Posted on by rjonakait

First Sentences

“Everyone has an opinion about Elon Musk.” Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff, Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed (2026).

“Twilight arrived early in the Crimean mountains, with dusk falling at four thirty and darkness shortly thereafter.” Giles Milton, Checkmate in Berlin: The Cold War Showdown That Shaped the Modern World. (2021).

“At last on Monday around ten or half past, Sybil Van Antwerp carries the mug of Irish breakfast tea with milk to her desk.” Virginia Evans, The Correspondent (2025).

“If historians were asked to identify the greatest human tragedies of all time, the Holocaust would probably top the list, for reasons both powerful and plausible.” Joseph J. Ellis, The Great Contradiction: The Tragic Side of the American Founding (2025).

“This is the story of three girls who were born in one world and sent, by forces beyond their comprehension, to grow up in an entirely different one.” Janice P. Nimura, Daughters of the Samurai: A Journey from East to West and Back.

“‘Do you know, when I was a child, it was the lavatory to which I retired for quiet meditation.’” Amanda Chapman, Mrs. Christie at the Mystery Guild Library (2025).

“Maralyn looked out at emptiness.” Sophie Elmhirst, A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck (2025).

“It was a muggy late-summer day in 1979 when I stepped out of the Shanghai heat into the cool marble lobby of the Peace Hotel.” Jonathan Kaufman, The Last Kings of Shanghai: The Rival Dynasties that Helped Create Modern China (2020).

“This is what happened in Faha over the Christmas of 1962, in what became known in the parish as the time of the child.” Niall Williams, Time of the Child (2024).

“After Donald Trump won his first presidential election, I had one of the strangest experiences I’ve ever had as a writer.” Michael Lewis, ed, Who Is Government? The Untold Story of Public Service (2025).

“Our story starts, appropriately enough, with a bang: the whizz of shells, the crack of gunfire.” Jeremy Dauber, American Comics: A History (2022).

“A person can lose everything in an instant. A fortune, a family, the sun.” Karen Russell, The Antidote (2025).

 “At some point in the afternoon of 17 July 1937, a tall, round-faced Ukrainian in his late thirties, whose bright eyes contrasted vividly with his smooth black hair, sat down in a hotel room in Paris to write a letter to the Central Committee of the Communist Part of the Soviet Union.” Josh Ireland, The Death of Trotsky: The True Story of the Plot to Kill Stalin’s Greatest Enemy (2026).

“When John Foster Dulles died on May 24, 1959, a bereft nation mourned more intensely that it had since the death of Franklin Roosevelt fourteen years before.” Stephen Kinzer, The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and Their Secret World War.

Posted on by rjonakait

Snippets

Many of my long-sleeved shirts have two buttons on the cuffs of the sleeves. I never use the inner buttons. Does anyone?

The history book group discussed The Great Contradiction: The Tragic Side of the American Founding (2025) by Joseph J. Ellis. The contradiction is that while the Founders preached freedom and equality, many were slaveholders and others tolerated slavery. However, I also thought about what Phil Klay wrote in Missionaries: “Men are weak. Don’t ask if they’re good or bad. We’re all sinful. Ask if they’re better or worse than the times they lived in.”

Pennsylvania allows people getting a driver’s license to register to vote at the same time. An audit found that out of the 200,000 examined applications a single noncitizen had applied to vote, but he was not registered. Republicans, however, want more bureaucracy, red tape, and hurdles to prevent noncitizens from registering. Their cost-benefit analysis concludes that 200,000 people should be harassed by the government and have to present birth certificates or passports or other documents to the voting registrar in order to register. All that to prevent that one noncitizen from attempting to register.

Trump’s press secretary is going on maternity leave. I wonder if Karoline Leavitt gets a paid leave, something many pregnant women in this country do not get.

A person on a neighborhood social media site asked if there were any local “Great Dame Breeders.” You can make up your own joke.

After cutting the nail, she said, “My big toe is a disgrace.” I thought this should be part of a song lyric, something along these line: “My skin is heavenly./My figure divine./My hair is golden./I’m the picture of grace./But oh lordy, lord,/My big toe’s a disgrace.”

I left the Metropolitan Museum after viewing its Literary Poster exhibit. I wandered down Fifth Avenue. I saw that the street was closed. I asked a police officer at a barricade what the event was. He replied, “The Greek Independence Day parade.” “Who knew?” I said. He told me that I was in luck and could see it because it was about to appear, and it was short. I walked a few blocks south and coming north were people in uniform carrying a blue and white flag, a second flag saying, “Correction Officers Hellenic Association,” and a third flag bearing “1895.” Soon similar contingents came from the police and fire departments. I spotted a couple standing on a bench waving smaller versions of the blue and white flag. I asked them, “From whom did Greece get its independence?” The man answered, “The Ottoman Empire.” Showing off what I thought was my new historical knowledge, I asked, “1895?” “No,” he said. “1821.” The man paused and then continued, “But maybe 1895 by Greek time.” I responded, “That’s not true. The service in Greek restaurants is fine.” He smilingly said, “That’s because we Greeks love our food.”