From a year ago or so – it is a really good conversation. I’m a huge Woody Allen fan, and have written about him on my website before (write his name in the search area if you want to see my previous posts about him). I especially admire his work ethic.
Truckers: Part Deux
As a follow-up to my post earlier, here is another viewpoint, another look at the protesters. And a really well-written, well-informed and worth-your-time one, at that.
Dry January
I decided to do “Dry January” this past month. I also decided to add potato chips to my list of banished foods for the first month of 2022. Significant Other and I had got into the habit, during the pandemic, of nightly wine with some snacks – usually highly-caloric snacks. Now, we never had more than a glass (or two), but still, when something becomes a daily habit or ritual, especially when it involves an addictive substance, it is probably a good idea to challenge it. Also, I wanted to lose some weight and give my arteries and organs a bit of a break to start the year, a “reset,” to use an over-used term. I had read numerous first-person columns about all of the great things that happened to other people when they signed up for however many “dry” days. You will feel better, look better and sleep better, I was told. Ha! Now, I have lost some weight, so I probably look a bit better and yes, weight loss is often a good feeling. But the thing I was most looking forward to – the sleeping better – never came to pass. I am still a terrible, restless and anxious sleeper. I can honestly say that, sans wine in my life I did not notice one wee iota of difference in my sleep patterns. So there goes some motivation for future wine-free months. That said, I do think I will forego nightly wine and keep potato chips to a minimum. The very good news is that I missed the junky food more than the wine. I was concerned the opposite would be the case, but after a couple of nights, I did not miss wine. I think habits are just that: habits. You replace them with another. I began having more herbal tea, sparkling water and diet gingerale than in previous months. I also partook of some alcohol-free wine. It was not bad, actually, but it did lack something…oh yeah, the thing that makes one’s shoulders go down apace.
Dry January: I give it seven out of a possible ten stars. Good to check one’s habits lest they become something more fiendish. But not the answer to all of one’s woes (real or imaginary).
Spotify Silliness
Protesters
I have been vaccinated and boosted. I am also someone with enough of a libertarian streak that I don’t mind debate about most matters, including vaccine mandates – in fact, I think it’s healthy to have such debates. But when protesters start behaving like this, one can only assume they are a bunch of unserious yahoos.
Update: I should add that I feel the same way about protesters on the left when they knock down statues of Sir John A. or Queen Victoria. Unserious yahoos. But, of course, they rarely get the sort of condemnation this current crowd is receiving.
Norm Geras: Uniqueness and Universality of the Holocaust
The late Norm Geras on the Holocaust and its importance, its evil, its place in history.
A response to those who try to trivialize, minimize and calibrate.
International Holocaust Remembrance Day
I posted this piece – from a few years ago, but sadly, the theme never goes away – on Medium. Also, a brief profile of Primo Levi below.
Burns Night
I have posted so often on this night – usually by including To a Mouse in the post. I love Burns’ understanding that we – humans and non-human animals – are fellow mortals. It is an understanding also apparent in this poem, from 1789.
The Wounded Hare
Inhuman man! curse on thy barb’rous art,
And blasted be thy murder-aiming eye;
May never pity soothe thee with a sigh,
Nor ever pleasure glad thy cruel heart!Go live, poor wand’rer of the wood and field!
The bitter little that of life remains:
No more the thickening brakes and verdant plains
To thee a home, or food, or pastime yield.Seek, mangled wretch, some place of wonted rest,
No more of rest, but now thy dying bed!
The sheltering rushes whistling o’er thy head,
The cold earth with thy bloody bosom prest.Perhaps a mother’s anguish adds its woe;
The playful pair crowd fondly by thy side;
Ah! helpless nurslings, who will now provide
That life a mother only can bestow!Oft as by winding Nith I, musing, wait
The sober eve, or hail the cheerful dawn,
I’ll miss thee sporting o’er the dewy lawn,
And curse the ruffian’s aim, and mourn thy hapless fate.
Snow
New Anne Frank Theory
I watched with interest the 60 Minutes segment about Anne Frank last Sunday. It was an investigation into finding out exactly who betrayed Anne Frank and the others hiding with her in the famous annex in Amsterdam. The researchers behind the quest came to a conclusion that, as this article says, seems full of conjecture and lacking in certainty and factual foundation, rather than the opposite.
“They came up with new information that needs to be investigated further, but there’s absolutely no basis for a conclusion,” said Ronald Leopold, the Anne Frank House’s executive director. He added that the museum would not be presenting the findings as fact, but perhaps as one of several theories, including others that have been considered over the years.
I am not opposed to speculation in these matters – sometimes, considered and educated guesses are all we have. But presenting it as something other than that is dangerous.