September is not "spooky season"
Enough!
And we’re back!
Housekeeping notes: This Monday, paid subscribers got a very fun edition of ET Ask Home, my monthly questionnaire.
Also for paid subscribers: I’m starting to think about what paid-only features to offer next year, in 2024. If you have any opinions on this—if you like the monthly questionnaire but not the reading list, for example, or if you think I should keep both, or if you’d rather something entirely new—please do feel free to let me know either in the comments or via email.
And anyone else should feel free to email (polite, constructive) feedback, too.
And now onto news, views, and Jews.
THE NEWS
For MSNBC, I wrote about Vivek (Ramaswamy) and Viktor (Orbán) and their Soros fellowship-related opportunism.
I thought this piece on the upcoming elections in Slovakia was a great, disturbing read.
A new Chinese map shows China claiming territory India claims as its own. China has told India to “stay calm.”
I really liked this mini-profile of Marketa Vondrousova.
I loved this interview with/profile of Sofia Coppola.
Raymond Moriyama, an impactful architect for North America’s best city (Toronto), passed away.
Devesh Kapur wrote for the Financial Times about how the greatest threats to India are emerging from within.
This, on “India” versus “Bharat,” is worth reading.
The new Miyazaki will be in theatres this December. The trailer looks amazing.
MY VIEWS ON…
…September!
I have a controversial statement that I need to make. Some of you may disagree with this, but it’s important to me that, in this newsletter, I am honest with you. Are you ready? Here we go:
September is not “spooky season.”
I have long considered it suspect that people start celebrating Halloween on October 1, a full 30 days before the holiday. There are so many good things about October that aren’t Halloween—someone once described it as the Thursday of the year, and that person was right—and I think sometimes that those things get buried under black and orange. But I understand most people do not feel this way.
However.
A week ago, as August turned into September, I was shocked and appalled at the amount of content that I saw heralding the beginning of “spooky season.”
September 1 is not spooky season. None of September is spooky season. September is fighting for its fall status. I went to a baseball game this past weekend. It is over 90 degrees this week. We can’t even take out our sweaters yet. Now, I grant you that that will change, and before the end of the month we’ll be watching You’ve Got Mail, but to present September as so solidly in autumn as to be covered by Halloween is just not in keeping with the facts.
But back to You’ve Got Mail: This is my other issue with declaring September “spooky season.” Autumn is arguably the best season. And yet!!!!!!!! It is being swallowed by major holidays instead of being appreciated for itself. If we start celebrating Halloween on September 1 and then everyone rushes to turn on Christmas music on November 1 (which you shouldn’t, you should wait until after Thanksgiving, which has its own vibe that should get to stand alone for a few weeks, but I can’t think about that right now or I’ll get too frustrated), when, I ask you, are we enjoying fall itself?
Watch Hocus Pocus or a scary movie if you want to. I would never deny you that. But September doesn’t need to be spooky season. It’s already the start of fall, a great season. Isn’t that reason enough to celebrate?
AND SOME STUFF ABOUT JEWS
This is a lovely profile of Anna Lukashevsky, the artist who has been painting portraits of newly arrived refugees from Russia and Ukraine to Israel (after having originally been commissioned to do so by Jewish Currents).
David Rowland, a lawyer who worked to recover art looted by the Nazis for the heirs of their victims, passed away.
From the AP: “A former head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Israel is enforcing an apartheid system in the West Bank, joining a tiny but growing list of retired officials to endorse an idea that remains largely on the fringes of Israeli discourse and international diplomacy.”
From JTA: “The government of Finland agreed on a policy to combat racism and Holocaust denial on Thursday in the wake of multiple racism and neo-Nazi scandals that have rocked the administration in its early months…Thursday’s statement comes two months after then-Minister of Economic Affairs Vilhelm Junnila resigned after only 10 days on the job over revelations that he had joked about Nazi symbology at a far-right political event in 2019. His successor also was revealed to have sent racist messages, as was the deputy prime minister.” Now, Finland…
A public university in Switzerland is hiring a Jewish Studies professor but all applicants must be Catholic. Now, Switzerland…
Mexico could have its first Jewish president if it elects 61 year old physicist and former Mexico City mayor Claudia Sheinbaum.
That’s it for now! Hope to see you back here soon.
-ET
“Autumn Waterfall Sunset" by ForestWander.com is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.