I’ve more to say today, but I’m busy working on a response to Adam Gopnik’s latest letter in our exchange of views about the question “Are the methods used by science the only way of knowing?” As expected, Adam defended literature as a “way of knowing”, and I have much to say in response—too much to be shoehorned into 1200 words. Condense, condense, condense. But the exchange will go on for at least three letters each, or more likely four, and it’s both enormously fun and has also made me think hard.

Until this afternoon, then, I offer this post as a platform for readers’ discussion.  You can talk about anything you want, but I’ll make a suggestion, which you don’t have to address:

How is the new administration doing? Clearly it’s miles better than Trump’s, but are there things you aren’t keen on? What about the expensive ($1.9 trillion) pandemic relief bill? Will $1400 stimulus checks to those making below a certain amount really constitute any substantial help? Does the minimum-wage increase belong in this bill? Is Joe’s administration too woke? How is he handling the pandemic?

It’s not a sin, you know, to find fault with an administration that you see as a tremendous improvement over the four-year nightmare that was Trump.

Or, discuss whatever you want.

I have little free time today, and am thus putting up a discussion thread. Readers can talk about anything they want. I’ll start with a suggestion, but you need not take it up.

There are a pair of articles in Psychology Today about how and why The University of California eliminated the SAT standardized achievement test despite its own council’s exhaustive reserach and recommendation that it be retained because it (especially in conjunction with high school grades) was one of the best predictors of college achievement (measured by grade point average, or GPA). You can read the two parts below, or just weigh in on the general trend of colleges and universities (and now graduate schools) eliminating standardized test results as criteria for admission.

Click on the screenshots to read:

Part 1:

Part 2

Or discuss what you want: Kamala Harris, the pandemic, or whatever, but try to keep the discussion reasonably coherent.

This is an experiment born of my difficulty with braining today because it’s the anniversary of Grania’s death. Feel free to talk about anything. I’ll suggest some topics based on recent events or on New York Times or Washington Post articles, but you’re not at all required to even mention these.

A NYT editorial by Jennifer Finney Boylan that, while extolling the Supreme Court decision on LGBTQ rights, accuses J. K. Rowling of “hate”. (Boylan is a trans woman.)

A WaPo article on North Korea blowing up the liaison office with South Korea in the DPRK village of Kaeson, which served as an informal embassy. Is Kim Jong-un just bluffing for some unspecified gain. After all, war with South Korea (and perforce the U.S.) would destroy the country.

Here’s a Torygraph video of the destruction of the building:

Joyce’s Ulysses. Have you read it? (It took me about four tries, and I still like Dubliners (especially The Dead) better, though Ulysses is a world class novel—one that you need a guide to read.)

Ricky Gervais’s t.v. series After Life. I’ve managed to watch the entire first season and, like many readers, thought it was very good.  To me it was marred at the end, however, by the seeming need to wrap everything up with a bow in a happy ending, with Tony getting a girlfriend, making peace with the people he didn’t like (even giving a treat to Diane Morgan), reconciling himself to living, and so on. It was an abrupt ending—too abrupt—and though I think two more seasons are in store, I don’t see the point of going on with the series given the plot resolution. Change my mind!

And for your reading pleasure: a wonderful photographic essay on the Indian state of Gujurat.

Somebody start. And I tell you what: if there aren’t at least fifty comments, I’ll be disappointed in my readers and shoot this cat.