The great New Yorker/New York Review of Books writer/author Janet Malcolm threw down like a rapper on journalism in one of her most famous works, The Journalist and the Murderer. This post will grapples a bit with this contention, but simply as a writer, one has to respect the ferocity of her lede. “Morally indefensible?”Continue reading “Contra Janet Malcolm, not all journalists are betrayers”
Author Archives: Kit Stolz
Ojai’s Lorax: Alasdair Coyne
Ojai gardener, Alasdair Coyne, left the Japanese Mafia in the dirt in a high-stakes game to preserve what is now the Ventura River Preserve, owned by the Ojai Valley Land Conservancy. By Kit Stolz On a hot summer day in the mid-1990s, the conservationist andprofessional gardener Alasdair Coyne, who emigrated to Ojai fromScotland as aContinue reading “Ojai’s Lorax: Alasdair Coyne”
Fire weather and climate change
In Ventura County this week, the local National Weather Service station in Oxnard has issued the following warnings: On Sunday, a Red Flag Warning (for high heats and offshore winds)For the week, a Critical Fire Weather warning (for high heat, low humidity)for the last three days, an Excessive Heat Warning Do these “fire weather”warnings seemContinue reading “Fire weather and climate change”
Bob and Neil in 2020
Two of the leading lights of folk-rock in the 1960’s and 70’s — and still, arguably, its lead singers — were Bob Dylan and Neil Young. Each in his own way has stepped forward to sing to this calamitous moment in American history. Dylan released a month ago a record of blues, dirges, and —Continue reading “Bob and Neil in 2020”
Congressman Covid
The coronavirus has provided an extraordinary new image for cartoonists around the world to work into their satirical art. Here’s an example I think really clicks, from John Arlington of the US, discovered on the international — and great — Cartoon Movement, of the Texas Republican Louie Gohmert. Gohmert has been waging a brazen cultureContinue reading “Congressman Covid”
John Muir taken down from the pedestal by Sierra Club
Two days ago the Sierra Club made the front page of the Los Angeles Times when the 122-year-old environmental organization took down the monument in esteem that was its hero, John Muir, the co-founder of the organization, from his emeritus leadership position in the great beyond. Joseph LeConte, his friend and co-founder was outright disowned,Continue reading “John Muir taken down from the pedestal by Sierra Club”
Megadrought in the Southwest: LA Times vs NYT
Let me point out how different the same study can look to different reporters in different arenas. Bettina Boxall, the Pulitzer Prize-winning LA Times reporter, looks at California in her big front-page story a week ago about long-term drought in California and SoCal, and finds little change in rainfall but substantial change in human behaviorContinue reading “Megadrought in the Southwest: LA Times vs NYT”
The Trump Reaper
On the lying of the President, by Robert Bly, in 1973
The ministers lie, the professors lie, the television lies, the priests lie. . . . These lies mean that the country wants to die. Lie after lie starts out into the prairie grass, like enormous caravans of Conestoga wagons. . . . And a long desire for death flows out, guiding the enormous caravans fromContinue reading “On the lying of the President, by Robert Bly, in 1973”
“Now the Chief Executive enters, the press conference begins” — Robert Bly on Presidential Liars
From Robert Bly‘s The Teeth Mother Naked At Last Now the Chief Executive enters; the press conference begins: First the President lies about the date the Appalachian Mountains rose. Then he lies about the population of Chicago, then he lies about the weight of the adult eagle, then about the acreage of the Everglades HeContinue reading ““Now the Chief Executive enters, the press conference begins” — Robert Bly on Presidential Liars”
Kit Stolz 