October 31, 2017

Andres Viglucci

The Miami Herald

RE: Walmart is evil, particularly after Wide Bottomed Hillary left its Board, but Amazon is neutral? Some comments on your news article about, in a trend reversing trend, a trendy book store is opening in a trendy South Florida neighborhood.  Why it doesn’t open in Liberty City is a discussion for a different time. Shouldn’t poor folks, particularly people of color, have an equal opportunity to read?

Mr. Viglucci,

The two things that stand out about Irish Alzheimer’s are that, while you forget you have it, the last thing you forget is a well-earned grudge.

A brief digression.

Modern American Liberals raled against Walmart because they shut down Mom & Pop stores. Forget that Walmart greatly benefited single moms, usually women of color, with their huge inventories and phenomenally low prices – por ejemplo, prescription drugs. They disturbed, indeed ruptured, the limited inventory, high price, delivery extra, model that had existed for decades. Vide “Creative Destruction” by Schumpeter

Progressives, the natural descendants of modern American Liberals, must take a blood oath swearing that they have never purchased a book from Amazon before they will be allowed to criticize Walmart.

But back to the main track.

By 1997 I was a big-time fan of “Books & Books” in Coral Gables. Just before Christmas I was there looking to score a 2 book combo as a Christmas present.

I found several options for #1 – T. S. Eliot - but none for #2 – Ezra Pound. I asked a knowledgeable sales person where I could find Pound.

“We don’t stock him,” she told me.

“Why not,” I asked. 

“Ask him,” she said.

“Him” was the bearded, gaunt, almost Jesuitical, owner, Mitch Kaplan.

He told me he wouldn’t stock Pound because he was an anti-Semite and that since he owned the store he could stock or not stock anybody.

Quickly remembering that the natural law right to use one’s property as you want – sui juris -  is paramount in the pantheon of God-given rights – “gifts from beyond the stars” – I said, “You’re right”, and I haven’t been back since.

Again, a brief digression.

Try to imagine 20^th century literature – N.B. that I specifically didn’t say 20^th century English literature – without Joyce, without Eliot, [Eliot called Pound il miglior fabbro] without Hemingway, without Yeats. While you are at it, try to imagine Bach absent the cello, cell phones without Jobs, or the 20^th century without the Polish Pope and the Great Reagan. 

Harvey Weinstein produced some great films. Roman Polansky directed some great films. Meryl Streep called the former “God” and publicly wet her drawers clapping for the latter in 2003. Weinstein ruined it for a lot of rain coat flashing dirty old men while Polanski queered the pitch for fledgling paedophiles. Sould that grant us a license to burn their films?

Since Mitch’s new business plans don’t interfere with mine I wish him the best.

Let me report that, indeed, plaids do go with stripes, and that I have discovered 2 new episodes of The Honeymooners. On the other hand, it is best to hard boil your Easter eggs before you bury them.

Kevin Smith