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Three Saved Articles: Political, Gathering and Eating and Writing and Language

I haven't added anything to this blog in a while because, well, I am paying too much attention to political things.  With the three NYT articles here, I am reactivating it so I can keep track of these articles.   It's a pain trying to search for articles in the NYT at later dates, so this is my storage bin for that.   Political 1.   The Era of Dark Passage by David Brooks , The New York Times, September 18, 2025. I do admire David Brooks and his writing - most of it.  This is a long essay - longer than is typical for him - the David Brooks wrote recently about our current political times in the United States.  Dark indeed and very, very scary.  The worst part of this is the most? many? American voters are not even paying attention. Cooking, food and gathering 2.   Samin Nosrat Gathers Friends for Dinner Every Week.  Here's How You Can, Too by Samin Nosrat, The New York Times, September 15, 2925. Writing and language usage 3.   With the E...
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Video: My New National Hero, John Oliver

And if we can be shaken from our slumber, maybe our savior, too.  Just finished watching.  A 34 minute John Oliver monologue that is a must watch if you care about your children, your family, your job, your religion, your privacy, your home, your schools, your city, your state, your country ... if you care about anything in life at all ... please watch this video.  Trump 2.0:  Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HB0)   If you are a voting American citizen this is what I call must watch TV!  It's a YouTube video so it should go without saying, skip the commercials.  They will depress you even more.  "When I started drinking warm water ..."  Need I say more. Bonus offering:  We Are In The Middle of a Hostile Government Takeover (TikTok) Thank you TikTok man.  
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The Math Gap

It's Sunday, November 3rd, 2024 and I am just catching up on some of the past week's reading.  This morning I was rewarded with something that made me feel hopeful. Why Democracy Lives and Dies by Math :  A documentary filmmaker and a mathematician discuss our fear of numbers and its civic costs.  By Siobhan Roberts, published in the New York Times on October 24, 2024 and updated on October 25, 29024. "Math is power" is the tag line of a new documentary by the director Vicki Abeles titled " Counted Out " which explores the intersection of mathematics, civil rights and democracy.  The film is currently being shown at festivals and community screenings and will have a limited theatrical release next year. This piece is actually an interview with Siobhan Roberts speaking with Vick Abeles and Ismar Volic, a professor at Wellesley College and a founder, in 2019, of the Institute for Mathematics and Democracy. Super important topic and interview.  I cannot wait to...
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The Southern Gap

33.   The southern gap:  In the American South, an oligarchy of planters enriched itself through slavery.  Pervasive underdevelopment is their legacy , by Keri Leigh Merritt and published by  * aeon , April 2, 2024.   Linked by Conor Friedersdorf for his weekly Recommended Reading Sunday, April 7, 2024 newsletter. I think most people have noted the imbalance of wealth in the South of the country from that of the North and West.  We've read it in books like Gone With the Wind and To Kill A Mockingbird and in present day writing like The Warmth of Other Suns .  These are examples that I can recall easily.  Many will name other literary examples.  We know it from movies; as in one of my favorite movies ever,  Sounder .  We know it from radio stories such as NPR's Story Corps with Francine Anderson's poignant and revealing  childhood story , television and from our own visits to the south. This essay is a clear and bracing e...
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An essay on the activism over the Israeli-Gaza war and our struggles with freedom of speech

Update 05/06/2024:   I spent the morning with a good friend who is a professor and associate dean at a major public university in the U.S.  I had wanted to ask him about his thoughts on the Palestinian/Israeli campus protests.  He was trapped in my car for an hour while we drove home from our morning destination and it was a good opportunity.  I commented that I had read the essay posted below and he responded that he, too, had read it.  For some reason I was surprised.  I shouldn't have been; he and his wife are the most well-read people I know, by far.  He did not like the essay, thought is was one-sided and biased and further stated that he does not know why the Atlantic published this college sophomore's essay.  Overall, my friend feels that the reporting on campus protests has been distorted and falsified with the agendas of the reporting sources being given priority.  He supported his claim with much more than I will be able to write ac...
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Audio essay from David Brooks

31 .   Resist the Pull of 'Us vs. Them' Thinking  by David Brooks.  Produced by Vishakha Darbha.  Opinion section audio essay, 6:02 long, The New York Times, March 20, 2024. Beneath the audio essay title:  A message for President Biden.  To this I would say, yes, but for greater completeness I would add:  A message for all Americans.
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Interview: Marilynne Robinson

30.   Marilynne Robinson Considers Biden a Gift of God , by David Marchese, Photograph by Mamadi Doumbouya published in The New York Times Magazine, February 15, 2024. Beautiful interview.  Beautiful person.  Questions and answers both deeply respectful. I have only read Marilynne Robinson's book Housekeeping  and that was many, many years ago.  I remember that it had a deep impact on me.  I need to read more.  On a hint from the interview, perhaps it should be Gilead .
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