My Impromptus today has some deadly serious subjects, including Saudi Arabia and Iran. And Nazi Germany. And the online pornography in which our country is awash. Do I have anything to relieve the grimness? Yes, several items, including one about General Booty. This is not a military officer. We’re talking about a quarterback for the Oklahoma Sooners. His name, really and truly, is “General Booty” — and he has cut an underwear ad.
Let’s get to some mail. I had a post in which I mentioned two Coopers: James Fenimore and Bradley. It was natural to me to identify the latter as an actor. I had never heard of him before I read about a controversy surrounding his latest movie (a biopic about Leonard Bernstein).
A reader writes,
I was amused that you felt compelled to identify Bradley Cooper but not James Fenimore Cooper. I went to high school in the 1970s. We read one short excerpt from a Cooper novel. Mainly, I know about Cooper through my dad, who loved him as a kid. My dad never thought the movies made of Cooper’s books were worthy of those books.
A different reader writes,
Mr. Nordlinger:
. . . I have a question for you concerning David Daniels [the American countertenor]. Given his recent guilty plea to sexual assault, his career must be over. What are your thoughts on continuing to enjoy his recorded performances? I do not plan on removing any of his transcendent performances on my Spotify playlists, but I always appreciate your calm and reasoned thoughts on things artistic. Thank you.
Honestly, I said everything I can think to say on the subject — the general subject — in an essay I wrote last year: here. A painful and often confounding subject, a wretched business.
In a column last Friday, I spoke of a typo, or a mistaken phrase, probably caused by auto-correct. A reader writes,
You’ve reminded me of an auto-correct error in an e-mail that I sent to a customer a long time ago. The customer had contacted me about some technical issues they were having with a product we had sent them. I wanted to reply that I was “sorry for your inconvenience” — but it came out “for your incontinence.” When the customer good-naturedly pointed out my mistake, I replied that they might not have incontinence, but I did, from laughing so hard.
In the past, I have published bird photos — splendid bird photos — from Hans Goeckner. He now gives us a photo of a butterfly: equally splendid. This is a Diana fritillary, from Fall Creek Falls State Park in Tennessee:
My thanks to Professor Goeckner and to all readers and correspondents.