Category Archives: Quotations

Things people said.

Not a Paean to Peons

Posted on February 27, 2020 by JMN

For many traditional liberals, respect for difference is understood as a sacred duty. Consider, for example, Joe Biden’s warm words for his Republican colleagues, or the left’s many peons to the virtues of empathy. (Tim Wu, “Quantifying Liberal ‘Suckerdom,’” NYTimes, … Continue reading →

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Crooked Finger, Vodka, and Other Shebangs

Posted on February 26, 2020 by JMN

Mr. Huang said the intent of his show was to explore the beauty in body parts that we don’t appreciate — a thesis that stemmed from his feeling of embarrassment about his crooked finger, which he said he always hides … Continue reading →

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Sallies and Japes of the Day

Posted on February 20, 2020 by JMN

“Leave It All Behind Ya.” (Slogan printed on photos of himself sitting on the toilet that Louis Armstrong would send to his fans.) Some days everything I read tastes good and I succumb to a shameful quotation binge. “This wasn’t … Continue reading →

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Balanced Learning

Posted on February 17, 2020 by JMN

The “science of reading” approach is based on phonics, which sounds out the letters of words: Bit. Buh! Ih! Tuh! The “balanced literacy” approach believes “exposing students to the likes of Dr. Seuss and Maya Angelou is more important than … Continue reading →

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“Tiepolo Meets Mad Magazine”

Posted on February 15, 2020 by JMN

The 61 works in this exhibition… span the career of an American painter whose art has, for more than half a century, both diagnosed national maladies and been shaped by them. The result is work that’s virtuosically bizarre in style … Continue reading →

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Non Sequitur Clickbait

Posted on February 15, 2020 by JMN

“This 26-year-old became a small-town California mayor. Then a jet dumped fuel on her snakebit city.”  (Headline from the Los Angeles Times, latimes.com, 2-11-20) In other news: “A cook in Lafayette Parish, Louisiana over-salted his boudin. Then it rained in … Continue reading →

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Firehose of Rage

Posted on February 15, 2020 by JMN

I hope that none are offended when I say that I am nonplussed at Ross Douthat’s use of “conterminous” in his column. Here are two scenes from the same drama. The first scene takes place in California, where the state’s … Continue reading →

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Artie Shaw on Glenn Miller

Posted on February 7, 2020 by JMN

I transcribed this snippet from the Ken Burns documentary about jazz. It inspires me to make mistakes at what I’m doing. [Glenn Miller]… was sort of the Lawrence Welk of jazz. It was one of the reasons he was so … Continue reading →

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What Stuff Is About

Posted on February 6, 2020 by JMN

http://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/05/science/quadratic-equations-algebra.html “Math is not about memorizing formulas without meaning, but rather about learning how to reason logically through precise statements,” Dr. Loh said. (Kenneth Chang and Jonathan Corum, “This Professor’s ‘Amazing’ Trick Makes Quadratic Equations Easier,” NYTimes, 2-5-20) Dr. Loh’s … Continue reading →

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George Steiner, 1929 – 2020

Posted on February 4, 2020 by JMN

http://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/03/books/george-steiner-dead.html My experience with George Steiner’s work is bitter-sweet. His book “After Babel: Aspects of Language and Translation” had great significance for me at a time when I struggled to establish my bona fides as an academic linguist while casting … Continue reading →

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