Forgot to say I learned Princess Anne was the dignitary!

caro, beyond of course Edinburgh Castle--truly a magnificent experience--you should just walk the blocks of New Town (1767-18-something). What a world! I tried to get into the Palace at Holyrood--closed for some dignitary. Coming at it later, I discovered a crowd and by pushing in was able to see Princess Anne reviewing a band. She's very small.

jim nj, thanks for the article and graph on the Industrial Revolution--that up-spike tells the whole story. I teach this dramatic change to all my students--who don't know! Deidre McCloskey's Bourgeois Dignity is good on explaining the shift, and students really enjoy this short video by Hans Rosling, a very charming statistician, "200 countries, 200 years, in 4 minutes": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbkSRLYSojo

I was enraptured with Lolita when I was 15, for the record. I read a lot of things I probably shouldn't have read, but I wanted to know things.

IG, I loved Lolita and memorized the poem/song Humbert composes in her honor (now forgotten, but so euphonious!)--but you are entirely right about the superior honors of Joy in the Morning. And unlike Lolita, it references the Psalms!

Late, and catching up: GUS--thank you for your kind words last night! lyle, I say "louche" all the time, in lectures and conversations with colleagues and family. If they don't understand me, they pretend to. But I don't think any of them (except some of my perhaps duller students, and really UNL students are pretty bright and beyond this, but then again sometimes I wonder) would think I said "d---"

Think of what it must be like to be such a warped soul as Epstein--and every wicked or merely louche choice he has made in his sixty decades and counting has just made him more warped and less capable of doing the right thing. It's tragic to see a human soul so encumbered and lost. But it's very hard to have any sympathy. On the other hand, it is very good that in their mad quest to get the great Orange Whale the media have made a huge deal of this story. Sillies--it will backfire on their collective interests pretty conclusively.

MM, you can find them (as with so much) on youtube--here's one episode--https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDjtERicYCE Alaska is really awfully large and awfully far away. I'm glad we bought it, though! Think how awful things would be if Russia hadn't needed to do a firesale!

MM, my daughter has had me watch a couple of episodes of Good Bones, a show set in Indianapolis with a mother-daughter pair fixing up homes in an older area and then flipping them. It is curiously interesting--is it a big deal in Indianapolis?

Hey, GUS! I haven't said yet how sorry I am about your foot--you'll be better soon. And you're right to be so proud of your niece--she is a credit to her family and country. ManTran, loved the poor mouse story--sort of like "Appointment in Samarra."

Sorry, CH (and all)--I meant "Revelation"! Flannery O'Connor.

MM, I cried at the Vachal Lindsay poem about William Booth entering heaven. Reminded me of O'Connor's great story, "Resurrection." Thanks! (and to be sure, no one in this generation has read it--it doesn't do any of the current "good work")...

There was a dead pine caught between two very large trees in our far back yard--all very intertwined. This tree-magician, Rodney, worked it with fast diagonal slices so each time the whole trunk plunked down onto the next so that in about 90 seconds the whole thing, diagonalized into about nine pieces of the roughly 60' high thing, was all down. He never left the ground. Masterful! Got to go teach summer night class (will pay for my trip to Florida later, so worth it!--tonight Peter Pan and Wendy, the novel version of Peter Pan, and Baum's The Emerald City of Oz--yes, children's literature--but I make it hard and historical). Will check back later! Oh, and Pin, you have been extra funny lately!

Willowed: Just starting on catch-up, but Pin re your turtles all the way down, I remembered it as something Bertrand Russell (the louse) had said, but the web gave me this: “William James, father of American psychology, tells of meeting an old lady who told him the Earth rested on the back of a huge turtle. "But, my dear lady", Professor James asked, as politely as possible, "what holds up the turtle?" "Ah", she said, "that's easy. He is standing on the back of another turtle." "Oh, I see", said Professor James, still being polite. "But would you be so good as to tell me what holds up the second turtle?" "It's no use, Professor", said the old lady, realizing he was trying to lead her into a logical trap. "It's turtles-turtles-turtles, all the way!”

Just starting on catch-up, but Pin re your turtles all the way down, I remembered it as something Bertrand Russell (the louse) had said, but the web gave me this: “William James, father of American psychology, tells of meeting an old lady who told him the Earth rested on the back of a huge turtle. "But, my dear lady", Professor James asked, as politely as possible, "what holds up the turtle?" "Ah", she said, "that's easy. He is standing on the back of another turtle." "Oh, I see", said Professor James, still being polite. "But would you be so good as to tell me what holds up the second turtle?" "It's no use, Professor", said the old lady, realizing he was trying to lead her into a logical trap. "It's turtles-turtles-turtles, all the way!”

Is the DMZ meeting with Kim happening? Anyone know the latest?

Jack, to make the lovebug problem worse, they are almost always squashed in pairs, mid-copulation! narc, I know about Warren Hastings' trial because Jane Austen and her sister attended--they were family friends of Hastings and were on his side. Also, I won't forget that Nemo is Moriary argument--very interesting!

To Howard? I think there must have been a period of diminished capacity/diminished will with young Kamala. Clarice's relayed tweet is completely on the money--had she been at all good or at all ambitious, she wouldn't have been at Howard. And she wasn't there for racial solidarity, since she's NOT AA.

Again, late to catching up. I feel for Mueller as he evidently does not sufficiently grok the questions Republican committee members may very well throw his way. Old reptile that he is, he very well may be noosed.

Catching up--hard as usual! Jim, you asked a few days ago as to who had been posting the lovely limericks--it was Lilibeth. Pin, that O'Henry story was terrific--the comeuppance for all three bad guys was so well done. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, basically!

Porch, MM and I and you have been pouring water on the "affair" explanation since the day the emails were released. It's true--it's not that we can't see the emails where they talked about assignations, etc., but rather that there is never anything lovey-dovey, anywhere, in their emails. Not a whit of affection or erotic engagement--just two colleagues who liked each other and were in league. Neither of the two, each married with children, has AFIK initiated divorce or separation with their respective spouses.

Thanks for the early bday wishes, D! RG, email me about getting together! I'm lwhite4 at unl dot edu.

Hi, RG-- I'll be in St. Pete from about July 22 through the end of the first week in August--I am assuredly going to see Jane in Port Charlotte and plans look good for me to meet up with JIB at Capt. Eric's boat. But times/days/details are sketchy so far! If I/we could see you, that would be grand.

RG, if you're still around, happy birthday! Like Lyle, I too will be 60 for just a space more (till next Wednesday, to be specific!).

Jack, that bit of "literature" did not impress! Yes, down in the end of July--I'll be booking my flight for the 22nd, I think, and will then be there through the first week of August. I'll email you and Jane. I wouldn't mind meeting the very cute and kind golf maestro, either.