JB Pritzker is a hypocrit on fearing groups ... he fears Republicans and has crushed the party into virtual non-existence. 45% of the state voted for Trump (not me) but only 3 of the 17 congressional seats are Republican, and the Dems have super majorities in each house. All this is bad, but the worse part is that the electoral hopelessness feeds the wackos on the Republican side making their candidates pathetic. It is modern day Jim Crow for 45% of the population.
Jay, I too am grimly gratified—and to borrow from Wodehouse, gruntled—that Trump’s gang of alleged Republicans and purported conservatives (they’re neither: they ae the real RINOs) was pummeled. Had they been actual conservatives, I’d be distressed; but they aren’t and I’m not. It’s regrettable a few good ones fell with them, and that so much of the platform of those who won is sheer poison: but chemo usually is, and if it cures the orange cancer…
Re recombobulation and sheveledness, the poem “Gloss“ by David McCord is worth visiting or even memorizing. It begins “I know a little man both ept and ert.“ The little man is then described as “Sheveled and couth and kempt, pecunious, ane …” May we all be ept, ert, and ane, even if we are not particularly pecunious.
East Texan here. I said to a fellow congregant at church this morning that, with the exception of a couple of local county court at law judges, I didn’t vote for anybody in this past midterm election, but I did vote against a whole bunch of others.
Regarding regional accents, their disappearance is a loss. I recently read about a man in the Golden Triangle (southeast Texas on the Gulf Coast next to Louisiana) who has formed a club for French Cajuns to get together and just speak in French Cajun. I’d love to sit in on a meeting and just listen. Apparently there are only about 150,000 or so French Cajun speakers left in Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, and Alabama.
'Regarding regional accents, their disappearance is a loss." Indeed. The older generation still has them because we can't unlearn them. The younger generation, we're told, not so much.
I volunteer in an English class in Ohio for refugees and immigrants. The teacher is from Texas, me from Rhode Island. We have a lot of fun with our regional accents. And it teaches a lesson to our students, from all over the world, that not all Americans sound the same.
I want to comment on the midterms, but from the perspective of a Canadian viewing from Canada.
I complimented a journalist who is Canadian this morning for an article he had written.
His name is Peter Menzies and he has a Substack page called The Rewrite.
“Peter brings up a really strong point about the Canadianization of U.S. News and politics: that is, once it is filtered through the Canadian lens, it no longer describes the subject, so much as it merely fits into the Canadian journalism industry’s preformed narratives. The notion that the Democratic wins in the House and the Senate are some kind of return to normality is just kookaroo.”
To far too many Canadian journalists, the midterm result meant the end of The Great Orange Ogre.
If one wants to know what is going on in the United States. I highly recommend sourcing an American journalist or publication, then forming one’s own perspective.
I would restrict ‘majority’ to the topic of voting. Countable things seems a bit loose to me. Spare me from ever again having to encounter ‘the majority of his face’.
JB Pritzker is a hypocrit on fearing groups ... he fears Republicans and has crushed the party into virtual non-existence. 45% of the state voted for Trump (not me) but only 3 of the 17 congressional seats are Republican, and the Dems have super majorities in each house. All this is bad, but the worse part is that the electoral hopelessness feeds the wackos on the Republican side making their candidates pathetic. It is modern day Jim Crow for 45% of the population.
Jay, your columns are (nearly) always refreshing and informative. Thank you!
Jay, I too am grimly gratified—and to borrow from Wodehouse, gruntled—that Trump’s gang of alleged Republicans and purported conservatives (they’re neither: they ae the real RINOs) was pummeled. Had they been actual conservatives, I’d be distressed; but they aren’t and I’m not. It’s regrettable a few good ones fell with them, and that so much of the platform of those who won is sheer poison: but chemo usually is, and if it cures the orange cancer…
👍
Re recombobulation and sheveledness, the poem “Gloss“ by David McCord is worth visiting or even memorizing. It begins “I know a little man both ept and ert.“ The little man is then described as “Sheveled and couth and kempt, pecunious, ane …” May we all be ept, ert, and ane, even if we are not particularly pecunious.
Wonderful! Thx, DT.
Count me among the "glumly glad". I support almost no Democratic Party policies, but felt it essential that the Trumpists be repudiated.
Not glad the Democrats won (in the aggregate) but glad the Republicans lost.
I love that phrase, "glumly glad." Both alliterative and perfect in meaning. It describes a lot of us right now.
Peggy Noonan was right when she said that if Republicans were going to lose, it was best that they lose big.
East Texan here. I said to a fellow congregant at church this morning that, with the exception of a couple of local county court at law judges, I didn’t vote for anybody in this past midterm election, but I did vote against a whole bunch of others.
Regarding regional accents, their disappearance is a loss. I recently read about a man in the Golden Triangle (southeast Texas on the Gulf Coast next to Louisiana) who has formed a club for French Cajuns to get together and just speak in French Cajun. I’d love to sit in on a meeting and just listen. Apparently there are only about 150,000 or so French Cajun speakers left in Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, and Alabama.
Wonderful, Mitch. Thx.
'Regarding regional accents, their disappearance is a loss." Indeed. The older generation still has them because we can't unlearn them. The younger generation, we're told, not so much.
I volunteer in an English class in Ohio for refugees and immigrants. The teacher is from Texas, me from Rhode Island. We have a lot of fun with our regional accents. And it teaches a lesson to our students, from all over the world, that not all Americans sound the same.
Great!
I want to comment on the midterms, but from the perspective of a Canadian viewing from Canada.
I complimented a journalist who is Canadian this morning for an article he had written.
His name is Peter Menzies and he has a Substack page called The Rewrite.
“Peter brings up a really strong point about the Canadianization of U.S. News and politics: that is, once it is filtered through the Canadian lens, it no longer describes the subject, so much as it merely fits into the Canadian journalism industry’s preformed narratives. The notion that the Democratic wins in the House and the Senate are some kind of return to normality is just kookaroo.”
To far too many Canadian journalists, the midterm result meant the end of The Great Orange Ogre.
If one wants to know what is going on in the United States. I highly recommend sourcing an American journalist or publication, then forming one’s own perspective.
Call me a gleeful glutton. Will be an interesting couple of years.
I would restrict ‘majority’ to the topic of voting. Countable things seems a bit loose to me. Spare me from ever again having to encounter ‘the majority of his face’.
Jay: as a Republican Texan, after the elections, I need to be "Recombobulated!" 🤔👍
Good one!
I briefly went to graduate school at the University of Rochester. The Yellowjackets, if I recall.
In my class there was a young man from Boston.
One of my life rules was “fahrmed” that day: don’t get drunk with a guy from Baaaahston if you need to know what he has to say.
👍🤣🤣