Tuesday

24 January 2017

— a winter stillness upon the land

Good Morning All,

I’m trying to keep these natters short, honest! But sometimes I fail.

When Sputnik went up on the 4th of October in 1957 and people world wide were craning their necks skyward to watch the 23-inch silver ball gliding so silently through the stars, high school administrators all over America went into a collective pants-pissing panic. At my high school in Arlington, Mass., this included gutting the English Department budget so as to beef up the science department.

When Allen and I got to ninth grade in 1960, the teachers were still hauling dog-eared old novels down from the attic. On the downside, these included Ivanhoe, the sort of book that could singlehandedly kill off reading pleasure in entire classrooms. From page one, I agree with Mark Twain who detested Walter Scott so much he named a steamboat after him in Huck Finn and then sank it.

On the other hand, Miss Krastin gave us Silas Marner, which I enjoyed. The author, George Eliot, that same year provided me with one of the earliest quotes for my collection: "Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person; having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but to pour them all out, just as they are, chaff and grain together, knowing that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then, with a breath of kindness, blow the rest away.”

Or at least I thought that quote was from Eliot. It turns out Dinah Maria (Mulock) Craik wrote it in A Life for a Life, a novel little read today and with good reason. (Of course this was a disappointment for me. It seemed entirely unfair that some obscure writer would steal the words of a great writer by the simple expedient of writing them first.)

After that, Miss Krastin gave us Ethan Frome, my introduction to Edith Wharton, born on this day. It is a ghastly, wonderful novella that like The Scarlet Letter whispers of the darkest corners of the New England heart.

More people have reported! My friend Nas and his family were at the Washington March; Max and Judy’s kids marched, Kerry in Oakland and Dan in New York; Peace Corps friends Jenny in LA and John Underwood and his wife Renee in Washington. I’ve attached a couple of snaps.

Holly has provided info for two things you can do:

The first:

ACTION ITEM
Paul Ryan's office is conducting a phone poll, hoping to hear overwhelming opposition to the Affordable Care Act.
Here's how you can participate:
Call (202) 225-0600....
Press 2 to weigh in on the issue.
You'll hear a recording about the bill to repeal it, then Press 1 to support continuing the Affordable Healthcare Act (2 if you oppose).
It takes less than 2 minutes. It was very quick- please do it.

The Second, a petition calling for that liar’s liar, Sean Spicer, to resign:

https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/resign-3

Go Well and Stay Well,

Bhekaron