Tag Archives: rhetoric

Kind of Really Mealy-Mouthed

Posted on July 23, 2020 by JMN

“The time frame from when you get a test to the time you get the results back is sometimes measured in a few days,” [Dr. Anthony] Fauci said Tuesday. “If that’s the case, it kind of negates the purpose of … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary, Quotations | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Irish and Not Proud

Posted on July 20, 2020 by JMN

William James arrived penniless in Albany, NY from County Cavan, Ireland in the late 18th century. Over the next 30 years he created a fortune second only to that of the Astor family. His grandsons, novelist Henry and philosopher William, … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary, Quotations | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Mindreading the Meritocracy

Posted on July 20, 2020 by JMN

Of the opinion writers I read regularly in the NYTimes, the one who uses the term “meritocracy” most by far, and with pronounced ambivalence, is Ross Douthat — himself a confessed meritocrat (Hamden Hall Country Day School, magna cum laude … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary, Quotations | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

What Makes a Poem ‘Hard’?

Posted on July 17, 2020 by JMN

“Syntax” is the answer to the fudgy question. It’s hard to reach image and reference through muddy syntax. In narrative and exposition, context comes to the rescue; in poetry often not, because a poet revels in flare-gunning lap dance moon … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthology | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

How It Gets Ugly

Posted on July 15, 2020 by JMN

Half a thousand academics want Steven Pinker dropped from the list of “distinguished fellows” of the Linguistic Society of America for allegedly minimizing racial and sexist injustices. Because this is a fight involving linguists, it features some expected elements: intense … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary, Quotations | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

A Conservative with Elite Style

Posted on July 12, 2020 by JMN

But there was one small difficulty: This hawk was no Truman or Reagan, but rather a reality-television mountebank whose real attitude toward China policy was, basically, whatever gets me re-elected works. Who has heard recently, or ever, the word “mountebank”? … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthology, Commentary, Quotations | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Why Do Poets Ampersand?

Posted on July 12, 2020 by JMN

The poem is “Sacrament I” by Robin Gow (Poetry, March 2020). Excerpt, first stanza: & all the faucets pour oil or milk.We fill father’s bottles, the brown and green;thick glass blood cells, a throat-slit pouring silk.When will the baptisms make … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthology | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

What Does a Poem Teach? Fluidity

Posted on July 8, 2020 by JMN

Excerpts are from the poem “A Future History” by Suzi L. Garcia (Poetry, March 2020). A muster of peacocks show off their tails, but instead of feathers, knives. This line introduces me to “muster,” a collective noun applied to peacocks. … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthology | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Texas, Florida, Arizona, England

Posted on June 28, 2020 by JMN

“We’re on a knife edge, it’s very precarious the situation, particularly in England at the moment, and I would anticipate we would see an increase in new cases over the coming weeks.” (Sir Jeremy Farrar of SAGE) The warning comes … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary, Quotations | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Manifestoid 1 of 2

Posted on June 25, 2020 by JMN

A correspondent writes: Watched the lunchtime news, it veers between positivity and warnings that leaves the head spinning and the heart pumping. In that last sentence, should it be ‘leave’ or ‘leaves’. I had ‘leaves’ because it is the veering … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary, Quotations | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments