"The surge of tiny clapping has led to an endless debate on TikTok about the proper way to do it."

"Some insist finger claps should be silent and bristle at people who say 'clock it' or 'tea' while clapping. Others take issue with influencers who clap with their index finger, when the middle finger is more commonly used in ballroom. (If this seems pedantic, imagine the reaction if you used your middle finger to give a thumbs-up.) And a notion has spread that the finger clap is supposed to resemble the American Sign Language sign for the number 8, because it means someone 'ate,' or performed extremely well. (Ballroom folks say that’s a reach.) As one commenter noted, 'Man the finger police is strict strict.'"

From "'Clock it.' We’re all finger-clapping wrong. As more people embrace finger claps, the queer ballroom scene is clapping back at those unaware of its origin and meaning" (WaPo).

Who cares? Yeah, I get it if that's your reaction, but this post earns some of my favorite tags. I like that.

"Cannelloni arrived. Sausage. The sommelier poured orange wine from Virginia. Then more food, more wine. 'I’ve always loved good stuff, because I grew up with so little'..."

"Mr. Shteyngart said. His 2014 memoir, 'Little Failure,' is a chronicle of ill-fitting clothes and disapproving parents who seem convinced that he is not going to meet their traditional immigrant expectations. His father hits him at home. At school, bullies await."

From "Is Gary Shteyngart One of the Last Novelists to Make Real Money From the Craft?/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" (NYT).

About that new novel: "In an era when the charge of cultural appropriation still carries professional risk (though perhaps not quite as much risk as five years ago), Mr. Shteyngart’s decision to write in the voice of a tween Korean American girl was a bold one. He said he was partly motivated by his own son’s experience. 'He and his little friends, they mention Trump all the time,' he said. 'And when you’re growing up and you have to think about the Great Leader all the time, that’s always going to stick with you.'"

"She said she realized that the craft risked dying out when the only person left in her village who knew how to make a blouse was an 87-year-old woman."

"She asked the woman to help teach local youngsters embroidery and started a class at her home. On a recent afternoon, 16 girls sat in rapt attention as they stitched away for hours.... Teaching teenagers to stitch, Ms. Uta said, not only keeps traditional handicrafts alive, but also helps wean young people off their cellphones, at least for a few hours.... Politicians 'are all wearing fake blouses and setting a bad example for everyone,' she added. 'We need to go back to traditions but real ones, not traditions deformed by politics.'"

From "A Blouse Gets Entangled in a Political Tussle in Eastern Europe/Nationalists in Romania have adopted an item of clothing traditionally worn by villagers, particularly women. Liberals say it’s an appropriation of a cultural identity that belongs to everyone" (NYT).

1. Does it matter exactly what this blouse looks like? Here's how Henri Matisse painted it in 1940:

2. Will embroidering keep the kids off their phone? It will keep them from looking at their phone, but not, I think, from listening. What music/podcast/audiobook would you listen to if your were doing some time-consuming, detailed embroidery? Here's a playlist of Romanian popular music. 

3. What item of traditional American clothing could a political movement adopt and cause you distress like that experienced in Romania over this blouse — something you or people you like want to keep wearing and now feel that to wear it is to express support for a cause they oppose?

4. When I was young, I used to worry that various items of clothing (or jewelry) had symbolic meaning that I didn't understand and I worried about unintentionally associating myself with a cause I didn't know or understand. 

5. "Though Henri Matisse’s prolific career as an artist greatly inspired numerous pieces and collections designed by the creative legend Yves Saint Laurent, it was Saint Laurent’s interpretation of Matisse’s illustrated and painted Romanian folk blouses that became an iconic house staple for generations to come...." These days, the elite won't do that. They are controlled into submission by the phrase "cultural appropriation."

"Garner" of the Day.

I don't really find a "garner" for every day. I just think it's funny to say "of the day" when the word "garner" pops up in a way that amuses me, like this one, last year. The word "garner" has delighted me ever since Meade pointed out that Jeb Bush — remember him? — said it 3 times in a single episode of "Face the Nation."

Here's today's "garner," in a question from the NYT "Ethicist" column:

A few years ago, a close cisgender male friend in a heterosexual marriage began identifying as queer. All of his romantic experiences have been with women. Through therapy, however, he concluded that gender wouldn’t have mattered in choosing a partner when he was single. He’s happily married and is monogamous with his wife. Still, he’s altered his presentation — fashion, hair, piercings, slang — to align with queer culture, and he openly identifies as part of the queer community and attends queer events. It feels as if my friend is attempting to garner the benefits and cultural cachet of being queer while also living a heteronormative life. Is this permissible authentic expression, or is it cultural appropriation?

What benefits and cachet have you garnered recently?

Not only do I get to use my "garner (the word!)" tag — I have tags for "cultural appropriation" and "heteronormativity." That feels like some kind of tag jackpot. Unfortunately, I don't have a tag for "queer." And I'm not making one. Not today.

"Among the criticisms of the book was that its descriptions of the girl’s powers appeared to liken the First Nations’ complex spiritual beliefs to 'magic'..."

"... and failed to differentiate between their many languages and traditions.... Calls to pull the book from shelves were led by... an educational group that works on behalf of First Nations communities in Australia. In a statement released this month, the group called Mr. Oliver’s depictions 'irresponsible and damaging, reflecting a profound lack of understanding and respect.'...
The depiction of child abduction in Mr. Oliver’s book, the group said, 'dangerously trivializes the ongoing trauma associated with Australia’s violent history of child removal.' 'I am devastated to have caused offense and apologize wholeheartedly,' Mr. Oliver said in a statement...."

From "Jamie Oliver Pulls Children’s Book Amid Criticism of Insensitivity/The celebrity chef’s second children’s book, 'Billy and the Epic Escape,' faced accusations that it stereotyped First Nations people in Australia" (NYT).

The NYT goes on to analyze the problem as "A-list celebrities dabbling in children’s literature," but isn't it white people dabbling in the history and culture of nonwhite people? Is Jamie Oliver white? I had to Google that, and I didn't find the answer — I'm just guessing it's "yes" — but I bumbled into this from 2022: "Jamie Oliver says he’s hired cultural appropriation specialists to advise on cookbooks" (CNN). You may want to be inclusive — for whatever mishmash of reasons — but then you have to worry about being inclusive the wrong way.

From the 2022 CNN article:

"Despite all this, and regardless of whether 'Rhapsody in Blue' is the worst masterpiece, it’s also the best cheesecake, or something else attractive yet unhealthy. "

The fourth-to-last sentence of "The Worst Masterpiece: ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ at 100/A jazz musician considers the legacy and unfulfilled promise of George Gershwin’s catchy — or you could say corny — repertory staple," by pianist, composer and writer Ethan Iverson, in the NYT.

Top-rated comment: "Jesus, did Gershwin kill this guy's dog? What's next: a screed on how The Beatles 'Love Me Do' has ossified harmonica playing and kept serious jazz harmonica players with classical chops from bringing to the fore the instrument's atonal properties? I'm not sure what the writer hates more: that Rhapsody is so popular or so much fun."

"We are on Day Five of journalistic insistence on canceling an elementary school student by any means necessary."

We are on Day Five of journalistic insistence on canceling an elementary school student by any means necessary. https://t.co/Z3hvTe8UrT

— Mary Katharine Ham (@mkhammer) December 1, 2023

"Though same-sex marriage has been legal in all 50 states since a 2015 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, it remains prohibited on the largest Indian reservation in the country..."

"... which, as a sovereign tribal nation, is not subject to the decision of America’s highest court.... [S]ame-sex couples are at the center of a contentious debate on the Navajo Nation, where the tribal council is weighing legislation to repeal a ban enacted in 2005. The change would grant them equal rights in situations involving property and hospital visitation. Indigenous scholars say it also would honor Navajo tradition, which recognized multiple genders and sexualities that were suppressed and stigmatized after Europeans arrived.... In recent decades, many Native Americans have adopted 'two-spirit' as an umbrella term for 'an individual that has both male and female spirits within them,' signaling a rejection of more rigid, western labels, said professor Gregory D. Smithers.... Two-spirit leaders and activists have made gains, Smithers said...."

From "Same-sex marriage remains banned — for now — in the Navajo Nation" (WaPo).

I was surprised to see that "two-spirit" is not a traditional term. Here's the Wikipedia article on the subject. A short excerpt from what is a long article:

"People who publish novels can be generally sorted into furtive daydreamers and pragmatic careerists. Comey goes in the second camp."

"This is not an aspiration he’s held close, or for long. He dismissed it when his agents initially pitched him on co-writing a book with James Patterson, and when the editor of 'Saving Justice' (his second memoir, after 'A Higher Loyalty') suggested he might be good at writing fiction.... But writing fiction was 'something that I think was tickling the back of his brain,' said Comey’s wife, Patrice. 'It would come up every once in a while, and at some point I realized that maybe he’s taking this seriously.'... Comey’s novels — plural; he’s already finished the draft of a sequel — are a family affair: The heroine of 'Central Park West,' Nora Carleton, includes aspects of all his daughters but owes a particular debt to his eldest, Maurene, who like Nora is tall, in her early-to-mid-30s and a prosecutor in the Southern District of New York. Comey first thought of the protagonist as a younger version of himself but found it more fun to write using someone else as his inspiration — though the method has its hazards: 'The kids are a little creeped out,' he said. 'Well, "creeped out" is a strong word — it’s just that they know that they’ll be asked about it.' (Asked about it, the Comey children declined to be interviewed.)"

Writes Sophia Nguyen in "James Comey is trying to master the twist ending. This time, on purpose. The former director of the FBI hopes his debut mystery novel, ‘Central Park West,’ will be the first of many" (WaPo).

The wife goes on record about what she thinks tickles the back of Comey's brain, but the daughters don't want to talk about whatever it is that made their dad say he'd creeped them out.

"The modern men’s perm is loud for a hairstyle so soft. On TikTok, the hashtag #menperm... has garnered more than 20.7 million views."

"Those videos often begin with a man in a salon chair, pictured from the shoulder up. The camera orbits around his head just before a final shot of his crown: silky, voluminous waves lacquered with the aplomb of K-pop boy bands...."

I'm reading "Why Are More Men Getting Perms? The modern male perm is softer, more natural and has taken off, thanks to K-pop and TikTok" (NYT).

TikTok is very powerful. Videos don't just get views. They garner them.

"While reading 'Spring Rain: A Life Lived in Gardens,' by Marc Hamer, I often found myself wondering how old its author was..."

"... in part because the arc of the book follows Hamer getting too old to work as a gardener anymore. However, I hesitated to research his age. In Chapter 10, titled 'Gardener,' Hamer mentions the discovery, in 2006, of the world’s oldest living creature, a clam. The clam, named Ming, was five hundred and seven years old. It had been found off the coast of Iceland, and died when the scientists who discovered it tried to ascertain its age."

Writes Rivka Galchen, in "How Gardens Promise the Renewal of Life—and Its End/In 'Spring Rain: A Life Lived in Gardens,' Marc Hamer wonders what he leaves behind him" (The New Yorker).

"My daughter... has queer friends who sometimes pass through on their way to the basement lair and stop to talk about... tattoos, the queer art they're making, or the queer anarchist collectives they're living in."

Writes Noah Berlatsky, in "My wife is bisexual and nonbinary, and my daughter is transgender. My queer family helped me better understand myself and my masculinity" (Insider).

This article is ripe chum for right-wingers, so please use your judgment (if and when you comment).

The daughter is 19, and "still lives with us, but she often communicates in brief grunts as she scurries down to her basement lair, emerging only to let in friends and forage for chicken nuggets."

Me, I'm just really uncomfortable with anarchists in the basement, and "lair" along with "grunts" is... well, it's intended to yank your chain. 

Berlatsky calls himself a "boring cisgender, straight guy," but here he is presenting himself as interesting because of the 2 women who are living in his house with him. He's appropriating and parading their (seeming) coolness. Is that okay?

It reminds me a bit of the male law professors we women law professors used to make fun of for saying they're not sexist, because their wife is a feminist.

"In Sinema’s 2009 book... she described giving up shrill partisanship, which was making her unhappy, for a vaguely New Age ethos..."

"... that prized inner tranquillity. One chapter was called 'Letting Go of the Bear and Picking Up the Buddha,' with the bear representing fear and anger. 'Picking up the Buddha (becoming a super centered political actor) makes you a stronger, more effective you,' she wrote. 'To be your most fabulous political self, you’ll need to learn to recognize the bear and learn to let go of it in your work.' Transcending fear and anger is an excellent spiritual goal. But becoming a more centered and fabulous person is a political project only when it’s directed toward aims beyond oneself. With Sinema, it’s not remotely clear what those aims might be, or if they exist. (Another chapter in her book is 'Letting Go of Outcomes.')"

Writes Michelle Goldberg in "Kyrsten Sinema Is Right. This Is Who She’s Always Been" (NYT). 

I had to look to see if Sinema is a Buddhist. She's not, so I'm giving this post my "cultural appropriation" tag. "Picking Up the Buddha" — is that an expression, some New Age cant? Or did she come up with this image of picking up and putting down entities that are not, if real life, picked up and put down?

 

Here's a NYT article from 2012, "Politicians Who Reject Labels Based on Religion"

Although raised a Mormon, Ms. Sinema is often described as a nontheist — and that suits the activists just fine....

But a campaign spokesman rejected any simple category for Ms. Sinema. “Kyrsten believes the terms ‘nontheist,’ ‘atheist’ or ‘nonbeliever’ are not befitting of her life’s work or personal character,” the spokesman, Justin Unga, said Thursday in an e-mail. “Though Sinema was raised in a religious household, she draws her policy-making decisions from her experience as a social worker who worked with diverse communities and as a lawmaker who represented hundreds of thousands.”

Furthermore, Ms. Sinema “is a student of all cultures in her community,” Mr. Unga said, and she “believes that a secular approach is the best way to achieve this in good government.” In rejecting not only religious labels but irreligious labels, too, these politicians resemble the growing portion of Americans who feel that no particular tradition, or anti-tradition, captures how they feel about God, or the universe, or what the theologian Paul Tillich called “ultimate concern.”

"It seems the gut reaction should be, ‘No, minors should not get tattoos,’ but minors will get tattoos."

Said Marisa Kakoulas, "a lawyer based in New York City who has written a series of books on tattoos and consults with artists on tattoo law," quoted in "A 10-Year-Old Got a Tattoo. His Mother Was Arrested. In New York State, you must be at least 18 to get a tattoo. Elsewhere, the rules are different — and perceptions are changing" (NYT). 

The 10-year-old's tattoo was "a crude rendering of his name in large block letters on the inside of his forearm.”

And here's a quote from "a tattoo anthropologist" named Lars Krutak: "Maybe decolonizing the Western thought concept of ‘age-appropriate’ tattoos could be enlightening. But I am not saying that children should be tattooed at 10 and 11 years old, because they still have a lot to learn about the world."

I've got 10 TikToks for you this evening. Quite a lot, but won't you tell me what you like best?

1. Sharpening depicted in fuzziness.

2. Is this Mexican outfit offensive?

3. Woo speak, translated.

4. Is that Aaron Rodgers?

5. Lonely lass was Kate Dalrymple.

6. The word ladder exercise for how to write a song.

7. Can any song become a sad song?

8. Will you tell your male friend — seriously — that you love him?

9. Gays are coming for your girlfriend.

10. 1930s desk lamp restoration.

"What is coastal grandmother, you ask? It’s a term that I coined for this aesthetic.... If you love Nancy Meyers movies, coastal vibes, recipes and cooking..."

"... Ina Garten, cozy interiors, and more, there’s a good chance you might be a coastal grandmother. And no—you don’t have to be a grandmother to be a coastal grandmother. It’s for anyone and everyone. I even made this playlist on Spotify so you can have the coastal-gran ambience with you everywhere you go. If any of this sounds like you, follow along and we’ll gran together."

Said Lex Nicoleta — see her say it in this TikTok — quoted by Caitlin Flanagan in "I’m a Coastal Grandmother. Stop Appropriating Our Culture. Young people on TikTok are trying to hijack my lifestyle" (The Atlantic).

The idiocy of appropriating the ethnicity of the Other right when you're flaunting your racial progressiveness: Stop saying "sherpa"!

I'm reading "Why Stephanie Cutter says Dems need a new SCOTUS strategy/On this week’s show, Playbook author Ryan Lizza talks with Democratic strategist Stephanie Cutter about what it’s like to be a sherpa for a Supreme Court nominee" (Politico).

Cutter guided Sonia Sotomayor through the process, and some of the discussion is good:

[P]utting the first Black woman on the Supreme Court will be celebrated by most Americans...  [W]e were about to put the first Black woman on the court. That will be celebrated. The other thing that potentially could happen is some Republicans could overshoot this, and you already see some senators talking about how this is a quota pick or an affirmative action pick....

This person is not going to come off as an affirmative action pick. This person is going to come across as the most qualified person for the court, if you just look at the women on the proverbial short list. They can continue their racist dog whistles on this. But I think most people are not going to have the stomach for it, and it will turn around and bite them just to continue the dog analogy there.

That focuses the problem precisely: Democrats want to inspire a degree of celebration that feels good to their supporters and to tempt their antagonists to cry "affirmative action" in a manner that feels unkind to those who like that subject to be handled with discretion.

But Politico keeps using the word "sherpa." I'm amazed that they're still talking like that, appropriating the name of an ethnic group. That must once have seemed cool or cute, but now it just seems as though they're not even listening to themselves. It's awfully discordant to appropriate the ethnicity of an Other when you're flaunting your racial progressiveness.

The tallest mountain in the world — most of which is underwater — has been ascended — bottom to top — for the first time.

SF Gate reports on the climbing of Maunakea, which is 33,500 feet tall, with 19,698 feet of that underwater.

Mountain climber and underwater explorer Victor Vescovo teamed up with Native Hawaiian scientist Cliff Kapono to scale Maunakea Volcano from its base at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean to its peak.... The historic voyage included descending to the bottom of the ocean, kayaking to shore, then biking and hiking to the peak.

Oh, this isn't what it sounded like from the headline. They didn't go up the mountain in some underwater trek. Then went straight down to the starting point but then came straight up and kayaked over to the starting point on land:

The NYT ethicist — Kwame Anthony Appiah — comes out in favor of cultural appropriation.

The column begins with a letter from an art therapist who had hospital patients go on "a guided mindfulness journey to find their spirit animals." This involved teaching them about Native American cultures and having them draw "their animals" on a totem pole. One patient questioned the activity and used the criticism "cultural appropriation."

I think it's an awful exercise, for many reasons. I don't know what has to happen to you to make you a patient on the receiving end of such "therapy," but if I'd been in that situation, if I had anything like the mind I have now, I'd have refused to participate. It's an imposition of ersatz religion. It's fake and sappy, and it appropriates the sincere religion of others and turns it into a childish art project. 

The ethicist began by questioning whether it is cultural appropriation when there's only a "hazy" connection to a culture. Speaking of religion, he makes a food analogy:

"Blackfishing is when White public figures, influencers and the like do everything in their power to appear Black."

"Whether that means to tan their skin excessively in an attempt to achieve ambiguity, and wear hairstyles and clothing trends that have been pioneered by Black women.... Instead of appreciating Black culture from the sidelines, there's this need to own it, to participate in it without wanting the full experience of Blackness and the systemic discrimination that comes with it. " 

Said journalist Wanna Thompson, quoted in "What 'Blackfishing' means and why people do it" (CNN).