Funny, with on-the-mark-observations about the imperfections of your various attempts (which I did think did still make real contributions anyway in each case). I liked the description of the Trump administration of "incompetent and treacherous." You broke ground on "a day late and a dollar short'; the official record there needs to be revised. You also picked up that specific Oklahoma theme, but I don't know if the beginning was really limited to that state. And I admit it was just in the last couple of years that I became aware just how Black Americans were regularly quoted in newspaper stories up to a certain point. Always good to get a reminder....Yes, like any writing that has its head above water, your Substack has succeeded in being a conversation for me.
Thanks, David. Some other subscribers also noted the real troubling way that story was written---clearly racist in tone, if not content, and speaks to the time and place when it was written. It's part of our checkered American history. Another reader exhorted me to read "James," by Percival Everett, which I will get to soon enough. Fascinating premise behind the book---paralleling/different take on Huck Finn.
I encountered this topic, broadly, in one of John McWhorter's books, I think "Talking Back, Talking Black." He tackles what Black dialect actually was in that time and the philosophical question of whether reporters had a duty to capture it even if audiences would make sport of Blacks from reading it. Nuanced stuff, certainly, and I could be completely missing the argument just relying on remembering the gist.
A whole can of worms, but I am certainly for reading "Huck Finn" in schools! I don't do so well with rural literature, so Huck Finn is not a favorite of mine, but it was considered the great American novel when I was in high school, and a book that did more to make people see the individual and penetrate stereotypes than any other. But there are new considerations now, and things have moved left, with very recent backlash, polarization, etc.
Excellent choice. I’m so knackered the whimsy and illustrations were all I could manage. Please don’t give up the regular posting. Do not feel required to deal with politics. However, the times you have touched on it have been heartening. We need strength, community weaving and we need the strength laughter gives us. Xxx
Thank you, Patti! Maybe I mix humor with politics. Sort of a "laugh since we'd otherwise cry" take on things. This latest debacle with the Signal/Hegseth situation.....I mean, what in the world? The best I could do as a journalist was get anonymous tips to my PO Box when I covered Cicero for the Trib (and those tips yielded some good stories)....and also, I had one public official who would meet me clandestinely to give me--get this--public records like the background materials of topics that were on the next day's municipal agenda. I shouldn't have had to skulk around to get it, but, well, this was Cicero (notorious corruption, dating back to Al Capone).
Thanks Matt for your Day Late Dollar short column.. A Very Welcome diversion!.. Reminded me of how much I enjoyed William Safire's NYT's 'On Language' column.. Loving words as you do, perhaps that theme could re-energize you going forward.. Keep Writing!!!
Thanks, Chris....I know you've encouraged me on that note before, and I may well pursue that a bit. In fact, I find myself using ellipses a lot...I mean, a WHOLE LOT (sorry about my Trumpian grammar THERE). I could write about ellipses...I mean, why not?
I vastly prefer the whimsical, the sports-related, the touching Brother Love series, basically anything but politics in your columns. First, I see enough politics everywhere else. Second, and more importantly, your tone is much more acid and spiteful in political columns. It's not the fun-loving guy who's willing to spit out statistics on whether or not 9 out of 10 dentists actually agree or talk all day about the reasons Boston should have won the '86 series. I like the columns from that guy much better.
Thanks, Keith. I appreciate your reading from the start of this journey....and your candid feedback here and other times. I don't like that other guy much, either---but I respect him. I think he'll elbow his way in from time to time, but I think it needs to have the more likeable guy's humor, and less of that spite you reference.
And i thought you were seeking to lose some weight a journey I am currently mid way through. I don't like the political wars we are experiencing both nationally, and locally. The vilification of Ravi is particularly disappointing but thats my perspective and I would suggest that you share your angst and frustration so you can move beyond it. Or do you think its counterproductive and best left as a sleeping dog?
Funny, with on-the-mark-observations about the imperfections of your various attempts (which I did think did still make real contributions anyway in each case). I liked the description of the Trump administration of "incompetent and treacherous." You broke ground on "a day late and a dollar short'; the official record there needs to be revised. You also picked up that specific Oklahoma theme, but I don't know if the beginning was really limited to that state. And I admit it was just in the last couple of years that I became aware just how Black Americans were regularly quoted in newspaper stories up to a certain point. Always good to get a reminder....Yes, like any writing that has its head above water, your Substack has succeeded in being a conversation for me.
Thanks, David. Some other subscribers also noted the real troubling way that story was written---clearly racist in tone, if not content, and speaks to the time and place when it was written. It's part of our checkered American history. Another reader exhorted me to read "James," by Percival Everett, which I will get to soon enough. Fascinating premise behind the book---paralleling/different take on Huck Finn.
I encountered this topic, broadly, in one of John McWhorter's books, I think "Talking Back, Talking Black." He tackles what Black dialect actually was in that time and the philosophical question of whether reporters had a duty to capture it even if audiences would make sport of Blacks from reading it. Nuanced stuff, certainly, and I could be completely missing the argument just relying on remembering the gist.
A whole can of worms, but I am certainly for reading "Huck Finn" in schools! I don't do so well with rural literature, so Huck Finn is not a favorite of mine, but it was considered the great American novel when I was in high school, and a book that did more to make people see the individual and penetrate stereotypes than any other. But there are new considerations now, and things have moved left, with very recent backlash, polarization, etc.
Excellent choice. I’m so knackered the whimsy and illustrations were all I could manage. Please don’t give up the regular posting. Do not feel required to deal with politics. However, the times you have touched on it have been heartening. We need strength, community weaving and we need the strength laughter gives us. Xxx
Thank you, Patti! Maybe I mix humor with politics. Sort of a "laugh since we'd otherwise cry" take on things. This latest debacle with the Signal/Hegseth situation.....I mean, what in the world? The best I could do as a journalist was get anonymous tips to my PO Box when I covered Cicero for the Trib (and those tips yielded some good stories)....and also, I had one public official who would meet me clandestinely to give me--get this--public records like the background materials of topics that were on the next day's municipal agenda. I shouldn't have had to skulk around to get it, but, well, this was Cicero (notorious corruption, dating back to Al Capone).
Thanks Matt for your Day Late Dollar short column.. A Very Welcome diversion!.. Reminded me of how much I enjoyed William Safire's NYT's 'On Language' column.. Loving words as you do, perhaps that theme could re-energize you going forward.. Keep Writing!!!
Thanks, Chris....I know you've encouraged me on that note before, and I may well pursue that a bit. In fact, I find myself using ellipses a lot...I mean, a WHOLE LOT (sorry about my Trumpian grammar THERE). I could write about ellipses...I mean, why not?
I vastly prefer the whimsical, the sports-related, the touching Brother Love series, basically anything but politics in your columns. First, I see enough politics everywhere else. Second, and more importantly, your tone is much more acid and spiteful in political columns. It's not the fun-loving guy who's willing to spit out statistics on whether or not 9 out of 10 dentists actually agree or talk all day about the reasons Boston should have won the '86 series. I like the columns from that guy much better.
Thanks, Keith. I appreciate your reading from the start of this journey....and your candid feedback here and other times. I don't like that other guy much, either---but I respect him. I think he'll elbow his way in from time to time, but I think it needs to have the more likeable guy's humor, and less of that spite you reference.
And i thought you were seeking to lose some weight a journey I am currently mid way through. I don't like the political wars we are experiencing both nationally, and locally. The vilification of Ravi is particularly disappointing but thats my perspective and I would suggest that you share your angst and frustration so you can move beyond it. Or do you think its counterproductive and best left as a sleeping dog?