May 18, 2020

I wrote a post for my Professorspeak blog on a P&S article on the Chaco Forest in Argentina. Once again, it is not until I try to write about an article that I start to notice where it is obscure. This time it was the authors' approach, which they call "multilayered." But what exactly are the layers? The best I could see, they were the various interested parties who were involved in designing and implementing a law.

I read from Bateson's Scholar-Critic tonight. In his chapter on style, he cites Katherine Mansfield's "The Fly" as the best short short-story we have. He quoted the second half of the story--only about 1,000 words. In the story, a man keeps dropping ink onto a fly, which is itself on a piece of blotting paper. That got me wondering: just what is blotting paper? By the time I found out, I was reminded of how, as a lefthander, I am left out of the whole world of fountain pens. But maybe not. There are, as it turns out, videos on tips for lefthanders who want to write with a fountain pen. I learned that there are under-writers, over-writers, and side-writers. I think I'm a side-writer, given the ink smudges on the side of my hand after I write in my journal.

My copy of Thoreau's journal arrived today. I ordered it new, from Penguin Random House.

I watched three episodes of Ozark and made potatoes again for dinner. I didn't leave the apartment today.

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