Tag Archives: language

Three Rules With Tolerances

Posted on January 26, 2026 by JMN

RULE OF GOLDTreat others like you want to be treated. RULE OF IRONBelieve in Me or else. RULE OF THUMBSteer into the skid. TOLERANCES“Every trade works to different tolerances. Steel workers aim to be accurate within half an inch; carpenters … Continue reading →

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Europa to Americus: ‘Yassuh, Massah!’

Posted on January 23, 2026 by JMN

The Greek derivatives in English spurt from a font of abstruse vocables that gives us, say, “dithyramb” — “a passionate or inflated speech, poem or other writing.” It’s a short hop to coinage such as “pithyramb” — “a passionate or … Continue reading →

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And That’s Okay, But Don’t Worry, It’s Under Control’

Posted on January 13, 2026 by JMN

Remarks by podcaster Jason Staples have led me to ponder the notion of “original” language relative to scriptures widely known via translation. My attention was drawn to Staples’s comment that the Book of Revelations “has mixed metaphors all over the … Continue reading →

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‘A Hardheaded Little Nobody With a Dream’

Posted on January 4, 2026 by JMN

“I never worry when I ride.” (Diane Crump, age 21) Many male officials considered women to lack the strength and composure to control a thoroughbred as it galloped along at 40 miles an hour. It was an era in which … Continue reading →

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Connections to the ‘More-Than-Human World’

Posted on December 25, 2025 by JMN

“All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.” (Julian of Norwich) Julian of Norwich, a contemporary of Chaucer, is credited with doing for prose what Chaucer did for poetry: Writing in … Continue reading →

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‘Earrings for a Giraffe’

Posted on December 24, 2025 by JMN

In 1948, American artist Ruth Asawa (d. 2013, age 87) took classes at Black Mountain College in North Carolina with the dancer Merce Cunningham. Her mentor there was the architect Buckminster Fuller. … Such works were described dismissively by one … Continue reading →

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Writing Not Sterling, But Some Nice Painting

Posted on December 22, 2025 by JMN

Reflection on an article about painter Aubrey Williams that could use some editing. The article is informative about circumstances of Williams’s life, but light on useful appraisal of his art. Continue reading →

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‘Beginnings Are the Most Difficult’

Posted on December 20, 2025 by JMN

James Grashow uses cardboard as a prime material for creating his sculptures. Continue reading →

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Plenty of Ouch for the Wicked

Posted on December 8, 2025 by JMN

The fellowship is festive.Rectified canticles boom from the sanctum,Would you believe? … Marching as to war,All the pardoned felonsGoing on before… Rigor mortified, the righteousStiff-arm the anxious,The walking doomed. Worm meat.All told in the scriptures:They will go poof. Straight to … Continue reading →

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Mel Leipzig, the ‘Chekhov of Trenton’

Posted on December 5, 2025 by JMN

The acrylic canvases of Mel Leipzig, a painter christened by Peter Schjeldahl as the “Chekhov of Trenton,” reach me as analogs to the loudest arena-rock virtuoso guitar hero solos you can think of. They are an ostentation of look-what-I-can-do. They … Continue reading →

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