Day 113: Getting to know your elites--again with the Harper's Letter

By now the news cycle has passed by this discussion of "Justice and Open Debate." We are now on to the discussion of why people signed in, who didn't sign it, why they shouldn't have signed  it or what they should have written instead.



Now that I have internalized this issue I will go return to being on brand and do trivia.

As in how many of these "elites" do you really know without looking them up.

My answer will be revealed at the end of this post. If anyone knows more of these elites than I do, I'll send $25.00 to the cause or charity of their choice.

First a few thumbnails of the names I know.

Martin Amis. He's a writer. His dad was the British writer Kingsley Amis. I've never read either of their books.  Although, Kingsley is said to have been mildly anti-Semitic. "I've finally worked out why I don't like Americans.... Because everyone there is either a Jew or a hick." I guess that's mild.

Margaret Atwood. Wrote the Handmaid's Tale. Tried to watch it because Elisabeth Moss (Peggy in MadMen) is in it. Couldn't get through the first episode. Too disturbing.

David Brooks. I've read his columns. Either he has gotten more liberal or I have gotten more conservative but I like what he has to say about civility. I like his column today about Personalism, "the earnest and ongoing effort to see the full depth and complexity of each human person."

Noam Chomsky. Not a fan. I have a distinct memory of being in Williamsburg at a bookstore in September 2001 while the ashes still floated in Manhattan and beyond. This may have been an excerpt from the article I read. It may have been a expert analysis but seemed pretty cold-blooded in light of what had just happened.

Malcolm Gladwell. Author, podcaster. I've learned the following from him.

1. Hockey players born earlier in the year have an advantage due to the vagaries of youth hockey, (This has been disputed widely.) From Outliers.

2. "Hip Hop and Country are both tightly knit musical communities and when you’re speaking to people who understand your world and your culture and your language, you can tell much more complicated stories, you can use much more precise imagery, you can lay yourself bare because you’re among your own." King of Tears, RH Podcast, Highly recommended.

3. “To assume the best about another is the trait that has created modern society,” Gladwell writes. But we often fail to read others correctly. Gladwell demonstrates how this can lead to catastrophe. (From a review of Talking to Strangers)

Wynton Marsalis. Is he the only Jazz Icon of this era? It's his family. His collaborations. His music. I hope he's a good guy. He seems like it.

Letty Cottin Progrebin Columnist, author. Writes on feminist and Jewish issues. Catchy name.

J.K. Rowling. Coincidentally, I started reading the first Harry Potter a few days before the Harper's letter. I didn't get too far. Not a big fantasy reader. I don't see any of my favorite authors on this list. Lee Child. Michael Connelly. John Grisham. Jeffrey Archer. Lawrence Block. I knew that Rowling had offended the LGBTQ community but didn't know why until the letter controversy.

Salman Rushdie Bought Satanic Verses. Never read it. Anyone else with that experience? Also know that Iran issued a fatwā against Rushdie for that book. It was my first encounter with a fatwā, thus a very special time.















Dahlia Lithwick is a podcaster and writer for Slate who covers the Supreme Court. I listened to her more before the Trump administration. Now she is so angry at Trump that it makes me so angry with him. And one thing that I don't need is to be more angry at the incompetent, lying, race baiting, country dividing, person who is currently the President. Not her fault.

Randi Weingarten. President of the American Federation of Teachers. Weingarten has a regular column in the New York Times but I don't see it anymore since we stopped getting the print edition. I think the reason I've heard of her is that Woody Allen made a joke about her predecessor, Albert Shanker.

As you will recall, Allen's character had been asleep for 200 years before he came to.

Dr. Aragon (played by John McLiam): “Now this is the Central Parallel of the American Federation. This district is what you you’d probably call the Southwestern United States. That was before it was destroyed by the war.”

Miles Monroe (played by Woody Allen): “War?”

Aragon: “Yes. According to history, over 100 years ago, a man named Albert Shanker got hold of a nuclear warhead.”--Sleeper (1973).

How many elites does it take to change the conversation?

Of 153 signatories of the Harper's Letter on "Justice and Open Debate." I was able to recognize and correctly place 24 of them. My initial tally was 29 but I have to disqualify myself not the following.

1. Jennifer Finney Boylan:  Kind of knew the name but couldn't remember anything about her.
2. Dexter Filkens: Thought he was an African America writer but he isn't. I don't think.
3. James McWhorter: Confused him with General McChrystal.
4. Steve Pinker: There's another author with a connection to 'pink' but I can't figure out who that is.
5. Bill T. Jones: Heard the name, couldn't place him.

Play the Name Game:

How many elites can you recognize without checking on or offline? Here's that list again.  Tell me in comments (don't use Safari), FACEBOOK or E-mail. Whoever has the most names that exceed my 24 is the winner. I will send a $25.00 donation to the charity or cause of your choosing. And remember, if you cheat and use the Internet, you will go to Hell.