Wind Off the Hilltop

 Earl has placed new material on his site, and surprised me with poems by Dorothy Parker.  I admit, I have only known her as a wit and an epigrammist (Asked to use the word horticulture in a sentence she said "You can lead a horticulture, but you can't make her think.") But her poetry! 

 The Little Old Lady in Lavender Silk
 

I was seventy-seven, come August,
  I shall shortly be losing my bloom;
I’ve experienced zephyr and raw gust
  And (symbolical) flood and simoom.

When you come to this time of abatement,
  To this passing from Summer to Fall,
It is manners to issue a statement
  As to what you got out of it all.

So I’ll say, though reflection unnerves me
  And pronouncements I dodge as I can,
That I think (if my memory serves me)
  There was nothing more fun than a man!

In my youth, when the crescent was too wan
  To embarrass with beams from above,
By the aid of some local Don Juan
  I fell into the habit of love.

And I learned how to kiss and be merry—an
  Education left better unsung.
My neglect of the waters Pierian
  Was a scandal, when Grandma was young.

Though the shabby unbalanced the splendid,
  And the bitter outmeasured the sweet,
I should certainly do as I then did,
  Were I given the chance to repeat.

For contrition is hollow and wraithful,
  And regret is no part of my plan,
And I think (if my memory’s faithful)
  There was nothing more fun than a man! 

 

Some others

Sanctuary 

Song of Perfect Propriety 

Inventory 

Concern For The Poor

I know people who do nothing I can see for the poor but are very quick to illustrate how much they care about them by complaining that other people don't care about the poor. I don't think I need to give examples. I was going to accuse them of desiring simple solutions that don't cost them much personally because they actually don't care about the poor.  They want something that allows them to stop having to think about it. I thought this about the Affordable Care Act, because of which Son #5 has had to spend lots of money his entire adulthood to purchase insurance that doesn't get him much medical care. Yet so many people breathed a sigh of relief when it was passed because they could now pretend it was solved and not think about it.

But this is what writing is good for.  In marshaling my arguments against these people, I recognised a lot of holes in my case. I don't know what these people actually do for the poor, or for humanity in general.  They may give a great deal in secret. (Okay, the ones I am thinking of almost certainly do not, but it's a slippery slope.) They may have relative they support who would be in dire straits without them. That in turn reveals that I don't have a clear definition of what I even mean by "caring for the poor." They may time or concern or prayer that I know nothing about. They might also not be avoiding doing anything as already shouldering the burden for some relative and not wanting it to get worse. If we all helped just a bit it would be a big deal for them. It's hard to accuse that group of selfishness. 

Lastly, the accusation looks back over its shoulder at me: "An' what are you doin' for them, mate?" 

The people who want those simple solutions are likely those with the better imaginations who are haunted by the suffering of others - and who wants to be haunted? The realise there isn't much they can do themselves, so they hope that taxing billionaires or improving the local tax base or overthrowing capitalism will bring them peace. When I make it personal like this I understand their motivation better.  They want it to go away because it hurts. It is tough to accept that the poor will always be with us, that we will always hurt, and that we cannot get away from it by leaving it to others. Trying to do that only deadens us. 

Saturday Links

 From ACX October links: T Greer on Trump’s flip-flopping Ukraine-Russia policy (X): “Every administration since Clinton comes in determined to reset US-Russian relations, to clear away old legacies and bad blood. Clinton, Bush, Obama, Trump I, even Biden. It is the swampiest of all swampy ideas, resetting relations with the Russians. It never works.” 

A Billion Years of Sex Differences 

The Science of Snickers  Caramel has to be done at 240-245 degrees Fahrenheit. That seems like a narrow window.

Political Extremists are the same under the skin 

Political Symbolism and Social Order The study argues that Confederate monuments actually reduce violence against Blacks because they reinforce the white supremacist order and white people feel comfortable with that.  Tearing them down makes the white people insecure and they get more violent to reassert supremacy.  I think a couple of things are being missed here. First, white-on-black crime is very low to begin with, and political versions are even lower, so the amounts being measured are small.  Secondly, the whole study is related to data from Reconstruction and a century ago, with this hand-waving idea "and it's just the same now." The modern data is...more sparse. Thirdly, if you go into any town and start tearing down its monuments there is going to be a baseline level of people who feel interfered with and annoyed, and that doesn't seem to be accounted for here. All measured violence is because of white supremacy, not for the insults, accusations, assumptions, or disruptions. The study does have formulas which give it an air of precision, though.

It's Official

 There has been a language change, from progressive exaggeration.  When someone now says "Well, it's official..." they mean something near the opposite. It is no longer used to signify that some authority has certified a thing, it means some new occurrence has brought to the point of no return, or sometimes, the people I disagree with have admitted how evil they really are.  

We hear it most often about politics, but it's multipurpose.

"Well, it's official, the Democrats have declared war on the rest of the country."

"Well, it's official, Donald Trump is cancelling the 2028 elections."

"Well, it's official, the Presbyterians have denied the gospel of Jesus Christ."

"Well, it's official, the school board doesn't care about special-needs children."

This will be followed by some minor and often obscure news that they want you to pay attention to, because it proves what they have been saying all along. As with most hyperbole, there was originally some meaning behind it, treating some major event as the final straw, that everything but an official declaration had occurred, and we should be aware of our real situation.  But of course that is just too delicious to leave alone.  It's fun to perceive things that others have missed, to look smarter than the rest. The temptation is to prove yourself a True Princess by detecting the pea under so many mattresses. Progressive padding was likely inevitable. 

The Way Old Friends Do