1. Garner, the name, is not a "garner (the word!)" spotting, within the logic of the Althouse blog.
2. "One day they’ve grokked enough" might be one of the last appearances of "grok," the verb, in this Musk-permeated word.
3. I just finished reading "Vera, or Faith" last night. That's why I'm reading a review of it this morning. The quote I pulled from the review was chosen because of that "grokked."
4. About that dystopia — to quote the book — "[T]he states are having their constitutional conventions. And these conventions will decide whether to give an 'enhanced vote'... counting for five-thirds of a regular vote to so-called 'exceptional Americans,' those who landed on the shores of our continent before or during the Revolutionary War but were exceptional enough not to arrive in chains."
5. Lots of novels use that child as pint-size spy idea, don't they? I think of "What Maisie Knew" and "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time." You can think of more. Or ask Grok. But whether the character is a child or not, many novels make their plot out a character gradually putting clues together and figuring something out. The thing to be figured out may not be an interesting story at all — who killed X, who is X's father/mother, why did X leave town all these many years ago. The story is the unlocking of the mystery. But to make the central character a child is to blend this mystery-solving with the mystery-solving that is every child's life: What do words mean? What are adults doing? Where do I fit into all this?
6. "Vera, or Faith" (commission earned).
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45 comments:
Who can forget Encyclopedia Brown?
I never finished Maisie. I got through Portrait of a Lady though.
Pass, saw #5. Encyclopedia Brown, now that was a winner. I recall I only solved one. A kid was saying he found a coin and it was dated 40 BC. Knew I was no genius early on.
Sorry, I passed based on #4.
"Sorry, I passed based on #4."
Yeah, that's heavy handed. The girl gets assigned to debate the from the pro- side, and she's such an over-achiever that she comes up with many pro arguments. The slacker on the other side, despite being an "Exceptional American" himself has virtually nothing to say.
I hope Gary managed to get a good watch joke embedded in there somewhere. Hope he mines enough out of his focused typing and printing to afford a trip to Bucherer for a nice reward for the effort. Then he'll write about it and I will kvell.
"I hope Gary managed to get a good watch joke embedded in there somewhere."
There are many references to "Their Eyes Were Watching God." Does that count?
The character that embodies Shteyngart is a collector of fountain pens, so that stands in for watches, and perhaps should be read as a reference to the penis, Shteyngart having made his penis troubles public in " "A Botched Circumcision and Its Aftermath/The constant discomfort of a genital injury creates a covenant of pain. It is impossible to think about anything else" (The New Yorker) https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/10/11/a-botched-circumcision-and-its-aftermath
Is Gary Shteyngart One of the Last Novelists to Make Real Money From the Craft? ~ 'NYT
'Mr. Shteyngart was once told he might be. With his sixth novel, “Vera, or Faith,” out now, he’s spent the last few years spending it well.'
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/08/style/gary-shteyngart-book-vera-or-faith.html
…so your foreskin for a drop or two whiskey on your lips isn’t always a good trade. Who knew?
Re the botched circumcision: coincidentally right now I am dealing with an injury to a very sensitive body part rich with nerve endings and yes when discomfort is peaking there is little else my brain can think about.
MJB, get well soon. The commentariat appreciates your brain.
"There are many references to "Their Eyes Were Watching God." Does that count?"
Not until Eatonville gets its own Rolex dealership. The rest of your post is waiting in the "please erase" queue in tonight's batch processing run.
Thank you Danno!
Lame. 5/3 is a reference to the Constitution’s 3/5ths. Give it up already.
I’ll third Encyclopedia Brown. Once the truth was revealed, it was always obvious in hindsight, even though I rarely got it until the reveal. The 40BC coin was the only one I remember getting.
A couple of years later, I got into The Three Investigators series, too.
"One day they’ve grokked enough"
This is just wrong. You do not grok enough, grok is binary. You “grok in fullness” or you have not completed the grok.
This “author” person is superficial,
To quote the book…
“[T]he states are having their constitutional conventions. And these conventions will decide whether to give an 'enhanced vote'... counting for five-thirds of a regular vote to so-called 'exceptional Americans,' those who landed on the shores of our continent before or during the Revolutionary War but were exceptional enough not to arrive in chains.”
As much as 90% of African-Americans and the vast majority of Hispanics would qualify as “enhanced” under that rule.
The people excluded would be the majority of non-Hispanic Whites (a majority of NHWs ancestors arrived after the Civil War, let alone the Revolutionary War), Asian Americans, and recent African American arrivals from the Caribbean and Africa.
Aside from the recent African Americans and White Appalachians, it would basically be a college admissions program.
What the heck is going on with those kids in "The Turn of the Screw"?
Hey, the writer is a white guy. I thought they weren't getting published anymore!
Garner (the name!) came from one who collected and stored grain. They garnered so much they were named after the activity. From AI: "The surname Garner is primarily of English origin and is derived from the Old French word "gerner," meaning "granary" or "barn". It was likely an occupational surname given to someone who worked in or was responsible for a granary, the place where grain was stored. The name first appeared in medieval England, with records dating back to the 13th century
Thanks, but I'll just go back and re-read "Stranger in a Strange Land."
Why shouldn't people get enhanced votes? It may be the only way to save the country. IMO, married men, with kids under 18, should be given an extra vote. These people are carrying the rest of society on their backs.
Right now, we have a system where millionaires and billionaires have more power through their donations. And we give Lawyers a veto over any law or action of the Government. The 700 Lawyers we call Judges overrule Congress and the POTUS. They can do anything, and the only person who can stop them is another Judge Lawyer.
So given that we don't have one man, one vote. I don't see why others cant have more than 1 vote.
“Those who landed on . . .” — no such people are still alive. It’s like black Americans who say “when we were slaves”.
Every citizen should get one vote for every dollar of Federal Income Tax they pay in the tax year prior to the election.
Kids: They're little language models.
Slight, only semi-involving?
Little Language Models (LLM) like Large Language Models.
Progressive grogging until they're well and liberally baked.
Should kids be required to pay royalties? In the words of the green orator: you didn't conceive that. Abort and sequester.
n.n said...
"Little Language Models (LLM) like Large Language Models."
A Little Language Model the size of a Large Language Model.
"[T]he states are having their constitutional conventions. And these conventions will decide whether to give an 'enhanced vote'... counting for five-thirds of a regular vote to so-called 'exceptional Americans,' those who landed on the shores of our continent before or during the Revolutionary War but were exceptional enough not to arrive in chains."
Heavy-handed satire from someone who doesn't spend much time in the real world.
So many people whose ancestors "arrived in chains" also had ancestors who didn't "arrive in chains." So many people who Biden let in illegally had ancestors who were on this continent before the American Revolution.
I'm wondering about the malice of new arrival Shteyngart against the people who had the country and gave it up to the rest of us. No gratitude for undeserved blessings?
Clocks and bungled penises go back to "Tristram Shandy."
"Harriet the Spy" gave us the child as private investigator. Since she became a lesbian cult object, I'm starting to wonder about "Encyclopedia Brown," whose books I read as a child.
In “Nineteen Eighty-Four” Oceania’s youth corps is called the Spies.
Hey, the writer is a white guy. I thought they weren't getting published anymore!
As opposed to the four women who write most of the articles in the Times? One guy may be cheaper and chatter less.
Both mechanical... anthropogenic interlopers are the very model of a semantic lagoon in secular seance with earlier conceptions.
The spies who labor for me following progressive principles? Evolutionary function.
"those who landed on the shores of our continent before or during the Revolutionary War"
They're all dead.
Anyone who landed during the Revolutionary War and is still alive truly is "exceptional." But, practically, 5/3 of 0 = 0.
If Americans fear the effect of immigrant voters, it would be easy to make citizenship tests -- especially English fluency -- more stringent.
Re "grok" - as mentioned above, its from Heinlein, "Stranger in a Strange Land", which in some circles is a biblical text. Having read an unfortunate amount af sci fi commentary and attended quite a few SF and related conventions (and tech industries (various kinds) conventions), I can say from personal experience "grok" was widely in circulation in those subcultures for many decades. Heck, it was correctly used various times in Mike Judge's "Silicon Valley". Judge is a close and accurate social observer. Im sure Musk picked it up from these subcultures, not from Heinlein, but who knows.
I recall the several days it took to deprogram my young son from shouting "SHIT!" whenever possible, after hearing me expletively not delete the same outburst when I stubbed a toe. Yes, the small ones are not only sponges but great mimics and experimenters with language.
@buwaya 5:00PM--
I doubt that in Musk's age cohort in the Anglosphere there were many bright kids who hadn't read "Stranger" by the age of 16.
It's always dystopia, isn't it? Why can't it be utopia for a change? (Always winter, but never Christmas.)
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