Confused Jumble Ahead
Inauthentical Inadvertency
Twitter and Facebook took down numerous accounts internationally for “coordinated inauthentic behavior.” Twitter disclosed that “email addresses and phone numbers uploaded by users to meet its security requirements may have been ‘inadvertently’ used for advertising purposes.”
Trumpical Subjunctivity
“We might wish, at times, that Mr. Trump were a little less juvenile, or insensitive, or hypersensitive; but we might also wish that every president achieves [bolding added] perfection.” [Wishes are subjunctive. Write achieve.]
Sayable Nameness
Ta-Nehisi Coates is pronounced tah-nuh-HAH-see kotes.
Ntozake Shange is pronounced intoo-ZAH-kee SHAN-gay.
Parenthetical Divinity
A suit filed by a former Miami TV reporter alleges age discrimination. The reporter says that when she complained to the HR director she was told: “’We must rely on the man upstairs’ (God) for help.”
Visionary Wonkery
… Wonkery, a vision of competence and expertise… in which there are assumed to be “correct answers” to policy dilemmas that a disinterested observer could acknowledge and the right technocrat achieve.
Blokey Naughtiness
[Lunch at Sweetings, London] It’s quite City, quite blokey… The food was better than I thought it was going to be… The haddock and egg was perfect. A nice bit of frozen peas on the side – I love frozen peas. Then we had sticky toffee pudding and custard, and then Welsh rarebit with a bit of poire William… It was one of those early midweek, naughty lunches, when you’re in high spirits right from the off.
SOURCES
Davey Alba, “Twitter Suspends Account of Former Advisor to Crown Prince,” NYTimes, 9-20-19.
Reuters, “Twitter Stock Plunges After Earnings Are Worse Than Expected,” NYTimes, 10-24-19.
Robert J. Shiller, “How Lying and Mistrust Could Hurt the American Economy,” NYTimes, 11-8-19.
Philip Terzian, “Trump’s Rhetoric Has Its Precedents,” 12-9-19.
Meg James, “‘Mocked’ by her bosses, award-winning CBS TV reporter was fired. Then she sued,” Los Angeles Times, 12-8-19.
Ross Douthat, “Exhausted With the Experts,” NYTimes, 12-7-19.
Killian Fox, Holly O’Neill, and Molly Tait-Hyland, “‘Utterly delicious’: top chefs on the best thing they ate in 2019,” theguardian.com, 12-8-19.
(c) 2019 JMN
Feminized Heroes
Images of historic persons have been depicted recently in novel ways by artists in Mexico and in Canada. Both cases have a gender-fluid slant; the contrast in public reaction in each country is notable.
The work is part of an exhibit about Zapata in one of Mexico City’s premiere arts venues, the Fine Arts Palace. Photograph: Eduardo Verdugo/AP.
Emiliano Zapata, betrayed and killed in 1919, was a hero of the Mexican Revolution, an advocate for landless peasants. Artist Fabián Cháirez depicts a naked Zapata astride a white horse, wearing high heels “while his lips pout beneath his distinctive curved moustache.” His sombrero is pink.
Meanwhile, the Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibits without incident the paintings of Canadian artist Kent Monkman, 54, “one of Canada’s best-known contemporary artists.” Monkman is of mixed Cree and Irish heritage.
In Mr. Monkman’s paintings, Indigenous people are mostly proactive figures shaping the world around them. Miss Chief Eagle Testickle, in heels, provides a rescuing hand in “Welcoming the Newcomers.” His sources include Courbet and Titian. Credit…Kent Monkman.
It’s hard not to see some fun being had in the work of both painters, and to share in it.
(c) 2019 JMN