Log24

Culture War

The New York Times, August 6, 2003,
on its executive editor Bill Keller:

“‘It is past time for our magnificent coverage of culture and lifestyles, so essential to our present allure and to our future growth, to get the kind of attention we routinely bestow on hard news,’ Mr. Keller wrote in an e-mail message to the staff.”

The New York Times, June 25, 2006,
on art in Mexico:

“At the Hilario Galguera gallery, newly opened in a fortresslike, century-old building, was Damien Hirst’s gory new series ‘The Death of God– Towards a Better Understanding of Life Without God Aboard the Ship of Fools.’  He conceived the work at his part-time home in the Mexican surf town Troncones.”

Raymond Chandler in The Big Sleep:

   “I went over to a floor lamp and pulled the switch, went back to put off the ceiling light, and went across the room again to the chessboard on a card table under the lamp. There was a problem laid out on the board, a six-mover.  I couldn’t solve it, like a lot of my problems.  I reached down and moved a knight, then pulled my hat and coat off and threw them somewhere.  All this time the soft giggling went on from the bed, that sound that made me think of rats behind a wainscoting in an old house.

…………

    I looked down at the chessboard.  The move with the knight was wrong.  I put it back where I had moved it from.  Knights had no meaning in this game.  It wasn’t a game for knights.”

Allure
at the New York Times

and Bad News and Good News
for Tish b’Av

Today is, until sundown, Tish b’Av, a Jewish holy day.

Bad News:

“Tish b’Av is traditionally held by Jews around the world as a day of mourning for the loss of the First and Second Temples, as well as for the other tragedies which occurred on this day, such as the expulsion of the Spanish Jewry in 1492. As one of the two major fast days of the year, and in the middle of the hot summer, the day has taken on a character unique in the Jewish calender: dark, painful, and intensely sad.”

— Meditation on Tish B’Av 

Good News:

“It is passed down that the Messiah will be born on Tish b’Av…. The day, then, has an intrinsic meaning of transformation and hope, and can be seen as an opportunity to give birth to the messiah in each of us.”

— Meditation on Tish B’Av

Today’s birthday:  Billie Burke, Glinda the Good Witch in The Wizard of Oz.

Glinda (at left)  and Adam Moss

Some Jews may, in view of her birth on this date,  regard Burke as the Messiah… Among this sect is perhaps Adam Moss, who has just been appointed features editor of the New York Times.

The picture of Moss above is from
Party Photos: Gay Journalism Panel.

“Mr. Moss’s appointment was announced [August 5] by Bill Keller, executive editor.

In his new position, Mr. Moss, 46, will oversee coverage of the arts and style, as well as weekly sections including the magazine, The New York Times Book Review, Travel, Real Estate, Circuits and Escapes.

‘It is past time for our magnificent coverage of culture and lifestyles, so essential to our present

 allure 

and to our future growth, to get the kind of attention we routinely bestow on hard news,’ Mr. Keller wrote in an e-mail message to the staff.”

— New York Times, August 6, 2003