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What Do You “Need To Know”?
Every Friday on their podcast , Mona Charen and Jay Nordlinger discuss, well, just about everything. They question their guests and often each other, but until now, the listeners have never gotten to pose a question to them.
That changes this week as Jay and Mona open the floor to questions from Ricochet members. Ask them anything: politics, culture, music, the cello, golf, Michigan football, marching bands or anything else that comes to mind.
Leave your questions in the comments below and we’ll get to as many as we can on Friday’s show.
Yes, you do have to be a Ricochet member to pose a question, so this is the perfect opportunity to join now!
Published in General
If you have time, I’d like Jay to comment on “a little grammar”. There seems to be a trend to use the word myself instead of me. For example, “That mural was completed by Joe, Sally, and myself”. “Joe, Sally, and me” sounds much better to my ear. Is this just a preference on my part? Is it another reflection of thinking that more or bigger words make one smart? Another of my pet peeves is the constant use of such phrases as “67 years of age” instead of “67 years old”? I’m sure you can tell I’m getting old and cranky, but I do remain curious.
Dear Jay and Mona,
A question for Jay about his sense of Scandinavian conservatism, is it conservative at all compared to the one you have in the US?
A tip for Mona, Norman Doidge’s book The Brain That Changes Itself. I think of you and this book because I have heard you talk about ADD and learning issues over the years. Doidge writes about the brain’s plasticity and how targeted efforts can address problems at their core. The book is filled with amazing stories and mind blowing breakthroughs.
Jay and Mona,
Hearing about the Duke Call to Prayer debacle, got me to thinking about institutional traditions. Duke has ties to the Methodist Church, it still has a divinity school, it has the motto Knowledge and Faith, and yet 177 years after its founding by Methodists and Quakers the people running this institution are looking to use the chapel for Muslim call to prayers. I know that it’s not the only institution to shift so much from its original identity, but that a host of organizations (not just universities but charitable organizations, mostly I’m thinking of non-profits) over time shift as new management want to make their claim and disregard the history and tradition of the institution. For example, half the Ivies were founded by Calvinists.
If you could just speak to that, the importance of history and tradition in institutions in general, and the culture of non-profits that seems to disregard that tradition, I would like hear both of your thoughts on that.
P.S. Love your podcast.
Both of you must have been to your fair share of art galleries or spaces where art is displayed. Which, of all the places you have seen, is your favourite room, and why?
1. Mona once said that a person can learn pitch. I’ve had this argument with my wife before. I think your ability to tune an instrument is God given like having rhythm.
Please explain what you mean.
2. Jay – Who do you think is the best composer for film and does it matter that John Williams rips off so many composers?
3.Jay – Please rank your favorite violin players dead and living. Heifetz as #1 is a given.