It's Thursday: Artists, Mike Pence, Cooperative Muncie Criminals, Rejections

Thursday – done with work before noon, downtown to The Downtown Farm Stand for onions and garlic (making stew) and back here by 1 pm. Soup started, email attacked, some posts written. Thinking of a Coke run down to McClure's. This is my afternoon.

Another day, another rejection:

Thank you for sending us "The Dilemma of Basketball." Although we must decline your submission at this time, we appreciated the chance to consider it.

We hope you are well and wish you and your work all the best. 

Sincerely,

-Pangyrus LitMag

Coincidentally, Pangyrus has a new issue out.

Robbie Robertson died, and more that felt so relevant to my life keeps slipping way into a grave: Robbie Robertson’s 10 best recordings – from Bob Dylan to the Band

 Indiana Arts Commission Announces 2023 Recipients of State's Highest Honor in the Arts

Muncie police pursuit ends when suspect drives to jail

Little — also listed in court documents at an Indianapolis address — was then taken into custody without incident.

He told the trooper he had fled "to get his mind right, because he knew he was going to jail due to having active warrants."

Little — preliminarily charged with resisting law enforcement with a vehicle, driving while suspended and theft — remained in the jail on Monday. His bond on those charges was set at $12,500.

A one-man crime wave.

 Mike Pence turns the key -

Mike Pence always has been a politician, one with an insatiable ambition for advancement and an impeccable instinct for self-preservation.

He is, first and foremost, a survivor, a man who will find a way forward even when all paths seem closed to him. He will pull himself back onto his feet after he’s been knocked down, endure defeat after defeat as he staggers ahead in pursuit of his goal, never losing sight of what he wants.

He has the patience and the guile of the long-distance traveler.

The more rabid partisans of former President Donald Trump now are in an uproar over what they see as Pence’s betrayal of the man who “saved” the former Indiana governor’s career.

Maybe the most positive assessment of Pence I have read; much nicer than my own, which is he would do whatever it takes to get himself elected. That is, until he actually ran for President and gives no one any reason to vote for him rather than Trump (not even that Trump is a danger to the country) and makes lukewarm look good.

 Adam Smith’s America: How a Scottish Philosopher Became an Icon of American Capitalism is long but not a bore; in fact, entertaining and educational.

Smith’s particularism means his writings are not always consistent with one another, but there is only Das Adam Smith Problem if one demands that a single thinker’s thoughts must comprise a single systematic whole free of contradictions. Some thinkers metaphysically yearn to create a perfect complete intellectual system; their successes may be judged according to the standards they set for themselves. Smith was not among them. He had no such ambition.

There is worth in comprehensive systems. At times, politics demands ideological stridency. Smith offers something valuable of a different kind. Being a localist, Smith was not much of an ideologue at all—a fact which makes Liu’s reception history, in which ideologues like Friedman, Thatcher, and Reagan celebrated him, so fascinating and ironic. The greatest mistake that Stigler and Friedman made was not so much to position Smith on the rightward end of the ideological spectrum but to read him as a discoverer of scientific, universal truths that easily translate into ideological slogans.

3:22 PM

RED RIGHT HAND: PEAKY BLINDERS, BABYLON BERLIN AND THE LOOMING SHADOW OF FASCISM:

The knowledge of the history to come can make these shows a rough watch. But they also remind us that while fascism has a talent for shapeshifting—from a sneering British baronet to German street toughs—its antisemitic demagoguery and gleeful bloodlust remain the same, and can re-emerge in any seemingly civilized society that doesn’t know what to look for.

 Another rejection for “Colonel Tom”:

Thank you for submitting Colonel Tom to Bluestem. Please forgive our longer-than-usual response time.

Though we have read your submission carefully, we must, unfortunately, pass on it at this time. This is not a judgment on the quality of your writing; rather, it is about the fit of this particular piece for this particular issue.

We did enjoy this story; feel free to try us in the future.

Sincerely,

Bluestem 

http://www.bluestemmagazine.com

The Adroit Journal has a new edition here. Epiphany Summer 2023 is here, and Issue 3.16 of Cutleaf is here.

“Unsung” by Stephanie Isan is a poem published by Epiphany. Interesting. 

8:08 PM 

I submitted “The Psychotic Ape Pays A Visit” to The Colored Lens; hope springs eternal.

I spoke with CC for a few minutes and then my niece. Other than the clerk at McClure's, that is all the human contact I have had since getting off the bus.

I have decided to work on a story for a themed submission. It works with me trying to finish off my “The Dead and Dying Stories”.

I have a half-written story to Max Godfrey. I think the opening of the story and then back to Max.

Oh, yeah, I found an online copy of Sun Tzu's The Art of War. If you have read this, I suggest you. It will sharp your mind, make you think more strategically. 

sch

Checking the email before calling a night, and there was another rejection:

We are grateful for the opportunity to read “The Dilemma of Basketball.” While we are not able to provide a home for this piece, we thank you for trusting us with your work. At Vast, we’re about cultivating literary community and every submission is a contribution toward that goal.

Best wishes with this piece and all your writing.

The Editors

Vast Chasm Magazine

10:25