By Carol Tannenhauser
Monday, August 8, 2022
Partly cloudy with possible thunderstorm, hot and humid, high 90 degrees.
Notices
Our calendar has lots of local events! Click on the link or the lady in the upper righthand corner.
News
Two recent articles to ponder.
From the New York Post:
By blithely telling CNN’s Brian Stelter, “If you ask people, ‘How are you doing?’ they are pretty — they’re pretty upbeat . . . if you ask people, ‘How’s your financial situation?’ it’s pretty favorable,” New York Times columnist Paul Krugman just astounded the editors of Issues & Insights [a right-leaning publication], who ask: “What people? The folks who attend dinner parties with Krugman in New York’s Upper West Side?” Indeed, “if he talked to families struggling to make ends meet, or find baby formula, or pay their rent, he’d get a far different response than ‘pretty upbeat.’ ” Heck, “if Krugman can’t bring himself to talk to the unwashed masses, at least he could look at recent poll data,” such as those showing “fewer than one in five say their wages have kept pace with inflation while more than one in five say they are skipping meals or using food banks to deal with higher food costs.”
Read the Rag’s 2019 Q&A with Paul Krugman here.
From Newsweek:
New Yorkers were shocked on Thursday to find a red sculpture of Russian President Vladimir Putin, atop a red tank, had been added to a children’s play area in Central Park.
The guerrilla art was the work of anti-war artist James Colomina, who is based in Toulouse, France.
Speaking to Newsweek, Colomina explained how he installed his latest piece, and what message he was trying to convey with the provocative sculpture.
Read the rest of the article and see the artwork here.
Let us know what you think in the comments.
Go Hawks!
“ I waited until there were no more police cars and park security officers. And then I quickly installed the sculpture as if it had always been there.”, said the artist.
I can’t understand why this “anti-war” piece wasn’t removed and the “artist” fined. This is children’s playground, we can’t just go install whatever we want there.
The subject itself is appalling. I don’t want to see Putin statues however anti-war they intend to be anywhere in our neighborhood, not to mention a playground.
I was upset for three reasons to see that Westside Rag (one of my favorite newsletters) chose to reprint the NYPost’s unsubstantiated criticism of Paul Krugman. First, the NYPost was wrong, Krugman was right: numerous studies support Krugman. Despite the constant gloom found in the press, a large majority of of people of all socio-economic classes say their financial situation is very good these days. Second, the Post was criticizing our neighborhood, the Westside Rag’s neighborhood, suggesting everyone here is rich and everyone here refuses to look beyond our own circle. How could the Westside Rag print such unfair and mistaken criticism without a response? And third, I love the Westside Rag because it keeps me up to date on every good thing that is happening in my neighborhood – restaurants opening and closing, new bakeries and ice cream shops to try. I do not turn to the Westside Rag for politics, especially for angry, mean, ad hominem politics. Now I’m sad instead of happy. I hope you won’t do this again. Thank you.
“[N]umerous studies support Krugman. Despite the constant gloom found in the press, a large majority of of people of all socio-economic classes say their financial situation is very good these days.”
Would you care to cite some of these studies? I’d be interested to read them, especially considering around 60% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck (one medical emergency away from bankruptcy).
Maybe you and I have different definitions of “very good.”
Thank you, Jean Zorn. Totally with you.
Dear Jean,
We posted this to give you the opportunity to respond to it, not because we agree or disagree with it. It was out there; we count on commenters to set the record straight.
WSR
Too often websites stifle or ignore alternate views, so it’s good that you printed. Despite what many WSR readers may think the UWS is not a liberal monolith. The NY Post does good reporting
and no doubt many people don’t like to hear views/opinions/ facts that are contrary to their own.
Two thoughts on the Krugman item. First, the NY Post isn’t the most trustworthy source for any information. Second, Krugman has written a lot about these issues, basing his determinations on a wide variety of data, not on who he might have dinner with. One of the interesting observations he’s made along the way, based on Langer Research surveys, is that people offer quite different answers when asked about the economy, vs. their personal finances. So, maybe next time, when the West Side Rag wants to give some food for thought, how about looking at Krugman’s analyses and the data that back them up?
Remove it immediately! It has no business placed without community input into a playground . The tiny tank seems like a toy…not so in this war. Children shooting it with water guns and throwing sand at it makes this seem a strange provocation to children. Perhaps, the “artist” should place his art in his own home town park.
maybe the statue belongs somewhere, but not in a playground, where kids too young to understand are attacking it with with sand and water pistols. I think if the statue were not there, there would be no occasion for any adults to teach hate.
Would have liked to see a photo!
Click on link!
I did click on the link, once you pointed it out… I deeply hate Putin and all of his destructive acts, and thus hate any works depicting him… but… once I saw the actual work, I have a mixture of responses… let’s just say I don’t hate it… but I don’t know about putting it in a playground.
Still, the piece is obviously art.
It is an apparent publicity stunt.
…which artists occasionally utilize to make their works more widely known . No point to creating art that nobody sees.