1) Readers have said to me, “Say something about John Derb!” I shall do so (as Derb himself might say). In my next Impromptus.
2) Less important: Readers have said, “Say something about the Masters, and Bubba Watson’s triumph!” I will, probably in my next Impromptus.
3) In February, I mentioned a new book — a little e-book — by Bruce Bawer: The New Quislings: How the International Left Used the Oslo Massacre to Silence Debate About Islam. Bawer, an American, moved to Norway some years ago, and he is one of the world’s foremost experts on the place. In Impromptus, I said, “Bawer makes a lot of people in Norway, the rest of Scandinavia, and Europe at large uncomfortable. There’s a good reason for that: He cuts very close to the bone. He holds up a mirror, I believe, from which many would rather turn away.”
I’m grateful to say that he has reviewed my new history of the Nobel Peace Prize. The prize is, in part, a Norwegian phenomenon. The review, at FrontPage Mag, is here.
Bawer liked a story I told about George C. Marshall, the 1953 peace laureate. He was a self-effacing man, Marshall was. For instance, he was probably the only one in the whole world who didn’t call the Marshall Plan the Marshall Plan: He referred to it by its formal name, the European Recovery Program.
Anyway, the paragraph (from my book) containing the aforementioned story:
It’s not easy to convey, at this remove, how esteemed Marshall was on the Continent, and in Britain. Maybe this anecdote will help. In June 1953 — six months before he received the Nobel prize — he attended the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, as the American representative. When he entered Westminster Abbey, unannounced and, as usual, unassuming, the entire congregation rose. Marshall, aware that people were standing, looked around to see who had entered. It was he.
4) Finally, if you can’t, just can’t, get enough of me and Norway — and if you can’t, call 911 — here’s an article in Aftenposten, the New York Times of Norway. If my GoogleTranslate hasn’t failed me, it’s a fair and factual article.
So can we really call the paper the New York Times of Norway? (Just kidding.) (Sort of.)