In the New Yorker...

[Jeff Wrangler]

I believe the "?" thingie has been going on ever since Phillip/John moved us to whatever this format is called. All the old posts are loaded with "?"s.

Could be. I haven't looked back at old posts, but I'm certain this just started happening to my posts. I've been seeing it in Katherine's posts for some time.

Of course, for some time now I've had the occasional problem of going to post a comment and getting thrown off and having to log back into the site. That's why I wrote that post in Word and copied it in.

[Jeff Wrangler]

Well, this I have to say was a profound shock: To learn from the Sept. 11 issue that New Jersey--New Jersey!--didn't outlaw slavery until 1866! 

[Front-Ranger]

I thought the beekeeping article was in the animals issue (September 4) but didn't see it. I read the issue to and from my trip to Switzerland and was delighted to hear Vladimir Nabokov's account of his fascination with butterflies, complete with a photo of him in Switzerland with a butterfly net. A good place to see butterflies and crows is at Jungfraujoch and the Sphinx observatory high on a ridge between the Eiger and Jungfrau peaks. It's so incongruous to see them happily fluttering around in the thin air with the glacier in the background. He also mentions enjoying the blue skies of Colorado, so I felt he was speaking directly to me, even though the article was published in 1948, before my birth. 

The fiction was charming, an early Murakami story called "The Elephant Vanishes." Paul, did you enjoy it?

Edmund Wilson's review of "Animal Farm" was so disappointing. Edmund Wilson thought it was top-rate, but didn't say why or give details or examples, but spent most of his short review dissing Kipling.

[Jeff Wrangler]

The beekeeping article was in the August 28 issue, the same as the Herzog and Gopnik pieces. Did you ever go back and find it?

I didn't care for Nabokov and his butterflies. I wonder if I should go back and read Wilson on Animal Farm (which I've never read, BTW)?

[serious crayons]

I wonder if I should go back and read Wilson on Animal Farm (which I've never read, BTW)?

I don't think I have, either. In fact, I don't think I've read any George Orwell books! Maybe an essay or two.

A couple of years ago, I was surprised to see someone at an anti-COVID-shutdown protest holding a sign with an Orwell quote on it. Didn't seem like Orwell would be a big favorite of that right-wing crowd. I approached the person holding the sign and he turned out to be a libertarian. I interviewed him for a while, libertarians being less press-shy than radical Republicans. I interviewed more libertarians at those protests than I had cumulatively in my career up until then.

When I approached Republicans, they'd often snarl, "No, you'll just twist my words." I wanted to tell them I didn't have to -- their words sounded stupid enough without me having to change a thing.

[Front-Ranger]

You've read 1984 surely? I had to read both it and Animal Farm in high school. A Libertarian would quote Orwell because 1984 was about the control of people by government. Wilson thought Animal Farm was a thinly veiled allegory of the Russian revolution.

[Jeff Wrangler]

You've read 1984 surely? I had to read both it and Animal Farm in high school. A Libertarian would quote Orwell because 1984 was about the control of people by government. Wilson thought Animal Farm was a thinly veiled account of the Russian revolution.

Not I. Didn't have to read it in high school or in college.

[serious crayons]

Not I. Didn't have to read it in high school or in college.

Nor I. Was never required, and never chose, to read either.

[Front-Ranger]

I read the beekeeping article again. It is so similar to the squid, rats, and homing pigeons articles in the September 4th issue. The theme is that we are messing up the balance of nature by trying to manage it.

[Jeff Wrangler]

I read the beekeeping article again. It is so similar to the squid, rats, and homing pigeons articles in the September 4th issue. The theme is that we are messing up the balance of nature by trying to manage it.

I liked the rat and giant squid articles. The homing pigeon article bored me.