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Snippets

I don’t know at what temperature my parents kept the childhood house, but I do remember that in winter, sheets, ironed by the mother, were very cold when I got between them at bedtime. I would lie as still as possible to warm the spot where I lay. I knew that if I moved, I would encounter those icy places that had not been warmed by my body. Even so, I never considered wearing socks to bed. That was just not done. Thus, my mortification when I had perhaps my only sleepover at John N.’s house. I walked across his room to the bed with my socks on. I was going to sit down and take them off, but before I got there, Johnny said authoritatively, “In this house, we don’t sleep with socks on.” I told him my intentions, which were true, but the protestation sounded lame even to me. That unjust shame has stayed with me ever since.

I have mocked the spouse many times for wearing socks to bed. But, in one of my many acts of marital devotion, I have always allowed her to warm her icy toes and heels on me. However, I have now seen stories, which must surely be fake, that wearing socks for sleeping is a good thing. Of more concern: there have been a few nights when my aging feet would not warm up under the covers, and I have had to put on socks to sleep. I have not yet said as a result, “Death Take Me Now,” but, really, this is totally unacceptable.

Perhaps it is still too early, but I would like to see a good study of the varying responses to the Covid pandemic, not just assertions by ideologues. States and localities differed in mask, social distancing, vaccination, and other requirements and practices. How did these correlate with outcomes such as hospitalizations and deaths? The rates of vaccinations varied. How much, if at all, did hospitalizations and deaths also vary? Different localities had different school policies. Have school test results varied in sync with the different policies? What side effects correlate with vaccinations? How frequent and severe are they? I would like good information on these topics, but it is sad but true, I don’t expect our present government to provide any.

Patrick McGee in his thought-provoking book, Apple in China: The Capture of the World’s Greatest Company (2025), explains how Apple became enmeshed in China. Apple did not outsource in a traditional sense. It did not simply contract with Chinese companies for a product or a service. Instead, Apple, obsessed with quality and efficiency, sent design engineers and product designers into Chinese suppliers’ facilities often inventing new production processes and designing new custom parts in the process. The Chinese gained new practical know-how that they now use for more than Apple products.

McGee’s book follows in the footsteps of Erich Schwartzell’s, Red Carpet: Hollywood, China, and the Global Battle for Cultural Supremacy (2022). Schwartzell documents how American filmmakers took things out of movies and put things in to satisfy the Chinese. The practices became so important and internalized that Americans were willing to change their product without being told to or being asked. Meanwhile, the Chinese film industry was being built and strengthened with America’s unwitting help.

More than the film and tech industry have tried to satisfy China. Many enterprises abide by Chinese censorship rules. For example, the NBA apologized when a team executive tweeted support for Hong Kong protesters who had been kicked out of an NBA exhibition game in China. A reporter was not allowed to ask the players how they felt about this. There are many more examples of U.S. companies kowtowing to the vast Chinese market, but these shall remain for another time.

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First Sentences

“I sometimes think of the Supreme Court oral arguments in Whole Women’s Health v. Hellerstedt on March 2, 2016, as the last truly great day for women and the legal system in America.” Dahlia Lithwick, Lady Justice: Women, the Law, and the Battle to Save America.

“I hear the crack of his skull before the spattering of blood reaches me.” Colleen Hoover, Verity.

“No one knows where America’s Northern Border begins.” Porter Fox, Northland: A 4,000 Mile Journey Along America’s Forgotten Border.

“The coastal steamer attends faithfully to its course, slipping down the middle of the fjord between the mountains, taking its bearings from the stars and peaks and arriving on schedule at Óseyri in Axlarfjörður, its horn blasting through the blowing snow. In the first-class smokers’ lounge, two smartly dressed travelers from Reykjavík are discussing the village’s faint gleams of light.” Halldór Laxness, Salka Valka.


“In this soundless film, it is winter in Arkansas.” Sridhar Pappu, The Year of the Pitcher: Bob Gibson, Denny McLain, and the End of Baseball’s Golden Age.

“Mrs Palfrey first came to the Claremont Hotel on a Sunday afternoon in January.” Elizabeth Taylor, Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont.

“In the weeks following the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, a group of Chinese executives traveled to Los Angeles for a crash course in influence.” Erich Schwartzell, Red Carpet: Hollywood, China, and the Global Battle for Cultural Supremacy.

“When Cal comes out of the house, the rooks have got hold of something.” Tana French, The Searcher.

“As a little boy, lying in his bed, my father would hear the planes overhead.” Malcolm Gladwell, The Bomber Mafia.

“It was an unmarked car, just some nondescript American sedan a few years old, but the blackwall tires and the three men inside gave it away for what it was.” Stephen King, The Outsider.

“The results of Wisconsin’s 2018 election had to be seen to be believed.” Nick Seabrook, One Person, One Vote: A Surprising History of Gerrymandering in America.

“Brown Dog drifted away thinking of the village in the forest where the red-haired girl lived.” Jim Harrison, Brown Dog Redux.

“The sun that rose for the rest of the world that morning was not the one that rose for Lanah Sawyer.” John Wood Sweet, The Sewing Girl’s Tale: A Story of Crime and Consequences in Revolutionary America.

Posted on by rjonakait

First Sentences

“Ever since my mom died, I cry in H Mart.” Michelle Zauner, Crying in H Mart.

“Thomas Wazhashk removed his thermos from his armpit and set it on the steel desk alongside his scuffed briefcase.” Louise Erdrich, The Night Watchman.

“The dead would be moved for Disneyland.” Erich Schwartzell, Red Carpet: Hollywood, China, and the Global Battle for Cultural Supremacy.

“She can feel hope, like the Christmas lights on fade in Pound Saver.” Susie Steiner, Missing, Presumed.

“On 18 December 1912 Arthur Smith Woodward and Charles Dawson announced to a great and expectant scientific audience the epoch-making discovery of a remote ancestral form of man—The Dawn Man of Piltdown.” J.S. Weiner, The Piltdown Forgery.

“Between what matters and what seems to matter, how should the world we know judge wisely?” E.C. Bentley, Trent’s Last Case.

“When you imagine the founder of home economics, who do you see?” Danielle Dreilinger, The Secret History of Home Economics: How Trailblazing Women Harnessed the Power of Home and Changed the Way We Live.

“Sir Walter Elliot, of Kellynch-hall, in Somersetshire, was a man who, for his amusement, never took up any book but the Baronetage. . . .” Jane Austen, Persuasion.

“As a young woman with modest means and few prospects, Ruth Middleton transformed her life by moving north.” Tiya Miles, All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake.

“On a Tuesday I came home from school to an empty house, watched the evening news, and then took two Equanil caplets lifted from my mother.” Rosalie Knecht, Who is Vera Kelly? (A Vera Kelly Story).

“Louis Bean spent eighteen months in Vietnam.” Kathleen Belew, Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America.

“She was born peculiar, or so she thought.” Jim Harrison, The Farmer’s Daughter.

“For ten thousand years, a cave on the northern tip of Prince of Wales Island in Alaska served a resting place for the remains of an ancient man.” Jennifer Raff, Origin: A Genetic History of the Americas.

“I would like to say a few things about my first husband, William.” Elizabeth Strout, Oh William!

“Right now, in a classroom somewhere in the world, a student is mouthing off to her math teacher.” Jordan Ellenberg, How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking.