Monday Night Open Threadening

Well hello there. News is overwhelming as always. Navalny, Gaza, Ukraine, $400 high tops. Meanwhile a mistrial for a cop who shot a man holding a deadly sandwich. Another cop Henny Pennys his early retirement. I mean, I hate acorns too but am sensible enough to know I can't stop the deadly scourge of oak saplings that way. Let the acorns win.

It's also the anniversary of EO 9066, signed by perennial #2 greatest POTUS according to polls (you'll never guess who came in dead last), which led to the relocation and internment of ~ 125,000 people of Japanese descent. Apparently there's a new monument to remember them now with the names of every single detainee. Dovetails nicely with the recent release of US Navy lieutenant Ridge Alkonis, who Senator Mike Lee claims is owed an apology from Japan. For... holding him accountable for crashing his car into two Okinawans and killing them in 2021. It was an accident, say Alkonis's family. "Pssht. Friends don't hold grudges. Be cool. You oughta just be grateful we allow you to host our military base." ~ Anne Sacoolas probably. Now where would Donut Rump get the idea that NATO owes the US anything? Be grateful we're even there. Or else. USA! USA! USA!

Reminded me of a quote from Against the Day. The book is 1085 pp long and I remembered the incident occurring somewhere in the middle. And here it is on page 567, mathematician Umeki Tsurigane to her lover Kit Traverse, also a mathematician, in the early 20th C: 

"There's a new Puccini opera," she said. "An American betrays a Japanese woman. Butterfly. He ought to die of shame, but does not – Butterfly does. What are we to make out of this? Is it that Japanese do die of shame and dishonor but Americans don't? Maybe can't ever die of shame because they lack the cultural equipment? As if, somehow, your country is just mechanically destined to move forward regardless of who is in the way or underfoot?"

Don't ask how long it took me to find the quote. I feel like Japan Pynchon (or Puccini or Long, Loti, and Belasco) owes me an apology for my time. I did find several other interesting passages though, and also finally found the passage in Gravity's Rainbow that had been itching the back of my brain for the last decade or so. But I'll bug you about it some other time. I am reminded why I prefer the company of dead trees over news pixels though. News is terribler than usual. Back to the books. Inward, ho!

How are you scratching your itches? (metaphorically. or literally. or whatever)