On Election Night in 2016, a young colleague sent me a note containing one sentence: “We have the wolf by the ear.” He was quoting Jefferson (who in turn was quoting an ancient). My column today is headed “The wolf by the ear, &c.” And what would the “&c.” include? Items on Iran, China, Cuba, American education, sports, music . . .
Some reader mail — beginning with:
This year, I finally convinced my wife to travel to Israel. We left 25 September for two weeks. We are Christians; my wife went to our local synagogue several times before the trip. In Jerusalem, she went into synagogues when allowed (dicey); we weren’t allowed in mosques. (I went to a service at the Blue Mosque 40 years ago.)
October 7th I was rock climbing on the Lebanese border and my wife was in Nazareth attending a mosque service. She was invited in by the imam, a friend of our hotel owner.
I received an email about rockets, and then about the Iron Dome fireworks overhead. I drove back. Gita, the settlement at the border, was without traffic. . . .
That evening we didn’t know how bad it was. We spoke with the hotel owner. He said, “Don’t worry, we are used to rockets, you are welcome here, stay as long as you wish.” We went out for a nice dinner and saw more “fireworks,” directly overhead.
On the 8th, our tickets were canceled, and we learned it was bad. I called the embassy, they said “stay put.” We spoke with the owner and other Muslims and they said we were welcome. I decided to drive out and try for a flight. My wife then told me that although the Muslims our age in the mosque welcomed her, a young man came in and screamed at her. At our car, someone had recently killed a cat and put it on our hood.
In Tel Aviv, I eventually found out that our tickets (business class) were canceled, but not our flight. After about eight hours of back-and-forth and arguing, I got economy tickets on the original flight without a refund.
People from our town were also in Nazareth and decided to stay put. They eventually got out two weeks later when another friend flew to Amman, rented a van, and drove them to Amman for a flight out of Jordan.
Another reader says,
In my reading about Iran’s proxy attacks on U.S. troops in the Middle East, some language bothers me just a little. All the reports I have read (and the administration’s pronouncements) use the word “injured” when referring to our servicemen. Not once have I read or heard the word “wounded.” Generally the latter is used when someone is harmed in an attack; “injured” could describe a soldier twisting his ankle after stumbling on a sandbag or falling off a bike.
Earlier this month, I had a post on George W. Bush and a speech he gave at West Point in 2002. (“Some worry that it is somehow undiplomatic or impolite to speak the language of right and wrong. I disagree.”) I received several notes such as the following:
Dear Jay,
I loved the excerpt from the speech, although I am a bit discouraged that such basic principles could be controversial. This is what I loved, and still love, about George W. Bush. He has always seemed to me to be a man of principle and conviction. Did I always agree with his policies? Well, no. The man himself though has always had my respect.
A couple of weeks ago, I took note of a decision by the American Ornithological Society: Birds would no longer be named after people. Those currently named after people would be called something else. “Inclusiveness” or something.
A Michigan reader writes, “There goes our Kirtland’s warbler, Jay, which should be our state bird.”
D’oh! (Our state bird is the American robin — a noble creature. But the Kirtland’s warbler — what a wonderful and musical name.)
Thank you to one and all (although I am cross at the bird-renamers). Happy Thanksgiving.