The Make America Great Again movement is *Hyper-Traditional. Nothing more needs to be learned. American ideals about more perfect unions or created equal need not be updated to apply to minorities, immigrants, and homosexuals. *Instinctual. Praise is heaped on spontaneous instinct without reflection, action without rationale, and “telling it like it is” whether true or false, with or without evidence. *Hyper-Masculine. Guns and violent takeovers are highly valued; assaults against women are not disqualifications. *Super-Nationalistic. Fortress America needs no justification for its actions, and non-Americans of all sorts are not to be trusted. *Anti-Difference. People with brown, black, and yellow skins are a source of suspicion and a demographic threat; and different opinions that oppose the party line are not tolerated and Read on »
Bad Housekeeping: The Obsession with Cleanliness in American Political Life By Tom McBride I grew up with a couple of clean-freaks, and they would often say that their entire marriage was happy based on their mutual obsession with sanitation. They were also neat-niks, but this was just another version of their love for cleanliness. This is also an addictive theme in American politics and probably in politics overall. We’re all familiar with the struggle in American cities to rid New York or Chicago of corrupt political machines, with their dirty ward heelers and cops. Good government types, or “goo-goos,” as Tammany Hall derisively called them, were all for clean, transparent government–an emphasis on transparency that Windex itself would envy. But the drive for cleanliness Read on »
he Always-Never List for the Class of 2027 Born in 2005 (Please send comments/questions to mcbridet@beloit.edu) While this year’s new college students were being born, Johnny Carson and Rosa Parks were dying; ice caps at the North Pole were slowly moving towards what may be a summer devoid of ice; The 1918 flu strain was being revived in a lab; George W. Bush was preparing for what would prove to be a rocky second term; Hollywood was going nuts on sci-fi and fantasy flicks; the Chicago White Sox were suddenly unbeatable; Saddam Hussein sat helplessly in a courtroom; and a video called “Meet Me At the Zoo” was uploaded to an upstart new internet site called YouTube. This is all but Read on »
The Po-Mo Putin The alleged war criminal isn’t so bad once you see what he really is. Vladimir Putin would not like Post-Modernism, a trend from the decadent intellectual salons of France that quickly spread like a domineering blob to the rest of Europe and North America. He would see its slippery relativism as perilously consistent with non-binary-sexual preferences and other germs that America and the European Union wish to smuggle into the Motherland and that might be lurking, even now, in Nazi Kiev. He would not like this sort of thing. It is unclear whether or not he knows what it is. Less mysterious is what he would think of it. But can he do without Read on »
SECRETS: The Mindset List® of UNDERWEAR You ae likely wearing undergarments while you read this. What’s in an undergarment—mindsets, that’s what. The history of underwear is a history of mindsets—about outer versus inner, about discretion versus convenience, about civilization versus comfort, about sex appeal versus repression of same, and about men versus women. Go backstage with us now to consider, say, the Victoria’s Secret Mindset of Fruit of the Loom! 1 As he began his life of crime in Breaking Bad, Walter White found it so hot in the meth lab that he had to strip down to his jockey shorts—yes, they were white. 2 The loin cloth was the earliest type of underwear, but only the rich could afford Read on »
These poems trace days in the lives of such cats as Meo, Joe, Ophelia, and Big Boy. They also illustrate some lively feline wisdom. I’ve long thought that, the more like cats we are, the better off we will be, and will add to this verse at least once a week. –TM A BLIZZARD OF CATS We couldn’t tell even one from all the others, De-itemized by sheer numbers as they were. The wind blew them all from side to side. A very few motorists braved the storm. A Maine Coon or Siamese walloped their windshields. Eight lives remained. They blocked out the phone poles and swank cafes. An endless feline deletion Erased the prairies and the hills. They filled Read on »
Barbie’s Very Own Mindset List® All Dolled Up One of the great philosophical puzzles is called “Theseus’ Ship.” This ship over the decades has to be repaired so many times that finally there is not a single board left from the original vessel. Is “Theseus’ Ship” still THESEUS’ SHIP? It’s a question of continuity and identity—and it is relevant to the thousands of makeovers of Barbie Dolls over the past 6o-plus years. Is Barbie still BARBIE? You be the judge. Here’s a little list to help you decide! 1 Barbie is 64 but has never looked her age. 2 There are over a billion Barbies. 3 She has been on cable and streaming for nearly 20 years. 4 She and Read on »
Shakespeare’s Philosopher-Ghosts Tom McBride Ghosts all tell the same story: that what we thought was over and settled is not so; that miscreants can’t get away with their crimes and you can’t cut off and steal someone’s hand without their coming back as ghosts to claim it. The motto of ghosts is what Faulkner once said: “The past isn’t over; it’s not even past.” This is also the typical message of literary ghosts and part of the fun of ghost stories. The premise is that death settles nothing, in a way a comforting idea, and if you throw in the spookiness of ghosts, as long as we readers are safe from them, then the whole thing adds up to Read on »
Beloit From A to Z: Tom McBride Note: This list only tickles the surface of a Beloit College record abundant with colorful achievements. It will be edited from time to time to become as inclusive as possible. Suggestions are welcome at mcbridet@beloit.edu A: Aaron. Aaron Lucius Chapin was Beloit’s first president, a Congregational minister praised by Lincoln for helping civilize “the west.” Midway through his presidency, just after the Civil War, he said the new college was growing into what he called “lustsy manhood.” Folks talked differently back then. B: Beloit. Beloit, Wisconsin is the home of Beloit College and gave it its name. It was founded in the mid-1840s or about the same time as the college was. It Read on »
The Mindset List of Shrinking Attention Spans Tom McBride In the 1600s the philosopher Blaise Pascal said that the world was troubled because so few of its inhabitants could sit in a quiet room alone for an hour without interruption. By this standard, the world is in trouble indeed. The distinguished journal New Philosopher recently called “Distraction” a leading issue of our time and devoted a whole issue to it. Here is a quick & dirty overview of the issue: a conversation starter for the Age of All-Too-Shortened Focus. 1 2015: Citing a dubious footnote in a Microsoft study, leading media publications proclaimed that the average human attention span is now one-second fewer than that of the average goldfish—whose focus Read on »
The Mindset List of Throwback Technology Is it possible to go forward and backwards at the same time? The wisdom about advanced technology seems settled: it comes fast; new is always better; it makes us more productive but tyrannizes our time. And so: there is a reaction—a wish to go backwards with THROWBACK TECHNOLOGY. Some of this is a genuine preference for the older technology; some of it is sheer nostalgia; some of it is the design of an old-tech façade with new-tech convenience. Whatever it is, retro is in! THE MINDSET LIST OF THROWBACK TECHNOLOGY is a fast and lively look at this peculiar paradox. 1 It took seventeen years for the telegram to replace the Pony Express; it Read on »
THE MINDSET LIST OF MOLAR MECHANICS Or; Why You Should Hug Your Dentist! There are two common beliefs about dentists: that they grow rich and that they have high suicide rates. The truth is far more tangled. Although studies draw opposite conclusions about dentists’ suicide rates, there is ample evidence that they are more depressed and anxious, and feel more isolated than do members of the general population. Dental school is costly, and the debt incurred to go there, and then to set up one’s own business, can be huge. Dentists often strain their backs and shoulders to get into treatment positions, and the results can pile up to the point of serious orthopedic agony. Dental patients are nervous, and Read on »
THE MINDSET LIST OF MILLENNIAL MATURITY” Respect Is Overdue! Perhaps you’ve been watching TV lately and heard a recent college graduate say that he will not take any job with any organization that does not “value” him, and maybe you thought to yourself, “those selfish Millennials are at it again.” But you’d be wrong. Even the youngest Millennial has been out of college for several years now, and the oldest are turning 40. The Millennials were the first generation of digital natives. They grew up with the World Wide Web and social media and selfies. They were almost instantly branded as a discontinuous generation, the first gang of disrupters, with self-centered entitlement and an inordinate love of avocado toast. But Read on »
The Mindset List of America’s Greece and Rome Recently the Mindset List presented its list of “American Biblical Illiteracy.” But the Bible isn’t the only great American frame of reference: language we still use but origins we’ve forgotten. The other great pervasive influence—on our vocabulary, our phrases, our buildings, and our customs—is the ancient world of Greek and Rome. This is the realm of Socrates and Julius Caesar, of Plato and Nero and multiple others. It’s myth and history and architecture and literature. Without the background of classical Greek and Rome, America as it is now would never have existed, Our Founding Fathers knew the classics very well, and we ordinary Americans know a lot more about ancientGreece and Rome Read on »
The Mindset List of Naked America 2.0 In 1964 Vance Packard wrote a book about the loss of American privacy—which he called THE NAKED SOCIETY. He was worried about Americans’ vanishing right to be let alone in the face of photography and newspaper stories. Sixty years later few things are more important than the issue of privacy. Is Facebook a social media company or a surveillance company that sells our personal data to the highest bidder? How pervasive is government snooping on its own citizens? Is privacy a Constitutional right guaranteeing the choice to get an abortion, or is it something dreamed up by hippie liberal judges? What are we to make of a society where you can get as Read on »
THE MINDSET LIST OF SEXUAL REVOLUTION 2.0 In retrospect Sexual Revolution 1.0 seems to have been a pretty simple affair. A revolt against Victorian standards, in alliance with the birth control pill, made increased sex, in or out of wedlock, more and more acceptable and less and less risky. People, especially he young, took their clothes off, and pretty soon “sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll” were the reigning triad in Europe and North America. In time, however, the bill came due. Sexually transmitted diseases weren’t all curable by any means, and sexual aggression was out of sync with gender equality. Thus, SR 1.0 came to a somewhat whimpering end. Now we are in SR 2.0 but unlike SR 1.0 Read on »
The Mindset List of Queen Elizabeth Monroe: Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend They’ve never been together before—until now. They are arguably the two most iconic women on the planet after World War II. Nearly eighty years on, few on the globe would not recognize their images. They are both royals, albeit in different modes. They both proved, and continue to prove, the enduring truth that diamonds are a girl’s best friend, whether on the head or around the neck. 1 Both were born 40 days apart in 1926, the future British queen as Elizabeth Windsor and the future Hollywood queen as Norma Jean Mortenson. 2 Marilyn took as her surname the American president who declared an American empire in Read on »
the Biblical The Biblical In-QUIZ-ition: A Scriptural Ultra Sound Just for YOU! By Ron Nief with Tom McBride Nowhere in the Bible does it say you must KNOW the Bible in order to go to Heaven. But once upon a time in America people not only kept the Family Bible in a pride-of-household place. They read it daily. Above all, it was the linguistic sea they swam in. Hundreds 0f familiar phrases emerged from its tissue-thin pages. The Bible was a linguistic way of life. That was a while ago. How familiar are you with those days of yore? This little quiz—our own version of the old “inquisition” of the Late Middle Ages—is a quick and dirty way to find Read on »
The Mindset List of Anxious Adolescence: A Teen’s Brain on Social Media The great social media platforms permit teens, and the rest of us, to network, find interesting acquaintances, and share inspiring moments. Social psychologists and parents say that social media also makes teens anxious. Adolescence is a tough time anyhow—all those self-esteem and developmental issues—but social media platforms, combined with recession, pandemics, and political bitterness, make things even worse. Lots of kids do fine with Facebook and Instagram and all the others, but many will struggle and find social media a paradoxically addictive burden. Here’s the pubescent mindset of an incessant process that some experts think is becoming a national problem. 1. Our social sciences teacher said people our Read on »
THE MINDSET LIST OF HAVANA SYNDROME Other than UFO sightings, few unexplained events have gotten as much attention as has the so-called HAVANA SYNDROME, a series of incidents reported especially by American (and some Canadian) diplomats all over the world. These personnel and their families say that they have experienced a wide array of symptoms, including disorientation, imbalance, nausea, confusion, concussion, deafness, and fatigue. A few of them have been unable to return to work, and a Congressional bill, bi-partisan, and signed by the president, has supplied benefits for American government employees who experience brain and heart injuries, Havana Syndrome is a cause for alarm and mystery. But it has not happened in a vacuum but in a mindset. It maps onto Read on »
THE MINDSET LIST OF MICROMANAGING PARENTS There’s nothing quite like starting a 40year trend. And, even better, doing it quickly. By the end of Regan’s first term Stranger Danger, Play Dates, Bike Helmets, and Satanic Panic were all big cultural trends, and they have yet to exhaust themselves. By the 90s “Velcro Parents” and “Helicopter Parents” had entered the lexicon. They’re still growing strong, with children’s self-esteem and safety on the line, and a growing trend towards consumerism in daycare, summer camp, grammar and elementary schools, and even colleges and universities. So far, it seems, graduate and professional schools have escaped. Such parents and guardians have mindsets. Read on. 1 Stranger Danger has always been a thing. 2 A Play Date is rarely a bad idea. Read on »
THE MINDSET LIST OF AMERICAN BIBLICAL ILLITERACY By Ron Nief and Tom McBride (niefr@beloit.edu and mcbridet@beloit.edu) There was a time when bible stories were taught in school as literature. No more. Surveys confirm a dramatic decline in church membership and attendance, particularly among young people. Biblical illiteracy is up there with financial illiteracy. “People revere the bible but nobody reads it,” concluded a Gallup poll. Our concern does not relate to a decline in faith and morals. Our issue is that, today, with little exposure to the hymns and classic stories of Joshua, David, Paul, and Lot’s wife, generations are coming away with little understanding of important scriptural references that fill great literature and pop up in rock lyrics and Read on »
A TRIP DOWN CENTURY LANE: On Being a Teen-Ager in 1922 Suppose it were a hundred years ago, you were eighteen, and trying to get your life out of the blocks. Well, there was reason to be optimistic. Sure, Germany had hyperinflation and Italy had something new called “fascism,” but the major powers were disarming, the “movies” were getting longer, the presidents of the world were talking on something called “radio,” and Ireland and Egypt were free states at last. Edward, that dashing new Prince of Wales, promised to be a great king someday. That League of Nations would keep mega-destructive wars from ever happening again. And if you were an American, then your president was as handsome as a Read on »
Tom McBride and Ron Nief called them “Mindset Moments.” They are the settings in which you have made a witty point or perceptive observation, yet you have been met with blank stares. The message is clear that your inciteful observation has fallen flat. And your audience doesn’t know what you are talking about. These “moments” provided the impetus, 25 years ago, when Tom and I were still of sound mind at Beloit College, for the creation of the Mindset List and several books. It was a list we shared initially with faculty colleagues and, eventually, with audiences around the world with the warning: BEWARE OF HARDENING OF THE REFERENCES. An intriguing setting for these Mindset Moments today has come Read on »
THE TEENS-TURN-50 LIST Today’s New College Kiss in Thirty Years BY Tom McBride (mcbridet@beloit.edu) And Ron Nief (niefr@beloit.edu) Today’s high school graduates will have their adjustments cut out for them as we confront a period of sometimes wrenching change. As they set a course in life, they might well consider that in the next 30 years, as they approach middle age, they will find that…. 1 India will be the most populated country in the world. 2 Populations in Europe will be old, those in Africa, young, and the populations of Canada and other northern tier countries will have doubled and tripled. 3 Covid will have been forgotten as climate change, forcing people and animals to live closer and closer Read on »
It’s difficult to unteach old dogs old tricks, and this applies particularly to the creators of The Mindset List, Tom McBride (mcbridet@beloit.edu) and Ron Nief (niefr@beloit.edu). Each year about this time we just naturally start thinking about the world we know and how it compares to the world of this year’s high school graduates preparing to head off to college, voting booths, and other great adventures. Their’s is a different world from their mentors and even from those just a few years older. Therefore, we offer a few of our thoughts drawn from… THE 18-ER FILE If you were born in 2004 and turned 18 in 2022, THEN: You may be the last generation to prefer reality to the metaverse. You are Read on »
04/23/2023: What Might Confucius Say About the Trans-Gender Controversy? During a recent debate in the Montana State legislature, the gathered senators refused to acknowledge the body’s one trans-gender member, who represents 11,000 people in her district. Most of the members are anti-LGBTQ rights and felt that those who uphold these rights should not be called upon even if they have their hands up and are duly elected. In this context, some might think that they who would call upon the member for her remarks are “progressives” or “radicals” or “liberals.” But what if they are actually CONSEERVATIVES? Confucius and his followers have said, “Review the past in order to create the future.” What is the conservative (past) wisdom of acknowledging Read on »
09/20/2023: What ARE the Sounds of Silence Anyhow? Simon and Garfunkel’s famed song, “The Sounds of Silence,” illustrate a tricky problem. The idea of “silence” as a “sound” would seem to be a contradiction, but if a car backfiring is a sound, then its contrast of total quiet would also, by comparison, be a “sound,” too. Do we know tings only through opposites? Can we really know love unless we have experienced hatred? Or joy if we have never been sad? There’s a celebrated thought experiment about “Mary” in philosophy. Mary knows everything there is to know, in the abstract, about the color blue, but she has never seen it herself. She has never seen a red-white-and-blue flag, even if Read on »
The Mindset List for the Graduating High School Class of 1961 Authors note: For more than two decades the Beloit College Mindset List chronicled the experiences and event horizons of 18-year-old students as they entered college. Created by Ron Nief, director of Public Affairs at Wisconsin’s Beloit College and his Beloit College colleague, Prof. of English Tom McBride, the list was distributed internationally each August as the authors traveled the country speaking and doing interviews. It was initially intended as a reminder to those faculty facing first- year students to beware of “hardening of the references.” Over the years it became one of the most quoted “back-to-school” references and was cited by Time Magazine as a part of the “American Read on »
THE MINDSET LIST OF SEXUAL REVOLUTION 2.0: Unhealthy Abstinence or Creative Improvement?
THE MINDSET LIST OF SEXUAL REVOLUTION 2.0
In retrospect Sexual Revolution 1.0 seems to have been a pretty simple affair. A revolt against Victorian standards, in alliance with the birth control pill, made increased sex, in or out of wedlock, more and more acceptable and less and less risky. People, especially he young, took their clothes off, and pretty soon “sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll” were the reigning triad in Europe and North America. In time, however, the bill came due. Sexually transmitted diseases weren’t all curable by any means, and sexual aggression was out of sync with gender equality. Thus, SR 1.0 came to a somewhat whimpering end. Now we are in SR 2.0 but unlike SR 1.0 it seems harder to define. It has something to do with a so-called “sexual recession,” but no one seems sure how much less frequent sex is, or why—is it a vote for quality over quantity, a sign of social immaturity and mild mental illness, a result of greater female equality or of virtual reality taking over our lives at the expense of intimacy? SR 2.0 is here, but no one quite knows what to do with it—or about it. Here, then, is THE MINDSET LIST OF SEXUAL REVOLUTION 2.0: forty items that capture a puzzling but fascinating time: ours!
1 Three years ago the prestigious Atlantic Monthly declared a Sexual Recession among young people.
2 Some observers think the “recession” is really an opting for quality over quantity.
3 One American survey found that from 1991 to 2017 sexual intercourse among high school students dropped from 5 in 10 to 4 in 10.
4 For some this is a regrettable “retreat from intimacy;” for others, a welcome move to celibacy.
5 An Australian survey concluded that Gen Z is having sex as often as Australians 75 or older—about once a month.
6 A different study from Down Under: there’s been no appreciable decline in Gen Z sex and a small uptick in oral sex.
7 An Australian psychologist has stated that there is “probably” a slight increase in anal sex.
8 Gen Z is more likely than any other cohort to report non-heterosexual identities and attractions.
9 A measurable decline in sexual activity seems to be an international trend in the general population—from 1.8 to 1.4 times a week in a survey that includes Japan and Finland.
10 Various explanations for this decline range from a greater willingness to tell untrustworthy partners “no” to an increased masturbation aroused by virtual internet images.
11 For Gen Z, it appears, sex is less sacred and more negotiable.
12 With greater tolerance for sexual diversity among Gen Z, slut-shaming may become extinct.
13 YouTube and Netflix are frequent resources for sexual information.
14 Young folks spend mammoth chunks of time on social media—more scrolling, less sex?
15 They are drinking less—more sobriety, less sex?
16 They are living at home longer—more mom and dad, less sex?
17 Rutgers reports a nearly 15 percent drop in casual sex among teens between 2007 and 2017—an index of delayed maturity?
18 One survey inn 2018 reported that one in four Americans had had no sex at all in the past year, with Millennials and Gen Z starring for the Celibacy Team.
19 Young people who live in cities and have advanced education are prone to marrying later in life, or not at all—a trend that may well promote less sexual activity.
20 Even those coupled up may spend their free time on Instagram and Netflix and less on what one of Shakespeare’s characters called “making the beast with two backs.”
21 For successful young women, no means no, and they have the economic power to make it real.
22 Digital matchmaking thrives but does not seem to be creating more fun between the covers.
23 Sex has never been less stigmatized; is that because sex itself, no longer the occasion for youthful rebellion, occurs less often?
24 An Australian study attributes the decline in sexual activity to the decline in long-term relationships.
25 The digital world of sex is a powerful source of information, images, and match-ups but has yet to find a way to supply intimacy.
26 Young women with economic power may well prefer no sex at all in the absence of deeper human connections.
27 Picture perfect images on social media may create deep body insecurity among the young—also a bummer for erotic pursuit and frequency,
28 Some experts think that the problematizing of sex can’t be separated from the problematizing of mental well-being.
29 Others think the real problem with sex among young people is that we keep obsessing about it.
30 Still others believe that frequency of sex is a poor predictor of overall happiness.
31. Economists all agree: a “sexual recession” is hardly comparable to a far more serious downturn in jobs.
32 During the period of the so-called sexual recession, divorce rates have fallen—go figure.
33. Outside of human reports, sexual frequency and quality are impossible to measure.
35 In another “go figure,” one study found that married couples who are professionally busy had more sex than couples who are less so.
36 Couples more equal in married division of home labor report greater sexual pleasure,
37 The smart phone clever enough to improve our sex lives has presumably yet to be invented.
38 There is apparently no “normal” for frequency of either sex or bowel movements.
39 A best seller in 1929, IS SEX NECESSARY, was a spoof on Freudian theories of sex as the real driver of human affairs.
40 The increased vividness of virtual reality, combined with the genetic manufacture of sperm and egg, WILL make sex unnecessary—and, given overpopulation, unwise.
THE MINDSET LIST OF QUEEN ELIZABETH MONROE: DIAMONDS ARE A BIRL’S BEST FRIEND
The Mindset List of Queen Elizabeth Monroe:
Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend
They’ve never been together before—until now. They are arguably the two most iconic women on the planet after World War II. Nearly eighty years on, few on the globe would not recognize their images. They are both royals, albeit in different modes. They both proved, and continue to prove, the enduring truth that diamonds are a girl’s best friend, whether on the head or around the neck.
1 Both were born 40 days apart in 1926, the future British queen as Elizabeth Windsor and the future Hollywood queen as Norma Jean Mortenson.
2 Marilyn took as her surname the American president who declared an American empire in Latin America; Elizabeth ruled over a fading empire across the globe.
3 No one, as far as is known, ever called Elizabeth Liz—until now.
4 Few expected Liz to become queen, as her father was a shy second in line for the throne—and even fewer expected Norma Jean to become Marilyn.
5 Marilyn met Liz in 1956, but there is no record of what, if anything, they discussed.
6 Liz knew Winston Churchill well, while Marilyn and Churchill are joined together in a legendary joke.
7 Marilyn said, “we should wed, what with my looks and your brains,” prompting Winston to say that the other way around would be a disaster.
8 Liz and Marilyn are among the most iconic women in history: monarchs of mass media.
9 Liz has had her royal portrait painted many times but has never appeared on an Andy Warhol silkscreen.
10 Liz was born a brunette and never dyed her hair blonde.
11 Marilyn’s platinum blonde dye has been described as emphasizing her “whiteness,” while Liz got pushback from former colonies over white repression.
12 Marilyn won her iconography by dying young, while Liz won hers by living sixty years longer.
13 Liz appeared many times in public, but they are far less remembered than is her overall image; Marilyn likewise made few memorable films but has an image that has outlived them all.
14 Both Liz and Marilyn were consummate actors, but if Liz hated having been pushed into various roles, she never complained, unlike Marilyn, who complained all the time.
15 Liz proved that much of life is just showing up on time, while Marilyn proved that a successful acting life could be pursued while often not showing up at all.
16 Both Liz and Marilyn proved, albeit in different ways, that diamonds are a girl’s best friend.
17 Marilyn’s second husband, baseball legend Joe DiMaggio, was openly envious of Marilyn’s fame, but while Philip sometimes chafed in his role, divorce was never in the cards for those who truly do their duty.
18 In her late teens, Marilyn, frequently an orphan, developed a stutter, like Liz’s father George, who was never an orphan except in the emotional sense.
19 Had Marilyn not died when she did, she would have become an aging and forgotten Hollywood ex-star.
20 Had Liz died when Marilyn did, she would be recalled as a minor British monarch succeeded by a regency charged with helping her fourteen-year-old son Charles emerge, in time, as a king who loved plants.
21 Both Liz and Marilyn came into their own in 1952, when Liz became queen and Marilyn began to get bigger Hollywood roles as an up-and-coming screen presence.
22 Liz’sbrand was dignified solidity, while Marilyn’s was approachable sexuality (though Marilyn, like Liz, kept her distance from the adoring public).
23 Marilyn made a movie comeback in THE SEVEN-YEAR ITCH, while Liz’s son Charles suffered from it in his marriage.
24 Marilyn’s great sex scandal was that she had once, when strapped for cash, posed nude for calendars, while Liz’s great sex scandal came from one of her sons, dubbed Randy Andy.
25 Liz had trained for her role all her life, while Marilyn trained for hers via acting classes off and on throughout her life.
26 Liz was born to her role of hand-waving and speechifying, while Marilyn, who believed in Method Acting, sometimes thought she had to live a role before she could play it and once worked in a fish cannery in order to prep for a part.
27 Being funny was never in Liz’s job description; when Marilyn was asked what she had on while posing, she said it was the radio.
28 Liz was the epitome of the always regal brunette; Marilyn was the epitome of the seemingly naive blonde.
29 Liz expressed personal melancholy in public only once, when she gave her “Annus Horribilis” speech in 1992, while Marilyn, not schooled in stiff upper lips, was, thirty years before, suicidally depressed.
30 Liz was the daughter of a King, while Marilyn acted with a legend, Laurence Olivier, who played Henry V and Richard III.
31 Marilyn, in the ribald cheesecake of the 50s, was the un-Grace Kelly; Liz and Grace were both solemn European princesses.
32 Liz and Marilyn were both mere human beings onto whom millions projected meaning: onto Liz, during Covid, British pluck in the 1940s; onto Marilyn’s death the first dark chapter of the 1960s.
33 As nearly all of Liz’s appearances were live events, she had few chances for do-overs, while Tony Curtis said Marilyn insisted on so many re-takes that kissing her during one scene was like kissing Hitler.
34 During World War II Marilyn worked in a munitions plant, while Liz drove an army transport jeep.
35 Liz’s physical body was secondary to her institutional body—with Marilyn it was dramatically the other way around.
36 Liz’s grandfather and father—and Liz herself–were both determined td be boring as a welcome contrast to their louche predecessors, but it was impossible for Marilyn to be a bore.
37 Neither Liz nor Marilyn had a lot of formal education, but both were periodically autodidactic: Liz in constitutional history and Marilyn in French existentialism.
38 When she turned 11, Liz knew she would be queen someday; when Marilyn was 11, she began going to movies: an escape from being bounced around among her mother, an orphanage, and a parade of relatives.
39 Liz’s uncle abandoned the throne; Marilyn’s father abandoned her—both men left deep imprints.
40 In the mid-50s three-quarters of Australians turned out to see Liz, while one quarter of American soldiers stationed in Korea turned out to see Marilyn.
41 In the late 50s Marilyn married a left-wing intellectual; Liz, though of Tory background, liked left-wing prime ministers best of all.
42 In her twenties Liz’s reign sunk from Empire to Commonwealth; Marilyn, in hers, rose from bit player to celluloid legend.
43 There were a few anti-royalist attempts, failed, to remove Liz’s head from British stamps; there were studio attempts, also failed, to remove Marilyn, chronically late, from making movies.
44 Despite other studios trotting out Jayne Mansfield and Mamie Van Doren as Marilyn pretenders, she was never displaced as THE iconic blonde, while Liz’s fame was displaced by her star-quality daughter-in-law Diana.
45 Marilyn sang Happy Birthday to President Kennedy in a tight dress that made her look semi-nude, while, during the previous spring, in a more dignified occasion, JFK was the first American president to visit Liz at Buckingham Palace—she did not sing “Hail to the Chief.”
46 When she broke up with DiMaggio, Marilyn cried in public; when Diana died, the British public asked that Liz “show that she cared.”
47 Marilyn, always a Californian, forged her own path; when Liz’s grand daughter-in-law Meghan did that and moved to California, Liz disapproved.
48 They both proved that flawed and living persons can become enduring symbols.
49 Neither was ever underdressed when the cameras rolled.
50 Liz was replaced by a man; Marilyn could never be.
The Biblical In-QUIZ-ition: A Scriptural Ultra Sound Just for YOU!
the Biblical
The Biblical In-QUIZ-ition:
A Scriptural Ultra Sound Just for YOU!
By Ron Nief with Tom McBride
Nowhere in the Bible does it say you must KNOW the Bible in order to go to Heaven. But once upon a time in America people not only kept the Family Bible in a pride-of-household place. They read it daily. Above all, it was the linguistic sea they swam in. Hundreds 0f familiar phrases emerged from its tissue-thin pages. The Bible was a linguistic way of life.
That was a while ago. How familiar are you with those days of yore? This little quiz—our own version of the old “inquisition” of the Late Middle Ages—is a quick and dirty way to find out.
If you find yourself nodding in familiarity at most of this quiz, then, whatever else you may be, you are also Biblically literate.
If most of this is lost on you, then at least you’ll learn that some of America’s most famous phrases actually came from what used to be called The Good Book. There are worse things than not knowing that Job might have had a starving turkey and that “a house divided” didn’t originate with Lincoln.
Have fun! Fifty flagellations with a wet scourge if you flunk. Or perhaps you should just make an exodus to YouTube for forty days and forty nights and watch some old Billy Graham clips.
Part 1: Paul and Mrs. Lott—TRUE OR FALSE
Paul preached that robbing Peter to pay Paul was OK with him.
Coveting the folks next door is a neighborly thing to do.
Sweet Honey from the Rock was a drummer with a Reggae band..
Mrs. Lot was on a high sodium diet.
The three kings were Hart, Shaffner, and Marx.
Part 2: Weeping on the Banks
The Israelites sat down and wept by which river?
a. The Tigris
b. The Euphrates
c. The Sewanee
d. The Hudson
e. All of the above
Part 3: Ezekiel and the Land of Nod: Answer Yes or No
Did Jonah sing with the fishes?
If I offer a mea culpa, should you respond with your own culpa?
Was the celestial vision limited by the moat in God’s eye?
Did Job have a pet turkey?
Should I report sightings of a pale horse to my therapist or just assume everybody sees them?
Did Ezekiel have a set of wheels?
Is R.I.P. the proper zombie un-greeting?
Are the Seven Seals a circus act?
Do Simple Gifts include cheese and wine?
Is Biblical Exegesis the version written with no mention of Christ?
Part 4: Armageddon and the Burning Bush: TRUE OF FALSE
1. Armageddon is the battle where Henry V ended the Hundred Years War.
2. Gideon bibles are left behind by traveling salesmen.
3. The Potter’s Field was a disputed real estate development in “A Wonderful Life.”
4. “Turn, turn, turn” and “sitting shiva” are yoga poses.
5. Eschatological and scatological are two ways of looking at the end.
6. If not watered, the flowers of the field will grow into burning bushes.
7. Forty days and forty nights was the length of a month in the before times.
8. Jacob was a wrestler.
9. The Morning Star is a newspaper.
10. The New Jerusalem is neither a suburb nor a hippie commune.
11. Frank, Incense and Myrrh is not a law firm.
12. The biblical weatherman taught that a red sky at night is a sailor’s delight and also suggested the sun also rises.
13. Sodom and Gomorrah are New Jersey suburbs that have been there absolutely forever.
14. The Twelve Tribes was the basis for the Canadian Hockey League.
15. Saving the best wine until last is the first rule of the afterparty.
16. The watchman on the wall and the elf on the shelf have much in common.
17. Beware the tittle and jot, though they amount to relatively little.
18. For Job, the skin of his teeth was worn down by weeping and gnashing.
19. The voice of the turtle is heard throughout the land only during mating season.
20. A coat of many colors will turn to sackcloth given time.
21. The Apostle Thomas was not only doubting, he was generally late.
22. When Jesus said a house divided could not stand, he was quoting Lincoln.
Part 5: Extra Indulgence
If you inherit the wind, what do you wind up with?
The Land of Nod is or is not a safe place to sleep?
THE MINDSET LIST OF ANXIOUS ADOLESCENCE: A Teen’s Brain on Social Media
The Mindset List of Anxious Adolescence: A Teen’s Brain on Social Media
The great social media platforms permit teens, and the rest of us, to network, find interesting acquaintances, and share inspiring moments. Social psychologists and parents say that social media also makes teens anxious. Adolescence is a tough time anyhow—all those self-esteem and developmental issues—but social media platforms, combined with recession, pandemics, and political bitterness, make things even worse. Lots of kids do fine with Facebook and Instagram and all the others, but many will struggle and find social media a paradoxically addictive burden. Here’s the pubescent mindset of an incessant process that some experts think is becoming a national problem.
1. Our social sciences teacher said people our age bet overly nervous about friendship.
2. I’m glad to see that Abby is over in Ridgewood now, but what am I missing out on?
3. I don’t know this person, but it wouldn’t be nice not to accept his friendship.
4. Mario likes all my posts—does he really mean it?
5. I posted an hour ago; why hasn’t Rebecca liked it yet?
6. Antonio likes all my posts but never comments; what am I doing wrong?
7. There’s no way I can break up with Deb and forget about her without de-friending all her friends, Help!
8. I read on a blog that humans are wired to keep up with 150 close acquaintances max; I’ve got over 2500 friends and counting.
9. Galen comments but never likes—is he sending me a message?
10. Eli keeps putting his face on Dr. Kevorkian’s body; should I tell his parents and get dissed for interfering?
11. Can you believe that Deb has actually friended her mom?
12. How can I tell when Gwen is being ironic when she won’t use emojis?
13. I’ve always wanted to say, “I’ll log into your breakdown if you’ll log into mine,” but I’d lose a thousand friends if I did.
14. Do they care what I think as much as I care what they think?
15. Why do I feel like I’m always “on?”
16. Julie always expects me to common right away—stressed out when I have nothing to say
17. I’ve been bullied a little bit, but Jeffrey has been blackmailed, so I’m doing pretty well.
18. They say you get depressed if you’re on more than three hours a day, so I keep mine down to 2 hours and 59 minutes.
19. Carlos’ parents actually tried to hide his phone while he was sleeping—do I secretly wish my parents would do that?
20. I don’t know a single lurker who’s not on a downer most of the time.
21. Why does everyone seem happier than I am? Are they asking the same thing about me?
22. My best friend is the class weirdo, but we keep it strictly off line.
23. Hey, I’m also able to share beautiful moments and link up with people overseas, and that sometimes happens twice a week.
24. My older sister is so cool: she told me she felt a lot of pre-screen anxiety, too, when she was my age.
25. You can control how many yogurts you drink, but you can’t control being tagged unless you want to disconnect—social suicide.
26. In digital society, it’s not possible to be too effusive, or too glossy.
27. Some days I see cute pics; other days, cries for help; some days cries for help LINKED to cute pics.
Contact: mcbridet@beloit.edu
THE HAVANA SYNDROME MINDSET LIST: A Famous Medical Enigma
THE MINDSET LIST OF HAVANA SYNDROME
Other than UFO sightings, few unexplained events have gotten as much attention as has the so-called HAVANA SYNDROME, a series of incidents reported especially by American (and some Canadian) diplomats all over the world. These personnel and their families say that they have experienced a wide array of symptoms, including disorientation, imbalance, nausea, confusion, concussion, deafness, and fatigue. A few of them have been unable to return to work, and a Congressional bill, bi-partisan, and signed by the president, has supplied benefits for American government employees who experience brain and heart injuries, Havana Syndrome is a cause for alarm and mystery. But it has not happened in a vacuum but in a mindset. It maps onto pre-existing American mindsets, which include the clashes of scientific authorities, conspiracy theories, post-Cold War politics, national security politics, and the silo-ing and rivalries of government agencies. Hence, THE MINDSET LIST OF HAVANA SYNDROME traces how a great enigma maps onto typical American assumptions, attitudes, and practices. It’s been said, of Scotland, that a country capable of producing Braveheart and Rob Roy can certainly produce a Loch Ness Monster. Is there anything about America that could produce a Havana Syndrome? We have had a lot to say about the syndrome, but the syndrome has also had a lot to say about US.
1 Just as the Spanish Flu got its name because Spain was the site of an early outbreak, so has Havana Syndrome gotten its moniker due to a high number of reported incidents among diplomats in Cuba’s capital city—but the Spaniards were never blamed for the flu.
2 The second highest number of incidents has occurred in Vienna, but the term “Vienna Syndrome” has not caught on.
3 Donald Trump said the Cubans were to blame for Havana Syndrome but has never said the Russians are.
4 A major advisor to Trump said microwave ovens could easily be used for spying,
5 A reputable group of scientists has concluded that microwave energy, possibly used for eavesdropping or stealing information stored on computers or phones, is the most likely cause of Havana Syndrome,
6. HS, reportedly affecting about a thousand persons, has been investigated by the State Department, FBI, Department of Defense, CIA, NSA, and the Royal Mounted Police.
7 HS sometimes begins with strange noises, which have been compared to those heard when driving a car with the window down.
8 The Cuban government’s scientists have concluded that these sounds likely come from a species of cricket native to the island and that there is no scientific basi whatever for the idea that the alleged symptoms of HS come from some outside source of “directed energy.”
9 Experts in electromagnetic energy say that a microwave oven could theoretically be used to eavesdrop on one’s neighbors, sine microwaves amplify sound, but that it would be essential to have a microphone inside the oven,
10 Reputable scientists have also identified ultrasound as a possible source of HS symptoms.
11 Reports of HS symptoms have come from American diplomats and spies from all over the globe, from China to Austria to Colombia, to Uzbekistan.
12 Various government agencies in the Unit3d States have accused others of lack of cooperation and collaboration—a silo effect—and one Defense official said of the State Department that “they aren’t taking this shit seriously.”
13 One Stat3e Department report concluded that the vast majority of HS symptoms came from “natural causes” but that a few probably did not.
14 Reputable scientists have concluded that HS is most likely a “psychogenic disease,” which a hundred or so years ago bore the label “hysteria,” triggered by emotional stress.,
15 Some reputable scientists claim that HS in Cuba was probably triggered by the overuse of pesticides on the island against a persistent and damaging sub-species of mosquitoes.
16 Some observers believe that attributing HS to psychogenic illness is “blaming the victim,” a phrase first used by William Ryan in 1971 to explain how social injustice against African-Americans was blamed on African-Americans themselves.
17 Sixty years before the “pesticide” theory of HS was expressed, Rachel Carson said that the pesticide DDT caused sudden death, birth defects, chronic anemia, and leukemia in children.
18 After World War II Soviet school children presented American Ambassador Averill Harriman with the Russian Great Seal to hang in his office, which he did, but not for six years was it discovered that it contained a microwave microphone for eavesdropping.
19 Liberal journalists have opined that HS has been a device used by “anti-Cuban hawks” and that a likely health problem has been weaponized with accounts of non-existent Russian and Cuban “ray-guns.”
20 There have been different findings about the existence of actual brain damage, with some neurologists stating that a causal nexus is impossible to establish so long after reported symptoms.
21 Washington, DC itself has not been immune from reports of HS, with sudden bouts of headaches and dizziness in both DC suburbs and on the Ellipse near the White House: sudden loud noise and painful headaches.
22 Havana Syndrome is not the world’s first rodeo: there have been thousands of claims since the 1950s of alien abductions, a puzzling blend of vivid descriptions, personal sincerity, and scientific mystery.
23 Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, the new name for UFOs, have been attributed to advanced technology by the Russians or Chinese—or by extraterrestrial aliens—but HS has so far not been blamed on ETs.
24 A United States government task force has recently said that it has more or less solved the mystery of HS but that the findings are not quite ready to be made public.
25 Averill Harriman, the American diplomat bugged by the Russians for six years, eventually developed hearing loss, sometimes associated with HS, but this was attributed to old age.
26 93 percent of American diplomats have reported no HS symptoms since they first appeared in lat3e 2016.
27 The Trump Administration, hostile to the previous administration’s attempts at closer ties to Cuba, reduced diplomatic staff in Havana due to what it called Cuban responsibility for HS.
28 In a suit still pending, 14 Canadian government employees sued their employer for not protecting them from HS, while the government has said that the causes of these maladies has yet to be determined.
29 The Journal of the American Medical Association has editorialized against the confusing and contradictory methods used to analyze HS symptoms.
30 Despite the popularity of such acronyms as UFO and UAP, so far, no government agency has dubbed HS a “UHI,” or Unexplained Health Incident.
THE MINDSET LIST OF MICROMANAGING PARENTS
THE MINDSET LIST OF MICROMANAGING PARENTS
There’s nothing quite like starting a 40year trend. And, even better, doing it quickly. By the end of Regan’s first term Stranger Danger, Play Dates, Bike Helmets, and Satanic Panic were all big cultural trends, and they have yet to exhaust themselves. By the 90s “Velcro Parents” and “Helicopter Parents” had entered the lexicon. They’re still growing strong, with children’s self-esteem and safety on the line, and a growing trend towards consumerism in daycare, summer camp, grammar and elementary schools, and even colleges and universities. So far, it seems, graduate and professional schools have escaped. Such parents and guardians have mindsets. Read on.
1 Stranger Danger has always been a thing.
2 A Play Date is rarely a bad idea.
3 Maybe they should wear helmets when learning to walk, too.
4 HOME ALONE and FERRIS BUELLER’S DAY OFF were Hollywood cautionary tales about parental irresponsibility.
5 The car seat is the greatest invention since the wheel.
6 Satan in daycare is unlikely but can’t wholly be ruled out..
7 What’s wrong with anti-slip booties in the winter time?
8 Bubble Wrap protects everything, inanimate or otherwise.
9 Isn’t finding the missing piece of the puzzle for her a boost tyo her self-esteem?
10 See-saws can be really dangerous sometimes.
11 Lots of Mozart piped into the crib could be worth five points extra on the SAT someday.
12 Who was that dreadful Senator Buckley who made it impossible for me to get my child’s college grades without his permission?
13 My first duty is protection; my second one is vetting.
14 BEST IN SHOW would have been even better if they’d made it about kids.
15 “OK” is an oratorio to my ears when my kid texts me.
16 “Empowering” is my most important product.
17 Sometimes it’s really hard not to answer the preschool teacher’s questions myself.
18 I wasn’t really writing her paper for her–just showing her how to do it better.
19 Eternal overscheduling is the price of security.
20 I can’t buy this Marcus Aurelius stuff about Stoic acceptance–I have a child to raise while he just had an Empire to run.
21 My child is not a student but a consumer, with all the rights and privileges pertaining thereto.22 The true moral of ABOUT SCHMIDT is that children who don’t listen to their parents marry nincompoops.23 The real hero of TONYA ws the mother., 24 Brittney Spears’s father probably isn’t all bad.
25 Comparing us to helicopters or velcro is an insult to the power of both.
26. What are those teachers up to with my MY child?
THE MINDSET LIST OF AMERICAN BIBLICAL ILLITERACY
THE MINDSET LIST OF AMERICAN BIBLICAL ILLITERACY
By Ron Nief and Tom McBride (niefr@beloit.edu and mcbridet@beloit.edu)
There was a time when bible stories were taught in school as literature. No more.
Surveys confirm a dramatic decline in church membership and attendance, particularly among young people. Biblical illiteracy is up there with financial illiteracy. “People revere the bible but nobody reads it,” concluded a Gallup poll.
Our concern does not relate to a decline in faith and morals. Our issue is that, today, with little exposure to the hymns and classic stories of Joshua, David, Paul, and Lot’s wife, generations are coming away with little understanding of important scriptural references that fill great literature and pop up in rock lyrics and platform speeches.
The Pew Research Council has found that nearly half of adult Americans hardly, if ever, read the Bible. As for these Americans:
1. They have never met a bad Samaritan.
2. Loaves of bread and a few fishes have always made for a smelly picnic lunch.
3. They have always assumed that being called “prodigal” when they came home late was a compliment.
4. They have read the writing on the stall but not on the wall unless it was a Power Point presentation.
5. The Burning Bush is what starts all those California wildfires.
6. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse is a rock band.
7. Noah’s Ark has always been a waterpark.
8. Eternal life is accomplished when your brain’s neurons turn to digits and are uploaded into your grieving laptop.
9. The Lions’ Den has more likely offered liquor than man-eaters.
10. He who is without sin has never lived in a glass house.
11. Adam’s Rib is an old movie they keep showing on TMC.
12. The Arcs—Noah and Joan d’—are related.
13. They don’t realize that Catholic is to catholic as Democrat is to democrat.
14. The Road to Damascus is a two lane backroad in Georgia
15. The Tower of Babel is where social media was developed.
16. East of Eden was James Dean’s first movie.
17. Moses is a former spokesman for the NRA.
18. The parting of the Red Sea must be attributed to climate change.
19. A Plague of Locusts comes to Africa every so often and is covered on CNN and PBS.
20. John, Paul, George, and Ringo are the four gospel writers.
21. “Walking on water” is an impressive move in surfing,
22. The Cedars of Lebanon is the hospital where all the Hollywood stars went to die.
23. “Talent” has always been something you were born with, not a coin given out by masters to faithless servants taken to hiding theirs “under a bushel.”
24. Good Friday includes happy hour at TGIF’s.
25. Isn’t the 23rd Psalm the one that starts, “Fourscore and seven years ago?”
Our Newest List: A TRIP DOWN CENTURY LANE…..If You’d Been 18 a Century Ago
A TRIP DOWN CENTURY LANE: On Being a Teen-Ager in 1922
Suppose it were a hundred years ago, you were eighteen, and trying to get your life out of the blocks. Well, there was reason to be optimistic. Sure, Germany had hyperinflation and Italy had something new called “fascism,” but the major powers were disarming, the “movies” were getting longer, the presidents of the world were talking on something called “radio,” and Ireland and Egypt were free states at last. Edward, that dashing new Prince of Wales, promised to be a great king someday. That League of Nations would keep mega-destructive wars from ever happening again. And if you were an American, then your president was as handsome as a young Rudolf Valentino. Credit is cheap, something called “chain stores” are popping up, and “consumerism” is the hot new word. Even Jesus is being touted as a great salesman.
SO: IF YOU WERE 18 A CENTURY AGO, THEN……
1 Congrats: You survived the Spanish flu, were too young to die in the Great War, and can reasonably expect to live another thirty-five years.
2 Little Betty White, Doris Day, Bea Arthur, Pierre Cardin, Judy Garland, George McGovern, Redd Fox, Dorothy Dandridge, and Ava Gardener have just been born, but you haven’t heard of any of them, yet.
3 You’d have shared the world with an Irish writer—whose wife said he had a dirty mind—who just re-told the story of Ulysses in modern Dublin pubs. Your grandchildren will be told that this is the greatest novel of all time.
4 You might have played around with a naked crystal receiver called a radio, therefore revolutionizing that fine old word “reception.”
5 There’s a 96 percent chance that you won’t be going to college and about a hundred percent chance that you won’t need to.
6 You may be mourning the loss of Marcel Proust, the writer who made gossip and madeleine cakes famous; Cap Anson, the baseball superstar with the Chicago “White Stockings;” and the indefatigable Nellie Bly, who went around the world in fewer than 80 days.
7 You will encounter a world where once-dominant Turkey has at last been kicked out of the Middle East, thus setting up years and years of sectarian conflict and desperate disputes over oil.
8 A sweet guy named Joe Stalin, a former theology student, has become number 2 in the Russian Communist Party,
9 You’d have emerged the same year that a St. Louis-born poet wrote a fragmented poem about a long drought in some waste land. Your grandchildren will learn that this is the greatest poem of the twentieth century.
10 Ireland has always been a free state, with Ulster remaining loyal to the British crown much to the dismay of its Catholic citizens and launching years and years of “Troubles.”
11 Some strutting political force called “fascism” has risen in Italy, but no one will have thought it would last long,
12 Some “moving pictures” now last over an hour—they still don’t talk, but the organ music is great.
13 An Austro-English philosopher has written a perplexing little book whose main idea seems to be that we should all spend more time remaining silent. Your grandchildren will be told that this is one of the greatest philosophical works of all time.
14 A new party in Britain, called Labor, has emerged as the number two political force, becoming the party of workers and intellectuals.
15 If you have diabetes, there’s a new treatment called insulin.
16 Major powers have just signed a disarmament treaty, thus guaranteeing that there will be no more wars like the last one (your male child will likely fight in World War II).
17 Egypt has just become an independent nation one again.
18 A small city in Holland hosts the first-ever international court of justice—outlaws on the world stage should beware, but they don’t seem to be nervous.
19 A severely frightening film about a vampire has premiered in Berlin.
20 President Harding has made it official: there is now a radio in the White House.
21 A scrawny lawyer named Gandhi has been arrested for sedition in the big Indian city of Bombay. Everyone knows his quest for Indian independence is futile.
22 There’s a new-fangled United States ship that they call an “aircraft carrier.” Japan has one, too.
23 Planes from the new commercial airlines are now crashing in mid-air.
24 The American Secretary of the Interior has just leased a Federal oil reserve to private interests—the area in Wyoming has the strange name of “Teapot Dome.”
25 The state of Massachusetts has recently opened all its public offices—to women.
26 The Prince of Wales, not thinking at all of divorced American women to fall in love with, is taking his duties seriously with a one-month tour of Japan.
27 Eight priests have been executed in Russia for opposing confiscation of church property.
28 The foreign minister of the democratic government in Germany is assassinated, but most folks think that the bitterly-defeated nation will settle down, even though it takes 3,000 marks to buy one U.S. dollar.
29 The great experimental artists Stravinsky, Joyce, Picasso, and Proust have dined together in Paris, but there is no record of anything said other than perhaps “more snails, si’l vous plait.”
30 There is now actually a woman senator in the American Congress, but she was appointed by the governor of Georgia and will not serve long.
31 Big doings in California: the new Rose Bowl stadium has just opened, an open-air Hollywood Bowl is available for concerts, and the last grizzly bear in the state has been shot to death.
32 A radio broadcast license in the United Kingdom now costs ten shillings, but there is talk that the whole business is going to be merged into something called the BBC.
33 Folks are now able to see inside old King Tut’s tomb for the first time in over 30 centuries.
34 Ukraine has just joined the new “Soviet Union.”
35 Bucking bronco addles are now hornless: better for rodeo sales.
Tom McBride (mcbridet@beloit.edu)
Ron Nief (niefr@beloit.edu)