Impromptus today begins with Nick Saban and sportsmanship — he exhibited it — and ends with the subject of cursive (cursive writing). In between, there are sundry items, including Iran, the GOP, and animals. (The animals, specifically, are cheetahs and maggots — an odd combination.)
Before getting to mail, I’d like to say an additional word about cursive. When I arrived at National Review, in the 1990s, I saw the penmanship of Ed Capano, our publisher. I was amazed. I had never seen such excellent handwriting from a male hand. It was positively beautiful.
When I marveled at this to Ed, he said, “Nuns.” I believe they taught him the Palmer Method. These teachers may not have been kind and gentle when it came to the enforcement of handwriting — but, man, does Ed Capano have great penmanship.
Will anyone in the future? I am hoping for a revival.
In an Impromptus last week, I spoke of a January 6 defendant, who, on the day in question, sported apparel celebrating the SS and Auschwitz. His sister has asked the court not to “judge a book by its cover.”
In 2014, I wrote an essay called, in fact, “Books and Covers.” I quoted from it in my column:
When we were in kindergarten — if not before — we were taught that you can’t judge a book by its cover. Which is true. Or rather, you can’t necessarily judge a book by its cover. Often, it is an error to do so. Related is an old expression, usually attributed to Oscar Wilde: “When you assume, you make an ass out of u and me.”
Well and good. But I remember something I heard a writer say on television, many years ago. (It wasn’t Oscar Wilde. It may have been Harlan Ellison.) He said, “If the cover shows a strapping woman amid the stars, wearing a metallic brassiere and brandishing a light saber, chances are the book is science fiction.”
In my column, I said, “I love that remark — I think it was Ellison.”
A reader writes,
Jay, I assure you that Harlan Ellison would NOT say that “if the cover shows a strapping woman amid the stars, wearing a metallic brassiere and brandishing a light saber, chances are the book is science fiction.” He would tell you instead that the book is “sci-fi” or “skiffy,” fake or vulgarized science fiction, which alas has totally subsumed the “hard stuff” at bookstores and conventions.
Our reader, Andrew Kidd, continues,
Here’s a memorial piece I wrote on Harlan. I get a kick out of knowing the far-left Harlan must have been a regular NR reader just for the John Simon reviews. I seem to recall one column of his where he described how he would throw the latest copy across the bathroom after reading it. Oh well, there are worse things he could have done with it there . . .
A couple of times recently, I have cited “human nature,” or simply “nature.” In this Impromptus, I wrote,
Liberal-democratic societies are so rare, they are borderline weird. . . . The norm in the world is blood-and-soil collectivism. A free and open society — that is almost contra naturam, like many good things (such as the teachings you’ll find in the Sermon on the Mount).
In a post on Ukraine, I wrote,
A Ukrainian victory, and a Russian defeat, would be a tremendous boost to the democratic world. To a lot of people, might makes right. They see Vladimir Putin as a strong muscly man, superior to the democratic weenies in the Free World, with their constitutions and rule of law and all that weak beer. This is a pathetic fact about human nature. But it is, I’m afraid, a fact.
A reader writes,
Human nature, as all Christians know, is a mess — John 3:19 and all that. One of my favorite lines in any movie is Katherine Hepburn in The African Queen, telling Bogart, “Nature, Mr. Allnut, is what we are put in this world to rise above.”
Another reader sends me a note about Ukraine. She says,
Our church was able to send several boxes of aid with missionaries a few weeks ago and the people of Ukraine are constantly in our prayers.
I was encouraged by that note. As by this one:
Please continue to write as often as you can about Ukraine. Ukraine is one instance where, for all of our sakes, good must triumph over evil.
Thank you to all readers and correspondents.