tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-46351425973936307592024-03-14T05:59:03.668-04:00LaVonne Neff > LIVELY DUSTOn human flourishing and the common goodLaVonne Neffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12662198791868400418noreply@blogger.comBlogger633125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635142597393630759.post-61037232524625934322019-12-01T16:36:00.001-05:002019-12-01T16:37:47.939-05:00Advent in the swamp
Hieronymus Bosch, Hell 2
Happy First Sunday in Advent, which is equivalent to New Year's Day on the church calendar, only without the hangover.
To honor the season, I recommend listening to Leonard Cohen's "Anthem."
And when you've finished weeping--if you're wondering what Advent is all about, or if you just want a refresher on why Advent is a particularly good idea--read this NYT op-ed LaVonne Neffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12662198791868400418noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635142597393630759.post-33117758133349045042019-09-13T10:50:00.000-04:002019-09-13T10:50:22.192-04:00The Amazing Disappearing WomanCNN politics reporter and editor-at-large Chris Cillizza just posted his analysis of winners and losers from the third Democratic presidential debate. He made some interesting points, but his most amazing assertion was this paragraph under "Losers":
*Elizabeth Warren: The Massachusetts senator wasn't bad -- she just wasn't super involved in the debate, which is weird given that she is widely LaVonne Neffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12662198791868400418noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635142597393630759.post-35205105258259300482019-08-06T22:30:00.001-04:002019-08-06T22:33:14.037-04:00Mr Trump, did you just condemn yourself?
Presidents Trump and Obama both responded firmly and with dignity to the two mass shootings last weekend.
President Trump, August 5, 10:08 a.m.: In one voice, our nation must condemn racism, bigotry, and white supremacy. These sinister ideologies must be defeated. Hate has no place in America. Hatred warps the mind, ravages the heart, and devours the soul.
President Obama, August 5, 3:01LaVonne Neffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12662198791868400418noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635142597393630759.post-26468078725112748732019-08-04T13:19:00.001-04:002019-08-04T13:20:48.256-04:00USA violence: don't blame mental illness. Blame hatred, corruption, and lies.
Last Tuesday I wrote a blog post asking, Are Americans 10 times more deranged than Norwegians? I was suggesting that the United States' appalling homicide rate--10 times that of Norway, more than 5 times that of Western European countries as a whole--must be due to something more than mental illness.
Three and a half days later, someone murdered 20 people and wounded 26 others in an El LaVonne Neffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12662198791868400418noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635142597393630759.post-60421198319161235752019-07-30T21:37:00.000-04:002019-08-05T10:40:21.363-04:00Are Americans really 10 times more deranged than Norwegians?
In the past 72 hours, 104 people in the United States were murdered by guns.
On an average day in 2017 in the United States, 47 people were murdered. About 2/3 of them were killed by firearms.
On an average day in 2017 in Western Europe--an area whose population is greater than that of the U.S.--11 people were murdered. Most of them were not killed by firearms.
The United LaVonne Neffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12662198791868400418noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635142597393630759.post-50392228730452722692019-06-06T21:46:00.001-04:002019-06-06T21:46:43.469-04:00Need good healthcare? Need it now? Short on cash? Be Icelandic.
Today on Facebook I posted a link to this article: "An American In Iceland Found A Lump On Her Body And Her Viral Twitter Thread Shows How Much Better Their Healthcare Is." If you've ever encountered the U.S. healthcare system, you might want to read the article too.
A reliably and sometimes knee-jerk conservative friend of mine left this comment on my post:
"Iceland has a population of LaVonne Neffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12662198791868400418noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635142597393630759.post-8506643316747915962019-03-22T19:59:00.001-04:002019-03-22T19:59:14.568-04:00Fact-Checking Only One of Trump's Lies This WeekFrom yesterday's interview on Fox News:
“I had one of the greatest election victories in history, wouldn’t you say that’s right?” [Trump] then asked host Maria Bartiromo, who nodded her head and responded “Yes, absolutely.”
I suppose that depends on how you define "great." Even Trump knows that he lost the popular vote. Let's compare his percentage of the Electoral College vote with those LaVonne Neffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12662198791868400418noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635142597393630759.post-45769955229089621052019-01-03T21:12:00.000-05:002019-01-04T11:03:15.441-05:005 favorites from my 2018 reading listThe dreaded question: "So, what are you reading?"
The panicked response: [totally blank mind, even if I put down a book just minutes before]
The workaround: Mentioning one of my favorite authors of detective fiction (Louise Penny, Michael Connelly, Donna Leon).
The somewhat more effective solution: Keeping a list of books read; reviewing it before social engagements where the dreaded LaVonne Neffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12662198791868400418noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635142597393630759.post-7403536944584555182018-11-23T11:42:00.000-05:002018-11-23T11:42:22.424-05:00THE WARMTH OF OTHER SUNS by Isabel Wilkerson - a book well-intentioned white people should read
I just finished reading a powerful book: Isabel Wilkerson's The Warmth of Other Suns. Wilkerson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, profiles three African Americans born in the South in the second decade of the 20th century. All three moved away: one to New York, one to Chicago, one to Los Angeles. The men died in the 1990s. The woman died in 2004. Unless you are very young, they all LaVonne Neffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12662198791868400418noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635142597393630759.post-60796938968974321112018-09-27T09:29:00.002-04:002018-09-27T09:30:51.862-04:00REVIVING OPHELIA, Christine Blasey Ford, and what most women know
In 1994 Mary Pipher's book Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls was published. On the New York Times bestseller list for three years, it is still selling well almost 25 years later. It's an excellent book, and painfully relevant to today's news.
In less than an hour the Senate Judiciary Committee will start questioning Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford. Whatever theyLaVonne Neffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12662198791868400418noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635142597393630759.post-68214062053469714432018-09-13T11:57:00.000-04:002018-09-13T11:57:23.341-04:00Truth and lies in the Kingdom of Catlovers: A grim fairy tale
[Remedios Varo, "Cats Paradise," 1955]
Once upon a time, in a land not far from here, King Leo the Thirty-Fourth ruled over the Kingdom of Catlovers. Everybody who lived in the Kingdom loved cats. They loved black cats, gray cats, yellow cats, and white cats; striped cats, spotted cats, fluffy cats, and sleek cats.
Some people thought cats should be allowed outside. Some people thought cats LaVonne Neffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12662198791868400418noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635142597393630759.post-59799524897054960902018-09-08T10:44:00.000-04:002018-09-08T10:44:01.580-04:00One way you can (maybe) help keep Brett Kavanaugh off the Supreme Court
[Collins & Kavanaugh, 8/21/2018]
Have you been keeping up with the campaign to persuade Maine Senator Susan Collins to vote against confirming Brett Kavanaugh? You pledge whatever amount you please--$20.20 is suggested--which will fund her Democratic opponent in 2020 if she votes for confirmation. If she votes against confirmation, you will be charged nothing at all.
I'd heard LaVonne Neffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12662198791868400418noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635142597393630759.post-30840257597012690572018-09-07T10:43:00.000-04:002018-09-07T10:44:52.360-04:00America's Would-Be Sun King
[Louis XIV. Check out amusing parodies
of this painting here and here.]
"Is it treason? ... It's treason," the president said at the Montana rally last night.
He was talking about the New York Times op-ed piece in which an unnamed White House insider criticized the president for his amorality, the basis for at least a dozen other of his listed failings. If you've only read about theLaVonne Neffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12662198791868400418noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635142597393630759.post-7338321140786005892018-08-28T09:56:00.000-04:002018-08-28T09:56:05.134-04:00Yes, Mr. President, you should fix Google!
Dear President Trump,
Your tweet this morning was absolutely on target--a high percentage of online news reports about you are BAD. You are right in saying that this is a very serious situation (and you didn't even mention that the percentage of bad news may have gotten even worse since Google and Twitter started weeding out disruptive Russian trolls, bots, and political ads, which were LaVonne Neffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12662198791868400418noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635142597393630759.post-42922391589026287212018-08-25T08:19:00.000-04:002018-08-26T14:31:13.191-04:00On turning 70 and looking for wisdom
A decade ago I published my Top 10 on turning 60. Most of the items on my list are truer now than ever. Septuagenarians are much less likely than sexagenarians to die young, for example.
Still, I'm finding it hard to come up with a new Top 10 list. I don't much care for the biblical description of this decade: "The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength LaVonne Neffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12662198791868400418noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635142597393630759.post-5677375866062157692018-04-16T12:27:00.000-04:002018-04-16T13:50:47.400-04:00What James Comey got wrong
During the interview by George Stephanopoulos broadcast by ABC last night, James Comey spoke with calm dignity about the man who fired him last year. Comey did not call him names. He didn't even call him a liar, though he mentioned numerous occasions when the president told demonstrable lies. That the president lies, of course, is neither news nor opinion: it's verifiable fact. And Comey did LaVonne Neffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12662198791868400418noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635142597393630759.post-71330158352761775832018-04-03T09:36:00.000-04:002018-04-03T11:21:24.076-04:00THE DISCOVERY OF CHOCOLATE by James Runcie, with 2 ways to make chocolate cake as God intended
Five years ago I learned about Cook the Books, an online book club featuring not only books about food, but people who read those books and invent recipes inspired by them. One of those people even wins a prize. What could be more fun?
Back then they asked David and me to judge contributions based on Andrea Camilleri's The Shape of Water (the book, not the current movie by the same LaVonne Neffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12662198791868400418noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635142597393630759.post-38382779333966933482018-03-23T14:08:00.000-04:002018-03-23T14:08:57.714-04:00EVERYTHING HAPPENS FOR A REASON: AND OTHER LIES I'VE LOVED, by Kate BowlerI asked Google to find the cover of the book I'm about to praise. "Everything happens for a reason," I typed, and clicked "images." Instead of the cover, I got a pageful of annoyingly pious memes and posters--and this perfectly wonderful empathy card,
which you can order here.
I've never met Kate Bowler, but I heard Terry Gross interview her on "Fresh Air" (which is why I read her LaVonne Neffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12662198791868400418noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635142597393630759.post-69509534113780897832018-03-14T19:09:00.000-04:002018-03-14T19:09:11.039-04:00Midlife: the best of all possible ages?
The other day a friend of mine, who is 45, was offended when someone referred to her as middle aged.
This seems odd, since female life expectancy in America is now approximately 81. Or since a woman who has reached the age of 45 can expect to live another 40 years. Or since the ages at which an American is most likely to be employed are between 20 and 61. By all numeric indicators, my LaVonne Neffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12662198791868400418noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635142597393630759.post-53636194954036174392018-03-05T09:28:00.000-05:002018-03-05T09:28:03.492-05:00Remains of the Day
A Nor'easter swept through Baltimore on Friday, uprooting trees and downing power lines as it went through.
Our lights went out at 2:30 in the afternoon. The inside temperature began to fall. I put a second down comforter on our bed.
We took the dog and our electronics to our church and spent a warm evening and morning there. And then the power at the church went out.
Fortunately we have a LaVonne Neffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12662198791868400418noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635142597393630759.post-54666543196229575012018-02-01T15:51:00.000-05:002018-02-01T15:51:00.042-05:00THE NATURE OF THE BEAST by Louise Penny: a chilling conversation
I love Louise Penny's novels about Three Pines, Québec: a Brigadoon-like village near the Vermont border full of friendship, good food, warm fires, beautiful scenery--and the occasional murder. Penny can terrify you, though more often she makes you chuckle. With a perspicacious eye for character, she can also amaze you with her insights.
I recently came across this chilling conversation LaVonne Neffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12662198791868400418noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635142597393630759.post-38713834650508684572017-11-15T13:28:00.000-05:002017-11-15T13:28:48.143-05:00A Trump wall everyone will love
Here's an idea for President Trump and his supporters. Let's build an impenetrable border wall around maybe a third of the United States. Make sure that no immigrants can enter. Make equally sure that no Democrats (or Republicans, for that matter) who favor universal healthcare can enter. Likewise, don't allow any Democrats (or Republicans) who favor gun limitation and regulation to breach the LaVonne Neffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12662198791868400418noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635142597393630759.post-35049899609376858672017-10-03T14:16:00.000-04:002017-10-03T14:27:23.631-04:00THE BRIGHT HOUR by Nina Riggs
Ancient Egyptians brought skeletons to their feasts, exhorting guests to drink and make merry while they still could. American Puritans in the 17th century kept skulls as warnings to sober up and focus on the afterlife. Memento mori, the gruesome reminders were called: remember that you must die. People died suddenly, and young. They wanted to be prepared.
Nina Riggs did not feel LaVonne Neffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12662198791868400418noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635142597393630759.post-22040734937750093772017-10-02T11:48:00.000-04:002017-10-02T11:48:59.696-04:0010 reasons I'm giving up Facebook
Some of my friends use Facebook judiciously. Some, like me, spend far too much time on it. And clearly some, also like me, feel worse and worse because of what they see there.
If Facebook is making your life better, far be it from me to criticize. I suspect, however, that it is stripping joy from my life. Here are ten reasons I'm planning to stay off Facebook indefinitely.
1. Time on LaVonne Neffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12662198791868400418noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635142597393630759.post-46753766888480009252017-08-03T10:08:00.000-04:002017-08-03T10:08:39.372-04:00RIP editor Judith Jones: She brought us Anne Frank, Julia Child, and many others
[Jones & Child; photo by Boston Globe]
From yesterday's New York Times:
Judith Jones, the editor who discovered Julia Child and advanced a generation of culinary writers that revolutionized cooking and tastes in American homes, and who for a half-century edited John Updike, Anne Tyler, John Hersey and other literary lions, died on Wednesday at her summer home in Walden, Vt. She was 93.
LaVonne Neffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12662198791868400418noreply@blogger.com0