On an anti-Thanksgiving at Tufts; the White House lit up; ‘candidate quality’; a rat czar; a great American adventurer; and more
Christmas is upon us, and Thanksgiving seems a long time ago — but let me turn to Thanksgiving for a moment in order to air a grievance. By the way, do you know this old joke? It was told to me by a great Irish American. Q. “What is ‘Irish Alzheimer’s’?” A. “You forget everything but a grudge.” One of the beauties of this joke is that you can adapt it for any nationality . . .
A friend of mine at Tufts University told me about a move by the student senate. I will quote from the senate’s post. That post is headed “National Day of Mourning 2022.” And before quoting, I should note that “TCU” stands for “Tufts Community Union,” which is defined as “the overarching term for all members of the Tufts undergraduate community.”
My Michigan Wolverines are soon to play TCU in the College Football Playoff. But that’s Texas Christian University.
Anyway, the senators’ post:
In the past, TCU Senate has used terms like “thanksgiving” to refer to Fall Break thereby commemorating the genocide of Indigenous People. We acknowledge the erasure and harm done and want to move forward to describing it as Fall Break.
To see the “Republican response,” as we say on State of the Union night, go here — I mean the response of the Tufts Republicans.
I believe people ought to be realistic about the treatment of American Indians by settlers. By the new arrivals from Europe. I also believe that Thanksgiving is a beautiful word and concept and holiday and that the Tufts senators are badly misguided, and also ungrateful.
• I wish I could find a New Yorker cartoon. I have Googled around for it in the past, without success. It was probably published in the 1980s. As I recall, it showed a sumptuous, traditional Thanksgiving table. The lady of the house, setting the turkey down, was frowning. One of the children was saying, “Dad will now offer a prayer of thanksgiving, and Mom will give the Democratic response.”
• As a rule, I’m not crazy about the chant “U.S.A.! U.S.A.!” I should write an article about this. In brief, I find that the chant is often jingoistic or needlessly boastful, rather than genuinely patriotic. But, when reading this news story, I wanted to break into that chant.
The headline: “US scientists set to announce fusion energy breakthrough.” And the story:
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm was set to announce a “major scientific breakthrough” Tuesday in the decades-long quest to harness fusion, the energy that powers the sun and stars.
Researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California for the first time produced more energy in a fusion reaction than was used to ignite it, something called net energy gain, according to one government official and one scientist familiar with the research. . . .
Proponents of fusion hope that it could one day produce nearly limitless, carbon-free energy, displacing fossil fuels and other traditional energy sources. Producing energy that powers homes and businesses from fusion is still decades away. But researchers said it was a significant step nonetheless.
Halleloo.
• There has been a development in the Lockerbie case. In December 1988, as you know, Libyan agents blew up a Pan Am flight, killing 270 people. The plane blew up over Lockerbie, Scotland. Therefore, we know this act of mass murder as the “Lockerbie bombing.”
One agent, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, was convicted. Others were involved in the atrocity, however, and U.S. authorities now have in their custody Agila Mohammad Masud, suspected of making the bomb.
When he appeared in court, Masud “complained of flu symptoms as he clutched a tissue.” That is a detail from a Reuters report. Our government will not be seeking the death penalty, as this penalty was not available at the time the bombing was committed. Instead, the government will be seeking life in prison. Masud is now 71.
Can justice be done? This is a philosophical and theological debate, as well as a legal one. In any event: Let justice be done — or some facsimile of justice — to the extent possible.
• “White House lights up with rainbow colors after same-sex marriage bill signing.” That is a headline from The Hill (story here). Over the years, my position has been unwavering: There should be no “lighting up” of the White House, to celebrate legislative outcomes or what have you. The White House should not serve as such a canvas. It should be itself, unpainted upon, a symbol of America at large.
When I run for president, that will be a plank of my platform: no lighting up of the White House.
(Memo to my critics and enemies, on left and right: I’m kidding. I’m not running. I’m pretty sure.)
• Ah, speaking of candidates. A lot of Republicans got bent out of shape when Senator Mitch McConnell spoke of “candidate quality,” last August. I’m talking about Republicans both in politics and in the media. McConnell is the Republican leader in the Senate, as you know. And he said that the quality of a candidate matters.
Some voters won’t vote for a candidate simply because he has an “R” or a “D” after his name. Many will. Maybe even most. But some won’t, and this can be critical.
Yes, a lot of R’s were mad at McConnell — but I think truth-telling ought to be encouraged in a politician, not discouraged. And McConnell was being truthful.
I thought of him and “candidate quality” when Herschel Walker lost his Senate race in Georgia. It ought to be hard for a Republican to lose a statewide race in Georgia. Candidate quality — it can make a difference.
• You know what I haven’t heard in ages? The term “yellow-dog Democrat.” In the old days, a great many southerners would have voted for a yellow dog before they would vote for any Republican.
• On January 17, 2021, three days before the inauguration, Congressman Ralph Norman (R., S.C.), texted the following to Mark Meadows, the chief of staff to President Donald Trump: “Our LAST HOPE is invoking Marshall Law!! PLEASE URGE TO PRESIDENT TO DO SO!!”
These guys are as illiterate as they are seditious.
• I liked this headline — and I welcomed the news: “NYC is hiring a rat czar. ‘General aura of badassery’ required.” The article explains,
On Wednesday, the city published a job listing for a director of rodent mitigation, which a City Hall spokesperson described as a “rat czar.” Based in City Hall, the individual will report to Meera Joshi, the deputy mayor of operations, and will be paid a salary between $120,000 to $170,000.
Good. Strength to the hands of the czar.
• I have a friend who is both French and Moroccan. In a semi-final of the World Cup, France played Morocco. (France won.) Before the game, I said to my friend, “What does this do to your identity?” He said, “Really, I can’t lose.”
This gave me a memory — of a football game last year. I’m talking about American football, and the NFL in particular. In the playoffs, my main two quarterbacks were playing each other: Tom Brady and Matthew Stafford, the Tampa Bay Bucs and the L.A. Rams.
Why are they “my” quarterbacks? Well, in brief, Brady played for the University of Michigan, and I’m from Ann Arbor; and Stafford was for twelve seasons the quarterback of my NFL team, the Detroit Lions.
Anyway, going into the game, I figured I couldn’t lose. But something odd transpired. I was deflated after the game. In a sense, I couldn’t win, either.
• Speaking of football, and speaking of Michigan: I learned some excellent vocabulary from my man Jim Harbaugh. He is the coach of the Wolverines, and we have been friends since the fifth grade. He encouraged people to beware the “Twittersphere” and the haters who like to “drink their Haterade and eat their hater-tots.”
I will remember that . . .
• Let me recommend a wonderful story from Mark Thiessen of the Associated Press. The opening sentence is almost a masterstroke: “Though the weather outside was frightful, schoolchildren in the northern Alaska Inupiat community of Nuiqsut were so delighted for a visit by Santa that they braved wind chills of 25 degrees below zero just to see him land on a snow-covered airstrip.”
• I want to recommend another article — but one that is unbearable. It is something that could appear in an anthology someday. Called “The Smell of Towels,” it’s written by a Columbia student of my acquaintance, Andrew Parker Thomas. “My mother was always very cold before she died . . .”
APT is a writer, with shattering things to write, already.
• “Joseph Kittinger, a Record-Setter High in the Skies, Dies at 94.” This is a stunning obit, about a stunning man. “He soared in a balloon to 102,800 feet and, with parachutes, plunged in a free fall for 16 miles, helping to set the stage for manned spaceflights.” Yup. And in the Vietnam War, he flew 483 missions, before being shot down and taken prisoner. He was at the Hanoi Hilton for eleven months. In 1984, he made the first solo balloon flight across the Atlantic.
“Life is an adventure, and I’m an adventurer,” Kittinger once said. “You just have to go for it. That’s the American way.”
And now I’ll paste the final two paragraphs of the above-linked obit, which is by Richard Goldstein of the New York Times:
When Joe Kittinger was 13, he once scrambled atop a 40-foot-high tree to snare some coconuts, ignoring warnings to stay put. His father recalled that venture as symbolizing the derring-do that would be his son’s life.
As the elder Mr. Kittinger put it: “Everybody wants coconuts, but nobody has the guts to go up there and get them.”
• It’s turned kind of wintry in New York. But in the last days of fall, I snapped a tree, in Central Park. Trees have a distinctive beauty, don’t you think?
• This is Severance Hall, in Cleveland, decked out for Christmas:
Someone told me something funny. He attended a wedding in Severance Hall. (Not sure how that works.) The father of the bride said, “‘Severance’? Sounds more like a place for a divorce.”
• Finally, a home outside Cleveland, which I thought had a warm feel:
Enough for today. Hope you’re doing well. Talk to you soon.
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