Tag Archives: style

‘A Royal Poet of a Sky’

Posted on August 7, 2020 by JMN

The poem is “A Gazetteer of the Backyard (In Which Pedanius Dioscorides Takes Stock”) by Sylvia Legris (Poetry, March 2020). It’s a Pernambuco of a backyard. Over a span of dogged spells with this rhapsody of nature-naming I hit upon … Continue reading →

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‘Stretched by an Unholy Desire’

Posted on August 2, 2020 by JMN

“Stretched by an unholy desire to be outrageous.” More than I care to admit, my pleasure in reading art criticism can amount to quivering at a splash of brandished lingo. I also quiver to Kahn’s paintings, which remind me of … Continue reading →

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John Lewis

Posted on July 31, 2020 by JMN

[When I inserted the photograph of Mr. Lewis included in the NYTimes I triggered the above warning, so I substituted a sketch of mine for the photograph.] Representative John Lewis died on July 17, 2020. These are the last words … Continue reading →

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Cheryl Marie Wade

Posted on July 28, 2020 by JMN

Cheryl Marie Wade died in 2013 at age 65 from complications of rheumatoid arthritis. “She embodied and modeled disability pride before it was a thing,” Judith Smith, who worked with her in two Bay Area performance groups, Wry Crips and … Continue reading →

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Blood & Rabbit Enchiladas

Posted on July 26, 2020 by JMN

Spencer Grammer (Kelsey’s daughter) was slashed at an NYC restaurant! Or maybe not. Dried blood remained Saturday afternoon outside The Black Ant, whose dinner entrees include $24 rabbit enchiladas and $27 braised pork cheeks… “Frasier” star Kelsey Grammer downplayed his … Continue reading →

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Memo to U.S. — Sort of How to Speak English

Posted on July 24, 2020 by JMN

Boris Johnson speaking to the BBC’s political editor Laura Kuenssberg: “We didn’t understand (the virus) in the way that we would have liked in the first few weeks and months… The single thing that we didn’t see at the beginning … Continue reading →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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