sentence of the day: racist tropes

"For instance, Trump’s lie about millions of undocumented immigrants voting illegally is a moth-eaten cloak he pulled from America’s closet of racist tropes." -- Ron Charles, in a review of Stealing elections, American style, by David F. Walbert (Bloomsbury), on his podcast for September 18, 2026

what's in a name?

Renaming has been much in the news of late. Think Lake Ontario or the Kennedy Center. It sometimes feels like it is a new phenomenon but of course it's not so much new as overused (abused) at the moment. People have renamed things for all sorts of reasons. Still, I was amused by this description (warning: spoiler alert if you haven't done today's Artle but plan to) of one of the paintings in today's Artle from the National Gallery of Art (formerly Corcoran collection).

Bierstadt first exhibited the painting as Mountain Lake but changed the title to entice Washington, DC, collector William Wilson Corcoran. The artist even supplied a map showing the supposed location of Mount Corcoran. The flattery worked. Corcoran purchased the painting, his first by Bierstadt, in 1878.

sentence of the day: momfluencers

"She has a doctorate in sociology for which she researched momfluencers, the 21st century's retort to Tupperware party hostesses." (review by Alexandra Jacobs of The story or your life: how social media shapes the way we experience everything, by Kathryn Jezer-Morton (Viking), in the New York times book review, August 23, 2026)

https://clickamericana.com/topics/home-garden/the-history-of-tupperware-parties-tupperware-ladies

sentence of the day: The drowned world and Tilt

Noah's Ark

from the Nuremberg Chronicle

"The Drowned World," though, remains an odd, woozy bird in his catalog -- a book unusually attuned, as Martin Amis wrote for the 50th anniversary reissue, to the 'world hum' of the 'near-after.'" (in a review of The drowned world by J.G. Ballard, 1962)

She's like Odysseus in an ill-fitting lavender maternity romper, crossing great landscapes of hardship and memory with one holy, imperfect goal: getting home. (in a review of Tilt by Emma Pattee, 2025)

Both sentences come from "Read like the wind. Beautiful disasters / by Leah Greenblatt," New York times book review, Sept. 6, 2026, p. 19

separated at birth: accidental Godfrey

https://www.tumblr.com/beatsmybongo/827002648669601792?source=share

DeWitt Godfrey at deCordova Sculpture Park & Museum, 2014

https://www.dewittgodfrey.com/