8.16.2020 – those wisenheimers …

those wisenheimers …
turned their backs upon their
fathers religion

Old words with a different take on the meanings.

Wisenheimer was a word in my home when I was growing.

If we got too smart, my Mom or my Grandma or both would call us a bunch of wisenheimers.

Just hearing the word said out loud made us laugh and maybe even more smart.

It was a term I took to mean just a smart aleck.

I ran across an obituary for the author Philip Roth today and there was this line; “The Jewish community saw Roth as a wisenheimer – a sharp-tongued young man who had turned his back upon the religion of his fathers.”

A sharp-tongued young man who had turned his back upon the religion of his fathers.

Seems like a whole new meaning.

But I sure can find a lot of application for it today.

8.15.2020 – truth will set you free

truth will set you free
but first it, the truth, will make
you miserable

The World Wide Web attributes the quote, “The truth will set you free, but first it will make you miserable,” to President James Garfield.

There is no citation to when and where President Garfield said this.

From what little I know of President Garfield, he most likely would have used shall in place of will had he really said this.

But there it is.

The ironic part for President Garfield is the application of this quote to his life.

He was shot in the back.

He lingered for months and finally died.

He died not from the gunshot but from the infection of the wound.

His assassin put forward at his trial that he didn’t kill President Garfield but that his own doctors did.

That was the truth and from what I have read President Garfield’s last weeks were miserable.

Regardless the point fits for today.

C19, Congress, the President, the election … the truth about it just makes me miserable.

Another quote of President Garfield, also without citation is:

“There are men and women who make the world better just by being the kind of people they are. They have the gift of kindness or courage or loyalty or integrity. It really matters very little whether they are behind the wheel of a truck or running a business or bringing up a family. The teach the truth by living it.”

I am struck by the line, “They have the gift of kindness or courage or loyalty or integrity.“

The gift of kindness.

Courage.

Loyalty.

Integrity.

Where are these men and women today?

I know they are out there.

I hope they are.

8.13.2020 – that they moved through time

that they moved through time
changed and changed and stayed the same
there, somewhere in time

Adapted from a passage in the book. Spartina, (1990, Avon Books, New York) by John Casey.

Mr. Casey wrote,

They all got mixed in, they stayed themselves. Permeable, yielding to each other, how could they stay themselves. The notion was as dizzying as the notion that time moved through them, that they moved through time. They changed and changed and stayed the same.

They were here, they were gone, they were somewhere in time. But if there was no time that mattered but the time that was inside them, then they’d be nowhere.

In celebration of 31 years of marriage to my dear friend.

We have changed and changed and stayed the same.

Here, gone, somewhere in time.

Together.

Love you.

8.12.2020 – the dense essence of

the dense essence of
my entire past: Rugs, chicken,
lysol, dust, cigars

From the poem, In and Out – A Home Away from Home, 1947, by L. E. Sissman.

I searched out this poem for one reason and one reason only.

I was looking for a quote about baseball and sports by EB White.

As I was scanning through the Letters of EB White, I came across this note in a letter to Roger Angell.

Roger Angell covered baseball for The New Yorker.

Mr. Angell was also the son of EB White’s wife, Katherine Angell White.

I cannot recall if he was ever officialy adopted by EB but they had a close relationship.

EB wrote to Roger that he had enjoyed his article on the Houston Astro’s along with his comments on Texas and Texans.

EB then writes, ” … you were in the same issue with Sissman’s “In and Out,” which to my mind is the best poem we [The New Yorker] have published since they invented poets.”

With that as a recommendation, I had to find the poem.

And thanks to the Google, I did.

I have read several times and maybe I will read it again later.

But the best poem ever published by The New Yorker?

Lets get one thing straight.

If there was anyone who could refer to The New Yorker using the imperial WE, it would be EB and Katherine Angell White.

And if there was anybody whose judgement I would defer to without reservation on any thing literary, it would be Elwyn Brooks (Andy) White.

But in the back of my mind is another quote of Mr. White.

Something along the lines that the most beautiful sound at 5:00PM is the tinkle of ice.

Maybe a martini in hand, and I will see In and Out with eyes that recognize it as one of the greats.

I will with hold judgement until then.

But I don’t drink martini’s so it may be awhile.

Click here to get a PDF of the In and Out by LE Sissman Download

8.11.2020 – two kinds of knowledge

two kinds of knowledge
learn yourself, from another – but
all men are liars

Searching online for one thing I came upon another.

At Archive.org I discovered the online editions of Moore’s Rural New-Yorker, a country newspaper from Upstate New York, published in the late 1800’s.

I scanned through several editions and marveled at the use of language in a ‘country newspaper.’

On paragraph, listed under the slug, Bee Authority, caught my eye.

The writer, one M. Quinby, wrote:

There are two kinds of knowledge; what one learns for himself and what he takes on the authority of another.

The former is the best: how much the best becomes evident in some degree when we remember how the world has been enslaved, body and soul, mostly because some one claimed to be master, and no one had the ability or courage to stamp him the knave that he was.

Seeing how this thing has gone on, one is tempted to exclaim with David of old, “All men are liars.”

(Moore’s Rural New-Yorker January 22, 1870)

I am not sure how this got to where M. Quinby got to writing about Bee’s but I thought his feelings pretty much can be applied to today.