Just a few. 

Brainteaser:  A worked solution to the Math Corner brainteaser in my July Diary is here.  

Colean or Goadish?  In the August 5th podcast I speculated that Taki Magazine’s un-bylined weekly roundup ”The Week that Perished” is written by David Cole. Several listeners said no, the author is Jim Goad. 

I still think the style and that one key viewpoint (California dissident-right Hispanophilia) is more Colean than Goadish. 

Here’s Jim  on the Sesame Park outrage.  Compare David.  And yes: whoever it may be that writes ”The Week that Perished,” it’s David who tweets it out.

And in the matter of those Muppet outfits being stifling hot: they may have built-in cooling systems, as Barney the Dinosaur’s did...with near-catastrophic results, as one listener reminded me.

(If you don’t know who Barney the Dinosaur was you weren’t a small child in the 1990s and weren’t raising small children in the 1990s.)

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Larkin: Also in the August 5th podcast I noted the August 9th centenary of English poet Philip Larkin, a favorite of mine.

One listener said that while I am of course entitled to my literary preferences, Larkin is too much of a downer to read for more than two minutes at a stretch.

I see his point. Try for yourself: see if you can make it all the way through ”The Old Fools.” 

But you could say the same of Hardy or Housman. It’s an English thing. We are a glum lot—something to do with the weather over there, is the common opinion. I’ve heard, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s true, that some English native actually wrote a book with the title We Are Doomed.

Another listener Larkinized my humble self:

This Be The Derb

(With apologies to Philip Larkin)

He gets you down, this dissident.
    He surely means to, and he does.
He podcasts darkest sentiment
    And adds some darker, just because. 

For he was darkened in his turn
    By words on old-style printed stock,
Which half or more the woke would burn,
    To burn our half in synechdoch. 

He podcasts doom to orb’ et urb’.
    It’s free, but share some shining pelf.
Give all you can for Radio Derb,
    And don’t cast any pods yourself.

Bless you, Sir. May your tribe increase!   

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Paying Wikipedia:  In my July Diary I recorded having assuaged my Wikiguilt—i.e. my guilt at using Wikipedia in the full knowledge that where the human sciences or Dissident Right personalities are concerned it’s woke as all get-out— paying them a tiny monthly subscription.

Am I being over-scrupulous there? I asked readers. Several have emailed in. They are unanimous that, yes, I am being over-scrupulous. Sample:

Yes, you are overscrupulous. Until Wikipedia changes its ways, it doesn’t deserve a red cent from anyone who objects to the relentless globo-homo brainwashing industry. It’s part of the Borg. If you can use it as a resource in the twilight struggle, by all means do so; but for God’s sake don’t pay for it!

This listener was a tad less negative:

The way I assuage my guilt is to be a small-scale ”Wikipedia editor.”  That is, when I DO see an error, I correct it. Anybody can edit it.  I’ve fixed maybe a dozen typos in text and formulas over time. That’s all I owe them.

Another listener recommended Infogalactic as a less toxic alternative. When I followed the link he gave me, though, I read this at the bottom:

This article’s content derived from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia (See original source).

Uhhhh…

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