It’s a Funny Old World 5

Last updated on: July 2, 2014 at 11:06 pm By David Mills

Tired of the unfashionable traditional outfits, which can be “intimidating,” they’ve adopted “the mismatched, sweetly-scruffy look of Bushwickians everywhere (because yes, they live all over the world): the bandanas, the whimsical eyewear, the canvas totebags whose racist slogans are made all the cuter for being written in swirly café French, like something you’d buy from the sale section of Anthropologie,” reports Rachel Shukert in The Tablet. “They” being modern German neo-Nazis. “[W]hen you think about it,” Shukert concludes, what is... Read more

Father Rumble Explains

Last updated on: July 2, 2014 at 9:34 pm By David Mills

In yesterday’s Readings, I gave the link to the Australian writer R. J. Stove’s conversion story, in which he mentions the help he needed and got in understanding the Faith and the reasons for it. Here was what I needed. The traditional Catholic priest, Father X, who lent it [a book of convert stories] to me, must have detected how needful it was, in my overwhelmed condition, that I be impressed with the sheer of faith. Hence my use of Wallace... Read more

Politicians 1

Last updated on: June 28, 2014 at 10:23 am By David Mills

One doesn’t want to encourage easy cynicism about politicians, but they make it hard. From the New York Observer, about Manhattan assemblywoman Gabriela Rosa pleading guilty to marrying someone to get citizenship and lying about her (considerable) assets when she filed for bankruptcy. First: “I falsely got married to a U.S. citizen in order to regularize my citizenship,” the Dominican-born Ms. Rosa said in federal court this afternoon, tearing up as she spoke. And then: Outside the courtroom, however, Ms.... Read more

Readings (1 July 2014)

Last updated on: July 1, 2014 at 11:20 am By David Mills

Let Them Eat Cash, from the New York Times. Though many people think that simply giving the poor cash won’t help them, Globally, cash is a major tool to fight extreme poverty. The United Nations is handing out ATM cards to Syrian refugees alongside sacks of grain. The evidence suggests these cash programs work. There have been randomized trials of cash grants to poor Mexican families, Kenyan villagers, Malawian schoolgirls and many others. The results show that sometimes people just eat better or live... Read more

The Precise Philosopher

Last updated on: July 15, 2014 at 12:41 am By David Mills

One appreciates the precision. Some years after the 1968 student riots at Columbia University, the philosopher and Columbia professor Sidney Morgenbesser, who had been beaten up by the police, was being questioned for a panel for jury duty. One of the questions was, “Have you ever been treated unjustly or unfairly by the police?” His reply was classic: “I’ve been treated unjustly but not unfairly. They were clobbering everybody.” Morgenbesser, according to the eulogy reprinted in The Tablet on the tenth anniversary... Read more

It’s a Funny Old World 4

Last updated on: June 30, 2014 at 6:47 pm By David Mills

This one is more funny peculiar than funny amusing. “Well you better decide, miss. Hand over your crown with an attitude like that. I’m sure someone will step into your place with manners.” So, according to the Daily Telegraph, said beauty pageant organizer Barbara Osborne to Miss Teen Wanganui when Miss TW (Olivia O’Neil) dyed her blond hair light brown and had told Ms Osborne “that if she wasn’t allowed to dye her hair then beauty pageants might not be for her.” Which is... Read more

Tired Yuppy Parents

Last updated on: June 30, 2014 at 6:48 pm By David Mills

In this morning’s readings, I mentioned an article on the need for children to play on their own if they are to develop as they should. It was, to me, a “Well, duh” article but good to see published with the cultural authority of The Atlantic. I’ve seen some other articles making this point, and wonder whether the trend, if it is such, represents a sudden increase in common sense or the fact that older yuppie parents are tired and... Read more

Readings (30 June 2014)

Last updated on: June 27, 2014 at 9:51 pm By David Mills

Why Free Play Is the Best Summer School, by Jessica Leahy, from The Atlantic. A “Well, duh” kind of article, speaking as a father, but one offering an idea of childhood not much accepted these days. A study by psychologists from the University of Colorado found that children who engage in more free play have more highly developed self-directed executive function. The opposite was also true: The more time kids spent in structured activities, the worse their sense of self-directed control.... Read more

It’s a Funny Old World 3

Last updated on: June 28, 2014 at 10:32 am By David Mills

“This may be a consequence of me being American,” explained Bristol University’s Dr. David Glowacki, a Royal Society Research Fellow, “but I can quite easily be provocative without the need to be inebriated.” He had, as reported by the Irish Independent, attempted to crowd surf during a performance of Handel’s Messiah. Before the performance, Mr Morris [Tom Morris, artistic director of the Bristol Old Vic] invited the audience to bring their drinks into the standing area in front of the stage... Read more

Sexual Stimulants

Last updated on: June 29, 2014 at 11:26 pm By David Mills

Travelling a few days ago, I stopped at a truck stop at which I’d stopped several times over the last few years but not for a couple years, and found in the men’s room a new condom dispenser by the door. It had been blessedly free of such a thing in the past. The offerings were advertised with garish comic book-styled pictures that seemed to me rather adolescent for the product being sold. Most interesting, though, was the last item,... Read more