“The Mathematical Power of Three Random Words”
At first I thought this was going to be a simple tip on how to create strong passwords that are easy to remember. It turned out to be a fascinating read on statistics and probabilities. Click here.
To Have and Have Not
By Ernest Hemingway
176 pages
First published Jan. 1, 1937 by Charles Scribner’s Sons
To Have and Have Not follows Harry Morgan, a fishing boat captain during the Great Depression who is forced by economic circumstances into running contraband between Cuba and Key West. Written sporadically between 1935 and 1937 as Hemingway traveled back and forth from Spain during the Spanish Civil War, the book was clearly influenced by the Marxist ideology he was exposed to at the time.
I read it as an antidote to Vauhini Vara’s The Immortal King Rao, the almost unbearable novel I reviewed on June 21. After suffering through her improbable plot, unbelievable characters, and purple prose, I needed something clean and straight. Like three fingers of Jose Cuervo Familia Reserva after a strawberry daiquiri.
To Have and Have Not is not one of Hemingway’s most appreciated novels. In fact, it was severely panned by J. Donald Adams in The New York Times:
“In spite of its frequent strength as narrative writing, To Have and Have Not is a novel distinctly inferior to A Farewell to Arms…. Mr. Hemingway’s record as a creative writer would be stronger if it had never been published.”
I wouldn’t argue that it was as good as A Farewell to Arms. But that’s not a fair comparison. To Have and Have Not is genre fiction. And as genre fiction, it is very good. For me, the plot is strong, as strong as Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon. And the dialog is rich, like the dialog of Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep. And the characters are wonderfully bad, like those in Jim Thompson’s The Killer Inside Me.
Interesting
The 1944 film starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall is only loosely based on the book. The story was switched to the underground French resistance during WWII because it was believed that Hemingway’s portrayal of Cuba’s government was in violation of President Roosevelt’s “Good Neighbor” policy toward Latin American countries.
The Amazing Genius of William Blake
The Ancient of Days (1827)
I studied William Blake as an undergraduate. His poetry was exactly what a young man of my interests needed. And then, when I was much older, I discovered the brilliant etchings of an artist by the same name. These two imaginative products couldn’t possibly have come from the same person! But I was wrong.
Click here to read a good piece from The Marginalia on the immense artistic accomplishment – and astonishing life – of William Blake.
“I consider myself to be an expert of sorts on retirement. Not because I’ve studied the subject, but because I’ve retired three times.” – Michael Masterson
Obstreperous – from the Latin for “to make a noise” – means boisterous and difficult to control. As I used it today: “When [the grandkids] are irritable and obstreperous, I leave them to K or their parents to deal with. They have no objection. And neither do I.”
Why I keep doing what I do:
“Your blog is, as is everything you write, absolutely terrific.” – BB
Re our ongoing discussion about Wokeness:
“[My] business professor… told a story about a businesswoman in Japan who traveled with an assistant who was a man who pretended to be the boss. A girl from the class got offended, saying the story was sexist. It was an international business course. He was just trying to give a look into another culture. I reached out to tell her that ‘I don’t believe he was intending to make a sexist comment.’ Too late, she complained and he was immediately fired, and I was labeled ‘a non-ally.’ That is the state of wokeness. The state of working as an employee for most businesses is similar. There is not a lot of conversation between the sides. Input, questions, or creative discussion is seen as a negative if it challenges entrenched beliefs.”– JG
Re what I said last week about the bad beginning of our recent trip to Greece:
“Think you were being too hard on yourself… the thief was the problem there.” – AD
“At least you fed some fish!” – SL
Re my July 11 review of Delicious:
“I thought Delicious was terrific! Loved when they were brainstorming what was to become a restaurant. When they were all set up, waiting for people to come, it brought back familiar feelings of anticipation, apprehension, and excitement from my early days in business.” – AS
Omeleto, a four-year-old YouTube channel, advertises itself as a “home for the next generation of great filmmakers.” The channel features a wide range of genres and even some notable celebrity cameos, including Maisie Williams, Amanda Seyfried, Nick Offerman, and the legendary Danny DeVito.
I’ve seen several of the short films on Omeleto already, and have become an enthusiastic viewer. Here’s a good example, a story about “how a man’s life begins to unravel when a chatting stranger disturbs his peace”…
Cultural Appropriation: Is It Really a Bad Thing?
Richard Hunt, an indigenous sculptor in Canada, is calling on federal authorities there to take action against foreign companies that are copying his carvings and selling them as authentic, native American Indian craft work.
Mr. Hunt has a good complaint. What these businesses are doing is wrong. It’s forgery, misleading advertising, and theft of his intellectual property. Hopefully, he will prevail.
Hunt referred to it as “cultural appropriation.”
Is it?
Cultural appropriation is a term that was first used in a 1945 essay on “Orientalism” by Arthur E. Christy. (Imagine using that title today!)
The term did not catch on until the mid-1980s, when it popped up as a minor tenet of the burgeoning critique of Western colonialism. In the 1990s and 2000s, it took root with leftist intellectuals. And in the last 10 years, it’s blossomed among the Woke communities, along with its more complicated post-modern siblings: identity theory and critical race theory.
Cultural appropriation is generally defined as the use of elements of one culture by members of another. That could make it synonymous with assimilation. But it’s distinguished from assimilation in that it applies to majority cultures appropriating elements of minority cultures, and not vice versa.
Cultural appropriation is considered a bad thing by most who talk about it. Their argument is that minority cultures have some sort of ownership rights over their historical and cultural traditions. These would include their music, art, dance, dress, fables, symbols, and even social behavior. And the term is applied to virtually any use of these cultural elements by people of the majority culture, regardless of whether the intent is defamatory or appreciative.
J.K. Rowling, for example, was accused of appropriating Native American spiritual beliefs, symbolism, and traditions by turning them into stereotypes and fantasy games in her web series History of Magic in North America. And Paul Simon was criticized for incorporating the sounds and themes of Mbaqanga, a genre of South African street music, into the music he composed for his Grammy-winning album Graceland.
The best-known crusade against cultural appropriation in the US is the long-standing effort to eradicate the use of Native American tribal names for sports teams. When this objection was first lodged, about 20 years ago, virtually nobody, including Native Americans, thought it made the least bit of sense. Everyone seemed to understand the difference between adopting cultural names or symbols that are meant to be positive and using names or symbols to denigrate.
Despite the absurdity of the objections to giving sports teams Native American names, the lobby was eventually successful. Today, only a handful of such names exist around the country. And only the Florida Seminoles have officially given permission to use theirs.
The US economy, or its sports industry or its culture generally, will not suffer from the extinction of Native American names. Nor will other industries and/or institutions suffer greatly from the elimination of images of Confederate generals or Abraham Lincoln, for that matter.
The primary initiative of the CJWs (Culture Justice Warriors) – to somehow restrict or regulate cultural appropriation generally – will never work because the human tendency towards it is too deeply a part of our cultural instincts and intelligence.
Cultural appropriation is as old as culture itself. Every culture that dominated another sooner or later appropriated elements of the minority culture. It happened when the ancient Greeks were conquering their neighbors. It happened when the Romans conquered the Greeks. It happened at the end of the Roman Empire, when the church relocated its headquarters to Constantinople. It happened during the 15th and 16th centuries, in the age of exploration and colonialization. And it has happened ever since, in many ways and forms.
In fact, it’s impossible to imagine what American culture, which has been appropriated all over the world since the beginning of the 20th century, would be without the appropriation of its minority cultures.
Cultural appropriation is natural. It is inevitable. It is part of human nature. It is unstoppable. Most importantly, it is good for the advancement of civilization.
The Swastika’s Original Meaning
The swastika is an ancient religious symbol. It has been used by Buddhists, Jains, Hindus, as well as many indigenous peoples to represent the sun and its life-giving energy.
In the 1930s, Adolf Hitler appropriated it and turned it into an emblem for the Nazi Party. But several groups, including the Coalition of Hindus of North America, are now working on reclaiming it and its original meaning as a symbol of prosperity and good fortune.
California’s Nutty Scheme to Reduce Inflation… Huh??
Governor Newsom has a new plan to help Californians deal with inflation. He’s going to do more of what caused inflation.
Working with Democrats in the state legislature, Newsom announced a plan to send out $11.5 billion in inflation “relief” funds. Under the plan, residents making up to $75,000 would receive $350 apiece and $350 per dependent, with a maximum of $1,050 per family. Individuals making up to $125,000 would get $250.
The Wall Street Journal calls Newsom’s payola “street money,” or “cash that politicians dole out in return for political support to get out the vote
Speaking of Kooky California Schemes…
Caution: This is probably a media prank. It seems hard to believe. But the report is that the state has banned travel by state employees to 24 states because, as AG Robert Bonta explained, “they are deemed unfriendly to transgender people.”
Decide for yourself whether this is real. Click here.
Do Liberals Really Support Affordable Housing?
My liberal friends support the concept of affordable housing. So do I. But there is a cost to it that some are not willing to pay. Click here for an interesting look at why so many liberal cities don’t have enough affordable housing.
The Rise of Gru and the Gentleminions
One of the biggest movies 4th of July weekend was Minions: The Rise of Gru. Ticket sales were nearly double the $65 million projections. A major reason for the movie’s success was a cult of teenage fans that attend performances dressed in suits and ties, applaud in unison, and then post videos of themselves on TikTok. As of July 6, there were more than 160,000 such postings.
Will social media memes like this bring teenagers back to movie theaters? Probably not. It’s almost impossible to engineer social media posts to go viral. But that doesn’t mean industry marketers won’t try.
Click here.