What are the chances?
Click here.
Putting My Editor’s Hat Back On…
I have spent a fair amount of time in my publishing career training, coaching, and editing new and developing writers. It’s an aspect of my work-life I very much enjoy because it is an intimate and earnest form of teaching. And it has pragmatic benefits, as well. If I do a good job, the writer becomes a stronger writer. As a stronger writer, he wins a larger and more loyal base of readers. As his readership grows, so do the revenues of our business. And that gives our readers a better product, our company larger revenues, and the person I’m coaching a more successful and lucrative career.
Philosophically, what I’m doing provides all three of life’s sustaining pleasures: I’m working productively on something I feel is important. He’s learning something that he thinks is important. And both of us are sharing important knowledge.
In less self-elevating terms, I like it because I’m confident I can do it well and because what I’m doing is appreciated by the person I’m coaching.
That’s all good and true for coaching new and developing writers. But what about a writer who has serious writing credentials? What about coaching a writer that, from an objective perspective, has all (or more) of the professional chops that I have? It can be intimidating!
I’m doing that now. I’ve been working with a very accomplished writer of newspaper and magazine essays and several bestselling books. He’s got more writing medals on his chest than I could claim, but he’s new to the sort of writing we do at Agora: newsletters.
Newsletter writing differs from other kinds in the two ways contained in the word “newsletter.” It is meant to convey some useful insight on economic and investment developments (news). And it is meant to do so in an informal and almost intimate manner (letter).
This particular writer is an expert in his subject matter: investing. In terms of knowledge of that field, he’s way ahead of me. He’s also very good at structuring an argument, telling a story, writing with personality, etc.
So, you would think that there is practically nothing I can teach him. Nothing I can do to help him advance in his new job as a newsletter writer. I wondered about that when I agreed to coach him. And yet, the relationship seems to be working. I’m quite confident that I’m making his writing better!
The icing on the cake is that we are both enjoying the process. As it turns out, as good a writer as he is, he recognizes the value in what I’m teaching him – the nuances that make newsletter writing unique and uniquely valuable to newsletter readers. And that fact makes my job so much easier. He “gets” my comments immediately and puts them into practice as well as (and sometimes better than) I could hope for.
Part of me fears that, in another month or so, I’ll have nothing left to give him. But I know that’s not true. I know, from this experience and from others, that a good writer – even a great writer – will almost always write better with a good editor.
Think about it. Almost every great writer I can think of had editors that greatly improved their work. And not just in the beginning. Throughout their careers. A few examples:
* Max Perkins and Thomas Wolfe
* Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot
* Max Brod and Franz Kafka
* Michael Pietsch and David Foster Wallace
Five New COVID Discoveries and Stories You Haven’t Heard About
Celebs dying! One of the COVID “conspiracy” newsletters I read occasionally is dedicated to keeping the public on top of the young actors, athletes, and other celebrities that have been mysteriously dying since the introduction of the mRNA vaccines. Matthew Perry (54) and Tyler Christopher (54) are just two of the more than 50 recent cases they’ve reported on so far. Click here.
Remember the ventilators? They were considered lifesavers in the early days of COVID. Now pretty much everyone knows that they did not save lives. In fact, there is good evidence that they made things worse, damaging heart tissue and elevating death rates. Here, Joe Rogan and Elon Musk talk about it.
Worrisome findings from two studies. One from Harvard, which found mRNA stuck in the hearts of people who died following COVID-19 injections, and a human cardiac PET study showing that positron emission tomography scans of the heart changed in almost everybody who took the shot. Click here.
Neurological complications. According to a recent study published in the journal Vaccines, almost one-third of individuals who received a COVID-19 vaccine suffered from neurological complications such as tremors, insomnia, and muscle spasms. Click here.
Was Trump, the blowhard, right? Ivermectin, the drug once called “horse de-wormer,” has been shown to be effective against COVID-19, as well as flu and RSV. And if that were not enough, it’s said to have cancer-fighting properties. Click here for five facts you should know.
Quick Bites: Cats vs. Dogs… About the “Shema”… A Debate at the Fed… Smuggling Migrants… Swederland?
Oro, a Golden Retriever K and I occasionally care for, has a very expressive face. He has, in fact, at least a dozen distinct expressions that I can recognize. There is my favorite, his “My god! I’m so happy to see you again!” face, his “You caught me, I’m sorry” face, his “I’m hungry” face, and his, “I’m serious. I’m really hungry!” face. I’ve always thought that one of the reasons dogs are more popular than cats as pets is that cats have only two facial expressions: “I’m furious” and “I’m bored.” Turns out I was wrong. Very wrong. Click here.
I had no idea. After watching the video of the young boy singing the “Shema Yisrael” prayer in the Nov. 7 issue, CM sent in this fascinating background information on it.
Does strong growth fuel inflation? From Nick Timiraos, writing in the WSJ, a good, short, illustrated essay about one of the oldest economic debates. Click here.
Smuggling migrants toward the US is a booming business – and a source of income in areas where high-paying jobs are scarce. Click here.
Sweden makes it clear that it is not, in fact, Switzerland. Click here.
Re the Nov. 7 issue…
From BJ: “I read your blog today and see that you think culture is the foundation of our world. I couldn’t agree more. We care more about culture than we do about money, politics, religion, or anything I can think of. Our culture is where we go to feel something. And that’s the most human thing we do. I’ve been struck by the reaction of people of all ages to the release of a new Beatles song. Basically, AI was used to separate John Lennon’s voice from his piano, and then images, notes, and videos, past and present, were spliced together to finish a song started five decades ago. Lots of people don’t care for the Beatles, and perhaps they are overrated. But there is no denying the roles they played in our culture over 60 years in terms of hair and clothing styles, politics, freedom, equality, and, of course, music.”
My Response: Thanks, BJ. Yes, it’s almost impossible to overstate the influence that the Beatles had. One band of four musicians, during such a short span of time.
From PN: “To give you credit, it’s starting to look a lot more like Biden will not be the Democratic presidential candidate. Just in the last few days, I have heard some prominent Democrats call for him to step aside as a 2024 candidate. I think this will gain traction. And the poll results showing Trump beating Biden in five of the six swing states certainly doesn’t help Biden’s case. In fact, polling also shows that almost every Republican candidate would beat Biden. Biden doesn’t have much time to act if he wants to give a new candidate a chance to be on the ballot, raise money, etc. The question is how do the Dems elegantly get rid of Kamala? The other question is, of course, who will be the candidate? Newsom? Dean Phillips announced he is running. This indicates another crack in the armor for Biden. Bottom line: I think you’re right. Biden won’t run.”
“And You, Helen”
A poem about war by a British writer that fought and died in WWI, selected and read by the great Douglas Murray. Click here.
Connecting the Dots:
Things I’ve Been Thinking About Lately
This is a new column that I’ll be including once every week or two. As you can see below, it’s going to be a listicle of things that have been on my mind. Thoughts I find myself coming back to repeatedly. Ideas I’d like to write about, but, for the moment, don’t have the time to dig into and/or expand into a proper essay. So, rather than add them to my ever-expanding “to do” list, I’m going to mention them briefly and solicit your help in turning these ideas into essays by asking you to send me, if you have them, your thoughts or questions about them.
Freedom and Equality. I am beginning to see every significant political, social, and economic conflict today as a contest between two core values: freedom and equality. This includes disagreements about such otherwise unconnected controversies as racism and CRT, sexism and the pay gap, trans rights vs. transphobia, and socialism vs. capitalism. To name just a few. Think about any current issue. For example, the expanding gap, even in developed countries, between the rich and the poor. It can’t be fully understood unless examined through this perspective. Try it and let me know if you agree.
Sam Bankman-Fried. I’ve not had any special interest in this story. Scammers abound in the financial world. So, I’ve always been perfectly willing to believe that this fat-faced kid was a sleezy, unscrupulous dirtbag. But when I read about the verdict – that he was convicted of seven counts of wire fraud, securities fraud, and money laundering, and was facing 110 years in jail – it gave me pause. I know from experience that these three “crimes” are not, in and of themselves, descriptions of actual criminal behavior. Like RICO, they are only crimes when they are attached to actual crimes. I can’t prove this now, but I’m pretty sure they are technicalities that were invented by lawmakers years ago to put bad guys – mobsters and drug dealers – in jail for crimes the Feds could not prove. Do you see what I’m getting at?
Culture Is Everything. This is a big theme for me. I’ve wanted to write a book about it for at least 10 years. If you are a regular reader, you know that I’ve touched on it in past books and essays. But I don’t know that I’ve ever stated it clearly as a thesis. The idea is that culture – not wealth, or nationality, or race, or ethnicity, or religion – is what unites and, more importantly, divides us all. Like the conflict between freedom and equality, it lies beneath so many social and political conflicts – from war and peace, to wealth and poverty, to the most notable examples of human achievement and failure. Also like the freedom/equality conflict, unless you understand how deeply cultural ideas and values permeate everything we think, say, and do, it’s impossible to make sense of the world. It’s going to be a challenge to develop this idea, but I’m very motivated to work on it. Because so far at least, I can’t think of anything important happening in the world today (or in history) that doesn’t have culture at its foundation. I’m going to push forward on this idea. If you like what I’m doing, you can help me flesh it out with examples from your own experience and observations.
How to Understand Modern Art. Learning about art used to be like learning about any academic subject. You read books written by people who had read earlier books written by earlier people who had ideas about it. Most of those ideas had to do with how one school or style of art was developed and then went on to influence another school or style. Essentially, art appreciation was art history. And that worked well until the late 19th century, because virtually all art produced until then was representational. But when some artists started experimenting with expressionism and abstraction and eventually “found objects” and performance, it changed everything. Art became both incomprehensible and inexplicable, which could have ended it. But thanks to some very clever intellectuals, art, like physics, was reinvented for the modern world.
Recent Notable Reactions to the Israel/Hamas War
“It wasn’t the rallies with ‘Keep the World Clean’ posters and chants of ‘gas the Jews.’ Nor was it the glorification of Hamas paragliders by the Chicago branch of Black Lives Matter or, in New York and London, the tearing down of posters with the faces of Israeli children held hostage by Hamas. Not even the off-the-charts uptick in antisemitic incidents in Germany (240%), the United Kingdom (641%), and the United States (nearly 400%) convinced me.
“It was, rather one of those realizations that so many generations of Jews before me have experienced. A realization that they, like me, surely tried to push out of their minds until the reality became unmistakable.” (Michael Oren, writing in the Oct. 26 issue of The Free Press). Read more of Oren’s essay here.
American Jews make up 2.4% of the US population. And yet, according to the FBI, they have been, for many years, the targets of 60% of hate crimes. It’s much worse now, with mass protests where people chant “from the river to the sea” (i.e., wipe Israel off the face of the earth) and shout threats against Jewish students locked in university rooms. The percentage has got to be over 80% now. And what is the Biden administration doing about it? They’ve asked Kamala to head up the “first ever US National Strategy to Counter Islamophobia”! Click here.
Learn your history, kids. One of the arguments we’ve been hearing about Israel vs. Hamas concerns which group has “ancestral” rights to the disputed land. Here is a definitive history of the argument from a self-described “proud” Arab.
So much is lost – or distorted – in reporting the facts. Click here for a call to journalists reporting on the war.
After reading so much about the Israeli-Hamas war, I’ve been feeling a sort of ennui composed of dread and despair. But when I saw this video, it gave me – somehow – a very different feeling. It is a young boy singing. That is really all it is. But it is beautiful, and I found it soothing and almost inspirational.
Quick Bites: Abe Lincoln’s Beard… 690 New Words… Gaga!… the Latest from Freddie DeBoer… and WS Merwin’s Garden
Thought to be the last beardless photo of Abraham Lincoln, taken in 1860
The little girl that changed Abe Lincoln’s mind: On October 15, 1860, Grace Beddel, an 11-year-old girl, having just been shown a photo by her father of presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln, sent him a note, saying that if he was willing to grow some whiskers, she would recommend him to her friends. To her amazement and delight, Lincoln replied. She met him in person a few months later, as he traveled victoriously to Washington, DC, by train. And he now had a beard. Years later, she recalled that he “climbed down and sat down with me on the edge of the station platform and said, ‘Look at my whiskers. I have been growing them for you.’ Then he kissed me. I never saw him again.” (Source: Letters of Note). Click here to read the note that Grace sent to Lincoln.
Words you’ll soon be using? Merriam-Webster recently made 690 additions to its dictionary, some of which I’ve heard before (and even used in this blog). Here are some that are (a) new to me and (b) sound like they will be useful in the future: generative AI, smishing, grammable, meme stock, and edgelord (which I’ve already been called by someone in my family). Click here for details.
Gaga for Gaga! In my 73 years, I’ve spent a total of maybe eight minutes looking at cosmetic advertising. But this morning, having a quick breakfast of eggs and bacon, I doubled that time by watching Lady Gaga sell her cosmetic line. Notice how the camera likes her. Notice how smartly she chooses her words and mentions ideas that appeal to her target audience. Like Madonna, there are about a dozen ways Lady Gaga is brilliant. Click here.
Once again, my favorite Communist making rational sense. One of these days, I’m going to get him to the Cigar Club for a chat. Click here.
WS Merwin was a poet I studied in college. It was only last year that I found out about his garden in Hawaii. Click here for a look at The Merwin Conservancy’s monthly newsletter.
From PN re the average net worth of American families in the Nov. 4 issue:
“I am so glad you pointed out that it is skewed by a small number of billionaires and multimillionaires. I thought it was irresponsible for the Fed to publish the average net worth instead of the median net worth, which would have been so much more informative (and less demoralizing to the great majority of Americans whose net worths are below $1 million).”
From AS re the age of the moon in the Oct. 27 issue:
“I read about the age of the moon increasing by 40 million years. I didn’t think much of it even though I generally love those things. When I saw it in your blog, I had to say it meant very little to me. It sounds like a long time. But it only comes to 1.555555555% older. That’s nothing when you’re talking about 4.43 billion years.”
My Response: That’s exactly how I felt. I probably should have added the math you did and said something like, “Someone tell me: Why is this important?”