What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?

Grumbling

I believe in grumbling; it is the politest form of fighting known. (Edgar Watson Howe, 1853-1937, American editor and author)

Ius murmurandi: the right to grumble.

Ellsberg's Papers

If you asked anyone to name the greatest drama of politics and the press in the 1970s, they would obviously say Watergate.

But when you see the gripping documentary The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, you realize that the story of the Pentagon Papers may be every bit the equal of Watergate . . .

Inbox Journalism

In the email era, who owns the interview? [Poynter]

Carlo Sgorlon

When I was a boy I had nothing but wind in my head. Once I saw a child with a rag tied over his eyes running around in a yard, until his perfect confidence was abruptly destroyed when he ran into the garden fence. For a long time I lived my life just like that child. I never asked about the why of things, but limited myself to staying inside events with adventurous fervor, as red faced and astonished as if I had just finished a long race.

(Carlo Sgorlon, The Wooden Throne)

Carlo Sgorlon, novelist, born July 26, 1930, died December 25, 2009.

Merry Christmas

(Domenico Ghirlandaio, Nativity, Santa Trinita, Florence, 1485)

Romania 1989: Ceausescu Executed

After fleeing the capital as revolutionary fervour spread, Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife were captured and returned to Bucharest to face the revolution's summary justice on Christmas Day 1989. [BBC Panorama]

"The King of Communism: the Pomp and Pageantry of Nicolae Ceausescu," a BBC documentary:

Everything's Ready

". . . everything is ready for the birth. A stable, when all is said and done, is as good as a house, and anyone who has slept in a manger knows that it is almost as good as a cradle. And the donkey is not likely to notice any difference, for straw is the same in heaven as on earth."

(José Saramago, The Gospel according to Jesus Christ)

Who Rings?

"Who is ringing the bells? Not the bell-ringers. They have run into the street like all the folk, to list the uncanny ringing. Convince yourselves: the bell-chambers are empty. Lax hang the ropes, and yet the bells rock and the clappers clang. Shall one say that nobody rings them?— No, only an ungrammatical head, without logic, would be capable of the utterance. "The bells are ringing": that means they are rung, and let the bell-chambers be never so empty.— So who is ringing the bells of Rome? It is the spirit of story-telling."

(Thomas Mann, The Holy Sinner)

Occam's Razor and Plato's Beard

"Nonbeing must in some sense be, otherwise what is it that there is not? This tangled doctrine might be nicknamed Plato's beard; historically it has proved tough, frequently dulling the edge of Occam's razor."

(Willard Van Orman Quine, From a Logical Point of View)

Smile or Laughter?

A saint can smile but laughter is only for the devil . . .

[HSL]

Outlanders vs the Establishment

Tom Wolfe's first book, The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby (1965), pretty much birthed the 1960s New Journalism: reportage in which information is embedded in narrative, place, point-of-view, everyday details.

"In 1965, Tom Wolfe, himself, was a journalistic outlander. When Kandy-Kolored came out, Dwight McDonald, a self-described defender of tradition, wrote 4000 words in The New York Review Of Books about how much he hated the whole concept. And I mean hated it.

A new kind of journalism is being born, or spawned. It might be called 'parajournalism,' from the Greek para, 'beside' or 'against': something similar in form but different in function ... Parajournalism seems to be journalism -- 'the collection and dissemination of current news' -- but the appearance is deceptive. It is a bastard form, having it both ways, exploiting the factual authority of journalism and the atmospheric license of fiction. Entertainment rather than information is the aim of its producers, and the hope of its consumers.

Could a writing outlander ask for higher praise from the tired, old, snobbish, writerly establishment? No!"

(Martha Woodroof, NPR)

Christmas Crib

C'è un cielo da presepio

ed è terra di presepio questa terra
dove viviamo come stranieri
come feriti come
naufraghi,
come reduci di un'altra
guerra;

come balordi vagabondi persi tra
muschi e viottole:
Notte ci coglie,
ci scaldiamo al Fuoco.

Ma (dopo poco) ecco
apparire l'alba
e il giorno pieno.

Pastori e precore riprendono la via
verso il pastore ultimo, verso
il suo agnello. Noi
capre testarde, muli
tardivi
stiamo a guardare.

Attendiamo un altro,
il prossimo tramonto.
Poi, di nuovo,
l'Alba.

(Léon Bertoletti, Terra di presepio)

Call

"Using one of the phones in the station, I called the Herald, asked for Donald Willsson, and told him I am arrived."

(Dashiell Hammett, Red Harvest)

Diabolic Approximation

The devil is the approximation and seduced me too.

Intellect and Senses

Nihil est in intellectu quod non prius fuerit in sensu.

(There is nothing in the understanding which was not before in the sense)

Triumphal Arch

Paris, Arc de Triomphe, West pillar:

Watchdogs and Church Mice

An Italian piece of mine.

Nothing

"Nothing. Existed."

(Jean-Paul Sartre, Nausea)

Crystal Ball

Foreign correspondent! I could get more news out of Europe looking in a crystal ball. (Mr Powers, editor of the New York Morning Globe)

MR POWERS: I don't want any more economists, sages, or oracles bombinating over our cables. I want a reporter. Somebody who doesn't know the difference between an ism and a kangaroo. A good, honest crime reporter: that's what the Globe needs. That's what Europe needs.

MR POWERS: How would you like to cover the biggest story in the world today?
JOHNNY JONES: Give me an expense account and I'll cover anything.
MR POWERS: I'll give you an expense account.
JOHNNY JONES: Okay, what's the story?
MR POWERS: Europe.
JOHNNY JONES: Well, I'm afraid I'm not exactly equipped, sir, but I can do some reading up.
MR POWERS: No no, no reading up. I like you just as you are, Mr Jones. What Europe needs is a fresh, unused mind.
JOHNNY JONES: Foreign correspondent, huh?
MR POWERS: No, reporter. I don't want correspondence, I want news.

(Alfred Hitchcock's Foreign Correspondent, 1940)

Defending Journalists Worldwide

CPJ, Committee to Protect Journalists: 36 journalists killed in 2009 (motive confirmed), 20 journalists killed in 2009 (motive unconfirmed), 763 journalists killed since 1992, 485 journalists murdered with impunity since 1992, 30 journalists missing worldwide.