Torsade Literary Space My Blog Week: April 7 to April 13
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A Word on the Week
We’ve had lots of speculation about the American president’s rambling, choppy habits of speech. Commentators often counter that armchair diagnoses aren’t fair. True. We’ll expect, nonetheless, a heckload of speculation on the fitness of candidates, what they might be “hiding” in their personal lives, etc., as the 2020 election approaches.
It seems to me, and this is observable, that Mr. Trump has gone for decades surrounded by people who smile and nod, who bear (maybe just tune out) his repetitions and his unfinished sentences. His rally audiences cheer them. When he spoke this week on the Masters golf tournament, someone might have intervened, hearing the same phrases over and over: “You know Tiger Woods, don’t you?” “How many years, now, have you been watching the Masters?” The president seems to access things he has just said, things most ready-to-hand; he is not challenged to dig deeper. His emotional state seems not to vary. Memories are linked to feelings other than the present ones; feelings in turn link to memories.
Cognitive decline is possible. But Mr. Trump’s bad habits have been reinforced by his coterie for years. The fact is, they don’t engage with him. Even his sympathetic Fox interviewers just offer him jumping-off points.
Monday, an episode of Yoharie went up, part two of “Security Check”, in which Jeremiah Hibbler gets access to Giarma and Valentine’s rooms; in Tuesday’s Sequence of Events, Rose Durco follows a clue to a view of her lost daughter. Another piece of The Totem-Maker’s chapter five, “Winter Alone” on Wednesday, with the character made immediate use of by the Prince. Thursday, Catastrophe, an introduction to the young mayor of Fort-de-France; Friday, chapter thirty-seven of Hammersmith, as the story makes its way to a close (about three more to go!), Curach and Ruby Magley the first to exit the scene…and on Saturday, The Folly’s Fifth Pale Knight, “The Zone of Prophecy”, in which the guest, digressively, explains the rigor applied to those predictions that pass muster.
Images on my posts often have a link to related information (click first image), sometimes serious, sometimes whimsical, sometimes in answer to a direct reference. Since people can be leery about links, I include them here: what they are, what sites they point to.
My Blog Week: April 7 to April 13
Yoharie: Security Check (part two)
April 8
Sequence of Events: Give a Dog a Bad Name (part two)
April 9
The Totem-Maker: Winter Alone (part four)
April 10
La Catastrophe de la Martinique: fifty-one
April 11
United States Library of Congress: San Francisco Call 11/21/1902
More Peaceful Pursuits: Hammersmith (thirty-seven)
April 12
The Zone of Prophecy: Fifth Pale Knight
April 13
Ancient History: Bhagavad Gita