> Forwarded JF Noonan's comments to Dan Lazare, who writes:
>
> >Thanks for forwarding me Joseph Noonan's comments. His geographical
> >corrections are duly noted, although I must say that the pride he takes in
> >pointing them out strikes me as more than a bit parochial.
[This is about what I expected -- to be accused of 'parochialism'. Actually, I find accusations of parochialism to be, um, uh, rather parochial.]
Pointing out the mistakes was not a matter of pride, but a matter of irritation. Unlike Ronald Reagan, I do not think facts are stupid things and I think that if someone is going to write, they ought to know what the hell they are talking about. If they get such simple (and easily checked) things wrong, why should I expect they got any of the more sophisticated things right? I have complained right here on this list about this kind of sloppiness in 'left' writing (R. Menchu comes to mind) that I think affords people too easy an avenue to dismiss any substantive argument simultaneously put forth.
> > If he had written
> >an article that tried to wrestle with the nature of New York politics in a
> >serious way, it wouldn't bother me terribly if he mixed up the location of
> >Bloomingdale's or Zabar's.
I wouldn't write an article about New York politics as I don't know anything much about them. If I did undertake to write one, I would make sure I didn't confuse the Bronx and Staten Island. If Doug's last book had begun with an offhand comment that Wall Street was in Astoria, I'd probably figure anything else he said was misinformed as well.
> >But his comment that "Texas really is just the US on steroids, not a special
> >case," is more bothersome. It strikes me, frankly, as a very Texas
> >sentiment, both in its humor and skepticism and its anti-intellectualism.
I am not a native Texan, nor to I have any feeling of 'pride' in the state of Texas. For that matter, I am not in the least patriotic and I have no notion of what it means to 'love one's country' or any other piece of geography. I was not defending Texas, its history, or its politics. I just happen to have lived here for the last 12 years and I try to pay some attention to my surroundings.
The attempt to paint me as a Bubba is beneath Lazare's normally decent quality of work and reminds one of a certain famous New Yorker cover of some years back. I was not bragging on behalf of Texas, and would never engage in such nonsense. Take up your straw figure of Texas bragging with the tourism board or somebody that actually engages in that sort of thing.
But since Lazare has me all dressed up in my boots and belt buckle, driving along with my shotguns in the rack over my shoulder; I guess he's got me on the anti-intellectual thing.
Shucks, lil ole me just don't have no book learnin and thinks that them as has is evil too!
[And the *sacrifices* I make for dear, dear Texas. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to mount a rifle rack in the back window of a Ford Escort?!? Anything for the Fatherland!]
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Joseph Noonan Houston, TX jfn1 at msc.com