Category Archives: Quotations

Things people said.

Sexual Fantasies

Posted on September 1, 2019 by JMN

“My greatest sexual fantasy is just to have regular sex in my own apartment. But, in my fantasy, my apartment has a washing machine and a dryer.” (Mark Cognata, “Sexual Fantasies of Everyday New Yorkers,” The New Yorker, “Daily Shouts”) … Continue reading →

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The Few, the Proud, the Readers

Posted on August 31, 2019 by JMN

“If you haven’t read hundreds of books, you are functionally illiterate, and you will be incompetent, because your personal experiences alone aren’t broad enough to sustain you.” (Marine General Jim Mattis, from his new book “Call Sign Chaos,” written with … Continue reading →

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“Carnal Tapioca”

Posted on August 21, 2019 by JMN

Recently in the NYTimes Roberta Smith wrote a spirited appraisal of the exhibition of Renoir’s late nudes at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, MA. Peter Schjeldahl weighs in on the topic in the latest New Yorker. It’s fascinating how … Continue reading →

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Monkey Say, Monkey Think

Posted on August 21, 2019 by JMN

“The slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts.” (George Orwell, “Politics and the English Language”) (Quoted by David Streitfeld, “Paging Big Brother: In Amazon’s Bookstore, Orwell Gets a Rewrite,” NYTimes, 8-19-19) (c) 2019 JMN

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Four Rules

Posted on August 17, 2019 by JMN

Krugman is a Nobel laureate with a knack for being right and wry. I value him for his thinking and for his rhetoric. Last year, after an earlier stock market swoon brought on by headlines about the U.S.-China trade conflict, … Continue reading →

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Kudos to Automattic

Posted on August 17, 2019 by JMN

This commentary by Kara Swisher made me glad to be on WordPress. … Tumblr has landed with WordPress, a former rival and the kind of company that it probably should have been with all along. [Founder, Matt Mullenweg] is one … Continue reading →

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Where Cate Sits

Posted on August 14, 2019 by JMN

“My father was born in Texas. My mother is Australian. I’m married to a British citizen. So I sit in some weird fork in the road.” (Cate Blanchett, Stephen Colbert Show, 8-12-19)

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Song of Theirselves

Posted on August 11, 2019 by JMN

I’ve been at Amsterdam dinners where everyone is speaking brilliant English, but the minute I leave the table they switch back to Dutch. If all we know is English, we won’t know what the rest of the world is saying … Continue reading →

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Tuba Career

Posted on August 10, 2019 by JMN

As for what comes after the life-altering experience of “GLOW” — what will define her next persona — [Betty] Gilpin doesn’t know, but she has a hunch. “It feels like I’m in this room that I didn’t know existed, and … Continue reading →

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What We Are Just

Posted on August 6, 2019 by JMN

In this essay Sara Nolan affirms with wit and grain her sense of the “godliness of the everyday” brought home by the birth of babies of any species. I glimpsed it with sugar ants. We are just creation playing its … Continue reading →

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