Alliances

Two excerpts from Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis’s letter of resignation:

One core belief I have always held is that our strength as a nation is inextricably linked to the strength of our unique and comprehensive system of alliances and partnerships. While the US remains the indispensable nation in the free world, we cannot protect our interests or serve that role effectively without maintaining strong alliances and showing respect to those allies.

*

We must do everything possible to advance an international order that is most conducive to our security, prosperity and values, and we are strengthened in this effort by the solidarity of our alliances.

Mattis then says that that on these and other matters, he is not “aligned” with Donald Trump.

“America First”? No, alliances. Not to be abandoned, not to be belittled, with partners not to be mistaken for adversaries — who themselves should never be mistaken for friends. (He likes me, I like him, we fell in love, &c.)

Mattis’s sign-off is telling: “I very much appreciate this opportunity to serve the nation and our men and women in uniform.” He was serving his country and its military, not Donald Trump.

Work as play

“Being hard at work is really being hard at play for me”: Elaine Fine writes about the economics of music.

A poem with John Ashbery and Stanley Lombardo in it

In the latest New Yorker, a prose poem by Anne Carson: “Short Talk on Homer and John Ashbery.” And Stanley Lombardo is in there too.

I interviewed Lombardo in 2002. One of the happiest instances of my “research and creative activity.”

Related reading
All OCA Ashbery, Homer, and Lombardo posts (Pinboard)

[“Research and creative activity”: one of the three categories for evaluating tenure-track and tenured college faculty. The others: teaching and service.]

Yorick, soulful

Yorick visits Maria, a “disordered maid” whose story of lost love told in Tristam Shandy. When Yorick meets her, Maria has lost not only her lover but also her father and her goat. She has only a little dog for company. Maria weeps, and Yorick weeps with her. This sentence, a paragraph unto itself, is startling in its unambiguous sincerity.


Laurence Sterne, A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy (1768). Text from the 2001 Penguin edition, ed. Paul Goring.

Also from this novel
Letters for all occasions : Yorick, distracted : Yorick, translating

#MRRA

Listening to a president proclaim “We won,” I have to wonder if he’s been listening too long to John and Yoko: “War is over, if you want it.” Reality on demand.

I propose a hashtag to counter #MAGA: #MRRA. Make reality real again.

Yorick, translating

Visiting the Opéra-Comique in Paris, Mr. Yorick has paused to demonstrate his skill at translating gestures into speech. He now recalls an incident in Milan:


Laurence Sterne, A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy (1768). Text from the 2001 Penguin edition, ed. Paul Goring.

Also from this novel
Letters for all occasions : Yorick, distracted

[Chichesbee: “form of ‘ciciesbo,’ the name formerly given in Italy to the ‘cavalier servente’ or recognized gallant of a married woman.” St. Cecelia: “the patron saint of church music.” From the Penguin notes.]

For RSS

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube — did you notice which platforms Russian election-subverters ignored? Blogger, Typepad, WordPress, none of which can be used to put “content” (as it’s called) in front of a captive audience.

Reading the new news about election subversion, watching “The Facebook Dilemma” on Frontline last night, and reading more news this morning about Facebook giving data to Amazon, Microsoft, Netflix, &c., I remembered an observation in a post at The Old Reader blog: “There are really only two parties that matter. The writer and the reader.” The Old Reader calls Facebook “the ultimate middle man.”

And from another Old Reader post, a comment from Seth Godin on the virtues of RSS: “It’s an endaround to get past the giant companies that want to dominate your media life. It is snoop free, ad resistant and fast. It can’t be filtered or otherwise squeezed.”

The Old Reader is an RSS reader. Find people whose work you want to follow, add their URLs to a reader, and read.

As if

Brian Williams, interviewing a guest a few minutes ago on MSNBC: “Is there a secret whiteboard timeline in the Mueller office?”

As if anyone talking on television would have the answer to that question.

SHSL

Sarah Huckabee Sanders is doing a press briefing.

Previous briefing: November 27.

And before that: October 29.

With a “press gaggle” on October 30.

Oops — it’s already over, with less than fourteen minutes for questions.

[SHSL: Sarah Huckabee Sanders Live, à la SNL.]

Embarrassment: mild, fleeting

We live about thirty miles from an Amish community, whose members often shop at our town’s Aldi. I see families buying, say, six dozen eggs, six gallons of milk at a time. It’s like industrial-grade shopping.

Last week Aldi had a special on Lagunitas Little Sumpin’ Sumpin’ Ale. A recognizable brand! So I bought a twelve-pack. And as I left the store, twelve-pack in hand, I found myself walking past a little old Amish man, who was waiting, I believe, while his family shopped.

Yes, Little Sumpin’ Sumpin’ is the one with the scantily clad lady on the label. She wears a bustier, short shorts, and boots. She’s on the twelve-pack box too, wearing larger sizes. I felt so English.

File under “Embarrassment: mild, fleeting.”

[Aldi’s store-brand beers are uniformly disappointing. But their Winking Owl Shiraz ($2.89!) is surprisingly good. Elaine calls it Vinking Owl, to honor Aldi’s German origins.]