Like a lot of Beat writers, I have mixed feelings about him. On the Road is a spectacular book and everyone should read it, but if you chose never to read anything else by Kerouac, I’m not sure your emotional and intellectual life would suffer much for it. Dharma Bums is good, but it’s no On the Roadand I’m just not going to say, ‘go out and read it now!’
In high school, we did always name whoever was driving on Saturday nights “Neal Cassady” after the real life namesake of the Dean Moriarty character. And I always remember (though I can’t recall the words) the exactitude of feeling and eloquence of the narrator looking down from the car window and seeing the road smoothly speed past them as if they were floating.
Also, Jack Kerouac spent his last days in St. Petersburg, Florida. Despite the occasional article in the paper, though, the town seems to take little or no pride in the connection. A pity.
Rarely has a victory given a candidate less to cheer about.
It’s not exactly Pyrrhic, but it’s… well, it’s something ugly. Something in Latin or ancient Greek that expresses the idea of ‘icky and kind of sad and pathetic, but at least no one died.’
And while the 2008 Democratic primary also dragged on for a very long time, the difference is that Obama, who became the frontrunner after winning Iowa (and never relinquished that status even after losing New Hampshire), grew in strength and further demonstrated the breadth of his appeal in that extended primary.
Romney is highlighting the narrowness and limitations of his appeal during this extended primary.
Arguably, one of the reasons that this primary just refuses to roll over and die, i.e., give Mitt his nomination, is that the ‘establishment’ that has so consistently backed him is having these limitations shoved in their face with every loss and with every unimpressive victory.
An extended primary can be a good thing. It can sharpen a candidate’s skills and highlight his strengths. But that’s not happening here. Mitt Romney is just limping ahead.
Partly, this is because Obama faced a strong challenger in the 2008 Democratic primary in Clinton, so his setbacks were seen as part of contest between relative equals and his victories as hard fought and well won.
Romney’s victories are seen as shallow signs of weakness, because his opponents are seen as rather weak. Neither Santorum nor Gingrich have raised much money in comparison to Romney, but Mitt has still been forced to hemorrhage cash just to eke out meager wins over underfunded opposition.
That’s why we’re seeing establishment figures talk about a brokered convention and hint at a ‘white knight’ (like Jeb Bush, for example) coming in to save the day. Because if Mitt isn’t actually a strong, competent candidate, what the heck is the point of candidacy? They’re thinking that the only way he’ll get to the White House is if he repaints his sprawling, Southern California mansion like a Greek ruin (there’s a metaphor in that; something about ruins, collapse and maybe hubris).
That’s not going to happen, of course, because supposed ‘white knights’ are also seeing Obama’s numbers steadily rise and solidify. Instead, we’ll likely see a slow, painful Bataan march towards a weary and uninspired narrow win by virtue of the slow accumulation of delegates and an ugly to watch process of attrition.
National Airport in DC used to have a Borders Express. Naturally, that’s gone, but to my delight, another bookstore has taken its place.
As I expected (and as usual in airport bookstores), the selection was a little too popular for me, but they did have several entire bookcases devoted exclusively to Penguin Classics. So the next time I fly out of DCA, I won’t have to worry if I neglect to bring reading material.
The Atlanta airport (where I had a layover on my way back to DC from Florida) had a smaller bookshop called Simply Books. It had a small selection of Penguin Classics on a small, circular metal rack. They also sold Amazon’s Kindle Fire and there was a small cafe attached to the shop.
Though my high school buddies and I singularly failed to recreate the creative and artistic atmosphere of the cafe culture in Paris from 1900-1929 at a series of diners and coffeehouses in Florida in the early nineties, at least we can read about the real thing.
That’s really all I have to say. He’s not going to win. Even a last minute surge won’t help him because of Romney’s advantage in early votes. If you’ve been paying attention, this really shouldn’t be new.
There’s no question that Republican Party tends to be more hierarchical in practice than the Democratic Party. That’s not a necessarily a criticism nor is it a statement of across the board, in every circumstance fact. It’s a tendency or a trend, if you will.
Well, the hierarchy has (somewhat unenthusiastically) settled Romney as ‘next in line.’ There have been some bumps in the road and no one really likes Romney all that much, but that’s how it is people.
Romney was chosen a while back and things have almost finished falling into place for him.
Firstly, Florida is fertile ground for a resurgent Newt. It’s got a strong Tea Party presence. Its Republican primary electorate skews older, which means a lot more voters who will fondly remember Newt’s 1994 glory days.
But Florida is an expensive to run television ads based on the sheer number of markets and the relative expense of the bigger media markets and Mitt has more money.
The real question is the impact of those votes already cast. Vote by mail began before Newt won South Carolina and, until the other day, Mitt was leading in Florida.
A close race probably goes to Mitt, with his greater financial resources and the impact of those ‘pre-surge’ mail ballots.
Today is Kerouac’s ninetieth birthday.
Do liberals get it?
the coffee philosopher 