A Big Collection of Tiny Books

Very Little Books at Lilly Library

   I was tempted to call this "Tiny Tomes," but that would be an oxymoron. I learned recently that there are around 16,000 miniature books in this Library at Indiana University in Bloomington. As I have noted, I think of "Libraries As Cabinets of Curiosities" and like it when they contain such things as books. I am pleased that the Hoosiers are still bothering with them even if they are small ones. 

  I noticed this perhaps because I remembered I had written something about tiny books. It turns out that I did so, way back in 2019, but it took me a while to find it since the Dutch term for them - "Dwarsliggers" - is buried in a post with the title "Tsundoku." That I know such things amazes me, almost as much as I am amazed by the fact that I will soon forget again what those words mean.

  

   The books were collected by two women and you can learn more about them by reading, "Ladies of the Lilly: Collectors Elisabeth Ball and Ruth Adomeit." Learn even more by looking at this article by Indiana Public Media which includes a YouTube video (2 min.): "Lilly Library Home to 16,000 Miniature Books," by Grace Marocco, March 29, 2024. 

   If that is not enough to entice you to go to Indiana, remember that Indiana University is a major repository for material relating to "America's Most Loved Reporter", Ernie Pyle, about whom MM has additional information. If you need more encouragement and are more interested in buildings than books, visit Columbus, Indiana, "An Architectural Mecca." 

A Very Big Library Donation at Davidson College
   I noticed this because a high school friend went to Davidson and I passed by there just recently. It is about thirty miles from Charlotte. I also noticed it because the total gift is $100 million and some of it will be used to keep and purchase actual books and periodicals. As I have complained, some libraries are getting rid of books to provide "Makerspaces" for students. I see that now that word is even found in Wikipedia - "Library Makerspace."   For more about Davidson see - "$25 Million Gift Names The George Lawrence Abernethy Library, Transforms Learning at Davidson College," Davidson College. 

A Small Bonus:
  Davidson is highly regarded. When my classmate enrolled in 1961, the school was all male and all white. Things have changed. You may know about it because Steph Curry attended and recently returned to get his degree.

WEATHER Feelings

"BUT, IT FEELS LIKE...." 
   The screen shot above was taken on the 24th of April when we returned from the south where we had ventured in search of warm breezes and some colour -- other than grey. If you are familiar with Fahrenheit you may recognize that the predicted temperature that day was below 50, although you should notice that it was going to feel even cooler, before things begin to feel much hotter. Apparently the weather in any season is now intolerable for many who feel it is too hot or cold. My complaint is not with the weather and it is a complaint with which you are familiar.
   Since I am not yet in blogging mode and far more important things should be undertaken, I will present here past pronouncements related to this subject. Out of fear of repeating myself, I went looking for them and you might as well benefit from my research since Mulcahy's Miscellany has no index. Besides, some of the posts contain better writing by other people. This list is not exhaustive and more weather-related items are found in, for example, the very popular feature "Beyond the Palewall." I need to remember this if I am low on subject matter and tempted to bring up the weather again.

"The Human Suffering Index" 
   The HSI sums things up pretty well as does the illustration by Edward Munch which you will recognize. Also included is, "The Dead of Winter" which helpfully includes a typically contrarian argument about the virtues of Fahrenheit over Celsius" for reporting the temperatures we feel. 

"The Wind Chill" is about it and also the "HUMIDEX," both of which are typically exaggerated as these quotations indicate:
"But why does every winter day have to be described as colder than it really is? Listen to the radio and count how often the announcer says: “ … but it’s going to feel like …” Increasingly I’m even hearing wind chill given more prominence than the actual temperature."
and:
"Here’s an example. On one day in a recent summer, I found Detroit and next-door Windsor with temperatures near 28 C. The Weather Network gave Detroit a “feels like” reading of 30.5. But in Windsor, Environment Canada had a humidex of 38."

"Weather Statement" includes an illustration which indicates that the "Summer" in Canada occupies only a tiny bit of our calendar and that soon we will be saying, "So Long Summer." 

The Bonus: The Answer to the Question, "What is a "Nice Day?"
"Have A Nice Day."

Post Script: Things Could Be Worse

All that is needed is another man and a horse.

 

  To make you feel better, I will suggest that you would feel worse if you were to wake up in Lahore, Pakistan, which is illustrated above and described below (from, the Washington Post, April 22, 2024, "As the Concrete World Comes Apart, I Hope For More Flowers in the Cracks," Mohsin, Hamid:)

"The first thing that strikes me about the world is that it is has become poisonous. We cannot breathe. From November until February, the blue sky is hidden behind a low ceiling of gray. This is not from clouds but from smoke. It is uncanny to take a flight in these months, to burst only seconds after takeoff into the blindingly bright light and see not a city but a gray blanket below. The cooler months used to be months of outdoor sports and running around with my cousins and shielding eyes with the blades of our hands from the sun. Now they are months when the land receives too little heat to push the smoke into the heavens, and so it settles all over the riverine plains, prevented from proceeding north by the mass of the Himalayas, choking us.
My children are not permitted to do outdoor sports in these months. Indoors, they sleep to the whirring sound of air purifiers, machines I had not imagined until recently. When we played in the winter as children, we would quench our thirst by working the shaft of the hand-pump in my grandparents’ house. Now, our children do not go out to play. The hand-pumps are all dry. We have depleted the aquifer. A machine bore is required to obtain water from hundreds of meters down, and that water too has been contaminated. Our world has become poisonous: The fireflies are gone, the children cough like smokers, the water is full of heavy metals. The economic miracle we have been promised has arrived, and it is a miracle of despoliation."

Aptronym Of The Week

David PECKER

   I have been away for a while and have done no blogging. I have returned home, but since it is sunny today this post will be brief, which is a good thing for you readers. The primary purpose is to push the post below down a bit. It is supposed to rain tomorrow, so I may get back to work - unless the neighbours come over to welcome us back and force us to celebrate too much. 

  You likely will have been following the many judicial proceedings south of our border and are familiar with the name above. It is the aptronym chosen. You may not be familiar with that word and, if not, read the aptly titled, "Aptronyms" in MM, where you will also learn about "inaptronyms", "nominative determinism" and "nominative contradeterminism". If you are a new reader, that substantive post is more typical of what is to be found in MM, than this rather shallow one, which will not bother to discuss derivative terms like, "peckerhead" or "dickhead."

 Pecker is the former publisher of the tabloid, National Enquirer, and can also take credit for involvement with other publications such as, Men's Fitness, Muscle and Fitness, Flex and Fit Pregnancy. As an indicator of their significance you should know that he abandoned a career as an accountant at Price Waterhouse, to produce them. 
  Pecker should be given credit for the photo above since I learned from him that, "The only thing that is important is the cover of a magazine." It is from a recent issue of the National Enquirer.  The editor, writer and CEO of Mulcahy's Miscellany will likely consider this strategy rather than work on their prose (note the "their", which the editor inserted.)

Source:
Note the singular usage since this post was not deeply researched. It is suggested that you simply use the Wikipedia entry for "David Pecker" rather than google the word "pecker." 

CANCON: 

"American Media's David Pecker Resigns From Postmedia Board:

U.S. Media Outlets Reported That He Was Granted Immunity by Federal Prosecutors in Connection With an Investigation into Payments Made During the 2016 U.S. Presidential Campaign, Financial Post, Aug. 28, 2018.

"David Pecker, chairman of the company that publishes the National Enquirer, resigned from the board of Postmedia Network Canada Corp. and its news-publishing subsidiary on Tuesday....“We would like to sincerely thank David for his dedication and contributions to Postmedia,” Paul Godfrey, Postmedia’s executive chairman and chief executive, added in the statement. Pecker joined the board of Postmedia, Canada’s largest newspaper publisher with print, online and mobile titles including the National Post, in October of 2016. His resignation Tuesday was “effective immediately,” according to the statement.

Sources From The Other Side

 

The only "trigger warning" offered.

   Sixteen Sources For Testing Civility

   Recently in the Globe & Mail an open letter, from some important people addressed to Canada's leaders, was published in which it is stated that,  "We, the undersigned, are calling on you to address urgently the rise of incivility, public aggression and overt hatred that are undermining the peace and security of Canadian life." The editorial board at the G&M followed up by noting that civility was indeed in short supply and that, as the title states, "The Defence of Civility Rests On All Of Us," (Oct.2, 2024.) Challenges to the current orthodoxy have declined as incivility has increased. 
   The number of sources from which we get our news and opinions has also declined. Chances are likely that you watch the CBC or CTV or read whatever is left of your local paper, or the Globe, the Star, or one of the many publications produced by Postmedia. Good, bad and interesting ideas are often found elsewhere and authors who should be read are now encountered in unlikely journals or on unknown substacks.
   A short while ago I wrote in support of "Academic Freedom & Free Speech" and provided links to campuses where there are attempts to promote intellectual openness. I will now offer some sources which can be used to test the level of toleration on a campus near you, or to test the civility of those in your intellectual circle. 
   The sources offered are not wildly provocative and the ideas presented in them are not bizarre ones, offered by the deranged to purposely encourage uncivil reactions. If you look through the descriptions for all of the sources (taken from the sources) you will find little to disagree with if you value things like common sense, freedom, justice, equality, fairness and other eternal verities. On the other hand, if you can be described as a "progressive", you are likely to disagree with most of the things found in the sources below since they can be characterized loosely as "conservative."
   Below you will find links to think tanks, organizations and journals. Many are Canadian, but two are from Australia and most deal with the debates and issues found at universities. The words related to some of the names below, signify what follows - e.g. "Heterodox", "Controversial", "History Reclaimed" and especially "Unherd." The only words of advice I offered to my granddaughter as she headed off to university was "avoid the herd of independent minds."

  Here are the sixteen sources, but I could have made it seventeen by including The Frontier Centre for Public Policy.  They provide another example of an antithetical bibliography, in that some of the ideas expressed may be new to you since they are not often found, even in rebuttals, in publications most of which simply repeat the truisms of the current orthodoxy. Prepare yourselves and watch your head. For example, among the publications mentioned in the first source, you will find an article with the title, "DEI Should DIE" (it is already on life support south of here) and a "radical" book suggesting that Canada is not a bad country in which to live and that there is much in our past that should be cherished, not cancelled. 

The Aristotle Foundation for Public Policy  (CANADIAN)
"The Aristotle Foundation for Public Policy is a new think tank that aims to renew a civil, common-sense approach to public discourse and public policy in Canada.
Our vision:
A Canada where the sacrifices and successes of past generations are cherished and built upon; where citizens value each other for their character and merit; and where open inquiry and free expression are prized as the best path to a flourishing future for all."

C2C Journal: Ideas That Lead   (CANADIAN) - Journal
Founded in 2007 as a print and online publication, C2C Journal is now primarily an online magazine publishing original commentaries, stories, reviews and investigative reports. Aimed at a national Canadian audience of readers interested in fresh ideas and quality writing about current political, cultural and economic issues, C2C specializes in longer form journalism that provides more substance than most mainstream news products and is more engaging than most academic journals.
     C2C’s unabashed bias is in favour of free markets, democratic governance and individual liberty. We strive for balance, fairness and accuracy in our reporting and commentary. Our mission is to explore and develop “Ideas that Lead” by encouraging writers to push boundaries, challenge orthodoxies and advance arguments rooted in the values and principles of classical liberalism and western civilization."

Canadian Constitution Foundation (CANADIAN)
"The Canadian Constitution Foundation (CCF) is a national and non-partisan charity. We are dedicated to defending the constitutionally protected rights and freedoms of Canadians, and to maintaining Canada’s constitution, including its federal structure and division of powers, as intended in the Constitution Act, 1867.... The CCF’s primary objective is to ensure that government power does not infringe on the rights and freedoms of Canadians, or disrupt the principles of Canadian federalism. The CCF advances these objectives by promoting civic engagement, awareness, and education regarding contemporary issues and developments in Canadian constitutional law. The CCF also initiates and intervenes in high-profile court cases, where it advocates against government overreach and urges courts to adhere to the written text and scheme of Canada’s Constitution.'

The Dorchester Review (CANADIAN) - Journal

The Dorchester Review is an extraordinary feast for the open mind, a rare species nowadays! There is simply no magazine in Canada like it.

FAIR - Foundation Against Intolerance & Racism (United States)

"FAIR is a nonpartisan organization dedicated to advancing civil rights and liberties for all, and promoting a common culture based on fairness, understanding, and humanity.

WE SEE PEOPLE FIRST.

FAIR advances Martin Luther King Jr’s guiding principle that we should be judged by the content of our character, not the color of our skin.

WE PROMOTE INCLUSION FOR EVERYONE. WE MEAN EVERYONE.

FAIR defends the rights and equality guaranteed to all human beings, without exception.

WE STAND UP TO BULLIES.

FAIR advocates for individuals who are threatened or persecuted for protected speech, held to a different standard of conduct, or denied rights or access based on their perceived identity group or perspective.

WE PROMOTE DISCOURSE.

FAIR supports respectful disagreement. We believe that bad ideas are best confronted with good ideas — never with censorship, dehumanization, deplatforming, or blacklisting."

 

FIRE - Foundation For Individual Rights and Expressions (United States)

"Since its founding more than two decades ago as the "Foundation for Individual Rights in Education," FIRE has become the nation’s leading defender of fundamental rights on college campuses through our unique mix of programming, including student and faculty outreach, public education campaigns, individual case advocacy, and policy reform efforts. In 2022, FIRE changed its name to the "Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression" and announced an expansion initiative into off-campus free speech advocacy and legal defense.

Heterodox Academy (United States)

"Heterodox Academy (HxA) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit membership organization of thousands of faculty, staff, and students committed to advancing the principles of open inquiry, viewpoint diversity, and constructive disagreement to improve higher education and academic research…

We see an academy eager to welcome professors, students, and speakers who approach problems and questions from different points of view, explicitly valuing the role such diversity plays in advancing the pursuit of knowledge, discovery, growth, innovation, and the exposure of falsehoods."

History Reclaimed (United Kingdom - has Canadian contributors)

Our Mission

"The abuse of history for political purposes is as old as history itself.  In recent years, we have seen campaigns to rewrite the history of several democratic nations in a way that undermines their solidarity as communities, their sense of achievement, even their very legitimacy.

These ‘culture wars’, pursued in the media, in public spaces, in museums, universities, schools, civil services, local government, business corporations and even churches, are particularly virulent in North America, Australasia and the United Kingdom.  Activists assert that ‘facing up’ to a past presented as overwhelmingly and permanently shameful and guilt-laden is the way to a better and fairer future.  We see no evidence that this is true.  On the contrary, tendentious and even blatantly false readings of history are creating or aggravating divisions, resentments, and even violence.  We do not take the view that our histories are uniformly praiseworthy—that would be absurd.  But we reject as equally absurd the claim that they are essentially shameful."

The James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal (North Carolina)

"What We Are Trying to Achieve

Our goals are to improve colleges and universities, especially in North Carolina.

We want to:

Increase the diversity of ideas taught, debated, and discussed on campus;

Encourage respect for the institutions that underlie economic prosperity and freedom of action and conscience;

Increase the quality of teaching and students’ commitment to learning so that they graduate with strong literacy and fundamental knowledge;

Encourage cost-effective administration and governance."

Journal of Controversial Ideas (United States)  - Journal

"The Journal of Controversial Ideas offers a forum for careful, rigorous, unpolemical discussion of issues that are widely considered controversial, in the sense that certain views about them might be regarded by many people as morally, socially, or ideologically objectionable or offensive. The journal offers authors the option to publish their articles under a pseudonym, in order to protect themselves from threats to their careers or physical safety.  We hope that this will also encourage readers to attend to the arguments and evidence in an essay rather than to who wrote it. Pseudonymous authors may choose to claim the authorship of their work at a later time, or to reveal it only to selected people (such as employers or prospective employers), or to keep their identity undisclosed indefinitely. Standard submissions using the authors’ actual names are also encouraged.

We welcome submissions in all areas of academic research insofar as the topics discussed are relevant to society at large.

The Journal of Controversial Ideas is not affiliated with any institution and does not support any beliefs or doctrines other than freedom of thought and expression. It is privately funded through donations. Please consider making a donation, thereby helping us to promote free inquiry."

Macdonald-Laurier Institute (MLI) (CANADIAN)

"Canada’s only truly national public policy think tank based in Ottawa.

MLI is rigorously independent and non-partisan, as symbolized by its name. Sir John A. Macdonald and Sir Wilfrid Laurier were two outstanding and long-serving prime ministers who represent the best of Canada’s distinguished political tradition. A Tory and a Grit, an English-speaker and a French-speaker, each of them championed the values that led to the creation of Canada and its emergence as one of the world’s leading democracies and a place where people may live in peace and freedom under the rule of law."

Minding the Campus: Reforming Our Universities (United States)

"When Allan Bloom wrote The Closing Of The American Mind more than three decades ago, he probably never imagined that the absence of intellectual pluralism he decried would still be upon us. There is an undeniable divide between the Academy and the larger society. The curtain that has been drawn around colleges and universities no longer protects intellectual exchange and a search for the truth. In the modern academy, many certainly do not know all of the ideas worthy of consideration.

Minding the Campus hopes to change that by fostering a new climate of opinion that favors civil and honest engagement of all ideas, offering an engaged debate for readers concerned with the state of the modern university and the society it serves. We provide a simple central resource, featuring fresh original content from professors and academics and we draw upon the best from established magazines and publications, as well as from less-visited corners, from professional journals to blogs and student publications. In connecting resources from disparate worlds, we hope to connect their readers, fostering potential for real discussion and change. A conversation about America’s Universities is needed; look for it here.

Quadrant (Australian) - Journal

"Our principal purpose is the defence of the values, practices, and institutions of a free and open society by fostering literary and cultural activity of the highest standard. In particular, we are committed to the preservation and advancement of the cultural freedom that is the distinctive component of traditional Western culture….

Quadrant publishes materials of the highest standard that seek to encompass the cultural traditions that endure within, and enrich, our civilization. The culture we defend derives from the Classical and Christian traditions of Greece, Rome and Jerusalem, as well as those of the British sceptical Enlightenment, especially the writers of eighteenth-century Edinburgh."

QUILLETTE (Australian) - Journal

Quillette is an Australian based online magazine that focuses on long-form analysis and cultural commentary. We are politically non-partisan, but rely on reason, science, and humanism as our guiding values.

Rights Probe (CANADIAN)

"The mandate of Rights Probe is to research and explain this shifting legal ground and to challenge these trends. It will defend and promote the classical liberal conception of individual rights and the rule of law, in which people have primary control over their own lives and their own decisions; and will seek to inform and assist people to resist government coercion and mob rule."

UnHerd (United Kingdom) - Journal

"When the herd takes off in one direction, what do you do?

UnHerd is for people who dare to think for themselves.

The Western world is divided and uncertain. In the realms of politics, morality, science and culture, establishment opinion is skittish, but assertive — quick to form a consensus and intimidate dissent into silence. Meanwhile, increasingly powerful anti-establishment voices are fast forming into their own tribes. UnHerd tries to do something different — and harder. We are not interested in contrarianism, or opposition for its own sake; but we make it our mission to challenge herd mentality wherever we see it. This may be to speak for people who are otherwise dismissed; to challenge lazy consensus; or to make the argument for dimensions of existence that are lost in the din. We seek out thinkers who can bring the broader wisdom of history, philosophy, science and religious thought to bear on the current moment. We try to give a platform to the overlooked, the downtrodden and the traduced; and to people and places that the world has chosen to forget. We have no allegiance to any political party or tradition. Our writers often disagree with each other. Our approach is to test and retest assumptions, without fear or favour. The effect, we hope, is to get a little bit closer to the truth — and to make people think again.

The Shaughnessy Cohen Prize For Political Writing

    The bad weather continues so I will provide, for readers of non-fiction, five books which are the finalists for this prize, the winner of which will be announced in early May. Unfortunately, the London Public Libraries do not have the books by Savoie or Perrin. There are 31 "holds" on Fire Weather.

   The prize is named for Elizabeth Shaughnessy Cohen who was born here in London and who died twenty five years ago in the House of Commons. 
    The prize winner gets $25,000. I noticed that Mr. Vaillant was the recipient of the Windham-Campbell Prize which is a good one to win - $125,000! Click on that link if you want to find more good books and the winner of that prize for 2024 will be announced in a few days.

1. The Age of Insecurity: Coming Together as Things Fall Apart, Astra Taylor.
“Astra Taylor argues that while insecurity is central to the human condition, we have built a society that compounds and exacerbates that reality, and one where elites benefit from inequitable suffering. By intertwining her own story with the wisdom of poets and philosophers, Taylor encourages interconnectedness and shared vulnerability to reimagine our overwhelmed society into a more caring one. This is a helpful, hopeful book written at a time fraught with unease and negativity. The Age of Insecurity provides important perspectives on how we got here and shards of light that might just lead us out of this anxious place.”

2. Canada: Beyond Grudges, Grievances, and Disunity, Donald J. Savoie.“In this sweeping analysis of the internal divisions and identities that shape our nation’s political fabric, Donald J. Savoie lays bare the contradictions of a federal state and national political institutions that often fail to reflect Canada’s deeply entrenched regional, economic, linguistic, and cultural fault lines. The result has been politics of victimhood and grievance. Even so, those differences have created a national will to overcome them. Writing with clarity and conviction, Savoie distills the complexities of federalism into an easily accessible exploration of our nation. He captures the essence of a resilient Canadian spirit, where compromise and inclusive national social programs have forged an attachment to Canada greater than the forces that divide us.”

3. Fire Weather: The Making of a Beast, John Vaillant.

“Like a blazing inferno that commands our attention and awe, we cannot look away from Fire Weather. John Vaillant brings the devastating 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire to life by introducing us, almost affectionately, to the human beings on the frontlines of the fossil fuel industry and the fire it produces that threatens us all. This is a deeply compelling, skillfully crafted story packed with information but completely free of ponderous lecturing. It is terrifying in its honest, textured description of what we have wrought in the name of progress, what we stand to lose, and where we might find the possibility of hope.”

4. Indictment: The Criminal Justice System on Trial, Benjamin Perrin.

“Gripping and timely, Indictment delivers a powerful vision for a complete transformation of Canada’s criminal justice system. Drawing on interviews with frontline workers, survivors of crime, and repeat offenders, Benjamin Perrin masterfully weaves together vivid case studies with the latest research on how to create a safer society for all. Shared experiences from marginalized groups, such as Indigenous people and Black Canadians, shape Perrin’s trauma-informed proposals to tackle everything from the opioid crisis to the problems with current jails. This beautifully written and rigorous critique is sure to enlighten any reader and offers fresh ideas and vital information to policymakers for overdue justice.”

5. Not Here: Why American Democracy Is Eroding and How Canada Can Protect Itself, Rob Goodman.

“Not Here is both a frightening and reassuring story written with clarity and absorbing analysis. With an American perspective, Goodman explores the decline of democracy and rise of authoritarianism in the United States and what it means for Canada. Deep social and economic ties between the two nations mean Canada is not exempt from the same tyrannous forces. In fact, Canadian politics shows similar strains, some of which originate from within our own borders. But Goodman has good news: we can find comfort knowing Canada has values, history, traditions, and institutions that can withstand the autocratic threat.”

To learn more about The Shaughnessy Cohen Prize For Political Writing and a list of the past winners see, Writers' Trust Canada. 
 One of my recent posts about award winning books is "Good Book Awards" which discusses the Scotiabank Giller Prize and The Cundill History Prize.