Entscheidungsproblem

Reasons for deploring war

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 17:05:54 GMT

Several years ago, when I was in Iraq, one of my professors from college wrote me a note with a line like "Among the great many reasons to deplore war is the inconvenience it causes archaeologists."

Tonight I was reminded that war does not only inconvenience archaeologists, but booksellers as well--for example, the Loeb edition of the Greek Literary Papyri (ed & trans D.L. Page) has the note

The first edition was destroyed by enemy action, and the translator has revised this reprint.

In reality, I imagine that this means the printing works were bombed and the first printing and proofs were destroyed or the like, but perhaps there is a romantic story of the author being saved from a flurry of machine-gun fire on the front by having the mss of Greek Literary Papyri under his overcoat.

Wallace Stevens also writes on the annoyances of transporting books in wartime:

"I had heard that it was not possible to send books to Australia, that all books had to come from England if they came at all. If that is true as to Australia, it may be true as to Ceylon, at least of books meant for sale. Just as you have been receiving papers from England regularly, so we have had no trouble her, and my information about Australia may be wrong. The NATION, which I have taken almost from its beginning, comes fairly regularly, and every now and then I receive a few books. The only difficulty that I have experienced was with a set of Nietzsche; this consists of something like 20 or 25 volumes; I received 5 of them. Very likely the others will turn up by and by. Just before the First World War, the Harvard Law Library, which had been making very extensive purchases of difficult books in Europe, shipped a whole lot of them to this country. None of them came and the Library thought of them as lost. After the war they all turned up, without the loss of a single one."

Wallace Stevens to Leonard C. van Geyzel, 29 January 1945

North Carolina

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 06:47:02 GMT

"After all, if you go to North Carolina, you have to expect what you have found. A friend of mine once made elaborate preparations for a vacation down there, gave a party and said goodbye to everyone as if he was going to be gone for several months, and that really was what he had in mind. When he got there he stayed over night and left immediately for New York and gave another party to celebrate his escape."

Wallace Stevens to Hi Simons, 18 April 1944

Erasmus and More

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 03:58:45 GMT

"What you say about the effect of Erasmus is more than interesting, but the truth is that what I like about Erasmus is a certain chic. He would be horrified to know, as you may be, that it is THE EPITOME OF ADAGES that I go for. He must have been a very dull person in reality. On of my early idols was Thomas More, who was one of his friends. But, after all, just what keeps Thomas More alive is his sense of civility, so what keeps Erasmus alive is the sense of his chic. That he ever mattered in any other respect somehow doesn't interest me."

Wallace Stevens to Henry Church, 12 June 1942

Good god, what a mess

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:52:53 GMT

"I had no idea that the conquest of Poland was due to the drinking of vermouth-cassis by the Poles. I think all the clipping that you have sent me establishes is the possibility that beer is better than vermouth-cassis. I don't think so myself. But what a time we live in when one man yowls for vermouth-cassis, another for beer, another for coca-cola, another for rye. Good god, what a mess!"

Wallace Stevens to Wilson Taylor, 13 January 1941

Incidental to the Stevens, when I was last in London a shocking number of restaurants seemed confused by my request for vermouth-cassis as an aperitif.

Ice cream is an absolute good

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 10:27:02 GMT

"Going back to the first verse, the true sense of Let be be the finale of seem is let being become the conclusion or denouement of appearing to be: in short, icecream is an absolute good. The poem is obviously not about icecream, but about being as distinguished from seeming to be."

Wallace Stevens to Henry Church, 1 June 1939

Obscenity

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 19:55:39 GMT

"While I know of Henry Miller's work, I don't know it well enough to comment on it. Personally, the only objection I have to obscenity is that so little of it is really obscene: that most of it is just no good. The only definite impression I have of Miller is that he is prolix. But maybe he wants to be."

Wallace Stevens to Henry Church, 27 April 1939

Summer sales

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 15:29:07 GMT

I do hope that Swaine Adeney Brigg has a summer sale--it's time for me to buy decent carry-on luggage.

What happened to the great train stations?

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 15:15:27 GMT

Linked from Gulliver--some nice pictures--they remind me of the train station in Lisbon:

http://www.infrastructurist.com/2009/06/22/11-beautiful-train-stations-that-fell-to-the-wrecking-ball/

Ode I.12

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 07:30:20 GMT

An arles, an arles for my hiring,
O master of singers, an arlespenny!

--Well sung singer, said Apollo,
but in this trade we pay no wages.

I too was once a millionaire
(in Germany during the inflation:
when the train steamed into Holland
I had not enough for a bun.)

The Lady asked the Poet:
Why do you wear your raincoat in the drawing-room?
He answered: Not to show
my arse sticking out of my trousers.

His muse left him for a steady man.
Quaeret in trivio vocationem

(he is cadging for drinks at the streetcorners.)

--Basil Bunting

Discovery of the day

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 17:42:56 GMT

I think that Frank O'Hara's poem "Lana Turner has Collapsed" could be set to the tune of "Prematurely Air-Conditioned Supermarket."

Dear New York Times

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 07:45:51 GMT

Please do not use incorrect metaphors. Today's sentence (on firings at White & Case) is shocking:

At the root of the law-firm crisis, legal experts say, is the credit crisis, which has pulverized the need for traditional practice areas like structured finance, mergers and acquisitions and private-equity transactions — the very things that have always kept a high gleam of polish on the city’s whitest shoes.

The label "white shoe firm" derives from the wearing of white suede shoes, which are obviously not polished. Bucks can retain their whiteness through regular use of a chalk bag. A gleaming polish would be undesirable and would certainly ruin the shoes.

I remain,

Yours etc.

entscheidung

Confusion on florists in New Hampshire

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 06:50:10 GMT

I am confused--can anyone help to unconfuse me?

The New York Times, in today's article on the legalisation of same-sex marriage in New Hampshire, has the following paragraph:

But many of the bill’s opponents believe the language adopted by New Hampshire and several other states does not go far enough because it protects only religious groups and their employees. New Hampshire’s bill does not exempt photographers or florists, for example, from having to provide services.

I am unsure how the legalisation of marriage would change the obligation of florists and photographers--Blackstone notes that:

Where the vendor hath in himself the property of the goods sold, he hath the liberty of disposing of them to whomever he pleases, at any time, and in any manner...

Surely, then, a vendor of flowers can sell his flowers (or not sell them) to whomever he pleases?

Or, if contract law has changed since Blackstone, and one cannot, for example, discriminate in one's flower-selling based on the sexual orientation of the buyer, then how does the legalisation of same-sex marriage change things?

Is it that florists could previously say to same-sex couples "I am obliged by law, in order to avoid discriminating, to sell you bar mitzvah flowers, or funeral flowers, or get-well-soon flowers, or roses for St George's Day, but am not obliged to sell you wedding-flowers because you are not having a real wedding."?

In short, I am unsure of why the florist should have an obligation to sell or not sell flowers to any particular person or for any particular reason, and, if such an obligation does exist, how that obligation would be different for 1)A now-legal marriage and 2)A previously non-legal marriage called "a party where people want the sorts of flowers generally associated with a wedding."

Help?

Where did that come from?

Sat, 30 May 2009 09:35:28 GMT

I myself have a tendency to wander off topic when writing papers--sometimes it's interesting, sometimes it's just flashy. In the latter category falls, I think, the following bibliographical reference from an article on Classical linguistics and material culture--I haven't seen how it's used in the article, but the title makes me suspicious:

Amman, F. 2005. "With a Hint of Paris in the Mouth: Fetishized Toothbrushes or the Sensuous Experience of Modernity in Late 19th Century Bogota." In Meskell, L. 2005.

Cinnamon tarts

Thu, 28 May 2009 07:35:48 GMT

"I could not read a legacy to-night, nor a patent of nobility--nor a recipe for cinnamon tarts, nor anything."

--Wallace Stevens to Elsie Moll, 6 Jan 1909

Pumpkin custards

Wed, 27 May 2009 09:00:59 GMT

"My dearest, dearest Elsie--please do stop having doubts about me or yourself or anything, and give me a kiss--and learn as much as you can about pumpkin custards."

--Wallace Stevens to Elsie Moll, 8 Dec 1908

La Messe et La Mode

Wed, 20 May 2009 09:42:01 GMT

A quite good guide on wedding dress (Part 1 here; there are also three other parts in the same forum-- http://www.cutterandtailor.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=96 ) includes the following comment:

Next, there is also the thorny issue of evening wedding ceremonies conducted in evening attire. These are an American oddity. If your ceremony is to be of a religious nature, then evening dress should be avoided, as this is associated with partying, drinking and dancing. Dinner dress is meant to be for dinner. To show up to a place of worship ready to dine and party is less than respectful. One might as well show up with a bottle of champagne under one's arm while munching an appetiser.

I am perfectly willing to accept that evening wedding ceremonies are an American oddity to be avoided--O procul, procul, este profani, ktl. However, I do wonder about how widely spread the disapproval of wearing evening clothes or dinner jackets to religious ceremonies is. (As, perhaps, a mark of misogyny, I would note that I can understand the notion that ball-gowns might be inappropriate, but male evening dress is so sober!)

When I have opera tickets in London I often end up wearing a dinner jacket to the 1830 low mass at SMBS so that I can go straight to Covent Garden for a 1930 curtain. In addition, I began dressing for midnight mass as a personal quirk years ago, after going straight from the Opera Garnier to (my first-ever) midnight mass at Notre Dame.

So, o wise interwebs--

View Poll: La Messe et La Mode

FYI

Sun, 10 May 2009 16:42:25 GMT

The Savoy Cocktail Book is being stomped through again after a hiatus since November:

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=88883&st=1200

qtd

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 04:48:33 GMT

"Success as the result of industry is a peasant ideal."

from the commonplace book of Wallace Stevens, unattributed

Back to the 'stan

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 10:01:46 GMT

Flying back to work tonight--I'll see you and civilisation in August!

Thursday afternoon to-do list

Mon, 06 Apr 2009 15:03:59 GMT

Edward Green for evening pumps
Penfriend for Waterman Blue-Black ink (one bottle)
Budd for more silk socks
N&L to pick up shirts
N&L to order new shirts
A&S to pick up suits
A&S to be fitted for suits
A&S to order new suits
Berry Bros. & Rudd for bubbly
Dunhill for butane
Trumper's for shave and a haircut
Harvey Nichols for scent

I love Iowa

Fri, 03 Apr 2009 17:30:42 GMT

If this had happened two days earlier I would have thought it an April Fool's joke.

Drive time

Sat, 28 Mar 2009 14:07:42 GMT

Can someone estimate for me how long the drive from Heathrow to Mayfair is?

I'm trying to schedule tailor/shirtmaker/cordwainer/haircut/etc. on the Thursday I arrive.

Blessed are the poor..

Mon, 23 Mar 2009 10:19:38 GMT

...So that upon the whole it appears, that a person guilty of such brutal behaviour to a clergyman, is subject to three kinds of prosecution, all of which may be pursued for one and the same offence: an indictment, for the breach of the king's peace by such assault and battery; a civil action, for the special damage sustained by the party injured; and a suit in the ecclesiastical court, first pro correctione et salute animae by enjoining penance, and then again for such sum of money as shall be agreed on for taking off the penance enjoined: it being usual in those courts to exchange their spiritual censures for a round compensation in money; perhaps because poverty is generally esteemed by the moralists the best medicine pro salute animae.

Blackstone, Book IV, Chapter 15 (Of Offences against the Persons of Individuals)

Prudent packing poll

Sat, 21 Mar 2009 14:55:38 GMT

I am not scheduled to fly for another two and a half weeks, but have begun packing in an effort to avoid last minute cramming of the impedimenta.

Success in this endeavour comes primarily from being very stern with oneself:

"No, self--one pair of gray gloves is enough--suede or calf, but not both."

"Eight neckties will have to be enough for a sixteen day trip--after all, you'll buy new ones on the trip anyway."

"Much as you may think that you will spend your leisure time in improving pursuits, you will not. The Collected Letters of Wallace Stevens is not an appropriate travel book. Bring back copies of The New Yorker to occupy yourself on the plane."

Now, though, I have a serious question--do those of you with less-than-ideal vision pack a second pair of spectacles when travelling? I generally do, but have never ended up using them (they're intended in case the normal pair breaks)--am I over-cautious and overladen, or should I keep packing a second pair?

Twenty days out

Wed, 18 Mar 2009 18:47:02 GMT

Vacation is soon soon soon soon soon Yay!