a small sailing craft
is full of strange promise and
the hint of trouble
If a man must be obsessed by something,
I suppose a boat is as good as anything,
perhaps a bit better than most.
A small sailing craft is not only beautiful,
it is seductive and full of strange promise and the hint of trouble.
EB White in his essay, “The Sea and the Wind That Blows,” (1963; Essays of E. B. White, p. 205)
formless, faceless, he …
seems the very prototype
of the little man
This drawing was published in the New Yorker Magazine on May 16, 1936.
90 years ago today.
I am sorry to have to admit I had to look up Dorothy Thompson.
According to Wikipedia, Dorothy Celene Thompson (July 9, 1893 – January 30, 1961) was an American journalist and radio broadcaster. She was the first American journalist to be expelled from Nazi Germany, in 1934, and was one of the few women news commentators broadcasting on radio during the 1930s. Thompson is regarded by some as the “First Lady of American Journalism” and was recognized by Time magazine in 1939 as equal in influence to Eleanor Roosevelt.
Wow and I had to look her up.
Again, according to Wikipedia, “Thompson’s most significant work abroad took place in Germany in the early 1930s. In Munich, Thompson met and interviewed Adolf Hitler for the first time in 1931. This would be the basis for her subsequent book, I Saw Hitler, in which she wrote about the dangers of him winning power in Germany. Later, in a Harper’s Magazine article in December 1934, Thompson described Hitler in the following terms: “He is formless, almost faceless, a man whose countenance is a caricature, a man whose framework seems cartilaginous, without bones. He is inconsequent and voluble, ill poised and insecure. He is the very prototype of the little man.”
And I thought, what would Ms. Thompson thought of the current man is office?
For some reason, I think she might have written:
He is formless, almost faceless, a man whose countenance is a caricature, a man whose framework seems cartilaginous, without bones.
He is inconsequent and voluble, ill poised and insecure.
He is the very prototype of the little man.
Works.
Really works, doesn’t it?
disdain for questions
about war, no coherent
rationale for it
Over the past two and half months, Mr. Trump has ordered thousands of strikes against another country and killed its leader.
The war has roiled global energy markets and drained American munitions stockpiles.
Yet despite its scope and stakes, the president continues to show disdain for members of Congress who ask questions about the war and has not even provided a coherent rationale for it.
Congressional Republicans deserve significant responsibility for the situation. They could and should do much more to constrain him.
Congress could pass a resolution expressing its disapproval of the war and hold hearings investigating it, raising the political pressure on the White House.
It could refuse to confirm nominees or fund Mr. Trump’s military priorities until he adheres to his constitutional duty to work with the legislature.
Otherwise, members of Congress are participating in America’s slide from democracy.
From the opinion piece, The Iran War Worsens America’s Democratic Erosion by The Editorial Board of the New York Times (May 13, 2026).
According to the NYT, The editorial board is a group of opinion journalists whose views are informed by expertise, research, debate and certain longstanding values. It is separate from the newsroom.
I am reminded of the author Garrison Keillor who wrote about life in a small town and in discussing the life of one person in this small town, related how the mother of this person would say over and over … why don’t you DO something with your life?
This went on for years.
Then one day, Mom said something different.
Mom asked, why DIDN’T you do something with your life?
This piece isn’t warning that American Democracy could be in trouble.
This piece isn’t warning that American Democracy could be seeing some issues.
This piece pointed out that American Democracy is already in its slide and sliders, if you didn’t know, always take you down.
Take you down, fast.
And that is where we are.
And Congress?
You are there.
the greatest city,
the greatest nation, nothing …
like us ever was
It has happened before.
Strong men put up a city and got
a nation together,
And paid singers to sing and women
to warble: We are the greatest city,
the greatest nation,
nothing like us ever was.
And while the singers sang
and the strong men listened
and paid the singers well
and felt good about it all,
there were rats and lizards who listened
… and the only listeners left now
… are … the rats … and the lizards.
And there are black crows
crying, “Caw, caw,”
bringing mud and sticks
building a nest
over the words carved
on the doors where the panels were cedar
and the strips on the panels were gold
and the golden girls came singing:
We are the greatest city,
the greatest nation:
nothing like us ever was.
The only singers now are crows crying, “Caw, caw,”
And the sheets of rain whine in the wind and doorways.
And the only listeners now are … the rats … and the lizards.
Four Preludes on Playthings of the Wind, #3 by Carl Sandburg as published in Smoke and Steel in The Complete Poems of Carl Sandburg (Harcourt, Brace: New York, 1970).
We don’t carry One Dollar bills any more but I had Professor back in college where I studied United States History who gave a one hour lecture based on the back of the One Dollar Bill.
He hit on the In God We Trust and pointed out the Mason’s All Seeing Eye at the top of the unfinished pyramid.
Then he hit on Novus ordo seclorum and that meant, The New Order of the Ages.
And finished with Annuit Coeptis or God has approved our undertaking.
Well sir, it has happened before.
The only singers now are crows crying, “Caw, caw,”
And the sheets of rain whine in the wind and doorways.
And the only listeners now are … the rats … and the lizards.
I will also mention the Great Seal of the United States.
Notice the Eagle looks towards the olive branches.
This was a change made by President Truman after WW2.
Had anyone in the current administration had any education in the Presidency, they might have caught and changed that too.
But I ain’t going tell them.
doing the small things
trivial matters of heart, near
things of this living
In a letter to his brother, EB White wrote, “I discovered a long time ago that writing of the small things of the day, the trivial matters of the heart, the inconsequential but near things of this living, was the only kind of creative work which I could accomplish with any sincerity or grace.” (Letters of EB White, New York: Harper and Row, 1976).
And I thought, if I changed just a few words …
I discovered a long time ago that doing small things of the day,
the trivial matters of the heart,
the inconsequential but near things of this living, was the best kind of creative work which she could accomplish with sincerity and grace.
Would be a fitting description of the role my wife has played in the kaleidoscopic lives we live with the kaleidoscopic lives of our children and grand children.
Because she does for me, the kids and the grand kids, the small things of the day.
The trivial matters of the heart.
The inconsequential but near things of this living.
The best kind of creative work which she accomplishes with sincerity and grace.
Happy Mother’s Day to my wife.
