MarkFord
In the mid-1990s, the wild population of the world’s rarest bird, a blue-gray parrot called the Spix’s macaw, dwindled to just one. Two decades later, conservationists are attempting to release Spix’s macaws from captivity and reintroduce them to the wild. Click here.
Athens, Greece
In Athens, we’ve been staying at the King George Hotel, which is next door to the Grande Bretagne, and just a bit more affordable. But because both are part of the same luxury hotel franchise, we get to use the Bretagne’s restaurants, rooftop bar, and private cigar lounge.
We’re on the Placa, the central plaza in the heart of the city’s upscale shopping streets and nearby food markets and boutiques and galleries. I rarely buy anything when I’m traveling, but I like shopping. It’s a window into the similarities and differences of US and foreign cultures. So we’ve done a fair amount of that, along with visiting the de rigueur Parthenon, Acropolis, and other ancient ruins.
We also visited the National Museum, which I very much liked for the same reason: the view it affords of the similarities and differences between US, European, and Greek art during the 20th century.
Athens has hundreds of really great cafes, restaurants, and bars – traditional, continental, and au courant. Several nice (but not spectacular) parks and an amazing range of architecture. Plus super-friendly, hospitable, and helpful people. In many ways, it reminds me most of Rome, which is where we’ll be next.
“Politics is war without bloodshed; war is politics with bloodshed.” – Mao Zedong
Ersatz – from the German for “substitute” – describes something that is a poor imitation of something better. As I used it today: “It used to be easy to spot ersatz Rolexes. Like Cohiba wrappers, their faces bore minor typographical irregularities. They weighed less than the genuine watches. And they stopped working within a year.”
Ricky Gervais is a sometimes brilliant, often brave comedian. One of the few, along with Dave Chappelle, capable of staying brave and funny in the Orwellian social culture of today.
I didn’t know that The Office was his invention, based on working for seven years in an office. And prior to that, he was not a stand-up comedian, but a philosophy student.
Here he is at the beginning of his career with David Letterman. He’s so sweet and innocent. Yet his unique sense of humor is evident.
The Rising “Misery Index”
Last week, in an attempt to slow the economy without sending it into a recession, the Fed announced the biggest interest rate hike in 28 years. A recession is still likely. But even if we don’t fully enter into one, the outlook is dismal.
As you can see from the above chart, the “misery index” is rising dramatically. What’s the “misery index,” you ask? Developed by economist Arthur Okun in the 1970s, it’s an informal indicator of the economic well-being of a society. The higher the index, the worse the suffering.
The index is calculated by adding the unemployment rate to the inflation rate. A “normal” rate should be between 5.5 and 6.5. That’s based on the Fed’s target inflation rate of 2% and the 3.5% to 4.5% that is generally considered full employment. Right now, it’s closing in on 12.
The Start of a Tough New Economic Climate
You know things are getting tough when The Washington Post is willing to publish an editorial on the economy that makes good sense. Click here.
More About Long-Term COVID
In the June 3 issue, I wondered about the science supporting the existence of Long-Term COVID.
Is it really a medical condition? I was skeptical. And I still am. As I said, there is no empirical evidence that it exists independent of subjective accounts of various symptoms. I find it interesting that, in the past 12 months, JAMA, the CDC, and the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases have all reported that women are three times more likely than men to report most physical and all psychological symptoms. And the highest reporting came from men and women with a history of anxiety disorder.
The Immortal King Rao
By Vauhini Vara
384 pages
Published May 3, 2022 by W.W. Norton & Co.
The Immortal King Rao was The Mules’ book for June. The overriding conclusion was that nobody liked it. And absolutely nobody would recommend it to others. I was in Greece, so I couldn’t attend in person. But I sent in my comments:
“Glad to hear the results – that you all disliked it. I found it to be tedious and lacking any intellectual or literary merit.
“I read To Have and Have Not again this week. God, what a difference! I was reminded of Hemingway’s advice to wannabe writers: ‘All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence you know, and then go on from there.’
“I found no such sentences in The Immortal King Rao. In fact, I can’t recall a single worthy idea, natural action, or believable emotion in the entire book. Nothing that felt true to me. Like The Maid, [LINK TO 2/25]]this is fiction that is all pretense. That can only exist in the imagination of someone that has the luxury of spending her reading time on fantasy.”
The Plot
In an Indian village in the 1950s, a precocious child is born into a family of Dalits. (See “Interesting,” below.) King Rao will grow up to be the most accomplished tech CEO in the world and, eventually, the leader of a global, mega-corporation-led government.
With climate change raging, he raises his daughter, Athena, in secret (having injected her with genetic code that allows her to access the entire internet and also all his memories). After his death, she finds herself in prison, awaiting judgment by algorithm for a crime she insists she did not commit. While she waits, she writes a lengthy self-defense addressed to the shareholders of the mega-corporation.
Interesting: The Dalits
The Dalits (a.k.a. “untouchables”) are outcasts, members of the lowest social group in the Hindu caste system. It’s the name that members of the group gave themselves in the 1930s. (The word “dalit” means oppressed or broken.) Traditionally, they performed spiritually contaminating work that nobody else wanted to do – in particular, anything involving death.
Critical Reception
The book was almost universally praised. Why? I have no idea. A few examples:
* “The Immortal King Rao is a monumental achievement: beautiful and brilliant, heartbreaking and wise, but also pitiless, which may be controversial to list among its virtues but is in fact essential to its success.” (Justin Taylor, The New York Times)
* “An exacting writer of the digital age, Vara makes her debut with a trippy novel that marries the family saga with a biotech satire.” (Jessica Jacolbe, Vulture)
* “A brilliant and beautifully written book about capitalism and the patriarchy, about Dalit India and digital America, about family and love.” (Alex Preston, The Observer)
About Vauhini Vara
From a Dalit background, Vauhini Vara is a Canadian-born American journalist, fiction writer, and the former business editor of The New Yorker. She was a reporter for The Wall Street Journal for almost ten years, where she covered Silicon Valley and California politics. A recipient of the O. Henry Award for her fiction, she studied writing at Stanford University and the Iowa Writers Workshop. The Immortal King Rao is her first novel.
“Any idiot can face a crisis – it’s day to day living that wears you out.” – Anton Chekov
Re my comments on gun control legislation:
“Forget gun control. Start charging people $10 per bullet.” – AS
Why I keep doing what I do:
“I’ve come across your video about the power of one and I’m definitely going to implement it in every area of my business. Thank you for sharing.” – JO
The world is going broke and culture is degrading faster than living flesh in acid. But there are still small, usually overlooked, acts of individual service and selflessness that remind us of what human goodness can be.