Learning nothing & forgetting nothing edition: how someone can remain utterly clueless as to who he is...; Peretz still thinks the “mob of thugs” in Harvard Yard was ginned up by Nick Kristof...
I pretty much let my New Republic subscription lapse about that time. IMHO, the one really valuable contribution from the magazine during my years of reading (1967-2010) was the weekly movie reviews by Stanley Kauffmann. He spoke more eloquently about movies than any other critic and usually had only a page and a half each week (in contrast to Pauline Kael whose bloviating bored me to no end).
I did get to attend The New Republic's concert preceding the Obama inauguration back in 2009 featuring Yo-Yo Ma and The Silk Road Ensemble. The politicos (lobbyists) at my employer, PhRMA where I was VP for Science and Regulatory Affairs (don't throw rocks at me!) gifted my wife and I two front row tickets. We were seated right next to E.J. Dionne and Jonathan Cohn which was rather nice. Peretz was an annoying emcee but Ma and the Ensemble were electric. There was a reception afterwards where we met the musicians which was super cool.
Taking note here (in a "briefly noted" spirit, not with respect to Peretz):
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/15/us/politics/kentanji-brown-jackson-racism.html
or more accessibly (from my perspective) at https://web.archive.org/web/20230916053646/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/15/us/politics/kentanji-brown-jackson-racism.html
I pretty much let my New Republic subscription lapse about that time. IMHO, the one really valuable contribution from the magazine during my years of reading (1967-2010) was the weekly movie reviews by Stanley Kauffmann. He spoke more eloquently about movies than any other critic and usually had only a page and a half each week (in contrast to Pauline Kael whose bloviating bored me to no end).
I did get to attend The New Republic's concert preceding the Obama inauguration back in 2009 featuring Yo-Yo Ma and The Silk Road Ensemble. The politicos (lobbyists) at my employer, PhRMA where I was VP for Science and Regulatory Affairs (don't throw rocks at me!) gifted my wife and I two front row tickets. We were seated right next to E.J. Dionne and Jonathan Cohn which was rather nice. Peretz was an annoying emcee but Ma and the Ensemble were electric. There was a reception afterwards where we met the musicians which was super cool.