Suppose it were Friday cli: Compression for a cause

Gérard, anticipating release from

interrogation today in the general

amnesty expected of most Fridays,

has been pondering whether the new

American government might spontan-

eously detain him on suspicion of

knowing his nation's customs too

well. How shall he recognize, in

his perch of isometric exposure,

whether Friday has come at all?

Carroll Shelby

Cobra

AC Motors, Ltd. and

  the Ford Motor Company

1962 - 1965

On my way to Guéthary

   The open secret, that the diagnostic

   imaging platforms of modern medicine

   are as close as most of us are like-

   ly to come to an Atlantic crossing in

   First Class on the Normandie, was not

   lost on me in an inconceivably expen-

   sive ride in the radiology wing of a

   local hospital, only this week. What

   I missed by way of deck sports cer-

   tainly was recompensed by the pres-

   tige of my exposure to body-surfing

   loads of lethal energy, and all of

   it a tax-free benevolence of one or

   another of our sovereign insurance

   empires. Offered my little identify-

   ing wristband as a keepsake of this

   journey, I realized I had been only

   the baggage of an opulent carriage.

Futures

The semillon grape is the foundation

for a wine, Sauternes, one would only

waste if approached in its first 20

years. Skillfully handled on the vine

to achieve a trace of noble rot, it is

harvested cluster by cluster, in sev-

eral passes. This trial by patience is

reflected in its palate in maturity,

in intonations of earth, season, fruit,

and a longevity of depth and radiance

on which it is absurd to cast a price.

Its pitiably small supply, therefore,

must be reserved en primeur if ever

it is to be savored, with one's only

warranty the reputation of the house.

Château Climens

Barsac

Balthus shows the way

In his prophetic watercolor from 1958,

Study for the Siesta, Balthus went be-

yond predicting Florida's exemption 

from government's new call for oil on

the beaches, as a periwinkle on the E-

lectoral College map. He foretold the

solution for the Leader's Easter melt-

down over caravans of aliens, swelling

California's voting rolls: suspension

from the vote count altogether, until

that bloated bladder can be purged of

evil brown tones. How the heartland,

swollen proud, disses pale wisteria of

tiresome New England, and rises on the

slop of fossil fuel's tumescent show.

We study the signs, just as the Leader

does, of his next fantasia on our race.

Rameau and coffee

  The extraordinary dialogue
  between a morning in Spring
  and the ruminations of Jean-
  Philippe Rameau at his key-
  board: which came first, we
  aren't the first to wonder.

  Coffee, on the other hand,
  is more challenging. It in-
  sinuates, it transforms at-
  tention. Fragonard's silent
  pet.

Jean-Honoré Fragonard
The Music Lesson
ca 1768

Angela Hewitt
  soloist and essayist
Rameau: Keyboard Suites
1728
Hyperion Records Ltd, 2007©

Jean Puiforcat
Initiales
ca 1928
Cup and saucer

Old cherries

    It was a good idea, cutting away

    the vines and ivy, trimming back

    the chest-high thicket lazy years

    had let grow here. Though it wasn't for lack

    of love for the trees, I'd like to point out.

    Years love trees in a way we can't

    imagine. They just don't use the fruit

    like us; they want instead the slant

    of sun through narrow branches, the buckshot

    of rain on these old cherries. 

Nathaniel Perry

Nine Acres

  Re-making a

  Neglected Orchard

  [fragment]

op. cit.

2011©

Saul Leiter
1923-2013
undated

Onions we are noting

Christopher Benfey offers an excellent essay just now, at The New York Review, alongside Jed Perl's on an exhibition of photographs by Peter Hujar. Renoir on the nature of life, Hujar on promise, possibility, uncertainty, and doubt. Layers of the season.

Hobbies must be doing well

   Many must already have sensed, if

   not remarked, what a paradox it is

   for the big-box brick-and-mortar

   toy giant to have thrown itself 

   upon the mercies of liquidation,

   at the very apogee of fantasy's

   dominion in America. What a moment

   for plunging, with that diverting

   concentration which only a great

   hobby can sustain, into the craft-

   ing of model airplanes, the sym-

   pathies of glue playing a gallant

   part. Is knitting still allowed,

   in the vertiginous free-fall of

   gender-tainted pastimes; and for

   that matter, do boys still gather

   mollusks at the quayside when the

   tide runs out?