११ ऑक्टोबर, २०२६

"I hate travel. Just the slog of it. I like sleeping in my own bed."

Said Grace Coddington, quoted in "At Home: Grace Coddington/Inside the fashion stylist and creative director's ‘very catty’ East Hampton retreat" (NYT).

That's a gift link — like all NYT links — so you can see the very bed where she prefers to sleep and lots of other rooms in the cozy, catty house. The cattiness is in the artworks, not a lot of real cats, though there is one real cat, seen in 2 of the photos. I really like this house, especially with its tiny guest cottage, used as an office.

Speaking of travel — I'm a connoisseur of travel critique — I wanted to show you...

Sunrise, this morning, we thought there was a folk group with a strumming guitar.

"What Cornell Teaches Its Students About Sex/From feminist porn awards to guides on group sex, Cornell has promoted sexual liberation as a virtue."

An article by Jared Lederman, a senior at Cornell, in The Free Press.

Lots of links to the University's sex guides, such as "Yes, No, Maybe So: A Sexual Inventory Stocklist"."

Lederman opines: "Cornell’s philosophy on sex is so striking because it is much more measured when it comes to other facets of students’ lives. The school regularly instructs my classmates and me to limit our drinking, protect our sleep, and develop healthier habits. Cornell hasn’t adopted a libertarian philosophy on degenerate college behavior in general; it has simply chosen to champion sexual liberation...."

Hmm. I think he's underestimating how daunting that Sexual Inventory Stocklist is. It's a long series of lists and you're supposed to react to each one. Do you want this or not? Just to excerpt one section of one list: 

"Are you f–king stupid? It’s not your lived experience, so just shut the f–k up!...How is it so difficult for you to see space made for women at a Sex Pistols gig?"

"If you are a man who gets offended by a band making room for a female only moshpit then you are PART OF THE PROBLEM... Stay home, read a book by Bell hooks, come back when kindness, compassion and empathy have landed with you."

Said Sex Pistols singer Frank Carter, quoted in "Sex Pistols singer Frank Carter clashes with male concertgoer for crashing women-only mosh pit: ‘Just f–king leave'" (NY Post).

I thought the women-only section was justified by the physical difference between male and female bodies, that it was the same issue we see in the effort to limit women's sports to biological women, but no: Carter also said: "When I say a ladies-only moshpit pit, I of course mean a trans-inclusionary space. The space is for people who don’t usually feel safe."

Was there any way for this "male concertgoer" to identify as one of the "people who don’t usually feel safe"?

"We’ve got the gulf. We’ve got a beautiful lake... We need a river. We need an ocean. We call it 'Trump Ocean' or, or, 'Ocean of the Americas.'"

"Something like that. Before I get out, I think we should have an ocean. And we need a great river."

Said You Know Who, quoted in "Trump suggests ‘Ocean of Americas’ as new name for Atlantic or Pacific/The president also floated the idea of naming an ocean after himself" (WaPo).

I see the use of "float" to humorously carry the water theme, but is there a verb for "suggests" that could also be about water?

Now, I think the President is just toying with us. One clue is that name "Ocean of the Americas." That's a New York City joke,  isn't it? "Of the Americas" is so awkward, it must be intended as a reference to the long-derided renaming of 6th Avenue as "Avenue of the Americas." WaPo left out the "the" in its headline, but Trump said "Ocean of the Americas." 

"You don't have to look at the facts and the law. All you have to do is study what they do."

Letitia James offers a gift to Saritha Komatireddy:

"If Hegseth were not a musclebound intellectual void, he would know this."

"He would know that the Fort Hood killer told the mental health panel that he wanted to die. He would know his standby lawyers told the judge he was not mounting a defence because he craved the death penalty. He would know that the Greek word for 'martyr' and the Arabic 'shahid' both mean 'witness.' Abdullah Azzam, the godfather of modern jihadism, wrote that nations were built by 'the martyr’s blood and scholar’s ink.' The late al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri — who converted to jihadism after the hanging of a martyr in Egypt in 1966 — wrote that 'more than half the battle is fought in the media.' The great anthropologist Joe Henrich has persuasively argued that martyrdom, and the publicity secured by it, was key to the spread of early religions...."