I went for a walk to the banks of the Hudson, where 225 years ago George Washington bid a hasty nighttime retreat over these waters after the stunning upset in the Battle of Brooklyn.
We have our own Battle of Brooklyn now. And a battle for America.
I was heartened to see the Bridge, in all its glory, Mannahatta rising up behind, and in the distance (we're not there yet) the Statue of Liberty.
I thought of Hart Crane (of course!):
Under thy shadow by the piers I waited in darkness is thy shadow clear. The City’s fiery parcels all undone
The liar says he tells the truth and those who call his lies are liars. Greeks rhetoricians called this device the liar’s paradox.
The New York Times explicitly acknowledged the liar’s paradox in a recent headline, “New Press Aid Vowed Never to Lie. That Was the First Lie” (May 2, 2020, print edition p. A22). But the Times quickly got cold feet, revising the headline for the digital edition to “‘I Will Never Lie to You,’ McEnany Says in First White House Briefing: But Kayleigh McEnany, the president’s fourth press secretary, found that vow tested almost immediately.”
Erica Hunt and I were on the Brooklyn Rail’s lunchtime webcast, The New Social Environment. I talked with Rail publisher Phong Bui and I was the host for Erica’s show.
