMN

“Every time you misuse ‘diva,’ Maria Callas smashes a wine glass in heaven.” (Christopher Muther, quoted here) (c) 2026 JMN — EthicalDative. All rights reserved

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Hail to Thee, Mouse-Like Bird! Wren nor Tit Thou Never Wert!

Posted on May 25, 2026 by JMN

Adam goofed. The bird called wrentit (Chamaea fasciata) is neither a wren nor a tit. A wrentit… is a secretive, sedentary, mouse-like bird endemic to North America, primarily found in western coastal regions of the U.S. and Baja California. It’s … Continue reading →

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Democracy, We Hardly Knew Ye

Posted on May 23, 2026 by JMN

The [2026 U.S. Supreme Court] case that felled the Voting Rights Act was Louisiana v. Callais… The day after the Callais ruling, Gov. Jeff Landry took the unprecedented action of suspending the state’s U.S. House primary — in which tens … Continue reading →

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Rae Armantrout Appeals to My Inner Toddler

Posted on May 21, 2026 by JMN

I want to say Rae Armantrout springs a cavalcade of huggable schwas on me, but rumpled or purple or bubbly would describe them, too. As long as they’re duple bumpy words. Joints grind likeshot brakes. Food ignitesin our stomachs. But … Continue reading →

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Let Fly, Let Sing

Posted on May 4, 2026 by JMN

As a grammar nerd I have to comment: The hortatory “let” allows you and me to influence the behavior of a third person (Let him go fly a kite!), or a third person that of a fourth (Mary Ann said, … Continue reading →

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Trigger Mortis

Posted on May 1, 2026 by JMN

… Not long after the end of the Vietnam War [1975], Army Col. Harry Summers, who’d won Bronze and Silver stars in that war as an operations officer, flew to Hanoi as chief of the U.S. delegation to resolve the … Continue reading →

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