Category Archives: Quotations

Things people said.

Memo to U.S. — Sort of How to Speak English

Posted on July 24, 2020 by JMN

Boris Johnson speaking to the BBC’s political editor Laura Kuenssberg: “We didn’t understand (the virus) in the way that we would have liked in the first few weeks and months… The single thing that we didn’t see at the beginning … Continue reading →

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Kind of Really Mealy-Mouthed

Posted on July 23, 2020 by JMN

“The time frame from when you get a test to the time you get the results back is sometimes measured in a few days,” [Dr. Anthony] Fauci said Tuesday. “If that’s the case, it kind of negates the purpose of … Continue reading →

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Indelible Obscure Abstractions

Posted on July 22, 2020 by JMN

Bearden (1911-88) is best known for his indelible figurative collage depictions of African-American life in all its quotidian richness, strength and struggle… Bearden’s far more obscure abstractions… have tended to be given short shrift in his biographies and retrospectives… While … Continue reading →

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“No Mimetic Ability”

Posted on July 21, 2020 by JMN

[Stella’s] emphasis on two-dimensional surfaces was a clear rejection of the idea of painting as a window into a three-dimensional space. A story in one of his mother’s Vogue magazines, featuring models posed in front of a painterly Franz Kline-esque … Continue reading →

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Irish and Not Proud

Posted on July 20, 2020 by JMN

William James arrived penniless in Albany, NY from County Cavan, Ireland in the late 18th century. Over the next 30 years he created a fortune second only to that of the Astor family. His grandsons, novelist Henry and philosopher William, … Continue reading →

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Mindreading the Meritocracy

Posted on July 20, 2020 by JMN

Of the opinion writers I read regularly in the NYTimes, the one who uses the term “meritocracy” most by far, and with pronounced ambivalence, is Ross Douthat — himself a confessed meritocrat (Hamden Hall Country Day School, magna cum laude … Continue reading →

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‘The Degeneracy of War’

Posted on July 19, 2020 by JMN

I’m fond of the colorful, map-like painting by the Austrian Hundertwasser. Also, of the sun figure that recurs in his work. “These artists have something in common: They all turned against the ideals of the Third Reich… I’m doing a … Continue reading →

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How It Gets Ugly

Posted on July 15, 2020 by JMN

Half a thousand academics want Steven Pinker dropped from the list of “distinguished fellows” of the Linguistic Society of America for allegedly minimizing racial and sexist injustices. Because this is a fight involving linguists, it features some expected elements: intense … Continue reading →

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History Not Happened Yet

Posted on July 13, 2020 by JMN

A few years ago, I interrupted a panel discussion at the Guggenheim as it moved toward the dead-horse question of whether painting was still viable. How, I asked, uninvited, from the audience, could people talk of the end of painting … Continue reading →

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A Conservative with Elite Style

Posted on July 12, 2020 by JMN

But there was one small difficulty: This hawk was no Truman or Reagan, but rather a reality-television mountebank whose real attitude toward China policy was, basically, whatever gets me re-elected works. Who has heard recently, or ever, the word “mountebank”? … Continue reading →

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