First Paragraph

August, 1931 - The port town of Veracruz is a little purgatory between land and sea for the traveler, but the people who live there are very fond of themselves and the town they have helped to make. They live as initiates in local custom reflecting their own history and temperament, and they carry on their lives of alternate violence and lethargy with a pleasurable contempt for outside opinion, founded on the charmed notion that their ways and feelings are above and beyond criticism.

- From Ship of Fools by Katherine Anne Porter

Keir Starmer Resigns

 BBC: A major change is emerging in Britain.

Hmm

 

The Media Wizards

 "[White House deputy national security adviser] Ben Rhodes seemed to enjoy boasting about his power over people he considered beneath him. That did not make his assessment of the media landscape wrong. 'The average reporter we talk to is twenty-seven years old,' he noted. 'Their only reporting experience consists of being around political campaigns. That's a sea change. They literally know nothing.' The depth of reporting and institutional experience built into the twentieth-century print model was dead. Something else that was easier to manipulate had taken its place.

- From The Information State: Politics in the Age of Total Control by Jacob Siegel

Happy Father's Day

[Photo by Vivian Arcidiacono at Unsplash]

Welcoming

 

Music for Saturday

 

The Factory of the Future

The factory of the future will have only two employees, a man and a dog. The man will be there to feed the dog. The dog will be there to keep the man from touching the equipment.

- Warren Bennis

[Photo by NOAA at Unsplash]

A Film That Deserves More Attention

 

Genius

 

There was a multitude of optimism and genius in the musicals of Rodgers and Hammerstein.

Unlike many recent musicals where there may be one or two memorable songs, you'll find an array of great songs in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals.

Oklahoma and South Pacific are grand examples.

Another powerfully creative duo was Lerner and Loewe. Their genius can be found in My Fair Lady and Camelot.

It's unwise to assume that such talent will always be with us.