DACTYL FOUNDATION | Ashbery

John Ashbery reading from his poetry, 2014.

December 1, 2018–I was browsing on the web, looking for something else, and I ran into the Dactyl Foundation in Soho, New York City.

It has a modest ambition, to reunite science and art.

One of the articles on its site is a critique of fiction in the The New Yorker (yes, The New Yorker) over the years.

I realized that I, too, look eagerly for the nonfiction pieces and have been often disappointed in the fiction. Dactyl Foundation contributions attempt to look fundamental questions like this in the eye. It is unsparing in its anger at mediocre and half-hearted fiction. It is a fierce website.

One of their contributors has posted a poetic appreciation of the late John Ashbery, who was a close neighbor of ours in Chelsea, New York, and from time to time a good friend. Here is the tribute: http://dactylfoundation.org/?p=4104.

Early Reads on the British Election

	David Cameron Carries On by Anthony Lane Cameron claimed that austerity policies were driven by necessity, whereas Ed Miliband argued that it was ideological. Economists will continue to thrash out the issue; meanwhile, the public has chosen whom to believe.
	What’s Next for the United Kingdom? by John Cassidy For a democratic union of two countries to survive, it needs majority support in both. This condition is still being met by Scotland and England, but only just.

Who would be a good speaker on this for Oxford Alums? Recommendations so far include Piers Morgan (did not attend Oxford) - Stephen Fisher (Fellow, Politics Tutor at Trinity College Oxford, has been in BBC TV on the elections) - Ian Williams, journalist at the U.N.

BILL BRADLEY: 50 Years Since "Where U R"

The Number Has Been Retired.

Some people stand out in their Freshman year. Bill Bradley did that.

He attracted the attention of John McPhee, a writer for The New Yorker. It's now 50 years since McPhee's article for The New Yorker about Bradley in the January 1965 issue. It was published before Bradley led Princeton to the NCAA Final Four.

Princeton was the first Ivy League basketball team to get that far. The New York Times today paid homage to the man and McPhee's story on the fifth page of the Sports Section (under "Road to Indianapolis" where the NCAA Final Four is being played) and this story is already before 10 am on Sunday the newspaper's most-emailed story.

The title of the article and a subsequent book, "A Sense of Where You Are" came from Bradley after he sent a ball through the hoop while keeping his eyes on McPhee. 

He said: 

When you have played basketball for a while, you don't need to look at the basket when you are in close like this. You develop a sense of where you are.