My first thought is that no one needs to be privy to magic or mystical messaging via animal livers or any other body part or gesture to see what’s happening and about to happen. “You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows,” as the man said. Still, it would be nice to see a few months or years ahead, to know whether and (if yes) how this country survives and the world order endures the damage inflicted by this crooked, stupid regime. Or not. Not knowing the worst may be necessary to get us through the worst.
I do have something good to offer you, a borrowed entry for the Ides of March by my friend Jayson Dobney in his continually engaging and often moving series, Musical Dialogues, pairing Phish’s tune “Julius” with the Mills Brothers’ “Julius Caesar.”
coming back peevish
Two things that annoy me:
In recipes, why don’t people put things in (empty) bowls and pans any more? No, they have to “add” them to pans and bowls. “Add flour to a bowl.” This is ridiculous. Fine, go ahead, if there’s something in the bowl already you can add something to (what’s in) the bowl. But you are not adding to the bowl! It’s not getting deeper! There’s no new handle on the pan! It’s like the word “put” has become alien. Even I, annoyed as I am, feel it. This is the peeve end of something that actually interests me, which is how recipe words have evolved. For example, we also don’t “take” things any longer. “Take your chicken” — nope. Nor, more obscurely, do we “seethe” or “strew.” “Seethe your chicken in broth with wine, turn it onto a platter and strew with parsley minced, then serve it up.”
Number two, if you’re making a video and there are a lot of words we can see, turn your picture right way around. Okay, I know, that’s hard. So how about (1) don’t wear a garment with words on it and (2) DON’T HOLD UP A BOOK YOU’RE SHOWING ME WITH THE TITLE BACKWARDS god damn it, and I’ll let all the books on your shelves go, maddening as I find their reversed writing, and the backward Jasper Johns flag postcard on the wall, and the backward map.