The Writer's Life 6/2 - Priorities

The maddening assault on language by government continues. According to an article in today's NY Post, the NYPD has banned the use of the word “cut” in reports about slashings and stabbings — and laid out painfully obvious definitions for cops to rely on when recording the attacks. A memo that went out Friday specifies that a slashing is “a forceful sweeping stroke with an edged weapon that causes a laceration,” while a stabbing is “a thrust or plunging motion with an edged weapon that causes a puncture wound.” Has the force been dumbed-down to the degree that such explanations are necessary? It's more likely that those at the top are from a pool of the dumbed-down. As of last Monday, there have been 1796 slashings and stabbings in NYC in 2016, up significantly from last year.

The biggest story in America, outside of what the press chooses to smear Trump with each day, continues to be the killing of the gorilla. The cartoon above, by Chip Bok, appears in today's Post, Simply and powerfully, he states his view as cogently as the finest pundits in the country do in a long op-ed piece -- in 19 words! Kudos, sir. Chicago seems to resemble the wild west, and the media and pseudo-activists largely ignore the carnage. In a related story, yet another athlete heavily recruited by colleges, whose presence on St. John's campus was a joke, basketball player Rysheed Jordan, has been arrested, charged with robbery and attempted murder. Given a golden opportunity to create a great life for himself -- free education, possible NBA career, he chose to flush it away.

As I've said many times, when so many teams play a 162 game schedule, the amazing often occurs in MLB. Here's another example: In his last 190 plate appearances, SF Giants' pitcher Madison Bumgarner, batting only .180, has 11 home runs, the same as two of the game's great young players, the Nationals' Bryce Harper and the Angels' Mike Trout.

My thanks to the kind folks who bought wares today, especially the sweet elderly woman who overpaid for six Danielle Steel paperbacks. All eight I had on display were gone halfway through the session. I also sold the last two of the beautiful pictorials Tanya gave me a week ago, and two books on gardening in Russian. The four day lull has been vanquished.

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