Archive for August, 2016

Sisters

sistersinbasement

In our old basement – 1970 or so? – in a house soon to be sold to a new family.

(Those old Polaroids can never be replaced.)

Mom

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Maureen Basil passed away yesterday. She was a brilliant and charismatic and artistic person and a surpassingly generous Mom. People who befriended her knew how lucky they were. She was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer the day before my Dad’s memorial service a few weeks ago. In her last days she was content and radiant and witty. The above photo was taken in Montreal about 40 years ago. The one below, a good deal earlier, I think! My parents truly adored one another.

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Satire and Critique

From the very smart libertarian blog “Hit and Run,” presented without comment, except to note that all’s well that ends well (if it does end well):

Last Thursday an Ohio jury acquitted Anthony Novak, a 27-year-old man whom Parma police arrested last spring for making fun of them. After hearing one day of testimony, the jurors unanimously concluded that Novak did not “disrupt public services,” a felony punishable by up to 18 months in prison, when he created a parody of the Parma Police Department’s Facebook page.

Novak’s fake Facebook page, which changed the department’s slogan from “We know crime” to “We no crime,” included a job notice saying that anyone who passed a “15 question multiple choice definition test followed by a hearing test” would be “be accepted as an officer” but that the department “is strongly encouraging minorities to not apply.” …

When they arrested Novak in March, Parma police complained that his jokes were “derogatory” and “inflammatory.” …

Novak plans to sue the police department and the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office for violating his First Amendment rights. … Elizabeth Bonham, staff attorney with the ACLU of Ohio, thinks Novak has a strong case. She told The Plain Dealer Novak’s actions were “so clearly protected by the First Amendment that the criminal proceedings shouldn’t have even come this far.”

Salut, Mayhew

I have been writing and publishing very little lately; profound family events seem to have taken most of my words away.

In a weird way, my friend Jonathan Mayhew has kind of stepped in, writing so much and so brilliantly that I would not have wanted to be writing anyway. No writer charms me so often or so well.

One of Jonathan’s current projects is a book on the pedagogy of poetry. He’s writing it on a private blog to which I’ve been invited. Ideally I will be providing helpful feedback, but until now mostly I have just been … amazed.