Origins of Wednesday lxviii: Only, our misplaced modifier

I spent a little bit of this
morning's coffee, trying to
rinse the grit from my eyes
of the latest Presidential
display of puerility, by im-
agining Dwight David Eisen-
hower, tidying the lapels
of Charles de Gaulle. Only
by admitting to myself, how
forgotten they are, was it
possible to regard that im-
age with any comprehension.

 The American President is a
 case study in the misplace-
 ment of an exclusive singular.
 Only because this is so cus-
 tomary, do we indulge his
 indiscipline as only routine.
 It'd be worse than bizarre,
 to see it as comprehensible.

Finding out things

[Freeman, holding forth as usual like
a professor]: "Scientists are still
trying to find out how pigeons can 
find their way home. We don't know
whether they can find their way by 
the stars." [George]: But I know that
camels find their way by the stars."
[Freeman]: "How do you know that?"
[George]: "Because when three wise men
were going to Bethlehem, the camels 
saw a star in the sky, and so they
knew where to go."

Esther is looking through an anthology

of children's poems: "That's funny, I 

wrote a poem called 'Daisy Song,' and 

now I see another author has written one 

too." [Freeman]: "Who is the other auth-

or?" [Esther}: "John Keats."

Freeman Dyson

La Jolla

April 19, 1959

Maker of Patterns

  An Autobiography

  through Letters

Liveright/Norton, 2018©