Today’s Impromptus is headed “Refuge in pluralism, &c.” What is the answer to our nation’s polarization? Pluralism. And, related to that, federalism. Or if those things aren’t the answer, they are at least a hope.
Let Texas be Texas, let California be California. Let Arkansas be Arkansas, let Oregon be Oregon. Within limits, of course. We had a civil war once, didn’t we? The questions can get tricky.
In any case, I also write about the Met Gala, Elon Musk, Donald Trump, and other fun things.
Those interested in music may like my “chronicle” in the current New Criterion: here. I also have a new episode of Music for a While, here. In this episode, I play a track from Alexei Lubimov, the Russian pianist (and harpsichordist). Last month, he was playing at an anti-war concert in Moscow. The police burst in to shut the concert down. (They claimed a bomb threat, which is an old tactic.) Lubimov kept playing until he had finished his Schubert impromptu. What nerve he showed.
Let’s have a little mail. On Monday, I had a piece about art and politics — various aspects of that multifarious question. A reader writes,
Mr. Nordlinger,
. . . My contribution along those lines: I love Ben Sasse, but I wouldn’t pay a dollar to see him play the piano (unless there’s something about him that I don’t know).
Another reader writes,
Jay,
The Billy Joel lyric you cited — “But you can make decisions too” — is from “And So It Goes.” Inexplicably, it is not considered one of Billy’s greatest hits, though it is one of my favorites. Glad I am not alone. We struggle with the art vs. artist issue most intensely with Michael Jackson. Is it hypocritical to make an exception for “Smooth Criminal”?
Ha, that’s good. By the way, many of the pop songs I know, I know because the King’s Singers have sung arrangements of them. That includes “And So It Goes,” a regular encore of the group in the United States.
In a recent Impromptus, I had an item about officiating in youth sports — it’s getting uglier and uglier. Not the officiating, but the abuse of officials by parents. Including physical abuse. Fewer and fewer people are willing to do the job. Who needs it?
A friend of mine writes,
I’ve been an official (baseball, basketball, lacrosse) for over ten years now, and we are experiencing the same issues in our region: abuse of officials, people quitting or not signing up. We are having to go with a single ump for some baseball games to avoid cancellation.
I have a theory about youth sports that may help explain the attitudes and actions of today’s parents. Youth sports has turned into a billion-dollar business, much of which is based on the completely false assumption that “my kid will get a college scholarship if he/she plays for X travel team,” and that assumption is cultivated by the coaches and companies that profit from selling that snake oil.
So, if you are a parent (perhaps prone to emotional and physical outbursts) who has spent tens of thousands of dollars trying to secure this mythical scholarship and your junior/senior son/daughter is not flooded with college offers, that frustration builds and suddenly it’s the umpire’s fault that you’ve wasted two years of tuition money on a pipe dream.
Or, maybe some people are just jackasses!
Yup. (I’m going with Door No. 2.)
A reader sends an email with the Subject heading “Politics and first base.” Interesting. He says,
Jay,
I was reading your comments about our national pastime of vicious politics — our side vs. their side; if we do it it’s good, if they do it it’s bad — and it reminded me of that timeless conceit in the game of baseball, when the home crowd roundly boos the visiting pitcher for checking the runner on first base, but then considers such checking essential when the home pitcher does the same in the bottom of the inning.
The difference? In baseball, it’s playful theater, and in politics, it’s deadly, humorless stuff.
Readers, I thank you. Again, today’s Impromptus is here.