Category Archives: Quotations

Things people said.

Robert Andrew Parker (1927-2023): ‘Susceptibility to Happiness’

Posted on January 13, 2024 by JMN

What’s not to like about an artist-illustrator who partnered with poets and loved jazz? Parker played drums in a band called Jive by Five and is survived by five sons, all of whom play drums professionally. (One is an artist.) … Continue reading →

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‘God, in the Form of Lightning’

Posted on January 5, 2024 by JMN

“Calling myself religious while living a life unbeholden to Scripture doesn’t make sense, of course.” (Temim Fruchter) Temim Fruchter’s essay about her spiritual evolution struck me, another scriptural expat, as full of poetry. I was moved to lift statements from … Continue reading →

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Badonkadonks, Ta-Tas and Bunga Bunga

Posted on November 10, 2023 by JMN

Italian prime minister Georgia Meloni is in the news for rinsing her hands of longtime, live-in boyfriend Andrea Giambruno, caught prospecting for group sex. Reportage has reached again for bunga bunga, which keeps this reliable trope of male-hormonal culture merrily … Continue reading →

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Cometh the Hour, Cometh the Backside

Posted on November 7, 2023 by JMN

“The whole secret of politics is knowing who hates who.” (Kevin Phillips) “MY pronoun,” said Cruz, “is ‘kiss my ass.’”On Ted’s form of address I’ll take a pass.A smooch bestowed on the croup of this solonis honor paid to the … Continue reading →

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Keening in the Key of Claws (‘We’re Out of Things to Say’)

Posted on November 2, 2023 by JMN

“The guns are available and the targets are soft.” (Stephen King) Been to the broke-heart mountain.Been to the Jesus well.Thoughts and prayersfor the Shepherd’s cause,the Founders’ flaws,the House of Laws,from We the People’s hell. (c) 2023 JMN — EthicalDative. All … Continue reading →

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The Saucy Song a Painter Sang

Posted on October 31, 2023 by JMN

I’ve pondered how much to grudgingly admire the towering raspberry Tadaaki Kuwayama gave rhetorically to the practice of art. His expressed approach oozes iconoclastic gore in the spirit of outré versecraft from the pages of Poetry. … He wanted to … Continue reading →

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‘She Didn’t Do Innocence’

Posted on October 18, 2023 by JMN

“With students, sometimes she suggested that they try silence, not working at all. That, she believed, might be best for someone who was writing the wrong poems or producing too much.” (Colm Tóibín) She insisted on calling herself a writer. … Continue reading →

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United We Stand Up and Yell, ‘FIGHT!’

Posted on October 10, 2023 by JMN

THE UNITED KINGDOM“Stand up and fight… etc. Stand up and fight – because when you stand up and fight,… etc… stands up and fights. And when… etc… stands up and fights,… etc… stands up and fights. And when… etc… stands … Continue reading →

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It’s Only Money, Ladies. Play Cricket!

Posted on September 27, 2023 by JMN

At this summer’s edition of the Hundred, a short-form cricket tournament in England, umpires for the men’s games — all of them men except for Redfern — were paid three times as much as umpires at the women’s games, seven … Continue reading →

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‘I Worry That It Will Feel Pointless to Even Try to Create in Public’

Posted on September 24, 2023 by JMN

But even those of us who don’t have a job directly threatened by A.I. think of writing that novel or composing a song or recording a TikTok or making a joke on social media. If we don’t have any protections … Continue reading →

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