A Friendly Letter

Two Election Comments — Bear With Me

Now, here in Carolina we currently have a redhot race for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Richard Burr, a faceless Republican known mostly for saying little, collecting millions from coal companies, and being the best friend & defender of torture in the U.S. Senate.

Burr’s challenger is former state Senator Deborah Ross. A year ago, when she announced, few gave the little-known Ross much of a chance against Burr.

But that was before Donald Trump turned the state into a purple battleground, and before the federal courts threw out most of the vote suppression tools the right-wing legislature had enacted to hold down Democratic voting. Now the polls are very close, and Burr’s attack ads are getting down & dirty.
This is Burr’s big attack ad. Note the three key elements: pro sex offender; ACLU Lawyer; — and in the background, where many might miss it but the base won’t, is the visage of a presumably predatory male of dark hue and evil intentions.

How down & dirty? Just a couple days ago, the senator unveiled a saturation attack ad against Ross that uses three magic, time-tested, silver bullet Democrat-destroying elements: “pro-sex offenders” and — wait for it — “ACLU.”

But there’s more: in the background, an ominous dark-skinned male visage.

For the GOP & further right base in NC, any of these is a killer; the combo adds up to a go-for-broke, four-pronged assault. And the ACLU thing, at least, is true, Ross did work there, from the mid-’90s til 2002 when she ran for the legislature.

That’s fine with me — hey, I’m a proud ACLU contributor/member. But this is still North Carolina . . . .

Who Knew? Wikipedia Can Be Funny!

It’s dispiriting to see articles about schools these days putting Huckleberry Finn in the literary dustbin, because of concerns over trigger words that were authentic to the culture Twain was portraying. But then, that’s happened a lot to other classics too.
I’m not going to get into the weeds on all that here, though I’m standing by my (Twain) man. Rather, I want to note that related controversies are nothing new for Twain’s magnum opus. Indeed, they go back to its appearance in the U.S. in 1885. (It was published in the United Kingdom a year earlier.) And here is where the tale gets interesting, and not about the word that is so radioactive now. No, it was much bigger.

George Gershwin: Rhapsody In –Cultural Appropriation?

Today is George Gershwin’s 118th birthday (1898-1937). And I’m an unabashed fan. This despite the fact that a key part of his artistic achievement has also made his work controversial for some.

Yes, I’m talking about one of this month’s hot buzzwords, “cultural appropriation.”

This phrase came along after Gershwin left us (way too soon, dead of a brain tumor before age forty); but the charge was around even when he was alive and composing.

Yet from all I gather, Gershwin would not have denied it. Indeed, he was proud of mixing various streams of American musical cultures in his work, even gloried in it.

Yet Gershwin also took pride in not “borrowing” other music, but being influenced by it. His melodies, he insisted, were his own.

Harry’s Razors: Not Making the Algorithmic Cut

Pervasive: Sirius/XM is an example of how Orwell’s 1984 Big Brother society is growing, its tendrils silently stretching & enfolding us like those of the morning glory vines that are taking over the little garden plot outside my kitchen door.

The network knows & tracks everything I listen to, and (besides turning it over to the NSA & whoever other real Spooks want it) uses this “data” to pursue its real goal, that is, selling me stuff. And to do that it sells the data to others likewise tracking me, including the New York Times.

Nothing new or surprising here; part of today’s totally quotidian. And the demographics seemingly make good sense: a Times reader who listens to an earnestly thoughtful show on politics: should be prime for “quality,” somewhat-above-middlebrow products.

Now the limitations part: the product in question is a razor; Harry’s razor, to be specific. Take a bow, Harry:

Harry seems determined to make me a customer: the ad usually pops up several times in each day’s Times, in different shapes & with varying copy. As I say, this has been going on for weeks.

And with each appearance, it reinforces my bemusement. That’s because of how, despite all the impeccable logic applied by the various marketers involved, assisted by their expertly high-tech algorithms, the ad is an utter misfire: I am just not a candidate for Harry’s merchandise.

Life, Death & a Jesus Car Wash

The son of a slain Christian car wash owner says he plans to reopen the Eastern Boulevard business Monday and leave it exactly as his father would have wanted.

“There ain’t nothing changing but the owner,” said Matt Mansfield, the 28-year-old son of Michael Mansfield, who police say was beaten to death early Sunday. “I’ve got all my guys supporting me so I’m going to open full force. I know that’s what my dad wanted me to do.”

Mansfield said the building will keep the same signs, the same blaring music and the same employees at 1st Place Auto Wash & Detail Shop – more commonly known locally as the “Jesus Car Wash.”