Been a little smoky where I live lately. My Impromptus today is headed “Smoke gets in your eyes, &c.” And my latest Q&A is a sportscast, featuring those personable gurus David French and Vivek Dave. Plenty of Jokić in this ’cast, plus Coach Spo and others. To listen, go here.
In the mood for some mail? First, a preface. Yesterday, I wrote,
“And what is so rare as a day in June?” That is a wonderful line of poetry, and June is a wonderful month, isn’t it? No wonder brides like to get married in it. (Do they still?) (Do people marry?)
An exceptionally learned reader tells me,
The preference for June weddings is a vestige of ancient Roman society, when nuptials were done in the month named for the goddess of matrimony and childbirth.
Well, I never.
Another reader writes,
We had a June 8th wedding because northern Wisconsin is always nice at that time. We planned an outdoor reception with a pig roast, softball, and volleyball. Official high was 100 that day. We went wading in the river. A foreign student was fishing and asked, “Is custom?” A cousin replied, “No, is hot.” Student just nodded. My favorite picture is my wife knee deep with her wedding dress hiked up. Nice thigh.
Marvelous.
A reader writes,
Jay,
I’m hoping that one answer to our incessant DEI and tribalism will be an increasing number of racially and ethnically mixed marriages. My nine-month-old great-granddaughter has parts African, Vietnamese, Eastern European Jewish, English, and Irish. What tribe does she belong to?
The human race, God bless her.
A reader writes,
Jay, greetings from Florida. . . .
I noted your reference to Mr. Buckley’s array of interests and works. You mentioned that he wrote spy novels. Can you recommend his best such novel in your opinion?
I vote Stained Glass. (It was made into a play, incidentally. None of WFB’s novels was made into a movie. Sometime later, maybe?)
In my column yesterday, I noted this:
Many Michiganders will soon hit the road for Memorial Day weekend, so we want to know — at what point are you "Up North" in Michigan?
WWJ’s @ZachEClark gets into the details on what exactly "Up North" means on this episode of The Daily J podcast: https://t.co/qoKURsWpE7 pic.twitter.com/L6hkIW8s0t
— WWJ 950 (@WWJ950) May 25, 2023
I voted 4, pretty confidently. A reader writes,
I agree with No. 4, Jay. It’s where the trees go from being predominately deciduous to coniferous.
A different reader writes,
Up North is once you cross the Zilwaukee Bridge!
That is a bridge spanning the Saginaw River, about five miles from downtown Saginaw. On the other side you get the town of Zilwaukee. (What a difference an initial letter makes, huh?)
Still another reader writes,
It’s always been No. 5, Jay: north of U.S. 10. My aunt, who lived in Monroe, called it the “Tension Line.” The tension left her body once she got north of U.S. 10.
Bless you all. See you later.