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Does anyone remember the time in the 1990s when some kids made up fake slang words & convinced the New York Times they were widely used. I think @thebafflermag did an article about this.
Thanks to @tomtomorrow & others for remembering this. The New York Times in 1992 thought this was authentic grunge slang. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grunge_sp…
And here is @thebafflermag's hilarious account of the whole thing. thebaffler.com/salvos/harsh-r…
What I'm trying to say is that there is precedence for the New York Times being clueless about the vernacular.
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Jeet Heer
@HeerJeet
1. It's hard to overstate how bad things look right now for America being able to get a handle on the pandemic: support for the lockdown is becoming partisan, some state governments are prematurely lifting the lockdown, and outside of NY state it hasn't even peaked yet.
2. The botched response to the pandemic is due in large part to Trump, who lacks both the intellectual capacity and empathy that the moment requires. His singleminded focus on trying to preserve the image of a good economy for the sake of re-election has led to disaster
3. But as so often in the Trump era, the disaster was caused not just by Trump's unfitness but also by the very political system that elevated Trump to a position he is unfit for. There's the failure of the GOP & the bipartisan failure of policy
Read 6 tweets
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Jeet Heer
@HeerJeet
1. So what would re-opening of society look like. As it happens, I'm in a position to offer some thoughts since I'm in Saskatchewan, which has a very low rate (6 deaths per million, as against 90 for Canada & 197 for USA) & is phasing in re-opening.
2. On April 23, the Saskatchewan government announced a program of re-opening. It was to start on May 4 and be very phased in, with the initial opening focused on healh care services (dentistry, optometry, etc). Meetings of up 10 people now allowed.
3. So far, so good. The government is handling it responsibly. The one area that is worrying is public reaction. Immediately after announcement (i.e. 2 weeks before phase 1 even started) many more people were out walking, not doing social distancing etc.
Read 5 tweets
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Jeet Heer
@HeerJeet
1. Lots of people have been turning to highbrow literature -- Boccaccio, Ibsen, Camus -- for guidance about life under a pandemic. But maybe there is something to learn from cheap B-movies as well, like the Boris Karloff thriller Isle of the Dead (1945).
2. To judge by the poster, Isle of the Dead is a schlocky creature feature, but it was produced by Val Lewton, who had the gift of making art in the guise of trash.
3. Lewton was hired by RKO in 1942 because the studio was tired of art. They lost their shirt with Citizen Kane & wanted to copy Universal Pictures franchise of monster flicks. So they handed Lewton a list of tawdry titles (Cat People, I Walked With a Zombie).
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