I try to be amused…
When troubles arise, better people have a line of poetry to soothe the moment. Primitive that I am, I often find myself remembering, “I used to be disgusted, now I try to be amused.”
It’s the intro to “White Shoes,” a long-forgotten Elvis Costello song about a bad break-up. He considers ending it all. But instead he tries, not altogether convincingly to be amused.
Profound? No. Poetic? Helpful? Not really. But when it comes to public affairs and rank culture, it can help.
Only The Worst Parts of History Repeat Themselves
We not only repeat history, we copy it I’m told that studying history is a good way to avoid repeating it. But, as a whole, it’s not working out that way. Studying history has done little to prevent us from repeating…
The Madmen May Change, But The Headlines Don’t
Some things in history do repeat themselves History doesn’t repeat itself, it rhymes. Mark Twain originally wrote that. Or not. This being the post-truth age, his authorship, too, has been questioned. But some things in history do repeat themselves…
World War II’s Guests: Enemy Soldiers Living in the U.S.
Like, 425,000 of Them I’ve been talking to book clubs and groups about “Something Like Treason,” which, of course, is about some pro-German U.S. soldiers during World War II. Until climate change became evident to enough people, World War II…
The strange allure of World War II and meat-grinding
One Man’s War is another Man’s Movie I do love World War II. No, not the meat-grinding blood, torture, cruelty, death, and heartache that it was. But let some character seem to die or spy in a war book, movie…
Only SOMETHING like treason?
I thought I had settled on a good book title. Among other things, however, it also seemed to produce an apparently irresistible urge for people to ask, “why was it only something like treason.” World War II was well before…
Flattery always enthusiastically embraced
When I was researching the book, I ran across a really interesting military historian named Fred Borch. I cited some of his work in “Something Like Treason.” Now I’m ready to do something modest like worship at his feet because…
I try to be amused…
When troubles arise, better people have a meaningful line of poetry at the ready to soothe the moment. Primitive that I am, here’s what I often resort to: ”I used to be disgusted, now I try to be amused.“
It’s the first line of a long-forgotten Elvis Costello song. It’s about a bad break-up. The singer considers ending it all. Instead he tries, not altogether successfully, to be amused.
Profound? No. Poetic? Solve anything? Not really.
If you’re lucky, it doesn’t make you smart or at peace. Just somewhat amused.