Category Archives: Quotations

Things people said.

“Forebode”? Verboten!

Posted on April 14, 2020 by JMN

But some religious authorities, too, have acted with anti-adaptive zeal. In my own Catholicism, the diocese of Raleigh, N.C., didn’t just cancel Masses and close churches; it forebode [my bolding] its priests to attempt experiments like drive-through confessions that might … Continue reading →

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Plaited Thorns

Posted on April 13, 2020 by JMN

Before reading the article I scanned this painting as a king and courtier munching a corona-bat monster that has been spitted and roasted. The courtier picks his teeth and licks his fingers while the king gnaws a bone ruminatively and … Continue reading →

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Aerosolized Precarity

Posted on April 10, 2020 by JMN

Having been involved with languages, both natural and programming, for a time, I always experience a moment of pleasurable surprise when I meet a word I feel I should have met before. Today’s new friend is “precariat.” It comes to … Continue reading →

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¡Viva el pinche Franglaisismo!

Posted on April 9, 2020 by JMN

Mixing English and French with artistic abandon “irks some purists.” The irking of purists is always and never a good sign for those who straddle irkdom. FouKi, a popular Quebec rapper whose real name is Léo Fougères, observed that Franglais … Continue reading →

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A Sober Voice

Posted on April 9, 2020 by JMN

“And that man’s a doctor!” as the endearing old refrain of the vouching Jewish mother goes. A recurring thread in recent news is how in a decapitated republic certain U.S. governors are stepping up to provide badly needed leadership in … Continue reading →

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Africa Felt Better

Posted on April 8, 2020 by JMN

With the United States now leading the world in Covid-19 cases, the health care system fraying and the economy faltering, some American citizens — especially those living abroad — are starting to see their country in a new, unsettling light. … Continue reading →

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Poisonous Language Travels (Like a Virus)

Posted on April 8, 2020 by JMN

As news filtered from the Joaquín Rosillo nursing home on the outskirts of Seville that a few residents had tested positive for coronavirus, worried families scrambled for information. But amid a nationwide lockdown, with their movements limited, there were no … Continue reading →

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Neck-Broken

Posted on April 6, 2020 by JMN

A photo of Henry Adams helped draw me into a review by George F. Will of an anthology of conservative thinkers (“American Conservatism: Reclaiming an Intellectual Tradition,” Edited by Andrew J. Bacevich). In “The Education of Henry Adams (1907),” Adams … Continue reading →

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Sauerkraut Ice Cream

Posted on April 6, 2020 by JMN

George Will reviews “American Conservatism: Reclaiming an Intellectual Tradition,” Edited by Andrew J. Bacevich. Being susceptible to typography-based graphics I was drawn in by the illustration. Will’s opening statement added enticement. When assembling an anthology of writings representative of a … Continue reading →

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If There’s a Heaven, It’s Parody

Posted on April 5, 2020 by JMN

Your neologismic servant, a spastic parodic — or is it “parodian” —, speaks his title. For one crowning moment, the Gray Lady really was “fake news.” An October surprise, so to speak. In September 1978, a strike by pressmen had … Continue reading →

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