In my Impromptus today, I begin with dirty tricksters — dirty tricksters in the political field. Two of the most famous, or notorious, are Dick Tuck and Donald Segretti. Those are excellent names for tricksters. (Some people think that “Dick Tuck” sounds like a surgical procedure.)
Some mail?
I have been writing about the old issue, the old problem, of “moral equivalence.” People make this error with regard to the Ukraine war and also with regard to this latest Gaza war. A reader sends in a quotation from Lincoln:
The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep’s throat, for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as his liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act as the destroyer of liberty. Plainly, the sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon a definition of liberty.
In an Impromptus earlier this week, I said I had good news and bad news for my fellow Michiganders. The good news: A wolverine was spotted, out in the wild! The bad news? It was not in our state, the Wolverine State, but in Idaho.
A reader says, in essence, “Oregon, too.” He quotes a paragraph from that state’s department of fish and wildlife:
In Oregon, Wolverines have been found on Three-fingered Jack in Linn County, on the Steens Mountains in Harney County, Broken Top Mountain in Deschutes County, and in the Eagle Cap Wilderness Area in the Wallowa Mountains of northeastern Oregon. More recently it was confirmed in Wallowa County, as well.
Speaking of Michigan (not Oregon, I realize), a reader, a Hoosier, sends me this snap from Mackinac Island:
I had a little post about Adam Fischer, with whom I recorded a podcast. He is a Hungarian conductor. A reader writes,
Jay,
. . . you mentioned Otto Klemperer as one of Fischer’s favorite conductors. You made me think of his son, the actor Werner, who was Colonel Klink on Hogan’s Heroes. You may remember one of the recurring jokes: He played the violin badly but thought he was a virtuoso. In reality, Werner Klemperer was quite good (like Jack Benny).
In an Impromptus, I published some pictures of Milwaukee, including a pic of my favorite sign in all of America: the sign at the airport, right after you get through screening. That signs says “Recombobulation Area.” Once you get discombobulated — taking your shoes off and so on — you have to be recombobulated.
A reader writes,
As a military contractor, I got screened flying out of a lot of Southern airports. I always considered the next phase Reconstruction.
My thanks to one and all readers and correspondents. Today’s Impromptus, again, is here. Later.