I’m a little skeptical about one thing they say. The Parisian boulevards were the work of Napoleon III. But he became Emperor DURING the Irish famine. So how can they have inspired roads of the same era? I suppose it’s just barely possible, but unlikely, at a minimum.
From the “You Really Can’t This Stuff Up” File (cross-filed with “Wonders of Diversity”…
“CAIR Sues Northwestern, Alleging Anti-Semitism Training a Violation of Civil Rights Act;
“The group, representing Northwestern Graduate Students for Palestine, argues that subjecting students to anti-Semitism training ‘prohibit[s] expressions of Palestinian identity’”— https://freebeacon.substack.com/p/cair-sues-northwestern-alleging-anti
Looking at the bright side, though, it’s tremendously reassuring that CAIR—finally!—is fighting for human rights!
(A lovely trait Britain’s Labour Party wholeheartedly shares with DPUSA…along with honesty, fairness and patriotism…)
Well, Barry Meislin, at least CAIR is openly admitting that hating Jews is inherent to the “Palestinian” identity.
This was linked at Instapundit. I find much truth in it; Neo, and I, and the article’s author, and several female commenters here are outliers from the majority trends described here.
I just finished “Bonjour Tristesse”, a French bestseller and national sensation in 1954, written by a 17 year-old girl, Françoise Sagan . I thought I was getting some breezy Young Adult lit after the heaviness of “The Stranger.” Boy, was I wrong. A Catholic reviewer suggested it was written by the Devil.
How so? Well, it’s about another 17 year-old girl, Cécile, much like Sagan herself, whose mother died a few years ago, and who now lives an idyllic life with her rich playboy father and his femme du jour, Elsa, on the French Riviera. However, her father wants to settle down with an old flame, Anne, whom he invites to visit. Anne shows up and serious complications ensue.
First, there is now a romantic triangle between father, Elsa and Anne. However, Anne is also positioning herself to be Cécile’s mother and a Freudian triangle emerges between the father, Anne and Cécile. Holy Electra Complex, Batman!
Cécile is a bright amoral teenager. She plots to break Anne by tricking her father into cheating with Elsa. Cécile succeeds so well that Anne drives off in tears, then has a fatal accident — suicide? — on a windy, cliffside road. It’s a real gut punch, effectively, horrifyingly written. (Much of the impact of Bonjour is knowing that the author is a 17 year-old girl.)
Why 1954? That was also the year William Golding’s “The Lord of the Flies” and the lesser-known, William March’s “The Bad Seed” came out. Both were horror stories about the potential amorality of the young.
Interesting how an idea can emerge simultaneously in different countries.
Some of you may find this medical testimony of interest.
(OTOH, since it would appear to vindicate RFK Jr., others may find it “non grata”…)
She wrote her own obituary for the Dictionary of Authors compiled by Jérôme Garcin: “Appeared in 1954 with a slender novel, Bonjour tristesse, which created a scandal worldwide. Her death, after a life and a body of work that were equally pleasant and botched, was a scandal only for herself.”
Another potential Trump victim that Schumer et al. might be seriously interested in defending to the hilt….
Fascinating article. Kinda opened my eyes more to what I saw happening in academia. As the college I worked at became majority women faculty since the turn of the century, all those changes occurred. I remember one of the old male faculty bemoaning the “gynocracy” that had taken over the school. Sounded crass then, but he was on to something. Now the school from the president, through the administration and the faculty are more a super majority female. And of course the student body is way beyond the 60/40 national average. And the school continues to slide even further leftward while its financial situation continues to deteriorate.
huxley…”That was also the year William Golding’s “The Lord of the Flies” and the lesser-known, William March’s “The Bad Seed” came out. Both were horror stories about the potential amorality of the young”
There’s another book that came out at about the same time as “Lord of the Flies” and with a similar plot…kids stranded a long way away from adult supervision or influence…but which projects a very different view of humans and society. The book is Heinlein’s “Tunnel in the Sky”, which I reviewed here:
Sagan had a wicked self-deprecating sense of humor as well as a reckless lifestyle — at least two serious car accidents, drug problems and money carelessness.
She was the French Dorothy Parker with a generous side of Hunter S. Thompson. She made no apologies.
Sagan’s nonchalant story of being a bored high-school student who one summer typed up “Bonjour” hunt-and-peck style in a couple months was a great legend, but left out important details. She had already read Tolstoy, Dostoevsky and Proust. “Bonjour Tristesse” was structurally modeled on Camus’s “The Stranger.”
She was a natural writer, but that book didn’t come out of nowhere. However, that was the story she liked to tell and that story worked too. The French loved her.
She was the French Dorothy Parker with a generous side of Hunter S. Thompson. She made no apologies.
==
Dorothy Parker’s business was (often caustic) reviews, humor writing, screenwriting, &c. She wasn’t a producer of transgressive fiction. She was a married woman for 30 years. She couldn’t have children because she had an abortion around about 1925 which left her infertile. She had satisfactory relations with her sister. Her notable personal shortcoming was alcoholism and alcohol, street drugs, and / or prescription drugs were an issue for those around her (1st husband, 2d husband (IIRC), and Robert Benchley, her dearest friend). She was a woman who hurt too much to have no apologies.
==
One curio: she left her estate to Martin Luther King Jr. Miscellaneous parties had custody of her ashes, but none contacted her niece and nephew, then living in Rochester.
Oh, I don’t know…
__________________
Resumé
Razors pain you;
Rivers are damp;
Acids stain you;
And drugs cause cramp.
Guns aren’t lawful;
Nooses give;
Gas smells awful;
You might as well live.
–Dorothy Parker
__________________
Sounds transgressive for me, at least for its time.
Anyway, my full statement:
[Sagan] was the French Dorothy Parker with a generous side of Hunter S. Thompson.
That’s what we in the lit biz call a “metaphor.” It’s not a B&W factual statement. It’s a comparison without using like or as.
Obviously there is no such thing as a “French Dorothy Parker with a generous side of Hunter S. Thompson.” My intent was to convey to an American audience a sense of Sagan.
Perhaps you’d like to take a crack at refuting, “No man is an island,” another metaphor.
Comedian David Steinberg had fun indignantly pointing out that was like saying “No man is a potato salad.”
True!
You want an example of true savagery, look at this report.*
Now, I wonder where these children got the idea to do this?
Could it be rap music lyrics, images on TV, their homelife?
You can be sure that they will be portrayed as just innocent–if misguided–little children, victims of society, kids who actually aspired to grow up to be doctors–the next Pasteur, or astronauts–a potential Armstrong, to be allowed to “bloom,”and to benefit their fellow man.
My sister went to school in Boston in the late 60’s & I attended school in Connecticut so I spent some time in Boston. Worst city to drive a car in the US. I called it “the city of one-way streets”. Lots of history but a pain to drive around.
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I’m a little skeptical about one thing they say. The Parisian boulevards were the work of Napoleon III. But he became Emperor DURING the Irish famine. So how can they have inspired roads of the same era? I suppose it’s just barely possible, but unlikely, at a minimum.
From the “You Really Can’t This Stuff Up” File (cross-filed with “Wonders of Diversity”…
“CAIR Sues Northwestern, Alleging Anti-Semitism Training a Violation of Civil Rights Act;
“The group, representing Northwestern Graduate Students for Palestine, argues that subjecting students to anti-Semitism training ‘prohibit[s] expressions of Palestinian identity’”—
https://freebeacon.substack.com/p/cair-sues-northwestern-alleging-anti
Looking at the bright side, though, it’s tremendously reassuring that CAIR—finally!—is fighting for human rights!
…but it gets even “funnier”…
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21984/europe-business-climate
And then there’s “transparency”, Starmer-style…
https://instapundit.com/751584/
(A lovely trait Britain’s Labour Party wholeheartedly shares with DPUSA…along with honesty, fairness and patriotism…)
Well, Barry Meislin, at least CAIR is openly admitting that hating Jews is inherent to the “Palestinian” identity.
This was linked at Instapundit. I find much truth in it; Neo, and I, and the article’s author, and several female commenters here are outliers from the majority trends described here.
https://www.compactmag.com/article/the-great-feminization/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oR20LbydCYo
==
Needs stain. I think it would be agreeable to strip every piece of trim in the house and the painted doors as well.
==
The blue is OK. Might consider cream color, light yellow, pale green, bottle green, light blue or wallpaper.
==
https://www.aestheticinteriors.com/sc/store.php?crn=206
==
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/0d/82/24/0d82241fe3c1e696521303e0886bb477.jpg
https://www.shutterstock.com/image-generated/floral-wallpaper-design-1890s-england-birds-2445722921?dd_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fduckduckgo.com%2F
==
Re: 1954
I just finished “Bonjour Tristesse”, a French bestseller and national sensation in 1954, written by a 17 year-old girl, Françoise Sagan . I thought I was getting some breezy Young Adult lit after the heaviness of “The Stranger.” Boy, was I wrong. A Catholic reviewer suggested it was written by the Devil.
How so? Well, it’s about another 17 year-old girl, Cécile, much like Sagan herself, whose mother died a few years ago, and who now lives an idyllic life with her rich playboy father and his femme du jour, Elsa, on the French Riviera. However, her father wants to settle down with an old flame, Anne, whom he invites to visit. Anne shows up and serious complications ensue.
First, there is now a romantic triangle between father, Elsa and Anne. However, Anne is also positioning herself to be Cécile’s mother and a Freudian triangle emerges between the father, Anne and Cécile. Holy Electra Complex, Batman!
Cécile is a bright amoral teenager. She plots to break Anne by tricking her father into cheating with Elsa. Cécile succeeds so well that Anne drives off in tears, then has a fatal accident — suicide? — on a windy, cliffside road. It’s a real gut punch, effectively, horrifyingly written. (Much of the impact of Bonjour is knowing that the author is a 17 year-old girl.)
Why 1954? That was also the year William Golding’s “The Lord of the Flies” and the lesser-known, William March’s “The Bad Seed” came out. Both were horror stories about the potential amorality of the young.
Interesting how an idea can emerge simultaneously in different countries.
Some of you may find this medical testimony of interest.
(OTOH, since it would appear to vindicate RFK Jr., others may find it “non grata”…)
“Can Diet-Changes Really Transform ADHD? One Family’s Remarkable Discovery”—
https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/can-diet-changes-really-transform-adhd-one-familys-remarkable-discovery
huxley:
From Sagan’s Wiki entry:
Another potential Trump victim that Schumer et al. might be seriously interested in defending to the hilt….
“Gazan…who took part in Oct. 7 attack caught ‘hiding’ in Louisiana, says Justice Department”—
https://www.jns.org/gazan-monster-who-took-part-in-oct-7-attack-caught-hiding-in-louisiana-says-justice-department/
H/T Instapundit.
Kate,
Fascinating article. Kinda opened my eyes more to what I saw happening in academia. As the college I worked at became majority women faculty since the turn of the century, all those changes occurred. I remember one of the old male faculty bemoaning the “gynocracy” that had taken over the school. Sounded crass then, but he was on to something. Now the school from the president, through the administration and the faculty are more a super majority female. And of course the student body is way beyond the 60/40 national average. And the school continues to slide even further leftward while its financial situation continues to deteriorate.
huxley…”That was also the year William Golding’s “The Lord of the Flies” and the lesser-known, William March’s “The Bad Seed” came out. Both were horror stories about the potential amorality of the young”
There’s another book that came out at about the same time as “Lord of the Flies” and with a similar plot…kids stranded a long way away from adult supervision or influence…but which projects a very different view of humans and society. The book is Heinlein’s “Tunnel in the Sky”, which I reviewed here:
https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/67200.html
Re: Tunnel in the Sky
David Foster:
I know the title but not read it. Perhaps I’ll get to it.
Lest anyone doubt, Robert Heinlein wasn’t just a science fiction writer. He was thoroughly plugged into the politics, science and arts of his day.
In honor of the NoThings protest…
‘Watch: US Military Strikes “Very Large” Drug-Carrying Submarine In Caribbean’—
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/watch-us-military-strikes-very-large-drug-carrying-submarine-caribbean
@neo :From Sagan’s Wiki entry….
Sagan had a wicked self-deprecating sense of humor as well as a reckless lifestyle — at least two serious car accidents, drug problems and money carelessness.
She was the French Dorothy Parker with a generous side of Hunter S. Thompson. She made no apologies.
Sagan’s nonchalant story of being a bored high-school student who one summer typed up “Bonjour” hunt-and-peck style in a couple months was a great legend, but left out important details. She had already read Tolstoy, Dostoevsky and Proust. “Bonjour Tristesse” was structurally modeled on Camus’s “The Stranger.”
She was a natural writer, but that book didn’t come out of nowhere. However, that was the story she liked to tell and that story worked too. The French loved her.
She was the French Dorothy Parker with a generous side of Hunter S. Thompson. She made no apologies.
==
Dorothy Parker’s business was (often caustic) reviews, humor writing, screenwriting, &c. She wasn’t a producer of transgressive fiction. She was a married woman for 30 years. She couldn’t have children because she had an abortion around about 1925 which left her infertile. She had satisfactory relations with her sister. Her notable personal shortcoming was alcoholism and alcohol, street drugs, and / or prescription drugs were an issue for those around her (1st husband, 2d husband (IIRC), and Robert Benchley, her dearest friend). She was a woman who hurt too much to have no apologies.
==
One curio: she left her estate to Martin Luther King Jr. Miscellaneous parties had custody of her ashes, but none contacted her niece and nephew, then living in Rochester.
Oh, I don’t know…
__________________
Resumé
Razors pain you;
Rivers are damp;
Acids stain you;
And drugs cause cramp.
Guns aren’t lawful;
Nooses give;
Gas smells awful;
You might as well live.
–Dorothy Parker
__________________
Sounds transgressive for me, at least for its time.
Anyway, my full statement:
[Sagan] was the French Dorothy Parker with a generous side of Hunter S. Thompson.
That’s what we in the lit biz call a “metaphor.” It’s not a B&W factual statement. It’s a comparison without using like or as.
Obviously there is no such thing as a “French Dorothy Parker with a generous side of Hunter S. Thompson.” My intent was to convey to an American audience a sense of Sagan.
Perhaps you’d like to take a crack at refuting, “No man is an island,” another metaphor.
Comedian David Steinberg had fun indignantly pointing out that was like saying “No man is a potato salad.”
True!
You want an example of true savagery, look at this report.*
Now, I wonder where these children got the idea to do this?
Could it be rap music lyrics, images on TV, their homelife?
* See https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/10/horror-9-year-old-boy-10-year-old/
You can be sure that they will be portrayed as just innocent–if misguided–little children, victims of society, kids who actually aspired to grow up to be doctors–the next Pasteur, or astronauts–a potential Armstrong, to be allowed to “bloom,”and to benefit their fellow man.
My sister went to school in Boston in the late 60’s & I attended school in Connecticut so I spent some time in Boston. Worst city to drive a car in the US. I called it “the city of one-way streets”. Lots of history but a pain to drive around.