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Jul 3Liked by Brian Bouldrey

Whoa. This really got to me, dearest Brian.

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Dear Joan, I was weirdly cribbing from Yeats' little devastating poem, "Politics"... https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/57588/politics-56d23b40c4ed6

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Jul 3Liked by Brian Bouldrey

Wonderful!

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Jul 3Liked by Brian Bouldrey

Jarvis Beach! I lived at 1428 Jarvis for 3 years in the 90s, right across the street from Don's Coffee Club. (I am choosing to focus on these happy details rather than think about the death rattle of democracy. It is too loud to drown out, alas.)

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No way! I just walked by that house TEN MINUTES AGO. To the left of your old place, another big 4-square, a place for Buddhist meditation just opened up. Lots of prayer flags and monks. The street past Greenleaf is now the Rogers Park hub--R Public House, run by my landladies Renee and Sandra, the Tavern, and Charmers (not in the original location and a coffee/breakfast spot). Yes, the rattle, I know.

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Ahhh, nice! Charmers is not a gay bar any more? (You can tell I left Chicago in 1998?)

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My grandfather in Mississippi lived from 1901-1997. My oldest brother recalls him telling stories his grandfather had told him about serving in rhe Confederate army in the Civil War. My brother for a couple of decades did Civil war reenacting; the larger reenactments were terrifying because of the battle noise are particularly the rebel yell when a charge was commanded. Scary stuff.

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A favorite!

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For some reason they had us read a lot of war and animal death books in school, I can't remember the red badge or Johnny Tremain, but I do remember The red pony, red fern, and old yeller.

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I read Across five Aprils and I can't remember if I liked it but I know how long the civil war was because of it.

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Have you read Erik Larson's new book about the attack on Ft. Sumter? It's as dazzling and richly detailed as anything else he's written. I dropped everything one weekend to finish it. Here's my review: https://www.levraphael.com/blog/civil-war-thriller/

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This looks great, if sad. I'm going to pick it up today, wanting to investigate this "old chivalrous south", with the duels and poetry spouting. It seems an era and type of man that was also the problem of Russia at that same time, the "lishnii chelovek", the "superfluous man", well-educated and absolutely useless except to stir up crap and write insincere love letters. When you have unpaid serfs or slaves doing all the work, what is a superfluous man to do?

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