You Only Live Twice

Should one be surprised You Only Live Twice (1967) is a font of grotesque invention with its script by Roald Dahl who wrote the story on which a famous Alfred Hitchcock Presents was based. You may recall a ship's lottery based on how many nautical miles are achieved by a certain time. The plan of the ill- fated grifter goes awry when the woman he's talking to before he jumps overboard is blind. It’s a little like what happens to the ghoulish Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Donald Pleasance) head of Spectre whose plan is to foil American astronauts by creating a death ship, with an open mouth that literally swallows them up. One of the most glorious creations is a tank of piranhas into which a fetching succubus amongst others is tossed. Just a wish bone remains in one case.There’s the pool filled with sharks in Thunderball but this is the coup de grâce.

read "Current Events" by Francis Levy, The East Hampton Star

4:35AM

photo: Francis Levy

Civilization is coming to an end. In response to a brutal assault by Hamas, the Israelis flattened Gaza. Ayatollah Khamenei was a horrific and dangerous man who was the modus state behind October 7th and innumerable acts of terror. Now right before the eyes of world, there's Trump using America’s military might to flatten a country of 80 million people.Trump's a name that might have been used by a Restoration Playwright--where soubriquets have an onomatopoeic effect. Think of the cast of characters in Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove besides the lead, Merkin Muffley, Gen. Buck Turgidson, Jack D. Ripper. Just say “Trump" aloud. Listen to it. Let it roll off your tongue. “Trump” is a good word for what is happening to the world. Will the president fill the broken landscape of Iran with Trump Towers. Will Trump put his face in the Iranian Rial? Will there be Trump tampons? Will American cheese be renamed? Hegseth is another name that totally fits the clowning of this satiric  and rowdy band of latter day Merry Pranksters, out to murder the world. The current offensive is working like clockwork, Clockwork Orange that is, with its Droogs led by yet another great name Alex DeLarge. How about Trump Aces of Spades and, of course, the famous bridge bid "3 no Trump!"

read "Current Events" by Francis Levy, The East Hampton Star

Philanthropy

Philanthropy is not unconditional love. You give ostensibly to help but the act is also supposed to make you feel good. If you can’t give it away you can’t get it goes the old saw. If you traffic in spirituality it's a no brainer but on an everyday basis many people like being praised for their generosity and don't want to be criticized for being parsimonious tightwads. Conversely, one can feel blackmailed. There's something superficial about all these people who make big contributions so their names can decorate a bench in some park. If you don't give to the homeless person then you're a heartless miser--especially if you're affluent. What then about the anonymous donation? Knowing one is being altruistic is a reward in itself (don't forget the deduction if you're giving to a 501c3).The only problem then are the whisperers, the accusers who are wondering why you're cheap?

read "Current Events" by Francis Levy, The East Hampton Star

Unrenowned

"Unrenowned" is not a word that's usually attached to someone. You don't usually say "Bob is unrenowned in his field." If you were trying to describe Bob's modest accomplishments, you might say what Bob did. Bob was a poet who specialized in sonnets. The fact you are not labeling Bob as an expert in a Petrarchian or Shakespearean form of the sonnet means that they have not distinguished themselves from the huge mass of sonneteers whose hands are risen in supplication say to the Poetry Foundation who received a $100 million dollar endowment form Ruth Lily in 2003. Bob has not and will not be published by the arm of the Poetry Foundation, Poetry Magazine and obviously he's not going to be able to buy his way in. Of course there are lots of arenas in which one can be undistinguished or undistinguishable from others of equally limited talents. Writing is just one area. All of art, science, mathematics, diplomacy and, of course, the law are comprised of practitioners who you have never heard of. Take the book Amino Acid and Peptide Synthesis by John Jones. You probably haven't heard of the title and what can one say about the author? There are a lot of John Joneses in the world. The author's first and last names are so recognizable, they ultimately don't describe anyone. But just listen to the name Laszlo Krasznahorkai. You may throw your hands up and say sure with a name like that you're going to be distinguishable, if not downright distinguished. You're right. Krasznahorkai, whose novels were the basis for several films by Bela Tarr (a filmmaker you probably don't know), won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2025.

read "Current Events" by Francis Levy, The East Hampton Star

Food

What We Talk About When We Talk About Love is the titled of Raymond Carver's l981 collection. The following is a non sequitur. The best food is sometimes right around the corner. More likely than not there's a Burger King within a stone's throw from your house. And if you're eating The Impossible Whopper (whose symbolism is impossible to miss), you are getting a plant based product--that's healthy and doesn't involve the brutalization of animals. The classic crispy chicken, though delicious, satisfies neither of these criteria, but move on to the question of fries. Saying "McDonald's fries are great" is tantamount to the first proposition of Wittgenstein's Tractatus, "the world is all that is the case." Guess what? They're no longer what they once were! The slow food movement is a reaction to the phenomenon of assembly line cooking. But what are you after in a meal, health, taste, economy, alacrity or that ineffable and ultimately elusive catharsis that comes when one attempts to satiate or should one say void the senses?

read "Current Events" by Francis Levy, The East Hampton Star

Tehran

The Seventh Fleet will attack in a week, ten days.  On CNN, Admiral James Stavridis, the former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO recently gave it a 60% chance of it happening in 7-10 days. Kidnapping the Ayatollah will be a trifle harder than the antiseptic operation that moved Maduro from Caracas to the Metropolitan Detention Center. Imagine the Supreme Leader imprisoned there. Well, it's not far from the site of 9/11. Succession may be the biggest issue. Will the Shah's son rise to the occasion? Word has it that his rhetoric is already extreme. Iran is a country of 80 million people. Thousands of demonstrators recently died in a massive crackdown by the Revolutionary Guard. The problem is not simply regime change, but the aftermath. How to juggle all the varying interests, political, religious and economic? Lastly, there is the impact on the region.  During the initial attack US bases in friendly nearby countries like Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Jordan will be threatened. In the aftermath, regime change in Iran is likely to unleash extremist elements throughout the Middle East. In Syria, Bashar al Assad fell, but ISIS still has a stronghold.  Remember that Iran is also part of the Axis that includes Russian and North Korea. It's the Domino theory and also--"spheres of influence," a vestige of the 50s political order which has ironically been reignited by Trump in his Greenland grab.

read "Current Events" by Francis Levy, The East Hampton Star

Mania

Pyromania, nymphomania, dipsomania Vergangensheitsbewaltigung (the burden of the past) anglophile, bibliophile. diarrhea, logorrhea—all of these are inclinations, with the exception of loose stools, generally something  which is out of the control of the sufferer. The sympathetic fallacy occurs  when nature mirrors the interior mind of a headless horseman. Onomatopoeia is a word that sounds similar to the thing described. Inspissation is an example of onomatopoeia. An emordnilap is the opposite of a palindrome like say nun, a word which can retain its meaning backwards and forwards. Prolepsis is anticipating the answer to a question which has yet to be asked. Zeugma or yoking is when one verb applies to multiple nouns. And then there are eggcorns, "for all intents and purposes" used wrongly in place of "for all intents and purposes"--"slips of the ear," named after "acorns" by the linguist Geoffrey Pullum in 2003.

read "Current Events" by Francis Levy, The East Hampton Star.