Brexit explained

Slightly worried as I ask myself just how much bigger this thing can get….

Well, I guess I’ll be losing a bunch of newsletter subscribers now, because I just posted one about Finnegans Wake.

I’m not a fan of Malcolm Gladwell but I will admit to having a good deal of sympathy for this attitude:

Nevertheless, I say, your writings may well prompt people to shift their attitudes and views, even their behaviour. In some cases, that would surely precipitate a shift in their political consciousness. “Would it?” he says, looking slightly alarmed. “If so, it wouldn’t be an ideological shift. There is nothing in this book, for instance, that is distinctively liberal or conservative, left or rightwing. It exists outside of that, by design. I don’t want this book to perceived as belonging to one political group or another. In fact, a lot of what I do is a function of my apoliticality. Because I am not looking for political answers, I am forced to search elsewhere. Plus, I don’t find people’s political motivations to be that definitive or that interesting.”

Fun fact: The Strawbs were the very first rock band I saw in concert, at the old Boutwell Auditorium in my home town of Birmingham (the one in Alabama, FYI). They were the opening act for Ten Years After. And thanks to the miracle of the internet, I have just learned that this happened on May 4, 1973, so I was fourteen. That was also, I believe, the first time I smoked pot — people were passing joints along the aisle throughout the whole show, so I fairly staggered out of the auditorium. I wonder what my grandma thought when she picked me up.

Likely passwords for Jack Dorsey’s Twitter account:

  • tweetman
  • bosstweet
  • jackdorsey
  • password
  • 1234567
  • byodinsbeard

“If the Free People are going to defeat Sauron, you need to let go of your elitist attitudes and choose someone who can appeal to the moderate orc vote. That’s why I support Saruman the White to lead the Council of the Wise.” — here

At The Pacey Winger, The King’s Speech. ⚽️

I think this essay by Eugene McCarragher gets at some vital elements of Ruskin’s thought that I neglected in my recent essay on the same man. I still believe that what I said is true and useful, but Gene tells other important truths I failed to tell.