Archive for new day
On the Way
It has been slim pickings around here of late, but my topic-composition sheet for basil.CA has never been longer. Lately I have been reading like crazy (Paul Bowles, H.L Mencken, H. L. Mencken’s really talented biographer Fred Hobson, Jessica Mitford, guilty-pleasure memoirs, Rumi, children’s books, Terry Tempest Williams, Oliver Sacks, graphic novels, sedulous bloggers, anarchist zines, old copies of The New York Review of Books, and emails from friends and family), biking hard most every day, preparing for my fall courses (including one I’ve not taught before), and spending time with people I dearly like.
More prose is on its way …
I believe I will miss it:
Swearing.
From the time my mother washed my mouth out with soap – I must have been in first grade or so – until my late teen years, I used no foul language whatsoever. (I did, however, once “make an obscene gesture” to my sixth grade teacher, giving her the finger, god knows why, as I left the school building one day. My Dad asked me whether I knew what “obscene” meant. Of course I lied and said no.)
At any rate, now I swear all the time: alone and in company. I cringe when I do, though, which means that I don’t get that surge of pleasure so savoured by the swearing sort.
So: the habit has got to go.
Ta-ta!
(To answer your question: It began with a “c.”)
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A good whine
Unless they mean it humorously, when people utter this phrase – “but I’m not complaining” – they are *always* complaining; i.e., they are expressing “pain, grief, or discontent.” What these sad and/or irritated individuals mean to say is this: “But I’m not whining.” That is, they are not complaining in a petulant, feeble, long-lasting, or high-pitched manner. Nonetheless, they *are* whining, usually, despite their protests of innocence, aren’t they?
Imperfect Wisdom
My least favourite maxim of all time most certainly belongs to George Santayana: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Its banal ubiquity has not increased its charm any. Remembering the past is usually a necessarily step to repeating it. Historical records of religious and clannish rivalries, confidence games and marital treacheries, and tragic hubris and the rest of it are no doubt worth remembering, but not for any contraceptive function.
Detecting BS
I was delighted when Professor Harry Frankfurt of Princeton University published On Bullshit, because that book gave me cover to teach a module on the subject to my university students. My short definition of bullshit: language a person uses to hide that person’s real intention. Bullshit can be a lie, or the truth … or something else all together, like “changing the subject.”
A scenario to explain what I mean: A teenage boy has been out smoking pot with his friends. His mother confronts him when he comes home: “Have you been smoking pot, son?” The teen has many options to BS and thus hide his real intention, which is to make it up to his room without getting “busted.”
The (incomplete) truth: “Nothing to worry about. I was in a car that some of my friends had been smoking pot in.”
The lie: “Of course not. I always listen to my Mom.”
Changing the subject: “How could you ask me that question, when you know how important your belief in me is to my fragile self esteem?”
I have seen each of these options work nicely.
I love Jonathan Mayhew’s dissections of bad scholarly prose. Sometimes the badness is the consequence of an attempt to bullshit. The intention that the authors of this prose often wish to hide: “I don’t want my reader to see that I haven’t thought through this argument or idea thoroughly.”
As a professional editor and a former communications consultant for publicly traded companies, I believe I’m a nifty bullshit-spotter, but only when I’m reading it – more specifically, when I am reading prose written by people who are not me. (Face to face, I’m hopeless. Why? A person’s physical confidence usually wins me over.)
I was a good deal older than I should have been when I finally figured out how to detect bullshit, if only sometimes, in *my own* prose. I’ll try to address that in a later post.
(originally posted on Stupid Motivational Tricks)
Buffalo
I recently had the happy opportunity to revisit the city in which I completed my undergraduate years and started my professional life as an editor. I doubt anything could entice me to leave Vancouver and British Columbia, but the fine old physical and historical beauty as well as the vibrant social character of Buffalo remain as appealing and wonderful as always. Even the fallen fields of the East Side retain a vivid dignity.
Bruce Lock
You were a trustworthy and shrewd partner in business, and a total gas in friendship. Even when we were tangling, you had my back. We made our deadlines, we made things happen, and here and there we made a little bit of money.
Long Sundays in summer, on The Sylvia’s patio, with beers and smokes, we said almost not a word, and we wasted not a moment, taking in the dimming of the day, with one another. I will grieve you, my friend. We all cherished you.
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Swing!
My old buddy Richard Chon and his Western Swing band The Saddle Cats played a wonderful show at the Ellensburg Western Festival on Saturday. The dance floor was packed all night. The band’s 2009 album “Herdin’ Cats” is filled with feeling and delight and sweet surprise. Richard tells me they are working on a second release.
The Home Team
Yesterday Kwantlen Polytechnic University was named one of British Columbia’s “top employers.” This is the seventh straight year my university has been so honoured.
It really is a great place to work. It’s a great place to learn, too.
Outlook TV in Whistler
My friends at Outlook TV are up in Whistler, BC this week covering the annual Winter Pride event. Judging from their Facebook updates, they are having a very good time.
Two of these friends, Jack Fox and Shayne Forster, who report for and help produce the show, recently announced they were taking a break from their T-Bodies project, after five years of publishing calendars and cards, as well as promoting and participating in events throughout the northwest. I was very proud and delighted to have worked with them over the years on many T-Bodies projects.
Outlook TV’s January edition is its best yet: “We have the Unstoppable Conni Smuge with Boy George & Marc Vedo, Francisco Valdiviezo learns about LEGIT, No Homophobes-Public Service Announcement from the Institute for Sexual Minority Studies and Services, Jozef Bosman checks in on the World OutGames, Fred Kamperman finds out about the Celebrities Night Club Renovations, a recap with Shayne Forster on the CWH Wellness Centre, Jack Fox gives us a sneak peek of WinterPRIDE, and Skyler Baier swims with the English Bay Swim Club.”
Support Brooklyn College …
… and academic freedom. Karen L. Gould, the president of Brooklyn College, is providing real leadership.
Mayor Bloomberg needs to step up on this one, too.
“Principles of Profanity”
“What would a theory of foul language look like?” Jonathan Mayhew does some beautiful brainstorming on the topic for you.
Practical Rhetoric
There are two claims you can make that your antagonist will typically corroborate without further ado: “You’re being defensive” and “You always have to have the last word.” A close friend adds this smart point.
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