17 Comments
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Ellen Kolb's avatar

You have at least one reader (me) who is not well-versed in the types of music you often review and mention in your wide-ranging posts. Thank you for including such material, even after your necessary coverage of grimmer topics. Exposure to broader forms of beauty makes my day.

Dave Ouzounian's avatar

The Black Tom explosion during WWI gave me some insight on US enemy alien worries in WWII. FDR, assistant secretary of the navy during the Wilson administration, told John Jay McCloy, assistant secretary of war during WWII, “We don’t want any more Black Tom’s.”

(My wife’s grandfather was first generation German. He fought for the US in Germany, and brought back a garden spigot from Wolf's Lair as a souvenir.)

Neural Foundry's avatar

Brilliant piece on honor being tested when legitimacy collapses. The Japanese-American soldier story captures somethng we've kinda lost: serving a nation tht simultaneously labels you enemy. Back in college I had a prof who framed this exact paradox as civic courage, not blind patriotism. Fighting when everyone backs you is one thing, showing up when the system calls you alien is entirely another.

Connor Dinnison's avatar

Surely a "peace board" with a Putin and a Lukashenko is no more Orwellian than a UN Security Council with a China, a Russia, a Congo and a Somalia, no?

bill walsh's avatar

Jay, if you could curse Œdipally with the élan of Sam Jackson, you too would be rolling in it.

Jay Nordlinger's avatar

Don't undersell me, my friend ...

Dave Ouzounian's avatar

Jay you Naughty Boy!

CynthiaW's avatar

"I think there are few issues more important than drug abuse."

Do you think there are few issues more important *to the President of the United States*, or even to the Federal government more generally, than drug abuse?

Al Saibini's avatar

My dad's father was an enemy alien (Italian) during WWII.

While my dad was serving in Burma and my uncle in the South Pacific.

Irwin and Cita Stelzer's avatar

From an old New Yorker: great photos! Thanks. Still considering an answer to your prior posting: "what do i want to learn, even at an advanced age?" Wigmore Hall is 125 this year! I was on their Board for a decade and started American Friends of WH: great times!

Jay Nordlinger's avatar

Magnificent!

Randall Briggs's avatar

"They believe that Putin is some guardian of Christian civilization, and he has to pummel Ukraine because Jesus or something. Really, there are such people."

Yes, we have such people. They also believe that Donald Trump has to pummel blue-state America because of Jesus or something.

Carol S.'s avatar

Christianity stripped of ethics is big these days.

TP's avatar

Jay, you are worthy of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. I will start calling around to see if any prior winner wishes to gift or bequeath theirs to you.

Laszlo Korossy's avatar

My first guess for the opera was Death of Klinghoffer.

Jay Nordlinger's avatar

That was a good guess.