“Indefensible”

Twenty-five paragraphs into a twenty-nine-paragraph Washington Post article about Samuel Alito’s (virtual) appearance at George Mason University: the news that Alito called the Supreme Court’s decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, which protects LGBTQ persons from workplace discrimination, “indefensible.” Or rather, he called the use of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as a basis for the decision indefensible:

While he said he wasn’t defending past actions, Alito said it was clear Congress at that time allowed and practiced discrimination.

“It is inconceivable that either Congress or voters in 1964 understood discrimination because of sex to mean discrimination because of sexual orientation, much less gender identity,” Alito said. “If Title VII had been understood at that time to mean what Bostock held it to mean, the prohibition on discrimination because of sex would never have been enacted. In fact, it might not have gotten a single vote in Congress.”

In other words, past discrimination justifies continued discrimination.

That is what’s indefensible.

Sunshine of my mondegreen

I’ve been mishearing the words since the Atco 45 rpm days:

It’s gettin’ near dawn, when light grows a tiger’s eye

No: “when lights close their tired eyes.”

And:

I’ll stay with you till my seeds are dried up

No: “seas.” Though “seeds” makes a sort of sense.

I’m glad I finally thought to check the lyrics.

My own personal mondegreens
“And Jupiter collides with Mars” : “Blowin’ through the chasm in my mind” : “Sweet Loretta Modern”

“Music from Nancy”

[“Music from Nancy,” by Steve Sweet, Steve Cunningham and Jesse Poimboeuf.]

Thanks, John.

Related reading
All OCA Nancy posts (Pinboard)

Separated at birth

  [Chico Marx and Robert Walden. Click either image for a larger view.]

We were watching Lou Grant, and Elaine saw the resemblance.

Also separated at birth
Claude Akins and Simon Oakland : Ernest Angley and Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán : Nicholson Baker and Lawrence Ferlinghetti : William Barr and Edward Chapman : Bérénice Bejo and Paula Beer : Ted Berrigan and C. Everett Koop : David Bowie and Karl Held : Victor Buono and Dan Seymour : Ernie Bushmiller and Red Rodney : John Davis Chandler and Steve Buscemi : Ray Collins and Mississippi John Hurt : Broderick Crawford and Vladimir Nabokov : Ted Cruz and Joe McCarthy : Benedict Cumberbatch and Michael Gough : Henry Daniell and Anthony Wiener : Jacques Derrida, Peter Falk, and William Hopper : Adam Driver and Henri Gaudier-Brzeska : Bonita Granville and Cyndi Lauper : Charles Grassley and Abraham Jebediah Simpson II : Elaine Hansen (of Davey and Goliath) and Blanche Lincoln : Barbara Hale and Vivien Leigh : Pat Harrington Jr. and Marcel Herrand : Harriet Sansom Harris and Phoebe Nicholls : Steven Isserlis and Pat Metheny : Colonel Wilhelm Klink and Rudy Giuliani : Ton Koopman and Oliver Sacks : Steve Lacy and Myron McCormick : Don Lake and Andrew Tombes : Markku Luolajan-Mikkola and John Malkovich : William H. Macy and Michael A. Monahan : Fredric March and Tobey Maguire : Elisabeth Moss and Alexis Smith : Jean Renoir and Steve Wozniak : Molly Ringwald and Victoria Zinny

“Striking similarities” between commencement speeches

At Duke University, a commencement speech that bears “striking similarities” to one delivered at Harvard University eight years ago.

One way to ensure that your commencement speech will not bear striking similarities to someone else’s commencement speech: don’t carefully “reword” (as they say) passages from that other speech.

The awkward question to ask: How likely is it that this commencement speech marks the first time the speechmaker has taken someone else’s words and ideas, made slight alterations, and presented the result as her own work?

*

May 13: Here’s a side-by-side video comparison.

Related reading
All OCA plagiarism posts (Pinboard)

“Coming back as a cat”

William Russ, sixty-one, gravedigger:

Ronald Blythe, Akenfield: Portrait of an English Village (1969).

Also from Akenfield
Davie’s hand : Rubbish : “Just ‘music’” : “Caught in the old ways” : “The blue rode well in the corn” : “I began in a world without time”

A pencil truck

In Somerville, Massachusetts, a giant (non-working) pencil atop a truck.

Another vote from Mary Miller

My (nominal) representative in Congress, Mary Miller (R, IL-15), was one of fifty-seven House Republicans to vote yesterday against additional emergency appropriations for Ukraine. There’s something about Mary.

Related reading
All OCA Mary Miller posts (Pinboard)

Heather Cox Richardson’s latest

“Socialism — it starts with democracy”: so says a Republican candidate for governor of Michigan. Today’s installment of Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters from an American is a must-read.

Lou’s who

The Tribune ran an article about an NCAA investigation into the “Los Angeles University” football program. Readers got angry. And now Lou (Ed Asner) has a security guard, Frank (Mike Henry), outside his house. From the Lou Grant episode “Sports” (January 10, 1978):

Frank: “I’m here to protect you.”

Lou: “Against who?”

Frank: “Cranks, weirdos. Say, isn’t that ‘against whom’? I mean, I know you’re an editor.”

Lou (resignedly): “Against whom.”

Frank: “I’ve been taking Business English at night.”

Lou: “You’re doing great, Frank. Come on, I’ll buy you a cup of coffee.”

Related whoms
Fritzi Ritz : Hallmark : Mutts : Peanuts : Shirley Temple : Some Came Running