Persnickety

My favorite movie, a movie I believe to be a perfect gem, is The Third Man . There are many wonderful lines in that movie, both by the author, Graham Greene, and by that genius Orson Welles. But the line I choose to be my favorite is from Dr. Zhivago, a line that I must have heard many times yet when I hear it again I will weep again. General Yevgraf—Yuri’s half brother—is attempting to convince young Tanya Komarova (listed as “The Girl” in IMDB casting, played by Rita Tushingham) that she is the long sought after daughter of Yuri and Lara. There’s no proof, but the general tells her to consider the tale he has told her and that she should think it all over. She leaves along with her boyfriend. Tanya walks away, beneath the floor above where Yevgraf watches her. As she slings a balalaika over her shoulder he notes it and asks if she plays. “Does she play? She’s an artist!” the boyfriend exclaims. The general hears this and smiles, knowing exactly what it portends: “Ah. Then it’s a...

After a Trump Victory in 2020, How Would I React? With resignation. Allow me to explain. Resignation may be applied to someone who takes an unfortunate circumstance with grace and decorum, or if not with that level of charitableness, then at least a simple stoicism. I do not mean that. I mean the other definition: the act of giving up one’s position. If Trump and the Republicans win the Senate once again, the country will officially be a failed experiment. The American Empire will be over. We will have imploded, blown ourselves up from within, and not with a bang but a whimper, as Eliot said. The climate will then be well over the tipping point of no return. Our grand-kids will be doomed…humanity itself will have set the alarm to some centuries further on. And so there won’t be a whole lot to do anymore. We can—many will, no doubt—gnash our teeth, fulminate, march, and so on, but it will have been a case of too little, too late. They might as well save the wear and tear on t...