"We as a nation simply cannot" [fill in the blank]

We were enchanted, weren't we,
to see that wonderful scaffold
for demagogic perfidy deployed
in an online column by a CNN
"Business" contributor, on the
wisdom of American trade "pol-
icy" at this moment of inter-
national sinking in soufflées.

Surely we recall a fratboy's
exculpatory mantra, whenever
his least excusable of binges
tugs at the heartstrings so
infallibly enmeshed in flag,
family, and fanny: the exi-
gencies of fellows, faith,
and fornication working fat-
uously to mask his choices. 

Recall these farces as we may,
it never hurts to pass around
their latest re-enactment, to
set the stage for Laurel and
Hardy on Saturday morning TV.
The Manichaeans play so well
in monochrome, don't they. We
love how their catastrophes
simply cannot be averted.

Danish borders we have known

Who knew that the present era,

such as it is, might come to be

defined by that Kierkegaardrail

against expansive idiocy, that

Danish aperçu-to-go with coffee,

the absurd. A pity, that from a

Queens so awash in Danish pastry,

a politician should have emerged

to stalk the earth with ignorance

as phosphorescent as his hair, on-

ly to gain his comeuppance from a

female prime minister who thought

better of her territorial integ-

rity than to cede it, McConnell-

ishly, to his silly bluster. It

wasn't so much that his nation

had furnished no rejoinder, that

set the morning papers abuzz to

do the job of nailing it down, but

that when it finally did arrive,

it should have tripped so obvious-

ly and irrefutably from a culture

not known for power plays at all.

Ladies' Javelin aside, of course.

Christina Scherwin

Rued, the boat

You think Britain has it bad, to

be led by a PM of iridescent dis-

regard for the realities of Brex-

it? America has a similarly dyed

monstrosity, who can't stay afloat

without fibbing. But think of poor

Bogey, sparring with Claude Rains

on the patio at Rick's, having to

claim he migrated to Casablanca

for the waters, against Rains' re-

joinder that there aren't any. On-

ly in the movies, is it endearing

to confess, I was misinformed. Or

does that line survive so well, be-

cause it's lifted from childhood?

Khaki sempervirens

  I don't know why I think the green

  that is so congenital in khaki is,

  in any way, elusive. It may please

  me to be so, but it will be there.

  With which colors is one careless?

Lynn Bystrom

Gray Wolf

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