cultural commentary from the desk of Don Shewey
OBAMA
How can Obama be the president you want him to be when he’s facing this Republican Congress?
I’ll put it this way, brother: You’ve got to be a thermostat rather than a thermometer. A thermostat shapes the climate of opinion; a thermometer just reflects it. If you’re just going to reflect it and run by the polls, then you’re not going to be a transformative president. Lincoln was a thermostat. Johnson and F.D.R., too.
— Cornel West, interviewed in the NY Times
PRAYER
I once tried to pray away the gay. But sometimes a houseguest just won’t leave.
— Frank Bruni
The folks who create the popular NPR quiz show Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me have acquired a weekly column in the NY Times’ new “Sunday Review” section, and it’s hilarious. Here’s an excerpt:
The Navy plans to buy 168 Northrop Grumman Fire Scout remote-controlled attack helicopters … despite that it might do what, if the operator accidentally touches the space bar?
A. Transform into an evil robot
B. Self-destruct
C. Become a pacifist helicopter
D. Make the jump to hyperspace
Answer: (B) In a recent flight test, an operator brushed against the space bar and the aircraft initiated a self-destruction sequence. That is, it started to drink, sleep around and hang around with attack vehicles that were all wrong for it.
Read the entire column here.
VOICE
Male logic, or a man’s voice, tends to be based on terms of autonomy, justice, and rights; whereas women’s logic or voice tends to be based on terms of relationship, care, and responsibility. Men tend toward agency; women tend toward communion. Men follow rules; women follow connections. Men look; women touch. Men tend toward individualism, women toward relationship. One of [Carol] Gilligan’s favorite stories: A little boy and girl are playing. The boy says, “Let’s play pirates!” The girl says, “Let’s play like we live next door to each other.” Boy: “No, I want to play pirates!” “Okay, you play the pirate who lives next door.” … Gilligan says that the boys will hurt feelings in order to save the rules; the girls will break the rules in order to save the feelings.
— Ken Wilber, summarizing Carol Gilligan’s In a Different Voice
I love observing what goes on behind the facade of New York architecture -- check out this elegant (!) solution to rooftop drainage
headed to Sandy Hook on a perfect beach day
Andy's job these days includes writing photo captions, headlines, and subheds for the Sports section of the NY Times -- here's some that he was especially proud of (o, the many ways of playing one's trade as a scribe!)
screen cap of Joseph Mawle, who gives a compelling performance in a grim, poisonous made-for-British-TV gay movie called "Clapham Junction"
another eye opens 