Showing posts with label Wall Street Journal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wall Street Journal. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 17, 2021

Book review: 'The Assassination of Trotsky'

A Diego Rivera mural depicts Trotsky with Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, "true champions of the workers' struggle." Part of the Rivera mural El hombre en cruce de caminos, 1934, in the Bellas Artes building, Mexico City/Joe Photo, Boston, Wikimedia

Without emotion or attitude, Nicholas Mosley gives a "blow-by-blow" account of the murder of Leon Trotsky (1879-1940), between the time of the first assassination attempt on his life on May 24, 1940, and the last, successful one when he died the day after being stabbed by an ice pick*, August 20, 1940.

Regrettably, Mr. Mosley's documentation is omitted, save for the short bibliography at the end with six titles listed. The best insight into the person is  Trotsky's autobiography and his writings, Mr. Mosley says.

Leon Trotsky House where he was stabbed and where he lived from April, 1939 - August, 1940 Mexico City/Photo by Rod Waddington, Kergunyah, Australia, Wikimedia Commons


Mr. Trotsky left "works of some genius"; he was "a man with a marvelous literary eye and style," Mr. Mosley writes. 

I ran across the book title in the Wall Street Journal's column by Peter Stothard of the "Five Best [Books] on Political Vengeance," and per usual, the best library, the Fairfax County Library, got it for me on interlibrary loan.

The book is short (184 pages) and a fast read, written in 1972 in the "encyclopedic" style when Trotsky's grandson, Seva, was still living in the house. 

The first attempt on Trotsky's life saw about 20 assassins invade his home and shoot up the house (bullet holes, extant). Trotsky, his wife, Natalie Sedova, and Seva, miraculously survived without severe injury (Seva was shot in the foot while hiding under his bed) causing the chief of Mexico's secret police to question whether the attempt was fake and even happened.

Later that summer, bodyguards surrounding the house were lulled by the familiarity of a Trotsky acquaintance, a secret Stalinist, who arrived at the house on August 20 to discuss "a document" with "the old man" but stabbed him instead.

The murderer had several names and backgrounds: Jacques Mornard, Frank Jacson, Ramon Mercader. At the time, Mexico had no death penalty, and he was sentenced to 19.5 years for premeditated murder and six months for illegal possession of arms. 

Later, his parole request was rejected because the killer was considered "socially dangerous," and the courts decided it was hard to grant parole to a person "if no one knew officially who he was." 

Trotsky lived until the next day when he died at a hospital. When it lay in state, an estimated 300,000 filed past his body. 

Lenin had ostensibly "appointed" Trotsky his successor of the Soviet Union. Stalin was "rude" and unpolished, rough like the countryside, his origin.

Chasing Trotsky, his greatest rival, throughout Europe, Stalin delayed Trotsky's execution for years to avoid public fallout. After all, it was good public relations to keep him alive and have a scapegoat; Stalin could blame him for everything: the wheat crop failure, the pig swine fever, railway problems, factory destructions, even "nails in butter"!  

Trotsky knew he was a targeted man.

Trotsky and his wife, Natalia Sedova, arrive in Mexico, January, 1937, with Frida Kahlo behind them/Photo by unknown author, Wikimedia Commons


Eventually, after their itinerant European residencies, Trotsky and his wife found their way to Mexico in 1937 and the home of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, the latter who claimed credit for getting them admitted to the country. (After Trotsky's death, Rivera, man of honor that he was, said he was working for Stalin to lure Trotsky to his death site.) 

The Trotskys lived with the artists for about two years until, several stories go, Rivera flirted with Trotsky's wife (and vice-versa) which, combined with political disagreements, ended the happy arrangement.

American supporters helped raise money for Trotsky's last residence which became the scene of the murder.

Leon Trotsky's grave in Coyoacan, Mexico City/Photo, Wikimedia


His ashes and those of his wife, who died in 1962, are entombed at the Coyoacán house, open now as a museum.

The Trotsky home is definitely on my "must see" places whenever I get to Mexico City. 

*It is on view at Washington's International Spy Museum.  The weapon was missing for several decades until it was found under a bed and went on the market.  

Patricialesli@gmail.com

Monday, September 28, 2020

The Wall Street Journal and "anthropomorphism"

Albrecht Altdorfer, Landscape with a Spruce  which may be confused with Landscape with Woodcutter, c. 1522/Kupferstichkabinett Berlin/Wikipedia Commons

Anthropomorphism is unusual enough to find the word in a newspaper, let alone two different articles covering the entirety of a single page. Both articles in the Journal's weekend edition, Sept. 19-20, 2020, about works by German artists, their lives separated by centuries.  

The word leaped from the Journal's page to me who did not know the meaning, but, ask me now! 

To those unlearneds, "anthropomorphism" is "having human characteristics" (like Trump).  

One article, "Rediscovering a Renaissance Man" by J.S. Marcus, is about the Louvre's new exhibition on works by Albrecht Altdorfer (c.1480-1538), who was forgotten for several hundred years until "rediscovered by 19th-century German art historians," and used in the next century by a different group of finders, the Nazis. They thought Mr. Altdorfer was a "folk artist" and used his art to convey their message. Current experts say they got it all wrong.

Mr. Altdorfer is generally considered one of the founders of the movement which came to be known as the Danube School

The Louvre's Altdorfer exhibition was delayed from April and set to begin October 1, according to WSJ (whoops!  This just in:  Delayed until Jan. 4 , 2021 !), with  191 works or "more than a third of his surviving oeuvre."  

(If only the French would let us back in! With the show's delay, maybe you can gain entry before it closes whenever that might be.The National Gallery of Art in Washington has 167 Altdorfers in its collection, 

Who is WSJ writing for, anyway? Is Trump going to arm wrestle his good friends, President Macron and his wife, into opening the gates to France so Trump can toot the French horn? I imagine that in the time it's taken me to learn how to spell "anthropomorphism." Trump has probably written a symphony which will likely not impress his pals, the Proud Boys. What are they proud of anyway? Tatoos? Motorcycles? Looking like every other Harley-Davidson rider? You see what art can do!)


It's easy to see anthropomorphism in Mr. Altdorfer's Landscape With Spruce Tree, pictured in the Journal. The long, tall tree becomes long, tall Sally with stringy hair, sinewy arms, maybe wearing an apron and carrying a birdhouse purse. (The next time you're at the National Gallery of Art's Sculpture Garden, check out Roxy Paine's Graft for anthropomorphic examples.)

Eva Hesse, Repetition Nineteen III (1968)/The Estate of Eva Hesse. Hauser & Wirth/The Museum of Modern Art/Art Resource



Next up, the second WSJ article, "Making the Most of Minimalism" by Helen A. Cooper, about a "masterpiece," Repetition Nineteen III (1968) by German-American Eva Hesse (1936-1970).  It's a sculpture which looks like an enlargement (ahim, sick, sic) on orange hardwood of half cigarettes, some leaning left or bent; maybe dented in their centers, reminiscent of those candles you see (or saw) lighted on sidewalks at Christmas parties. 


The Museum of Modern Art just moved Repetition Nineteen from public view. Thanks, MOMA!  (Prithee, why run an article about this now which it leaves the stage? None of the National Gallery's six Hesses are on view either.) 


An article subtitle calls Nineteen a celebration of "humor, eroticism and discovery," The only anthropomorphism  I see are 19 male examples.  What do you think?


Ms. Hesse's family also had a connection to the Nazis., forced to flee Germany to save their lives. They made it to the Netherlands, and then to England before settling in  the U.S. in the late 1930s.  

At age 34, Ms. Hesse died of a brain tumor.

If you are still reading, I hope you have added a new word to your vocabulary, or maybe you knew it already. Can you spell it?  No peeking!

patricialesli@gmail.com

 

Friday, March 13, 2020

Dear Wall Street Journal: Where have all the editors gone?


Under a photo with a story about Neiman Marcus in the WSJ print edition of March 12, 2020 on page B3 is this:

"Neiman Marcus says its customers spend an average of $50,000 a year with the retailer."

The caption leaped out.

Huh?  You gotta be kidding!  That much?  No way.  

I was right: The Neiman Marcus I know does not have customers who spend that, and the picture itself is of uniformed millennials and teens who, really now, do not spend $50,000 a year at Neiman Marcus!

The story says "one-fifth" of its customers spend $50,000 a year at the retailer. 

Then, there's this headline: (You figure it out):  "At Neiman, It's Last Call for Off-Price." I see the online version has a different headline.

Wall Street Journal, what say you?
 



patricialesli@gmail.com

Monday, February 9, 2015

Dear Wall Street Journal,

I am having withdrawal pains, separated from you.  Every day, I agonize so much without you on my doorstep.  But, just like quitting cigarettes, the separation gets easier, day by day, especially since, during those last few days, you were a "no show" .833333 percent of the time.

It's now been about two months since we parted.  I miss your business pages, the art pages, Jason Gay, but most of all, the Saturday edition with the hilarious economist, whose name I have already forgotten. (I never could stand your editorials and always looked the other way.)

Wall Street Journal, you asked too much of me, to hang with you when you stood me up five of six dates of our last week together!  Please!  What's a girl to do?

Since you've been gone, I have begun a new relationship, just a "trial," with the Times, only on weekends, which I hope doesn't upend my planned resumption with you since it's you I long for, my first love.

Valentine's Day approacheth.

Yes, I am willing to give you another chance, Wall Street Journal (once my relationship ends with the Times).Your kind invitation came in the mail ($99 for six months!). Thank you very much! A much better price than your original offer of $150 per month!  (Wall Street Journal, get real!) It pays for a girl to hold firm to her principles and not succumb to wild pitches.

And when your trial ends, Wall Street Journal, if we are still a "twosome," if you haven't stood me up again, I'll end with you and pick up again where I left off with the Times and go back and forth.  It pays a girl to have suitors competing for attention! If only I had enough money and time to spend with both of you every day. With the Post we could have a menage a quatre!  For I especially like to compare your book reviews with the Post's and see who's copying whom. 

I haven't detected that yet in the Times, but we just started dating.

patricialesli@gmail.com

 

Sunday, December 21, 2014

You done me wrong, Wall Street Journal

Found at the Harris-Teeter, Tysons Corner, Virginia

And I don't read you any more.

Stood up and broken-hearted again, Wall Street Journal.

A "no show" for five days out of six.

Who would last that long with any lover?

I get the message, Wall Street Journal:
You don't love me any more.

I called,
I tweeted,
I bawled!
And pleaded.

Your henchpeople promised you'd call me back!

You didn't.

How can you do this to a longtime lover, Wall Street Journal?

You did.

Three years ago when I recommended that you double-date with WAPO so you would arrive on time and on the day promised, you ignored me.

I cried,
I tweeted;
And wrote;
And bleated

Finally, you got the message, Wall Street Journal

But now, the end is here
And in you go, the recycling bin,

My friend, I'll say it clear
I'll state my case, of which I'm certain
I read a paper that was full
I read each and ev'ry weekday
And more, much more than this, you did it your way


Regrets, I've had a few
I gave you many chances, a lot to mention
I ignored what I had to do and saw through without exemption
You had no plans for a charted course,

each careful step along the highway
And more, much more than this, 

You did it your way

Yes, there were times, I'm sure you knew
When you charged more than what was due
But through it all, when there was doubt
I paid it up, you had some clout
I faced it all, and I was small, you did it your way


For what's a girl, what has she got?
If not respect, then she has naught
To say the things she truly feels and not the words of one newsreel
The record shows I took the blows;

You did it your way!

And now we've split up,
We've gone our byways,
I am sick of you and all the chances
I gave to you to make advances
You did it your way.

We are not the door mats on the doormat of life like you treat us, Wall Street Journal, all the subscribers you've disappointed, teased, and tormented. The doormat, where I always hoped to find you.

Herstory now.

By the time I get to Phoenix,
You may be in Brooklyn
By the time I make Albuquerque
You may give me a call
But you'll just hear that phone keep on ringing
Because it's on silent, that's all
You've dumped this girl, so many times before
You just didn't know
I would really go

One can only wonder...

Why doesn't the Wall Street Journal write an article about its own lousy customer service?

patricialesli@gmail.com

Thursday, July 24, 2014

Reuters is the fastest

 
This is a MD-83 aircraft like the one which crashed today in Mali/Reuters
 
When it comes to the story today about the Air Algerie tragedy in Africa, Reuters was the first news service I could find to confirm the crash.

Here is a headline timeline in EST:

10:22 a.m.  Reuters confirms the plane has crashed

10:38 a.m.  Bloomberg News reports the plane has vanished

10:39 a.m.  BBC reports the plane is missing

10:41 a.m.  CNN says the plane is "lost" and "off radar"

10:42 a.m.  Washington Post reports the plane has vanished

10:44 a.m.  New York Times has no mention of it on its website

10:50 a.m.  Wall Street Journal reports the crash

10:52 a.m.  Reuters was added to my "favorites"
The planned route of the Air Algerie flight/Chicago Tribune, NDN

EUMETSAT


patricialesli@gmail.com



 

Thursday, October 24, 2013

Sameness at the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post


U.S. Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah)/U.S. Senate, Wikimedia Commons

They are at it again.

Is it just me that finds it odd that both newspapers would feature an un-urgent column about Utah Republicans and U.S. Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) on the same day, on the same page, and the same size?


Huh?


Yesterday's headline on the front page of the Washington Post at the fold in the left column reads:  "In Utah GOP, some seek to shut down tea party hero."


While over at the Wall Street Journal is this headline above a single column (below the fold) and on the left:  "Utah Senator Pays Price Back Home For Shutdown."


Both datelines are Salt Lake City. They talk about Lee's "cratering" ratings and how mad the business community is at him for voting with the tea party and supporting the government shutdown and how those business Republicans are going after Lee, all right, and looking to put up their own candidate (Don Liljenquist,  Josh Romney, perchance?) by way of "Count My Vote," which would be a new way of nominating an opposition candidate to Mr. Lee. 

Well, take that, Mr. Mike Lee, and get scared.  


The papers did not quote all of the same people, just former governor Jon Huntsman and Liljenquist, another former candidate.


And then there's John Price, a former Republican National Committee member and Bush (unclear which one) ambassador whom Sen. Lee still doesn't recognize.  Oh, dear me, Mr. Price. Throw down the red carpet for you, and let us bow and scrape the floor.


I am one of the last to defend the tea party, but this is a rather strange coincidence, don't you think?


Do the editors get together and decide to run these?  Or does someone on the opposition plant, pitch, and promote them?  


You decide.  (I checked New York and Los Angeles and could not find sameness at either place.)


Too much similarity, if you ask me, and who's asking?  


It is not Mr. Lee.


patricialesli@gmail.com


Monday, July 1, 2013

Book reviews in Washington Post and Wall Street Journal are too similar



William Fields, Alabama, 1936, by Walker Evans/Library of Congress


Is it just me who found it odd that the weekend book reviews in the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post about the just published Cotton Tenants: Three Families by James Agee and Walker Evans started with the same five words and used the same quotes?
Daniel Stashower wrote the review for the Post and Cameron McWhirter wrote for the Journal, and this is how their first sentences begin:
"In the summer of 1936..." with "the 26-year-old" Agee.

Quoting Agee, here are the (practically) identical quotes the reviewers used:
"A civilization which for any reason puts a human life at a disadvantage; or a civilization which can exist only by putting human life at a disadvantage; (… Post) is worthy neither of the name nor ("or" Post) of continuance. And a human being whose life is nurtured in an advantage which has accrued from the disadvantage of other human beings, and who prefers that this should remain as it is, is a human being by definition only, having much more in common with the bedbug, the tapeworm, the cancer, and the scavengers of the deep sea."

And this one, quoting Agee describing one of the farmer subjects, Frank Tingle:
"Crepe (the Journal uses a small "c") forehead, monkey eyebrows, slender nearly boneless nose, vermillion gums.  A face pleated and lined elaborately as a Japanese mask; its skin the color of corpsemeat."

It is perplexing that the same quotes appear, but maybe they are the ones on the blurb, or in the publicist's promotion which leads one (me) to wonder: Did the reviewers read the book? I haven't seen it, so maybe it's mostly photos, and there is little written content to quote. The book has 224 pages.
Whatever, the sameness is disturbing.  It's like competing dance reviewers picking out 30 seconds of a ballerina's pirouette and focusing on it.  Maybe Rupert Murdoch owns the Post, too, and Edward Snowden will reveal same.
I checked the New York Times and couldn't find a review there other than a review of how the manuscript was discovered and the process which led to the book's publication. 

Yes, according to the Post and the Journal, the book is well worth reading, and I've signed up for it at my favorite public library, Fairfax County's.