Edible notes. Ms 16th cent. Basel Kunsthistorisches Museum

“The tragedy of ‘Macbeth’ is the fall from nobility to horror; the comic tragedy of ‘Bonnie & Clyde’ is that although you can’t fall from the bottom you can reach the same horror.” Pauline Karl, 1967

“Our judgment of an author is never simply aesthetic. Aside from the literary merit a new book by him may have, it also has historic interest for us as the act of one in whom we’ve long been interested. He’s not only a poet, but also a character in our own biography.” W.H. Auden

Wow! Republican alt-right racists just can’t give up their trolling ways and birtherist memes! Now they don’t have Obama, they pile on Kamala Harris. With Trump whipping them up, they just dig deeper into their dark space. But there’s no light in or end to this tunnel!

Trump baldly admits he wants census citizenship question to assure Republicans control congressional districting: “#1 you need it for Congress—you need it for Congress, for districting,” he said Friday.

Role reversal: fish singing to bird or Melusine hitting on species-challenged rooster.

“History doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes with the present.” —often attributed to Mark Twain. No evidence, apparently, but aphorisms only need a plausible provenance to work.

Since when is there supposed to be “an answer” to the question “What is Literature?” Isn’t that why we become teachers of lit, to explain different kinds of lit, different meanings, different tastes? “Dreadful personal tastes?” Really? So now snobbery’s requisite for teaching?

What passes for wisdom in regard to Trump administration: “The sad truth is that we’re really probably better off with cabinet members too inept to get anything done at all.” Gail Collins

This cause is close to my heart, please sign: action.groundswell-mvmt.org/petitions/sign…

“We have allowed our habits to become so manipulated toward convenience that it is hard to imagine appreciating idiosyncrasy if it returned.” Ginia Bellafante. nytimes.com/2019/08/08/nyr… via ⁦The New York Times⁩

I Was Wandering. Toni Morrison Found Me. nytimes.com/2019/08/09/opi…

nytimes.com/2019/12/17/opi… via New York Times Opinion “Conservatives Against Trump”. Hope for sanity on the right?

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