Monday, February 14, 2022

Althouse

Althouse

Here’s a place…

Posted: 13 Feb 2022 06:14 PM PST

… where you can talk about whatever you want. 

In "Index, A History of the," Dennis Duncan "gives a surprisingly vivid explanation of how the two foundations of the contemporary index — alphabetical order and pagination — themselves had to be invented."

Posted: 13 Feb 2022 03:32 PM PST

"Alphabetical order requires us to pay attention not to meaning but to spelling, ensuring it would stay rare through the Middle Ages, disdained as an arbitrary imposition that was 'the antithesis of reason.' As for numbering pages, the notion of something so 'ruthlessly disinterested' from the text — impertinently insisting on a number for every page, regardless of its tendency to cleave paragraphs, sentences, even words — made it an intrusion that took some getting used to; the number's allegiance wasn't to the argument or the story but to the physical book itself...."

From "A Smart, Playful Book About the Underappreciated Index/Dennis Duncan's entertaining and informative 'Index, A History of the' moves from the 13th-century origins of the form to the world of digital search engines" by Jennifer Szalai (NYT).

I'm going to buy this book when it's available, 2 days from now, and maybe you will too: "Index, A History of the: A Bookish Adventure from Medieval Manuscripts to the Digital Age." 

This is right up my alley! As proof of my intense interest, I remind you of this post of mine from last December, "The Order of Orders." Excerpt:

But I'm going to give alphabetical order credit for doing so much with so little. It's random, but agreed on, and insanely useful. 
Alphabetical order was first used in the 1st millennium BCE by Northwest Semitic scribes using the abjad system. However, a range of other methods of classifying and ordering material, including geographical, chronological, hierarchical and by category, were preferred over alphabetical order for centuries.

If I was going to make a Disney movie out of characters representing the different forms of order, I'd make alphabetical order the hero.

"Police largely cleared the self-styled and illegal 'Freedom Convoy' preventing access to a vital U.S.-Canada crossing on Sunday morning, arresting demonstrators and towing vehicles..."

Posted: 13 Feb 2022 09:29 AM PST

"... that had been blocking the road between Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit. But authorities were holding off on reopening the route amid concerns that demonstrators would return. 'Enforcement actions continue at the demonstration area with arrests being made. Vehicles being towed,' police in Windsor tweeted Sunday morning, urging people to avoid the area. Police said those arrested will be charged with mischief. 'There will be zero tolerance for illegal activity,' police said. Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens said in a statement that 'today our national economic crisis at the Ambassador Bridge came to an end.'... Elsewhere, protesters continued to block parts of Canada's capital, Ottawa, for the third consecutive weekend and staged disruptive blockades at other border crossings...."

WaPo reports.

"Peter Jackson’s Beatles doc in a nutshell... #comedy #fyp #thebeatles #getback" from benniball on TikTok.

Posted: 13 Feb 2022 09:01 AM PST

Start here. 

That's Part 1. If you like it, click the "up" arrow for Part 2, etc. You might need to have watched the 8-hour documentary to understand how good it is, but mere familiarity with The Beatles might be enough. 

I'll embed Part 1:

@benniball Peter Jackson's Beatles doc in a nutshell (pt. 1) #comedy #fyp #thebeatles #getback ♬ original sound - BENNY BALL

"I resolutely boycott the castrated version of 'Friends.'"

Posted: 13 Feb 2022 07:44 AM PST

Said someone on Chinese social media, quoted in "Chinese fans of 'Friends' angry after show re-released with censorship" (Reuters).

Neil Young is back on Spotify!

Posted: 13 Feb 2022 08:38 AM PST

 

Joni too: 

 

And David Crosby: 

"We pulled Trump off Twitter because of what he was spewing. Yet we are allowing music [with] displaying of guns, violence. We allow this to stay on the sites."

Posted: 13 Feb 2022 08:23 AM PST

"We are alarmed by the use of social media to really over-proliferate this violence in our communities. This is contributing to the violence that we are seeing all over the country. It one of the rivers we have to dam."

Said NY Mayor Eric Adams, quoted in "Eric Adams urges social media to ban 'drill' rap videos for promoting violence" (NY Post).

There are so many songs about violence, often sung from the point of view of a murderer. Indeed, the second one that sprang to my mind was from the sanctimonious promoter of censorship, Neil Young:

 

I don't know rap. Never heard of "drill rap" before just now. So I have no rap-focused opinion. But I oppose censorship, and I understand art well enough to make the distinction between the writer and the story told.

Down by the river I shot my baby/Down by the river/Dead, ooh/Shot her dead, ooh....

And what was the first song Althouse thought of? 

Actually, that's not from the point of view of the murderer. Lots of quotes from the murderer, but the singer takes the view of a distanced storyteller. 

Google sent me to the Johnny Cash version of the oft-sung old song, so it seems required that I quote Johnny's famous point-of-view-of-the-murderer song: "I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die."

It would be white privilege to leave that on Spotify while taking down the murder-focused tracks by black artists.

ADDED: The Johnny Cash version of "Frankie and Johnny" is a weirdly cleaned up story and not what came to my mind, though I love that clip (from some crazy movie). There are lots of versions of the song, which is based on a real murder, a woman shooting "her man." Search for it on Spotify right now and you'll get 82 different recordings — Elvis, Sam Cooke, Louis Armstrong, Jimmie Rodgers, Mae West, and on and on... even Lindsay Lohan:

 

And speaking of censorship, I will warn you to avert your eyes for the first 7 seconds of that video lest you see a Person Who Is Not to Be Seen.

He had no idea what happened
He was waving hello to God
He died from eating squirrel
And they laid him in the sun
He was her man, but he was doin' her wrong 

AND: The "crazy movie" where Johnny Cash sings "Frankie and Johnny" is "Hootenanny Hoot" (1963, "A television director from New York travels to Missouri and learns about the hootenanny craze; he works to telecast a production of the event while his ex-wife works to win him back"). Watch the trailer here.

"Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign paid an internet company to 'infiltrate' servers at Trump Tower and the White House in order to link Donald Trump to Russia, a bombshell new legal filing alleges...."

Posted: 13 Feb 2022 07:33 AM PST

"Special Counsel John Durham filed a motion related to potential conflicts of interests in connection with the case of Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann, who is charged with lying to the feds.... Sussmann allegedly told the FBI he was not working on behalf of Clinton when he presented the agency with documents that supposedly linked the Trump Organization to a Kremlin-tied bank two months before the election.... Durham's motion reportedly alleged Sussmann 'had assembled and conveyed the allegations to the FBI on behalf of at least two specific clients, including a technology executive (Tech Executive 1) at a U.S.-based internet company (Internet Company 1) and the Clinton campaign.' Records showed he 'repeatedly billed the Clinton Campaign for his work on the Russian Bank-1 allegations,' which involved an investigative firm, a tech executive, cyber researchers and numerous employees at internet companies, the motion reportedly stated."

The NY Post reports.

ADDED:

Covid culture, year 3 — how Valentine's Day looks on the front page of the NYT.

Posted: 13 Feb 2022 07:08 AM PST

I just wanted to share this woeful screenshot from at the NYT:

Let's see... how depressing is this? 

1. "For Valentine's Day, Try Being Nice to Yourself/Sending love to others is easy. Being kind to yourself can be surprisingly difficult." This piece was originally published on Valentine's Day, 2019, so only the choice to resurrect it reflects the dreary spirit of 3-year-old Covid.

Use this short test developed by Dr. Neff to gain a snapshot of your own level of self-compassion. If you score low, commit to learning some self-compassion practices.... "You deserve your care and attention... Treat yourself to a delicious meal, a good book, a nice walk with a lovely view. As you would invest in the person you love, so you should invest in yourself."

2. "The Unbearable Heaviness of Clutter/A cluttered home can be a stressful home, researchers are learning." Another piece from 2019. Remember, pre-Covid, when clutter was the great plague? I can see from my Marie Kondo tag that I still blogged about her up through the end of 2020, so I guess staying at home in Year 1 overlapped with the exciting passion for de-cluttering. But it didn't carry over to Year 2, so is it ready for a comeback in Year 3? Instead of finding love out in the real world, we're supposed to keep staying home and putting ourselves — see #1, supra — and our homes in good order? Or maybe that relationship you think you want can be analogized to household clutter:

Dr. Saxbe agreed that a good way to declutter is to keep items out of the house in the first place. She urged shoppers to consider whether they truly need an item or if it will add to their home's sense of dysfunction. "Once it's in the house, it's really hard to deal with. You get attached to the things you own," she said.

Once it's in the house, it's really hard to deal with — see what I mean? 

3. Now, why is my eyelid twitching? This is an article from last December, and I can only think that the reason for re-elevating this issue on Valentine's Day weekend is to direct your attention away from that other body part that normally gets the attention — the heart. Why does my heart ache? No no no, why does your eyelid twitch?

At the Lakeside Café...

Posted: 12 Feb 2022 06:09 PM PST

IMG_9153 

... you can talk all night.
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