The Pond Overfloweth
News, Non sequitors, and Noah Elkins sticking to his guns
I’m writing this from wet, windy, twig and branch strewn Sacramento.
Believe it or not, the skies up here are known for these kinds of shenanigans. Prior to I-80 being built over the Yolo Bypass, it was impossible to get from Sacramento to Davis in the winter because of engorged rivers and flooded fields.
And down south in multi-multi-million dollar Montecito:
All this to say—and in quip that would otherwise be aimed at most of the country, but not the Golden State—we hope your New Year is going swimmingly.
Crocodiles in Review
Last year:
-Elon Musk bought Twitter, kitchen sink and all.
-Russia invaded Ukraine. So far, and seventy billion U.S. Dollars later, Ukraine is standing its ground.
-Canadian long haul truckers staged a forceful, if commonsense protest that brought Ottawa to a standstill and put another nail in the coffin of the worldwide Covid regime. Many of those who protested had their lives and businesses ruined by Justin Trudeau’s Canadian government as a result.
-In something of a boon to unborn children everywhere, Roe versus Wade fell.
-Right after the midterms, and thanks to one twitchy college sophomore* and his one-time girlfriend, a better part of the Crypto world melted down… (not to worry; some $40 million in political donations from the college sophomore’s company FTX to the Democratic Party went completely unharmed).
*If you’re up for more Substack, you can actually read all about what happened from the twitchy college sophomore himself.
-Brendan Fraser made his comeback playing ‘Charlie’ a 600 pound online English teacher in Darren Aronofsky’s ‘The Whale,’ a sharp, touching, and visually revolting character drama based on the play by Samuel D. Hunter*
*One of my readers, a friend from northern Idaho where ‘The Whale’ is set, and where playwrights Samuel D. Hunter hails from, caught my review of ‘The Whale’ in American Greatness.
Then he texted me something worth sharing—Samuel D. Hunter grew up in his town, and my reader was once his teacher.
This year so far:
-A headless bronze statue* meant to commemorate the moment Dr. Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott King shared a hug after learning King won the Nobel Peace Prize, was revealed in Boston.
*On this, but not everything, the Crocodiles agree: a headless, two-person blob is about as aesthetically pleasing as Brendan Fraser in a fat suit. If you haven’t already seen it, and if you’re something of a daredevil, go ahead and look.
-In an overdue victory, Better Call Saul won Best Drama, and a slew of other awards at the Critic’s Choice Awards. Even in the age of art-as-activism, the cream still rises.
Across the Pond
-Author, and well-loved conservative historian Paul Johnson passed away at ninety-four. As Theodore Dalrymple points out in his splendid, short article in City Journal, we’ll remember Johnson for his knowledge, verve, and ‘elephantine memory.’
A few of the books in Johnson’s eye-popping corpus that I’ve read and re-read are worth mentioning; Intellectuals, Modern Times, and A History of the American People.
All classics.
Stay tuned for an essay on Paul Johnson in the new future.
And finally…
-With the implicit goal of getting himself and Megan even more hated by Brits and Americans everywhere, Prince Harry published the tell-all memoir Spare.
This earth-shattering announcement brings us to another section.
Autobiographies We’re Itching to Read
With ‘Spare’ selling like hot cakes, ghostwritten autobiography and tell-all nonfiction continue to be the rage.
In 2023, we cannot wait to read:Â
Gone in Sixty Days—My Time as Twitter’s CEO by Elon Musk
A Funny Thing Happened at the Swearing In Ceremony by Governor-elect of Arizona Katie Hobbs
Not Your Normal Pelican… Politician... the Eagles!  by Senator John Fetterman Â
Pilgrim at Montecito Creek: Mother Nature Is Not Happy With Us by Ellen DegeneresÂ
Primal Living: The Natural Way to Men’s Health and Washboard Abs by Liver King*
*Non-steroid edition
And while it’s not an autobiography per se, we’re giddily awaiting: Â
The Inclusive Speaker, Ninth Edition by they / them heteronormative cisscribblers, Stanford and Columbia.
Everyone Does It: Ten Ways to Fabricate Your Resume by Congressman George Santos
Closer to home…
-Shelf of Crocodiles grew to over a hundred free subscribers.
-Three people stepped up as financial patrons, ensuring we have a small budget for editors and illustrators—if you know who you are, then thank you kindly!
We’re so grateful for your help in keeping this content coming.
-Guest writers Noah Elkins and Noelle McEachran weighed in on Flannery O’Connor, Ye West (pre-Hitler), and Jane Austen respectively.
-Christiana Hale, author of ‘Deeper Heaven,’ joined the Crocodiles for their second author interview—the first was Ian Duncan, woodsman, lecturer and author of the memoir ‘On Cove Mountain.’
On that note, we’ve got a few more author interviews coming down the pipe.
-D.T. Adams, a recurring contributor and author of ‘Notes From the Fray,’ his own Substack newsletter on faith, family, and the books they’re reading, joined Shelf of Crocodiles as a contributing editor.
You’ll be reading much more of him, and we’re excited about that.
As always, if you have an idea, a connection, or if you know an up-and-coming author we should talk to, give us a shout in the comment section.
Comments usually please the Crocodiles.
From the Commonplace
From the poem ‘If,’ by Rudyard Kipling, (recited here by Michal Caine). Crisp and fitting for a year that’s still young.
“If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
   But make allowance for their doubting too;  Â
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
   Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
   And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise…
…If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
   If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
   With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,  Â
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,  Â
   And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!
Runners, take your mark.
You’re Better Than This, YeÂ
by Noah David Elkins
As you probably heard before Christmas, ‘Ye’ West surfaced in the news again; this time with a particularly anti-Semitic flair.
Last May, I made the case for Ye being a ‘holy fool’—a public figure whose shocking antics blow the eyelids back, but help reorient people to larger, painful truths. To be clear, a holy fool is not a hero…even though he might think he is. Someone who can keep all eyes on themselves by doing or saying outlandish things is within the archetype.Â
As sickening as it is, one-upping Alex Jones with Holocaust denial is a surefire way to capture eyeballs.
On Ye’s Mental Health
Ye’s clearly had mental health issues in the past, especially after he lost his mother, Donda. Take someone with Ye’s tendencies and put him through a divorce where he is in danger of losing custody of his children, and what do you get?Â
Stung by reversals, and surrounded by people who see no problem with holocaust denial, or with feeding him his own brand of paranoia, Ye is on a downward slide like we’ve never seen.
But so far, he’s maintained his role as the holy fool. This blaze of anti-Semitism is only strengthening his ability to capture attention—even as it destroys his reputation. Perhaps the law of diminishing returns will soon come into play, but that remains to be seen. In the meantime, everyone is talking about this and that doesn’t appear to be changing anytime soon.
Come Back, Kanye
How should we view Ye at this point? To be clear, the holy fool doesn’t set out to be a holy fool on purpose. Very often, the people who occupy that space think they are being the hero.
I am sure that Ye fancies himself a hero.
But what he is is clear to all of us: he is a fool, and one probably bought off more rancid ideology than he can chew. But he has our attention, which means the only thing left to do is to watch and see what he does with it.
Personally, I’m just hoping he gets some help soon.
I miss that old Kanye.