Did you know that Horatio Alger, whose rags-to-riches stories, full of preachy moralizing, are beloved by Republicans, was a sexual predator, expelled from the ministry for acts "too revolting to relate"? https://www.
Sunday, April 17, 2022
You may be aware of the cryptocurrency television commercial in which Larry David, in appropriate historical guise, is dismissive of a series of dramatic innovations, such as the wheel, toilets, and the lightbulb. I know the feeling. In 1976, I was asked to give technical advice to Jack S. Margolis, screenwriter and author ("A Child's Garden of Grass: The Official Handbook For Marijuana Users" and "Impotence Is Always Having To Say You're Sorry, and Other Questionable Insights"), who was interested in those emerging, newfangled desktop computers.
Jack lived in the Hollywood Hills and I was in the midst of my exile on the Left Coast, with more than seven years’ experience designing and programming business computers below the mainframe level. My successful installations included a perfume importer, a video tape production company, a medical clinic, a book publisher, and a men’s slacks manufacturer.
At that time, desktop computers were mostly in the hands of hobbyists, often built from kits. The Apple II, TRS-80 and Commodore Pet were introduced in 1977, a year after I did my research for Jack. The first retail computer store in the world seemed to be Computer Power & Light, Inc., founded in 1976 in Santa Monica. It sold Altair and Heath microcomputer kits, components and assembled devices.
After hanging out in the store and talking to its staff, I reported to Jack that the future of desktop computing was very limited. I had experienced the support demands of businesses with their in-house systems. I imagined that providing the handholding and troubleshooting required once computers appeared in ordinary households would exceed the population of our continent. Stay away, I told Jack and took that advice for myself. I showed them.
Monday, April 18, 2022
I came across this compilation of thoughts on whether authors should write about what they know, avoiding things outside their experience.
https://lithub.com/should-you-
There is no agreement, but I align with Kazuo Ishiguro, author of "The Remains of the Day." "'Write about what you know' is . . . the reverse of firing the imagination and potential of writers.” Today, reaching beyond your experience or your identity is often treated as more than a critical issue, but as a moral offense. For instance, "A White Author’s Book About Black Feminism Was Pulled After a Social Media Outcry." https://www.nytimes.
From what I can glean from this article, the book may have had serious deficiencies, but the author's identity itself was dispositive. Wouldn’t it have been sufficient to examine the book, once published, on its (de)merits? Must authors prequalify by matching their identity to their subject?
These days you can be left or right to be wrong about censorship. In 2020, “after complaints from students and parents that the depictions of racism and language in these works — particularly the use of the N-word — caused harm to Black students,” the Burbank (California) Unified School District removed five classic novels from mandatory reading lists in the city’s classrooms: “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain; “Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry” by Mildred D. Taylor; “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee; and “The Cay” by Theodore Taylor and “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck."
Of course, whatever California can do, Florida can do better. “The Florida Department of Education announced Friday [April 15, 2022] that it has rejected more than 50 math textbooks because they included nation-destroying concepts like ‘Critical Race Theory’ and ‘Social Emotional Learning.’” https://autos.
The Sunshine State didn't pussy-foot. "It is unfortunate that several publishers, especially at the elementary school grade levels, have ignored this clear communication and have attempted to slip rebranded instructional materials based on Common Core Standards into Florida’s classrooms, while others have included prohibited and divisive concepts such as the tenants [sic] of CRT or other unsolicited strategies of indoctrination – despite FDOE’s prior notification." https://www.
The criticism of students' reading material from all sides typically asserts the need to protect students from feeling bad. For instance, a Republican-sponsored bill in Connecticut "would prohibit public schools from teaching 'divisive concepts' and content that makes 'any individual feel discomfort, guilt, anguish or any other form of psychological distress on account of the individual’s race or sex.'” https://www.courant.com/
All I can say is that if I could have been spared feeling bad growing up, it would have added years to my childhood.
Wednesday, April 20, 2022
Clue 46 Down - More than right
. . .
I am not able personally to verify this list of the Holy Land’s best hamburgers, but it was delicious reading it. https://www.theinfatuation.
. . .
Diet Coke is my beverage of choice with hamburgers, but that might be explained by this finding. "Here we report that when rats were allowed to choose
mutually-exclusively between water sweetened with saccharin -- an intense
calorie-free sweetener -- and intravenous cocaine -- a highly addictive
and harmful substance -- the large majority of animals (94%) preferred
the sweet taste of saccharin."
Friday, April 22, 2022
The Forward, the leading Yiddish language newspaper in the United States, began publication 125 years ago today. Mazel tov!
Speaking of The Forward, I enjoyed this article about the Utah Jazz of the National Basketball Association using "Have Nagila" as its victory song. https://forward.com/fast-
It is estimated that Jews make up 0.2% of Utah’s population. https://www.
Inevitably, the reporter was able to locate someone sufficiently lacking a sense of irony to object to this alleged cultural appropriation. What is ignored is the real cultural appropriation, the very name of the team, the Utah Jazz. Utah has high mountains, polite people, but it is the unjazziest place in the Western Hemisphere. With apologies to Stan Getz, Gerry Mulligan and Benny Goodman, among others, jazz is properly associated with African Americans, who make up 1.5% of the state's population. The name came with the team relocating from New Orleans, where it fit like a glove, and, if I were the King, it would have stayed there.
. . .
Answer = OBTUSE
April 20, 2022 46Down -- It was acute answer, wasn't it?
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