For Núria

Posted on March 16, 2020 by JMN

Te pongo aquí un cuadro reciente, tonto y burlón, mal logrado por supuesto, de ejecución turbia, hiciera lo que hiciera. Está pintado sobre otro cuadro que hizo tu abuelo, mi papá. El suyo fue un desnudo masculino sentado, visto de espaldas, tampoco muy logrado a mi juicio. Irónico, ¿no? ¡Un segundo fantoche sobrepuesto en el primero! La imagen que pinté simboliza para mí hasta dónde llega la locura de la afición a las armas asaltadoras.

Finalmente me he movilizado para aprender a producir los signos diacríticos que exige el castellano — en este caso sirviéndome del teclado exterior “inteligente” Apple del iPad Pro. Sigue una muestra de los resultados que he logrado. La abreviatura “op” significa “option,” o sea, oprimir la tecla que lleva esa etiqueta simultáneamente con otra tecla indicada:

maniático — op+e, luego ‘a’
hélice — op+e, luego ‘e’
víbora — op+e, luego ‘i’
bustrofedón — op+e, luego ‘o’
Sepúlveda — op+e, luego ‘u’
¿ — op+shift, luego ‘?’
¡ — op+1, y sin más te da el punto de exclamación invertido

He aquí un minidiálogo que ostenta todos los signos:

— ¿Estás seguro?
— ¡Sí, sí! Atestigüé que la catástrofe occurida en los límites de la ciudad amenazó súbitamente el bienestar de los ciudadanos.

Dijo hoy tu mamá por teléfono que unos científicos de Barcelona elaboran una vacuna de prueba contra el coronavirus que tal vez sea eficaz. ¡Les deseo todo éxito en ello!

¡Besitos y abrazos!
Avi

JMN 15 de marzo 2020

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For Nuria

Posted on March 15, 2020 by JMN

En tu casa te esperan una gata, una guitarra, y un avi que te quiere mucho.

JMN 15 de marzo 2020

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Assume the Position

Posted on March 14, 2020 by JMN
Nemesis, 1501–2, by Albrecht Dürer.

[Illustration from Bret Stephens, “Trump Meets Nemesis, Punisher of Hubris,” NYTimes, 3-13-20]

(c) 2020 JMN

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Tummlers

Posted on March 13, 2020 by JMN
Selman Design.

Yes, it saw the invention of cars, airplanes, and computers, but the 20th century will be remembered most for its chronic wars.

However, a sweet vestige to preserve from then is what’s known as the “tummler,” a term introduced to me by this article.

Jessamyn West, a librarian who was a moderator for 10 years at MetaFilter, said the job [moderating content on the internet] is like what Catskill entertainers of the mid-20th century called a tummler, “the person in the room who isn’t quite the M.C. but walks around and makes sure you’re doing OK.” Tummlers were basically professional minglers at shows and social gatherings. If you were feeling shy, they’d even help you strike up a conversation with other vacationers at the resort.

(Annalee Newitz, “We Forgot About the Most Important Job on the Internet,” NYTimes, 3-13-20)

Ms.Newitz points out in her article that persons who wrangle comments on today’s internet perform much-needed and varied functions, often needing trauma therapy for the ugliness they confront. However, she reminds us why we needed human moderators in the first place, as old-fashioned tummlers “helping us have a good time.”

(c) 2020 JMN

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All Hail the Mighty State

Posted on March 12, 2020 by JMN

“Texas, our Texas, so wonderful and great…” goes the song.

“Texas is one of the most prepared states for public health disasters in the U.S.” (Tweet by Governor Greg Abbott on March 9, 2020)

State with highest number of people lacking health insurance (5 million) in the nation: Texas.

State with per-capita number of hospital beds lower than the U.S. average because of hospital closures: Texas.
(Japan has around 13 hospital beds per one thousand people. South Korea has 12. The average rich country has about 5.5 beds. Texas has 2.3 beds.)

State ranking forty-first of fifty states in physicians per capita: Texas.

State with 28 percent of nursing homes given lowest possible rating (one star) by federal government in 2015: Texas.
(In California 7 percent received that rating.)

State with 25 percent of nursing homes cited for severe deficiencies by the feds in 2015: Texas

State whose health agency headquarters had to be vacated by hundreds of employees in 2018 because they were overrun with rats, mold, and vermin: Texas

(Abbott quotation and stats from Christopher Hooks, “Let’s Count the Ways Texas’s Dismal Health Care Landscape Could Make Coronavirus Worse,” Texas Monthly, 3-11-20)

(c) 2020 JMN

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Davy’s Grey

Posted on March 9, 2020 by JMN
A detail from John Singer Sargent’s “Thomas McKeller” (1917-21), the only portrait he did of the model as himself. Credit…Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

“Boston’s Apollo” celebrates McKeller’s role in Sargent’s work but does not hide the artist’s racism. In her essay for the exhibition’s catalog, Professor Greene cites racial slurs Sargent used. “He’s an amazing painter — that doesn’t go away,” she said. “But we need to pause and rethink how he approached Thomas McKeller as a subject.”

(Alina Tugend, “John Singer Sargent’s Secret Muse,” NYTimes, 3-9-20)

I’ve heard Davy’s grey charmingly compared to the color of “goose poo.” I’m in cahoots with the tone scale ranging from dark white to light black, so have grappled “goose poo” to my lexicon with hoops of steel.

I mention Davy’s grey because Sargent lived from 1856 to 1925, and I imagine his world to have been goose-poo-colored. To live in it was to be a goose-pooist by default for most people. The standout would be someone who wasn’t.

Many call foul, but I personally deem it on my own recognizance a meet and licit reckoning to register goose-pooism in its historical sauce as well as in its present stew.

My maternal grandfather chastised his daughter for dating a “Jew-boy” American serviceman during World War II. Where I was born, the railroad still slices off “Mexican town” from the white neighborhoods. Like Sargent’s achievement as a painter, goose-pooism doesn’t go away either.

McKeller also modeled for this study for the M.F.A., which is among the works Sargent gave to Isabella Stewart Gardner. Credit…Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston.

(c) 2020 JMN

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Gerhard Richter Voiced

Posted on March 8, 2020 by JMN

For 60 years, he has treated uncertainty as an ethical duty. …

“Betty,” a small painting from 1977, depicts his young daughter. Credit… Museum Ludwig.

That is the priceless example he offers today’s young artists, whose every mistake or hesitation gets pounced on by digital Savonarolas. So much dogmatism out there, so much high-volume moralizing. The voice we need to hear is the voice that says: I don’t know. I’m not sure. I’m still thinking. I’m still working.

(Jason Farago, “The Sublime Farewell of Gerhard Richter, Master of Doubt,” NYTimes, 3-5-20)

(c) 2020 JMN

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Tenseness Sought in Firm Times

Posted on March 8, 2020 by JMN
President Trump with Alex Azar, secretary of health and human services, on Monday. Credit…Anna Moneymaker/The New York Times.

But the president can still be reasonably held responsible for the urgency with which [etc.]… the speed at which [etc.]… the pressure brought to bear [etc.]… and the use of presidential rhetoric [etc.]….

Is it still necessary to point out that an infinitive phrase split by an adverb is not the best way?

Better to have written: “But the president can still reasonably be held responsible…

In tense times readers want a journalist firmly in control of his syntax.

(Quotation from Ross Douthat, “The Coronavirus Is Coming for Trump’s Presidency,” NYTimes, 3-7-20)

(c) 2020 JMN

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Pouncing on “Pounded”

Posted on March 8, 2020 by JMN
Erik Prince, the former head of Blackwater Worldwide and the brother of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, has at times served as an informal adviser to Trump administration officials. Credit…Jeenah Moon/Reuters.

Many conservatives have gleefully pounded on Project Veritas’s disclosures, including one particularly influential voice: Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son.

The gist of this article is that Project Veritas works for conservatives against liberals. I surmise that the writers may have intended “pounced” instead of “pounded.” Gleefully pounding on an organization that benefits you seems odd. Gleefully pouncing on its disclosures would convey embracing them with enthusiasm, which the context invites.

… According to internal Project Veritas emails, where the language of the group’s leaders is marbled with spy jargon.

“Marbled” — like a Wagyu ribeye, with veins of fat! I might have written “peppered,” but “marbled” holds its own and is less predictable. I savor this appealingly novel turn of phrase.

(Quotations from Mark Mazzetti and Adam Goldman, “Erik Prince Recruits Ex-Spies to Help Infiltrate Liberal Groups,” NYTimes, 3-7-20)

(c) 2020 JMN

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Texas Exceeded Only By Itself

Posted on March 8, 2020 by JMN

Since the US brought back capital punishment in the 1970s, the county has sent 129 men and women to the death chamber, more than any entire state except the rest of Texas.

(“Why a Texas county had a radical rethink on crime,” http://www.bbc.co.uk)

It appears that Harris County has donated more persons to the Huntsville death chamber 70 miles north of Houston than any of the 49 other states — except for the rest of Texas itself. Whatever the sum pointed to by the curiously inverted citation, calculating it is a dismal exercise.

On the plus side, the article’s theme is how liberal forces in Houston have recently overcome, for the moment, red-state headwinds in order to improve the local justice system.

(c) 2020 JMN

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