Why Was a Grim Report on Police-Involved Deaths Never Released? NYT
The FBI Used Its Most Advanced Spy Plane To Watch Black Lives Matter Protests Buzzfeed
How America’s Wars in Asia Militarized the Police at Home The Diplomat
The New York Times Critics Notebook, Dwight Garner – “Before the telephone wounded them and email administered the death blow, handwritten letters were useful: They let you know who the crazies were. A lunatic’s barbed wire script would lurch in circles across the page, like a fly with a missing wing. No longer. On Twitter and Gmail and Facebook and elsewhere, the justified left- and right-hand margins can temper a lot of brewing delirium. That’s one reason I miss correspondence. A more essential reason is that, perhaps like you during these months under quarantine, I’ve rarely felt so isolated.
The Privilege Implications of Using Online Collaboration Tools - Law360: “In February, the world as we knew it was a very different place. The stock market was posting historic highs, unemployment was at record lows, and American businesses were thriving like never before. Since that time, however, the COVID-19 health crisis has claimed the lives of more than 1 million people living around the world.
“A Handsome Box” – The Adams Building – Construction, architecture, and history of services in the John Adams Building at the Library of Congress, By Natalie Burclaff, Science, Technology & Business Division, Library of Congress.: “When the Library of Congress moved out of its space in the Capitol and into its own nearby building in 1897, it was estimated that the capacity of the Jefferson building would meet the needs of the Library for “a century and a half to come.”
The Race To Publish Trump Tell-Alls
The confluence of these explosive books, in the months leading up to the 2020 election, has made Simon & Schuster the current front-runner in an ongoing race among publishers to produce news-making titles about the Trump administration. It’s a lucrative business to be in right now. – The New York Times
'Some Hindrances Will Be Found'
An old friend and former newspaper colleague, Steve Bornfeld, has published an essay about aging, the slow death of an industry and losing one’s job to the pandemic. Titled
“The Cost of Quarantine,” it might better be called “The Cost of Being Human.” Steve is almost five years younger than me. One of the hazards of getting old is coming to believe that our earthly rewards are nigh. We’ve endured this long and paid our dues, where are the goodies we deserve? In The Rambler #127, Dr. Johnson reminds us of the poet for whom “the latter part of his life seldom equalled the sallies of his youth.” To his credit, Steve skirts self-pity but doesn’t indulge. He writes:
“But at age 63, the thrill of the unknown is missing for the ex-8-year-old. Much of my life has been spent, my flaws calcified, my talents tapped. Perhaps tapped out. I don’t know who I’m supposed to be now. Is reinvention really possible?”
That’s the American Way, isn’t it? I’ve known Steve for more than thirty years. He’s a word-man with a healthy work ethic. You’ll note an undertone of wit in his essay, even echoes of growing up in The Bronx. At some lower frequency he sees the unhappy comedy in what is happening. Such knowledge doesn’t pay the rent but it may temper the mind sufficiently to launch yet another assault on reality. Johnson writes:
“Some hindrances will be found in every road of life, but he that fixes his eyes upon any thing at a distance, necessarily loses sight of all that fills up the intermediate space, and therefore sets forward with alacrity and confidence, nor suspects a thousand obstacles, by which he afterwards finds his passage embarrassed and obstructed. Some are indeed stopped at once in their career by a sudden shock of calamity, or diverted to a different direction by the cross impulse of some violent passion; but far the greater part languish by slow degrees, deviate at first into slight obliquities, and themselves scarcely perceive at what time their ardour forsook them, or when they lost sight of their original design.”
There is another potential outcome. I would still like to believe that despite all the unignorable evidence, the ability to write – accurately, stylishly, on deadline – remains a marketable skill. I can provide contact information if you have some ideas, and I won’t charge Steve a commission.
Is Schopenhauer the philosopher for our times? — well, at least The New York Times — with remarks from Agnes Callard, Tamsin Shaw, and others
Unpacking current Covid trends.
Which foreigners has New Zealand let in and not let in?
Why contact tracing is not going well in New York City (NYT).
“Bill Pagel, 78, owns both of Bob Dylan’s childhood homes as well as his highchair. He explains it like this: “End-stage collecting is when you start collecting houses right before you’re committed.”” Tweet link here.
