Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

Friday 31 January 2014


Weekend reading on nybooks.com: The case for cannabis, the death of Ariel Sharon, Syria’s polio epidemic, America’s jobs crisis, a poem by Arseny Tarkovsky, a short story by Stig Dagerman, a tour of Beijing at the Lunar New Year, and the life of Jackie Robinson, born ninety-five years ago today.

Jerome Groopman
Cannabis appears useful in treating anorexia, nausea, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, and Tourette’s syndrome. It also decreases a person’s reaction time and impairs his or her attention, concentration, short-term memory, and assessment of risks.
 
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Avishai Margalit
Ariel Sharon’s abhorrence of abstract thinking included distaste for law and morality, and ended in a total mistrust of ideology. Any ideology.
 
Arseny Tarkovsky
He was sitting by the river, among reeds
that peasants had been scything for their thatch.
And it was quiet there, and in his soul
it was quieter and stiller still.
He kicked off his boots and put
his feet into the water, and the water
began talking to him, not knowing
he didn’t know its language.
 
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Annie Sparrow
The man-made outbreak of polio is a consequence of the way that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has chosen to fight the war—a war crime of truly epidemic proportions.
 
“A final agreement is by no means assured, but the opportunity is assuredly here. The alternatives are war or a nuclear-armed Iran. Should this be a hard choice? Astonishingly, too many members of Congress seem to think so.”  – Jessica T. MathewsIran: A Good Deal Now in Danger
 
Jeff Madrick
The jobs situation in the United States is not merely a concern. It is a crisis. The unemployment rate has fallen, but only because so many have stopped looking for work. Minorities have been crushed. The young in particular have been battered.
 
Stig Dagerman
It’s a peaceful day as sunlight settles onto the fields of the plain. Soon bells will be ringing, because today is Sunday. Between fields of rye, two children have just come upon a footpath that they have never taken before, and in the three villages along the plain, window panes glisten in the sun.
 
Ian Johnson
Celebrating the Lunar New Year.
 
John Gregory Dunne
The life of Jackie Robinson, born on this day in 1919.