Posted on by rjonakait

Snippets

The Knicks are in the NBA finals. The New York team has not won that basketball championship in over fifty years, and it has been that long since the spouse has been a team sports fan. (She does have her tennis favorites, not always based on their good looks.) She watched eagerly and got pleasure when the Knicks won championships those many decades ago, but she learned the next year what diehard sports fans already knew: almost always your team ends the season without a championship. In short, they lose. Sports fans, somehow, overcome the almost perennial disappointment; the spouse could not. She buried her fandom never to resurrect it. She has not been watching the Knicks this time around.

I don’t understand. Players inspect three or four tennis balls before choosing one for a first serve. But after hitting a first-serve let, many of them don’t inspect three or four balls for their second first serve but just use the first one bounced to them by the ball person.

“A continual dripping on a rainy day and a contentious woman are alike; to restrain her is to restrain the wind or to grasp oil in his right hand.” Proverbs.

As I was waiting for a prescription to be filled, a twenty-something woman made some purchases and asked Rose behind the counter, “Do you sell toilet brushes?” Rose said that the store did not. The young woman continued, “Do you know where I might buy one around here?” Rose shook her head. I then suggested a hardware store a few blocks away. The woman thanked me and said, “My parents are coming tomorrow…. They have high standards.”

The Christian radio station gave a few brief Bible readings, although where the sacred words left off and commentary began was not always clear. It also presented short inspirational stories and exhortations. Mostly, however, it played music, and mostly that music fell into the rock category. I remembered back when rock started. (Alas, I am old enough to remember when “Rocket 88,” Bill Haley, and Elvis Aron were all new.) I recalled how ministers smashed 45s saying that rock was music of the devil. This made me think about how powerful He is. In only the short span of my lifetime, He had transformed a genre that would send me into eternal damnation into music that was now for the devout. Hallelujah!

“There are grounds for suspecting, in other words, that there exists a secret constitution, whose first article runs: The security of power is based on the insecurity of the citizens.” Leonardo Sciascia, Death and the Knight (translated from the Italian by Joseph Farrell).

When I was a kid, I would come find in a park or outside an old house a hand pump. Of course, I had to try it. The first couple strokes always seemed hard, but with minimal persistence they became easier. As I pumped, I would wonder if the pump still worked. Was there really water down there? Sometimes the effort produced nothing, but at other times a little water would spurt out. That sight produced a quickened, more forceful stroke. Then larger spurts, and finally, a stream without interruption. These efforts always produced a smile and a sense of accomplishment, a satisfaction that a younger generation will never have.

Posted on by rjonakait

Snippets

A new word, poorly defined, has entered the official lexicon: wastefraudandabuse.

John M. Barry, writing about catastrophes during the 1920s in Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How it Changed America, notes about the deference given by many to the wealthy, “They had the power of the times, when it was believed that men with money were not only better than others but acted better.” In the America Barry was writing about, there were often good reasons that supported such beliefs. The small-town banker, lawyer, and local business owner were indeed often the richest people around, but they prospered most when their communities thrived. These wealthy men had a stake in knowing about their towns. Their knowledge, while deep in some ways, was often incomplete in others, as Barry makes clear, but the small towners’ success depended on and benefited others in the community. Thus their decisions often were good for a broad swath of the people around them.

Today we have a country run by the ultra-wealthy. I don’t know how many still believe that these people are not only better than others but act better. I think few. They are unlike the wealthy of the small-town America of a century ago. First of all, they have a lot more money. There are some around Trump who have hundreds of millions of dollars, but they are pikers compared to the many sitting around the table who have billions. A community ethos and concern did not produce their riches. Even so, because they have amassed fortunes beyond our (and maybe even their own) imaginations, they (and maybe a few benighted others) feel they must be meritorious. As Jean Rostand, the French scientist, historian, and philosopher said, “Merit envies success, and success takes itself for merit.” These ultra-wealthy think, “I have made untold money. Therefore, I am successful. Therefore, I must have merit. And therefore, it is right that I should rule over the less meritorious [read, ‘less wealthy’].”

However, success in one field does not necessarily mean wisdom or even common sense in another. You can come up with your own examples, but billionaires in government do not necessarily represent the best, the most meritorious in government.

A wise person said: “There are plenty of people in the world with good reputations who have never been found out.”

Proverbs: “Four things on earth are small, but they are exceedingly wise: the ants are a people not strong, yet they provide their food in the summer; the badgers are a people not mighty, yet they make their homes in the rocks; the locusts have no king, yet all of them march in rank; the lizard you can take in your hands, yet it is in kings’ palaces.”

“Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time.” Steve Wright.

Posted on by rjonakait

Snippets

I watch a lot of athletics on TV, perhaps too much. This viewing includes women sports, but I am planning to give up watching women’s college basketball, volleyball, and softball. They are too dominated by transgender women to be enjoyable and safe. Or at least that is the impression I get from watching too much Fox News and listening to too many of our politicians.

We know that many must study little if Shelley is right when he said, “The more we study the more we discover our ignorance.”

With DOGE ripping apart the country, I have mentally started calling our president Donlon Trusk.

A wise person said, “It seems unreasonable, but the head never begins to swell until the mind stops growing.”

A social media post has said that the Russians recruited Donald Trump decades ago. Trump may merely be a fanboy of Vladimir Putin; however, many of Trump’s actions, including the destruction of America’s standing in the world, could come from a Putin playbook. There is more plausibility in the conspiracy theory that Trump is a Russian asset than many others that take root. Instead of a Manchurian candidate, do we have a Siberian president?

“I don’t lie. I improve on life.” (Perhaps) Josephine Baker.

I asked Murphy what he did for St. Patrick’s Day. He said, “Nothing. St. Pat’s is a day for amateurs.”

Qatar is often mentioned on TV, but it is pronounced in different ways. What is the correct way to say it?

My friendly boss with Irish roots had moved to the suburbs. He invited us to a wine tasting at his new parish church. After it ended, we retired to his new home across the street. We were joined by other Irish Americans who had been at the winetasting. As is usual when you put alcohol and Irish together, singing begins. An Irish Lullaby. Danny Boy. It was getting late. We were looking to get out of there since it was long drive home. We were about to stand up when a guitar appeared in the hands of a thin man. He looked around until the now raucous group got quiet. He started to sing. I have little familiarity with the genre, but it was an Irish protest song. He sang beautifully. If you weren’t crying by the end, you should have been.

I occasionally play Spelling Bee, an online game from the New York Times. You are to make words of at least four letters from seven letters with six arrayed in a circle around a seventh letter. Each word must contain that central letter. The game somewhere has an official word list, which I have never seen, but sometimes an entry that I know is a valid word, often a scientific or technical term, is rejected. However, on occasion I spot a word that I know does not exist, but I believe it should. For example, pignic: eating too much on the lawn.

Even though the administration is trying to tear down universities in the name of fighting antisemitism, it occurs to me that one of the flaws of the current administration is that it does not have enough Jewish people.

“He who blesses his neighbor with a loud voice, rising early in the morning, will be counted as cursing.” Proverbs.