Readings
D
Dynastic Democracy: Two Articles
17 October 2010Two articles, two columnists, same newspaper, same day, same page, same issue … and a vast gulf in quality. In the Indian Express today, Meghnad Desai’s Succession Politics, on the feudal nature of India’s democracy, is a thoughtful reflection on the state of the world’s largest democracy. In contrast, Tavleen Singh’s We Live In Neo-Feudal Times is utterly pedestrian and the kind of sophomoric rant that fills college papers. And it certainly doesn’t help when Ms Singh says things like “us political pundit types”. Political pundit? Who, Tavleen Singh? When did that happen? This defining moment in history seems to have escaped everyone. » more
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Keith Richards
22 October 2010By JANET MASLIN | Published: October 20, 2010
It is 3 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time in the New York office of Keith Richards’s manager, a place that might look ordinary if every wall and shelf were not crammed with some of the world’s most glorious rock ‘n’ roll memorabilia. Mr. Richards has a 3 o’clock appointment. “Come on in, he’ll be here in a minute,” an assistant says — and here he comes in a minute, at 3:01. This from a man who once prided himself for operating on Keith Time, as in: the security staff ate the shepherd’s pie that Keith wanted in his dressing room? Then everyone in this packed stadium can bloody well wait. The Rolling Stones don’t play until another shepherd’s pie shows up. » more
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There Goes the Sun
20 December 2010By RICHARD COHEN | Published: December 19, 2010
WHAT is the winter solstice, and why bother to celebrate it, as so many people around the world will tomorrow? The word “solstice” derives from the Latin sol (meaning sun) and statum (stand still), and reflects what we see on the first days of summer and winter when, at dawn for two or three days, the sun seems to linger for several minutes in its passage across the sky, before beginning to double back. Indeed, “turnings of the sun” is an old phrase, used by both Hesiod and Homer. The novelist Alan Furst has one of his characters nicely observe, “the day the sun is said to pause. … Pleasing, that idea. … As though the universe stopped for a moment to reflect, took a day off from work. One could sense it, time slowing down.” » more
