newyorker--2020-01-20--The Subversive Joy of Cold-Water Swimming

In 1973 , Roger Deakin , a British writer and environmental activist , acquired a tumbledown sixteenth-century farmhouse outside the ancient village of Mellis , in Suffolk , and began a restoration , repairing stone walls and replacing roof tiles .
Among the attributes of Walnut Tree Farm , as the house was called , was a deep , spring-fed moat .
It didn ’ t surround the house , as with a fortified castle , but was excavated into the land , in roughly parallel lines , at the front and the back of the property .
The moat @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as a water supply , a cooler , and a status symbol .
Over the centuries , it fell into disrepair , becoming silted up from falling leaves and rotting tree roots .
Deakin had the moat dredged to a depth of ten feet ; staked a wooden ladder by the bank , near the spreading roots of a willow tree ; and began regularly swimming in the cold , greenish water .
He gained what he called a frog ’ s-eye view of the changing seasons , and an intimate familiarity with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ dragonflies to newts .
In the mid-nineties , Deakin took inspiration from the protagonist of John Cheever ’ s short story “ The Swimmer ” —who traverses his suburban neighborhood pool by pool—and made an aquatic journey around England , Wales , and Scotland , bathing in seas , rivers , ponds , and lakes .
Deakin wrote a book about that adventure , “ Waterlog ” ( 1999 ) , which has become a classic of British nature writing .
His prose is sensuous— “ At seaweedy Kimmeridge I mingled with mullet @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sense of humor is as dry as his theme is wet .
A leech , he observes , keeps changing shape in the water , “ looping and stretching out its black stocking of a body , as women do when they ’ re testing tights for quality in Marks & Spencer.
” The book also displays a lively erudition : when Deakin describes a swim off the virtually unpopulated island of Jura , in the Scottish Hebrides , he notes that George Orwell retreated there to write “ 1984.
” “ Waterlog @ @ @ @ @ @ @ intent on challenging the privatization of once public waters .
“ The right to walk freely along river banks or to bathe in rivers , should no more be bought and sold than the right to walk up mountains or to swim in the sea from our beaches , ” he writes .
In one rousing passage , he yells back at censorious river keepers who chastise him for swimming in the trout-filled Itchen , which runs through the grounds of an élite boarding school : “ I already felt invigorated after a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I felt even better after a terrific set-to.
” For Deakin , swimming in open waters is a subversive act—a way to reclaim nature cordoned off by capitalism , and to “ regain a sense of what is old and wild in these islands.
” Deakin died , from a brain tumor , in 2006 .
A year later , Walnut Tree Farm was bought by a couple , Jasmin and Titus Rowlandson , who have maintained his commitment to ungentrified country living .
There is still no central heating in the farmhouse @ @ @ @ @ @ @ stove and an enormous open hearth , over which dinner is typically cooked .
Last year , Titus , who restores classic automobiles in the barn , and Jasmin , a jeweller and a painter , began offering overnight stays in two renovated cabins on the property .
In early November , I took the train from London to Suffolk , with the aim of swimming in Deakin ’ s moat .
Heavy rain had fallen all morning , sluicing the windows of the train as it rolled through the port of Ipswich @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an ecstatic moat swim in summer rain , amid “ water sprites springing up on tiptoe like bright pins over the surface.
” A chilly , wet autumn day seemed considerably less enchanting .
By the time I reached Walnut Tree Farm , however , the rain had stopped , and low streaks of pinkish afternoon sun had emerged between torn clouds and the bare branches of sodden trees .
After installing myself in the cabin I ’ d rented—delightfully kitted out with antique furniture , a wood-burning stove , and a well-chosen @ @ @ @ @ @ @ along with neoprene booties and gloves .
Straightening my spine , I headed for the back-yard moat .
Sixty feet in length , it had a gleaming black surface strewn with the golden disks of fallen leaves , like tarnished Anglo-Saxon jewelry inlaid with gems .
Descending the rickety ladder , I pushed off into the water and breaststroked to the deepest part , at the center , to avoid entanglement with hidden weeds and roots .
The cold was searing .
I could feel the muscles of my upper back constricting ; @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to shatter , and my toes and fingers started to numb , despite my high-tech gear .
I swam a few lengths , trying to appreciate Deakin ’ s frog ’ s-eye view , though , to the extent that I could identify with a frog , it was with one placed—in the reverse of the fable—in a slowly chilling pot of water , to see if it notices when it starts to freeze to death .
Despite the cold—and despite the two hours it took me to warm up afterward , stoking @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tea as I could handle—my brief swim in the moat was a starkly beautiful experience .
I felt fantastic .
Deakin swam in the moat nearly every day , except when it froze over , and it was easy to see how he ’ d got hooked .
I was not the only reader of Deakin to have been seduced in this way .
“ Waterlog ” helped spur the rise of what has become known in Britain as “ wild swimming ” : wading briefly or churning doggedly in outdoor waters , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
According to the most recent figures collected by Sport England , a group that urges physical activity , half a million people in England are engaging regularly in wild swimming—nearly twice as many as reported doing so just three years ago .
Many participants claim that the activity is not only fun but also improves their mental health .
The sport ’ s attractions can be hard to imagine if your vision of outdoor swimming revolves around sunshine , warm water , fine-grained sand , and a trashy novel to read afterward @ @ @ @ @ @ @ blue space ” —a term used to characterize rivers , ponds , lakes , and seas by people who argue for the health benefits of having access to them .
There are about forty thousand lakes in Britain , and it ’ s estimated that nobody in the U.K. is ever more than seventy miles from a stretch of coastline .
But British waters are incontrovertibly cold .
Sea temperatures rarely creep above twenty degrees Celsius , or sixty-eight degrees Fahrenheit , and England ’ s freshwater bodies , which are often fed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ even chillier .
Last year , by mid-October—generally regarded as the end of the outdoor-swimming season—the Serpentine Lido , the designated swimming spot in the Serpentine lake , in London ’ s Hyde Park , had dropped to the low fifties .
The hardiest wild swimmers keep going even when water temperatures fall below freezing ; they pack , along with a microfibre towel and a thermos of tea , an axe , for breaking a channel through the ice .
The vogue for outdoor swimming has been fuelled , in part , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ easy to collect “ likes ” by posting a photograph of yourself waist-deep in a craggy loch .
The British press provides travel advice about the most romantic swimming locales .
The Guardian recently gushed about a spot at the foot of Mt .
Snowdon , in Wales , noting , “ Take a dip here and you are swimming with the Torgoch , a rare type of Arctic char fish that has survived since the ice age.
” In U.K. bookstores , shelves are devoted to the sport .
One of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ Wild Swim , ” by Kate Rew , which offers a variety of suggestions for swimmers lacking a moat of their own .
Why not sample England ’ s deepest lake , Wastwater , in the Lake District , which goes down nearly as far as Big Ben goes up ?
A telling photograph in “ Wild Swim ” shows a swimmer in the Blue Lagoon , in Abereiddy , Pembrokeshire ; you ’ d think that the aquamarine water was in the Aegean , if not for the fact that the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Rew is the founder of the Outdoor Swimming Society , which was launched in 2006 and now has close to eighty thousand members .
“ Swimming is like going on a condensed holiday , ” she told me recently .
“ It has that way of transporting you out of your normal world , and everything else that happens after that is a bonus.
” The society ’ s Web site touches on wild-swimming etiquette ( “ Be considerate of your effect on other water users such as fishermen/women , boaters , nesting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , such as what to do if you get caught in weeds ( “ Slow down , try a modified doggy paddle and gently extricate yourself without kicking or thrashing around ” ) .
Rew told me that , personally , she dislikes being cold , and considers British water temperatures an inconvenience , though not a crippling one .
“ It ’ s not ideal , ” she said .
“ The water can take your breath away , and you can ’ t stay in as long as you want to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it.
” She joked about how outdoor-swimming enthusiasts use cheery synonyms for “ cold ” — “ bracing , ” “ invigorating ” —in order to make the activity “ seem like something you want to embrace , rather than something you want to shy away from.
” Wild swimming accommodates different levels of engagement .
For triathletes , a lake may be just another medium to get through , like a hilly bicycle path , in an orgy of punishing exertion .
For more moderate swimmers , a brief autumnal dip in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ social gathering , with a slice of cake or a nip of whiskey afterward .
Rew told me , “ Lots of people who love wild swimming barely swim at all .
They just get in and bob about a bit .
I think it is fantastic to swim any which way you want to—except judgmentally of others.
” The earliest records of swimming in Britain appear in accounts of the invasion of the Romans , in the first century .
Tacitus describes Roman soldiers swimming in full armor , and Julius Caesar @ @ @ @ @ @ @ swimmer .
According to Susie Parr , the author of an enlightening volume called “ The Story of Swimming , ” manuals on military training that were disseminated in the Middle Ages stressed the usefulness of the skill .
In 1587 , Sir Everard Digby , a scholar from Cambridge , wrote a treatise on swimming , “ De Arte Natandi , ” in which he shared techniques for keeping afloat and for getting in and out of water safely .
The text , originally written in Latin but translated to English a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ woodcuts of nude swimmers performing a series of now unfamiliar strokes .
One involved raising one arm and one leg out of the water simultaneously ; in another , a swimmer is on his back , kicking his legs , froglike , while cupping his genitals .
The strokes that we use today , from the crawl to the breaststroke , were not standardized until the nineteenth century , when England introduced competitive swimming as a sport .
Swimming in the sea became popular in the eighteenth century , and at resorts like @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wheeled across the beach in small wooden cabins , then descended down steps into the salty waters with the help of attendants , often women , known as “ dippers.
” In the Romantic era , swimming became an activity , like wandering across daffodil-covered hillsides , that was thought to offer a potential encounter with the sublime .
The development of railways , in the Victorian era , spurred the growth of many seaside resorts , including Ramsgate , in Kent , where , a local reporter noted , “ the men @ @ @ @ @ @ @ nature , and the ladies frolic in very questionable bathing garments within a few yards of them.
” Wild swimmers tend to enter water slowly , keeping their heads above the surface .
Photograph by Alice Zoo for The New Yorker In the twentieth century , many swimmers shifted to chlorinated pools .
Affordable package holidays to resorts in Spain , where the water is warm and the sun reliable , further enticed Britons away from local waters .
In any case , many British lakes and seashores had become horribly polluted .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” Parr reports that , in 1980 , the U.K. had no inland waters that met the environmental standards of the European Economic Community ’ s Bathing Water Directive .
Since then , water quality has improved significantly , which has helped fuel the wild-swimming revival .
A practitioner still needs to be choosy , though : a recent investigation by the London Times revealed that eighty-six per cent of the rivers in England contained pollution levels exceeding current E.U .
standards .
Another factor behind the popularity of wild swimming is its @ @ @ @ @ @ @ than a hundred dollars on a wet suit , the only essential equipment is a bathing suit .
( Some purists insist , with a nod to historical precedent—and a touch of English-public-school masochism—that wild swimming is best done naked . )
Many enthusiasts join a club , such as the Brighton Swimming Club—the country ’ s oldest , founded in 1860 .
It offers swimmers company , which enhances safety , especially when the sea is choppy .
It also offers changing rooms with hot showers , a welcome amenity for members @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wind-whipped , up the shingled shore .
Other swimmers assemble more informally .
The Salty Seabirds , a loose , mostly female collective , also in Brighton , orchestrates daily meetups through Facebook .
Its members descend on the beach in Ugg boots and flapping Dryrobe ponchos , looking like colorful seagulls .
After hastily stripping down to their bathing suits , they wade in , and are soon up to their chins .
Others prefer to go it alone , feeling that swimming ’ s solitary , meditative quality is the best @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mind so well as being in water so cold that , unless you are careful , your breath will literally be taken away .
The gasp reflex , as the phenomenon is known , is the strongest argument against suddenly jumping or diving into frigid water , rather than entering it gradually while keeping your head above the surface .
When I moved , about a year ago , to a neighborhood of North London close to Hampstead Heath , new neighbors asked me if I was going to swim in the ponds @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries .
Soon after the ponds were created , they became informal swimming holes ; in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries , dedicated ponds for men and women were established .
The single-sex ponds are fed by the waters of the River Fleet , which once flowed through London but since the nineteenth century has been channelled into an underground culvert .
They are cherished , year-round institutions , and inspire an almost cultlike devotion in their users .
( A third , mixed-sex pond , on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is open only in the summer months . )
A collection of essays about the Ladies ’ Pond , “ At the Pond , ” was published last summer .
It includes a contribution by the novelist Margaret Drabble , who spent time at the pond in the nineteen-seventies with an older lesbian friend who had once been a Cistercian nun .
“ I don ’ t think she liked swimming but she liked the ambience , with its strange mixture of permissiveness and purity , ” Drabble notes .
In another essay @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the pond , that “ slipping into its waters is slipping into bliss.
” The Ladies ’ Pond has been celebrated less reverently by a Twitter parody account , Bougie London Literary Woman : “ Doing a recklessly vigorous breaststroke , I have lost my pendant to the Pond .
It shall come to settle on the silt , next to my heart , perhaps , which I lost to those murky depths long ago.
” I ’ m a decent swimmer , having first learned in the unheated outdoor pool of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by the English seaside , in King George III ’ s favored resort town of Weymouth , which has a wide , sheltered bay , but I swam there relatively infrequently in my youth—only when the warmth of the sun was sufficient to counter omnipresent sea breezes .
It was not until I was in my thirties and living in Brooklyn—with Brighton Beach a short subway ride away—that I truly discovered the pleasures of outdoor swimming .
Having left one seaside town behind , I found another within New York City—this one offering @ @ @ @ @ @ @ favorite Russian restaurant on the boardwalk , where I ’ d retreat when I ’ d had enough of the water .
But even at Brighton Beach I swam only in the summer , when the city streets were so broiling that I could overlook the murky water and the shreds of Styrofoam bobbing along beside me .
The ponds on the Heath were a different story .
On a pleasant day in early May , I made my first visit to the Ladies ’ Pond .
It was only a few weeks @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that stretches across the water in the winter , restricting swimmers to a small area close to the dock .
The rope goes up on the first day that the water temperature falls below twelve degrees Celsius , or fifty-three degrees Fahrenheit , usually in late October , and stays there until the mercury rises above that threshold .
I got changed in an attractive Scandinavian-looking structure , built a few years ago , that includes hot showers .
It replaced an older shack that is lamented by some longtime pond swimmers , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The other women at the pond that day were mostly middle-aged or older ; a few looked as if they might well have hung out there in the seventies , alongside Margaret Drabble .
The water had climbed to fourteen degrees Celsius , according to a chalkboard at the water ’ s edge .
A sign warned all comers that the water is cold and deep , and that entry is limited to competent swimmers .
From a glass-fronted cabin on the dock , one of two lifeguards who are on duty @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
I descended a metal ladder and pushed off .
For the first couple of minutes , I couldn ’ t stop gasping .
I tried to focus not on my pounding heart or my tingling extremities but on the new green growth on the trees that surround the pond , providing swimmers , in summer , with verdant privacy .
Scientists who study immersion in cold water—typically defined as below fifteen degrees Celsius , or fifty-nine degrees Fahrenheit—note different stages in the physiological response .
During the first three minutes , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sensation of burning or prickling .
This can induce anxiety , but the greater risk comes after a while , when the cold begins to feel almost tolerable .
Superficial neuromuscular cooling begins , which can cause “ cold incapacitation ” : your limbs—particularly your arms , which have a high surface-to-mass ratio—feel too weak to move , and your hands are too numb to grasp a dock or a ladder railing .
Swimmers sometimes worry about hypothermia , in which blood flow , neural function , and cellular metabolism are compromised , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ However , in temperatures above fifteen degrees Celsius , hypothermia does not set in for at least thirty minutes—by that time , most experienced outdoor swimmers will have long since made it to the shore .
In lower temperatures , hypothermia takes less time .
The rule of thumb is to spend only as many minutes in the water as the number of degrees , in Celsius .
One is less in danger of slowly languishing , blue-lipped , amid the waves , like Leonardo DiCaprio in “ Titanic , ” than of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more rapid onset of hyperventilation , during which a swimmer swallows and inhales water rather than air , and begins to drown .
When cold shock is experienced in combination with other physiological changes , particularly those associated with diving into frigid water , some swimmers can have a heart arrhythmia , which , if there is an underlying cardiac condition , can prove fatal .
Occasionally , a drowning at the ponds occurs .
Last spring , there was one at the Men ’ s Pond .
A postmortem investigation found that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ had undiagnosed coronary heart disease , and suffered a heart attack in the water .
One of his relatives told the press that he had known the dangers of cold-water swimming , and that “ the last thing he would have wanted was for more safety measures to be put in place.
” “ I never leave a witness who might describe me to police as being short.
” I continued to swim at the Ladies ’ Pond through the spring .
A mother duck and her fluffy queue of ducklings circled the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
We were ignored by the heron that sometimes came to rest , heavily , in the boughs of a tree that bent over the water .
Bit by bit , the water temperature rose ; by late July , it had reached as high as twenty degrees Celsius , or sixty-eight degrees Fahrenheit .
The year-round swimmers tolerated the arrival of fair-weather newcomers : young women in high-waisted bikinis who shrieked as they entered the water , then lounged in the adjacent meadow , where topless sunbathing is the norm .
( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the pond , of two pounds , is only lightly enforced , lifeguards and other swimmers energetically defend a prohibition on photography . )
When , in September and October , the water temperature began to drop , I brought out my neoprene booties and gloves .
I opted for a silicone bathing cap , rather than the woolly hats worn by many ladies at the pond .
As the fall grew chillier , the community of swimmers drew closer .
Not long after sunrise on a gray Halloween morning , I joined @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Pond Association for a celebratory swim and breakfast .
We huddled on the dock as Jane Smith , a long-serving lifeguard at the pond , reminded us that this was a liminal moment at which the barrier between the living and the dead was particularly thin .
She invited us to imagine the generations of women who had swum in the pond before us , and urged us to swim with them .
Some members descended into the water in bathing suits and pointy witch hats , breaststroking around like black crows that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Although special-occasion cold-water immersion is a tradition at the ponds and elsewhere—Coney Island hosts the Polar Bear Plunge on New Year ’ s Day , attended by thousands of dippers fighting off hangovers—serious cold-water swimmers recommend going in the water at least three times a week , in order to maintain the body ’ s acclimatization .
By early November , my neoprene booties were necessary to prevent the cold of the concrete dock stabbing into my feet like knives .
As a cautionary measure , I acquired a neoprene bathing suit @ @ @ @ @ @ @ front , and had a dramatic cut suitable for a Bond girl .
But , even when the chalkboard showed that the water temperature had dropped to five degrees Celsius , or forty-one degrees Fahrenheit , it didn ’ t seem worth the bother of putting it on .
On such days , I circled the pond briefly , pushing aside the fallen leaves that hadn ’ t lasted as far into the season as I had .
I stayed in just long enough to experience what might be called the smug reflex @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from accomplishing , and even enjoying , something that most people would find unfathomably off-putting .
Advocates of cold-water swimming dwell less on its risks than on the health benefits that it allegedly bestows .
Anecdotal claims are often made that swimming in low temperatures boosts the immune system , and enthusiasts swear that the mental-health benefits are transformative .
A recent documentary about the ponds , broadcast on the BBC , included testimony from swimmers about the mood-elevating properties of a daily dip , or the ponds ’ part in sustaining swimmers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fact , little research has been done on whether wild swimming benefits one ’ s mental state , although , according to Mark Harper , a doctor at the Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals , regular cold-water immersion has been shown to decrease inflammation , which is associated with ailments from pain to depression .
In a phone conversation , Harper , a cold-water swimmer himself , explained , “ By adapting to cold stress , your response to that cold stress becomes less marked—your blood pressure doesn ’ t go up as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ t go up as much .
The benefit of that is that you may not react as much to stress in daily life.
” Harper believes that even dipping your face underwater can have extra benefits .
It ’ s harder for a scientist to take empirical measurements of the physical or mental benefits of cold-water swimming than it is to measure , say , those of running , which can be done on a treadmill in a lab .
Hannah Denton , a counselling psychologist based in Brighton , overcame practical @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a tow float , so that she could interview half a dozen devoted practitioners in situ .
All Denton ’ s swimmers were convinced that cold-water swimming was essential to their well-being , but they also all reported having experienced twinges of panic while engaging in it .
As one respondent put it , “ One minute , you are fine , and then literally the next second it is ‘ Shit , I am too cold , I should have got out.
’ And it ’ s literally swim or die.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the sense of a close , and possibly risky , encounter with the natural world was part of what made the activity appealing .
“ All your senses get absolutely overwhelmed , and it brings on a bit of clarity , ” one of her interviewees said .
For people who have experienced trauma , the focus that ’ s required for cold-water swimming may be helpful , paradoxically , in generating a sense of calm and control .
For other swimmers , cold water may offer what Nicky Mayhew , one of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Pond Association , described to me as the appeal of “ safe jeopardy ” —an excursion into discomfort and extremity for people who , in their daily lives , are fortunate enough to experience little that is discomforting or extreme .
Another problem with researching the effects of cold-water swimming is that any people who do it have clearly chosen to do it , which may well predispose them to think that it ’ s doing them some good .
As Sarah Atkinson , a professor of geography and medical humanities at Durham @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Blue Space , Health , and Wellbeing : Hydrophilia Unbounded , ” “ An account of experiencing wild swimming might look very different from a less convinced and committed informant group.
” Shortly before dawn one Sunday morning in mid-November , I met Gilly McArthur , an illustrator who lives in Kendal , in the Lake District , a region of northern England much beloved by Romantic poets and wild swimmers .
McArthur swims regularly in Lake Windermere , and she had volunteered to take me along , although her real passion is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s frozen tarns , or ponds .
As we drove to Lake Windermere , McArthur took out her phone and showed me a photograph of herself taken the previous January , when she resolved to swim in ice every day .
In the picture , she was nose-deep in a gray smear of ice and water , wearing glasses and a woolly hat .
McArthur is a member of an informal band of swimmers , the Buoy 13 club , named for a marker moored about five hundred feet from shore .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ borders the lake , she told me that usually there were only half a dozen swimmers ; this weekend , though , the Kendal Mountain Festival , devoted to outdoor sports and activities , was taking place , and at least forty early risers were gathered at a boathouse and a dock by the water .
Some were already down to their bathing suits ; others were swathed in cozy robes .
It was drizzling , and the air temperature was barely above four degrees Celsius , or forty degrees Fahrenheit .
I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pulled on my neoprene booties and gloves , and joined the dozens of swimmers wading into the water , which was black and calm .
“ At least there ’ s no wind , ” McArthur cheerfully noted , as we started breaststroking toward the buoy .
The water temperature was about six degrees Celsius , or forty-two degrees Fahrenheit , slightly milder than I had become accustomed to at the Ladies ’ Pond .
The scenery around us was spectacular , the lake extending north , under leaden skies , toward the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ distance , peaks with a faint touch of snow .
I swam on , chatting with McArthur , but within about twenty or thirty feet of the buoy I decided that I didn ’ t want to overdo it , and urged her to go on ahead of me .
Some feel that swimming ’ s solitary , meditative quality is the best thing about it .
Little focusses the mind so well as being in water so cold that , unless you are careful , your breath will literally be taken away @ @ @ @ @ @ @ New Yorker Turning back , I suddenly realized just how far from the dock I ’ d come .
I didn ’ t feel weak , or even particularly cold , but I pulsed with existential dread .
I was conscious of not knowing how deep the black water below me was .
There was nothing to hang on to , and only my own arms and legs to keep me afloat .
Nobody was nearby .
This would be a really stupid way to go , I thought , then reflected that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ people had just before suffering the consequences of an unwise , irrevocable decision .
A woman in a knit hat with a pompom was swimming toward me , heading to the buoy .
As she drew near , I asked if she would do me a favor and swim alongside me as I returned to shore .
A man who had already made it to the buoy and was on his way back swam up beside us .
“ I ’ ll swim you in , ” he said , reassuringly , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ my anxiety dissipating with each stroke .
“ There you go , ” he said , when I was able to touch bottom again .
I clambered out , shivering and shaken—and forever grateful to him , in spite of the fact that , as swimmers like to say , I wouldn ’ t recognize him with his clothes on .
An hour or so later , my nausea had abated and my teeth had stopped chattering , and I joined many of the Buoy 13 swimmers as they gathered at the town @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s session on outdoor swimming .
The event , hosted by Outdoor Swimmer magazine , was packed , with three hundred festivalgoers seated in the lofty Victorian room .
The stage was equipped with a lectern and a video screen .
The first speaker , Fenwick Ridley , was a tall , burly man with an abundant russet beard and prodigious shoulders .
Ridley gave an account of swimming upstream on the River Tyne , in the northeast of England , from the city of Newcastle to Kielder Water , an enormous @ @ @ @ @ @ @ played a short film that he ’ d made of the seven-day trip , shot with a GoPro , which showed him struggling with exhaustion as he battled the current , and , in more lighthearted moments , adorning his beard with froth eddying at the water ’ s edge .
Ridley acknowledged that there were times when the swim had felt alarmingly hazardous : there were strong currents , and boat captains did not expect humans to be in the water .
“ I was really worried , but I was also @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the bend , ” he said .
Next up was a Kendal resident called Ben Dowman , who had devised a daylong challenge that combined ninety-six miles of biking through the Lake District with six miles of swimming , in four lakes .
He ’ d needed a support crew with a van , because , though he could carry a wet suit while riding a bike , he could not carry a bike while swimming in a wet suit .
The adventure ended with a half-mile swim across Rydal Water , a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
When Dowman was done , he crawled , depleted , onto the bank .
He recalled , of his swim , “ My legs were cramping , and I was lying on my stomach in the water and wondering why my support crew wasn ’ t coming to get me .
Turns out they thought I was savoring the moment , when actually I was just slowly getting hypothermia.
” The final speaker was a woman named Lindsey Cole , who , in late 2018 , swam the River Thames dressed as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ feet into a monofin , as is sometimes used by free divers for a turbo-charged butterfly kick underwater .
An iridescent blue-green nylon sheath extended from her waist to the flipper .
For warmth , she wore a beige wet suit that matched her skin tone .
Her swim , which was done to raise awareness of plastic and other detritus in the Thames , began near the river ’ s source , in the Cotswolds .
The journey was gruelling , she said , but sometimes surprisingly companionable : people occasionally appeared @ @ @ @ @ @ @ asked if they could join her in the water .
She stayed overnight at pubs .
While swimming through Oxfordshire , Cole spotted what she initially thought was a sheet of discarded plastic at the water ’ s edge , before realizing that it was mooing .
She alerted rescue services , who helped the animal to shore .
( “ DROWNING COW SAVED FROM DEATH BY A PASSING MERMAID , ” read the headline in the Sun . )
Swimming sometimes six hours a day , Cole took more than three weeks @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reached the end of her journey , in Teddington , on the outskirts of London , she was joined by a small group of other swimmers , who slid into the frigid water to splash alongside her .
In Kendal , Cole beamed as she told the crowd , “ This was the first time I discovered the wonderful world of outdoor swimmers.
” Last February , Cole noted , she had biked from Devon , in southern England , to Loch Tay , in central Scotland , for the Scottish Winter Swimming @ @ @ @ @ @ @ stopped to take dozens of dips with wild-swimming groups throughout England and Scotland .
In Clevedon , near Bristol , she joined locals for a quick swim and then for what they called “ the debrief ” —a long chat over mulled wine in a pub .
At dawn near Sheffield , she and a group of ten women waded in the River Derwent while another woman piped on a flute .
One dark evening in Skipton , in Yorkshire , Cole skinny-dipped with a group of strangers .
In Newcastle , she @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hoped that the frigid sea might help her overcome her grief about her father ’ s recent death .
Cole swam alongside a thousand swimmers as she zigzagged across Britain ; in the Shetlands , at the northernmost beach in Scotland , she swam with seals as well .
Occasionally , Cole ’ s path overlapped with the route pioneered by Roger Deakin , two decades earlier .
She ended her journey in the Isles of Scilly , off the western tip of Cornwall , which is where Deakin had begun .
In @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ marvelling at the brightness of everything ” in the Scillies : the white sand , the rocks glittering gold with quartz and mica .
With witty precision , he referred to the sound of seagulls as “ nature ’ s bagpipes.
” Deakin ’ s journey across the U.K. , and his fidelity to his own patch of blue space in Suffolk , had led him to reflect on the British tendency toward insularity .
“ What a moated people we are , suspicious of Europe , and not at all sure @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wrote .
But the people Cole encountered were not guarded but open .
Anyone was welcome to join their community , provided that she could embrace the chill .
They were wild swimmers but civil people , making the best of what we have : an island home surrounded by cold , daunting waters .
Like Deakin , Cole had emerged with an acute appreciation of her country ’ s restrained , marginal beauty .
“ To get to Shetland , it was a pretty gnarly trek , but it was really romantic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ raw and rugged .
And Scilly—the sand in Scilly glitters .
It sparkles .
It ’ s really magical .
The U.K. is pretty magical.
” ♦

In 1973, Roger Deakin, a British writer and environmental activist, acquired a tumbledown sixteenth-century farmhouse outside the ancient village of Mellis, in Suffolk, and began a restoration, repairing stone walls and replacing roof tiles. Among the attributes of Walnut Tree Farm, as the house was called, was a deep, spring-fed moat. It didn’t surround the house, as with a fortified castle, but was excavated into the land, in roughly parallel lines, at the front and the back of the property. The moat had served its original, Elizabethan owner as a water supply, a cooler, and a status symbol. Over the centuries, it fell into disrepair, becoming silted up from falling leaves and rotting tree roots. Deakin had the moat dredged to a depth of ten feet; staked a wooden ladder by the bank, near the spreading roots of a willow tree; and began regularly swimming in the cold, greenish water. He gained what he called a frog’s-eye view of the changing seasons, and an intimate familiarity with the creatures sharing the moat, from dragonflies to newts.
In the mid-nineties, Deakin took inspiration from the protagonist of John Cheever’s short story “The Swimmer”—who traverses his suburban neighborhood pool by pool—and made an aquatic journey around England, Wales, and Scotland, bathing in seas, rivers, ponds, and lakes. Deakin wrote a book about that adventure, “Waterlog” (1999), which has become a classic of British nature writing. His prose is sensuous—“At seaweedy Kimmeridge I mingled with mullet too lazy to move”—and his sense of humor is as dry as his theme is wet. A leech, he observes, keeps changing shape in the water, “looping and stretching out its black stocking of a body, as women do when they’re testing tights for quality in Marks & Spencer.” The book also displays a lively erudition: when Deakin describes a swim off the virtually unpopulated island of Jura, in the Scottish Hebrides, he notes that George Orwell retreated there to write “1984.”
“Waterlog” is subtly political. Deakin was intent on challenging the privatization of once public waters. “The right to walk freely along river banks or to bathe in rivers, should no more be bought and sold than the right to walk up mountains or to swim in the sea from our beaches,” he writes. In one rousing passage, he yells back at censorious river keepers who chastise him for swimming in the trout-filled Itchen, which runs through the grounds of an élite boarding school: “I already felt invigorated after a really first class swim, and now I felt even better after a terrific set-to.” For Deakin, swimming in open waters is a subversive act—a way to reclaim nature cordoned off by capitalism, and to “regain a sense of what is old and wild in these islands.”
Deakin died, from a brain tumor, in 2006. A year later, Walnut Tree Farm was bought by a couple, Jasmin and Titus Rowlandson, who have maintained his commitment to ungentrified country living. There is still no central heating in the farmhouse; it is warmed by an Aga stove and an enormous open hearth, over which dinner is typically cooked. Last year, Titus, who restores classic automobiles in the barn, and Jasmin, a jeweller and a painter, began offering overnight stays in two renovated cabins on the property. In early November, I took the train from London to Suffolk, with the aim of swimming in Deakin’s moat. Heavy rain had fallen all morning, sluicing the windows of the train as it rolled through the port of Ipswich. Deakin’s book begins with an ecstatic moat swim in summer rain, amid “water sprites springing up on tiptoe like bright pins over the surface.” A chilly, wet autumn day seemed considerably less enchanting.
By the time I reached Walnut Tree Farm, however, the rain had stopped, and low streaks of pinkish afternoon sun had emerged between torn clouds and the bare branches of sodden trees. After installing myself in the cabin I’d rented—delightfully kitted out with antique furniture, a wood-burning stove, and a well-chosen library—I put on my bathing suit, along with neoprene booties and gloves. Straightening my spine, I headed for the back-yard moat. Sixty feet in length, it had a gleaming black surface strewn with the golden disks of fallen leaves, like tarnished Anglo-Saxon jewelry inlaid with gems.
Descending the rickety ladder, I pushed off into the water and breaststroked to the deepest part, at the center, to avoid entanglement with hidden weeds and roots. The cold was searing. I could feel the muscles of my upper back constricting; my clavicle and upper ribs seemed ready to shatter, and my toes and fingers started to numb, despite my high-tech gear. I swam a few lengths, trying to appreciate Deakin’s frog’s-eye view, though, to the extent that I could identify with a frog, it was with one placed—in the reverse of the fable—in a slowly chilling pot of water, to see if it notices when it starts to freeze to death.
Cartoon by Roz Chast Copy link to cartoon Copy link to cartoon Shop Shop
Despite the cold—and despite the two hours it took me to warm up afterward, stoking the wood-burning stove and drinking as much tea as I could handle—my brief swim in the moat was a starkly beautiful experience. I felt fantastic. Deakin swam in the moat nearly every day, except when it froze over, and it was easy to see how he’d got hooked.
I was not the only reader of Deakin to have been seduced in this way. “Waterlog” helped spur the rise of what has become known in Britain as “wild swimming”: wading briefly or churning doggedly in outdoor waters, rather than doing laps in indoor pools. According to the most recent figures collected by Sport England, a group that urges physical activity, half a million people in England are engaging regularly in wild swimming—nearly twice as many as reported doing so just three years ago. Many participants claim that the activity is not only fun but also improves their mental health.
The sport’s attractions can be hard to imagine if your vision of outdoor swimming revolves around sunshine, warm water, fine-grained sand, and a trashy novel to read afterward. Britain has an abundance of “blue space”—a term used to characterize rivers, ponds, lakes, and seas by people who argue for the health benefits of having access to them. There are about forty thousand lakes in Britain, and it’s estimated that nobody in the U.K. is ever more than seventy miles from a stretch of coastline. But British waters are incontrovertibly cold. Sea temperatures rarely creep above twenty degrees Celsius, or sixty-eight degrees Fahrenheit, and England’s freshwater bodies, which are often fed by underground springs, tend to be even chillier. Last year, by mid-October—generally regarded as the end of the outdoor-swimming season—the Serpentine Lido, the designated swimming spot in the Serpentine lake, in London’s Hyde Park, had dropped to the low fifties. The hardiest wild swimmers keep going even when water temperatures fall below freezing; they pack, along with a microfibre towel and a thermos of tea, an axe, for breaking a channel through the ice.
The vogue for outdoor swimming has been fuelled, in part, by the Internet. It’s easy to collect “likes” by posting a photograph of yourself waist-deep in a craggy loch. The British press provides travel advice about the most romantic swimming locales. The Guardian recently gushed about a spot at the foot of Mt. Snowdon, in Wales, noting, “Take a dip here and you are swimming with the Torgoch, a rare type of Arctic char fish that has survived since the ice age.”
In U.K. bookstores, shelves are devoted to the sport. One of the most popular guidebooks is the lushly illustrated “Wild Swim,” by Kate Rew, which offers a variety of suggestions for swimmers lacking a moat of their own. Why not sample England’s deepest lake, Wastwater, in the Lake District, which goes down nearly as far as Big Ben goes up? A telling photograph in “Wild Swim” shows a swimmer in the Blue Lagoon, in Abereiddy, Pembrokeshire; you’d think that the aquamarine water was in the Aegean, if not for the fact that the swimmer is in a wet suit.
Rew is the founder of the Outdoor Swimming Society, which was launched in 2006 and now has close to eighty thousand members. “Swimming is like going on a condensed holiday,” she told me recently. “It has that way of transporting you out of your normal world, and everything else that happens after that is a bonus.” The society’s Web site touches on wild-swimming etiquette (“Be considerate of your effect on other water users such as fishermen/women, boaters, nesting birds”) and offers safety tips, such as what to do if you get caught in weeds (“Slow down, try a modified doggy paddle and gently extricate yourself without kicking or thrashing around”). Rew told me that, personally, she dislikes being cold, and considers British water temperatures an inconvenience, though not a crippling one. “It’s not ideal,” she said. “The water can take your breath away, and you can’t stay in as long as you want to. But you make your peace with it.” She joked about how outdoor-swimming enthusiasts use cheery synonyms for “cold”—“bracing,” “invigorating”—in order to make the activity “seem like something you want to embrace, rather than something you want to shy away from.”


newyorker--2020-01-20--How to Goose a Cold Audience

How to Goose a Cold Audience

The other day , after ninety minutes of solitary yoga on the floor of his home office , in Bel Air , Mark Sweet drove to Stage 20 on the Warner Bros. lot , in Burbank , to preside over the audience during a taping of the CBS sitcom “ Mom.
” Sweet , a sixty-eight-year-old magician and hypnotist who used to work as a professional Willy Wonka impersonator , wore a gray sweater , black jeans , and Gucci loafers .
He carried a small black bag of magic tricks , as he does most Tuesdays and Fridays , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” —primed to laugh loudly at scripted jokes—between takes and reshoots .
Sweet took a seat in the empty house to watch the dress rehearsal of the week ’ s episode .
“ If you actually distill the comedy , it ’ s about the laughs , ” he said .
“ I ’ m the front line of that.
” Each week ’ s audience supplies the episode ’ s recorded laughter .
Sweet , the liminal space between the audience and the show , supervises this precarious choreography .
The taped @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the occasional strange shriek or squeal .
The twenty-two minutes that air on television are culled from many hours of stop-and-start taping in front of a group of restless human beings .
Sweet is an emollient so crucial that he is known as the “ king ” of audience warmup .
Garry Shandling used to arrange “ The Larry Sanders Show ” tapings around Sweet ’ s schedule .
“ With the audience , it ’ s like bullfighting , ” Sweet said .
“ Either they have you , or you have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lot , a guy with a long gray ponytail and a red beret , who works for a company called Audiences Unlimited , wrangled a couple hundred unvetted audience members into a single-file line .
They surrendered their cell phones , and , later , were handed slices of pizza in Styrofoam containers .
When the company has trouble filling the seats , it pays organizations looking to fund-raise—senior centers , halfway houses , sororities , the Marines—to come pack the audience .
Once inside , they become Sweet ’ s responsibility .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ walked onto the stage , through the set for the house where Anna Farris ’ s and Allison Janney ’ s characters live .
Conferring with the first and second assistant directors , he reviewed a forty-five-second laugh from the previous week , provoked by a character throwing salt over her shoulder into a baby ’ s bassinet .
The audience traipsed in , and Sweet milled around , greeting people : “ Are you folks ready to laugh ?
Are you ready to be part of television history ?
” Desiré Gonzales @ @ @ @ @ @ @ every week with her mother , sat in the back row .
“ We want to see the shows , but we also want to learn the business , get familiar with the four-camera setup , ” Gonzalez said .
“ You ’ ll see the writers huddling around the director , looking to see what works , thinking about reactions and changes.
” With everyone seated , Sweet opened a bag of fun-sized chocolate bars , which he keeps on hand to throw into the audience as a reward for clapping .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” he said .
“ There ’ s the performance down there on the stage , with the actors .
Then , there ’ s my little lab going on up here , with the magic .
And then all the dynamics going on in the audience.
” While the cast set up for the first scene , Sweet performed a magic trick with a twenty-dollar bill , then started a break-dancing competition between a schoolteacher from Ohio and a teen-ager visiting from China .
“ You have to be attuned to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a ballet , ” he said .
“ The live audience sets up the timing and the tone .
We find laughs that aren ’ t even in the script.
” Sweet was in the middle of pretending to cut off a woman ’ s finger when the A.D. alerted him that they were ready to roll .
“ Sweetheart , have a seat , ” Sweet told the woman .
“ And remember : it ’ s about your energy , about your laugh .
Keep the laughter very strong , folks.
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ the writers and the producers reworked the episode in front of the twitchy onlookers .
Sweet kept them distracted .
“ If you lose the audience , you ’ re screwed , ” Sophia Lear , a producer who worked with Sweet on “ Living Biblically , ” another CBS comedy , said .
“ You never get them back .
A bad warmup is a blunt instrument—blasting hip-hop music , screaming things into a mike .
It ’ s hell.
” The taping dragged into its third hour .
“ I ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” —a hypnosis term— “ to get the audience to understand that they ’ re part of television history , ” Sweet said later .
“ My entire energy is devoted to getting each of them to realize : we ’ re the other characters in this play.
” ♦

Mark Sweet Illustration by João Fazenda
The other day, after ninety minutes of solitary yoga on the floor of his home office, in Bel Air, Mark Sweet drove to Stage 20 on the Warner Bros. lot, in Burbank, to preside over the audience during a taping of the CBS sitcom “Mom.” Sweet, a sixty-eight-year-old magician and hypnotist who used to work as a professional Willy Wonka impersonator, wore a gray sweater, black jeans, and Gucci loafers. He carried a small black bag of magic tricks, as he does most Tuesdays and Fridays, when he keeps studio audiences “warm”—primed to laugh loudly at scripted jokes—between takes and reshoots.
Sweet took a seat in the empty house to watch the dress rehearsal of the week’s episode. “If you actually distill the comedy, it’s about the laughs,” he said. “I’m the front line of that.” Each week’s audience supplies the episode’s recorded laughter. Sweet, the liminal space between the audience and the show, supervises this precarious choreography. The taped laughs are doctored only to edit out the occasional strange shriek or squeal.
The twenty-two minutes that air on television are culled from many hours of stop-and-start taping in front of a group of restless human beings. Sweet is an emollient so crucial that he is known as the “king” of audience warmup. Garry Shandling used to arrange “The Larry Sanders Show” tapings around Sweet’s schedule.
“With the audience, it’s like bullfighting,” Sweet said. “Either they have you, or you have them.”
Outside, on the studio lot, a guy with a long gray ponytail and a red beret, who works for a company called Audiences Unlimited, wrangled a couple hundred unvetted audience members into a single-file line. They surrendered their cell phones, and, later, were handed slices of pizza in Styrofoam containers. When the company has trouble filling the seats, it pays organizations looking to fund-raise—senior centers, halfway houses, sororities, the Marines—to come pack the audience. Once inside, they become Sweet’s responsibility.
When the run-through was finished, Sweet walked onto the stage, through the set for the house where Anna Farris’s and Allison Janney’s characters live. Conferring with the first and second assistant directors, he reviewed a forty-five-second laugh from the previous week, provoked by a character throwing salt over her shoulder into a baby’s bassinet.
The audience traipsed in, and Sweet milled around, greeting people: “Are you folks ready to laugh? Are you ready to be part of television history?”
Desiré Gonzales, a writer who attends the tapings every week with her mother, sat in the back row. “We want to see the shows, but we also want to learn the business, get familiar with the four-camera setup,” Gonzalez said. “You’ll see the writers huddling around the director, looking to see what works, thinking about reactions and changes.”
With everyone seated, Sweet opened a bag of fun-sized chocolate bars, which he keeps on hand to throw into the audience as a reward for clapping. “It’s a three-ring circus,” he said. “There’s the performance down there on the stage, with the actors. Then, there’s my little lab going on up here, with the magic. And then all the dynamics going on in the audience.”
While the cast set up for the first scene, Sweet performed a magic trick with a twenty-dollar bill, then started a break-dancing competition between a schoolteacher from Ohio and a teen-ager visiting from China.
“You have to be attuned to everyone—it’s very precise, like a ballet,” he said. “The live audience sets up the timing and the tone. We find laughs that aren’t even in the script.”
Sweet was in the middle of pretending to cut off a woman’s finger when the A.D. alerted him that they were ready to roll. “Sweetheart, have a seat,” Sweet told the woman. “And remember: it’s about your energy, about your laugh. Keep the laughter very strong, folks.”
For the next two hours, the writers and the producers reworked the episode in front of the twitchy onlookers. Sweet kept them distracted.
“If you lose the audience, you’re screwed,” Sophia Lear, a producer who worked with Sweet on “Living Biblically,” another CBS comedy, said. “You never get them back. A bad warmup is a blunt instrument—blasting hip-hop music, screaming things into a mike. It’s hell.”
The taping dragged into its third hour. “I’m using the power of waking suggestion”—a hypnosis term—“to get the audience to understand that they’re part of television history,” Sweet said later. “My entire energy is devoted to getting each of them to realize: we’re the other characters in this play.” ♦


Cartoon Caption Contest

Each week , we provide a cartoon in need of a caption .
You , the reader , submit your @ @ @ @ @ three finalists , and you vote for your favorite .
Anyone age thirteen or older @ @ @ @ @ To read the complete rules , click here .

Each week, we provide a cartoon in need of a caption. You, the reader, submit your caption here, we choose three finalists, and you vote for your favorite. Anyone age thirteen or older can enter or vote. To read the complete rules, click here.
Elisabeth McNair Copy link to cartoon Copy link to cartoon Shop Shop


newyorker--2020-01-20--Ten Years After “The New Jim Crow”

Ten Years After “The New Jim Crow”

The United States has the largest prison population in the world .
But , until the publication of Michelle Alexander @ @ @ @ @ New Jim Crow , ” in 2010 , most people didn ’ t use the @ @ @ @ @ ” or consider the practice a social-justice issue .
Alexander argued that the increasing imprisonment @ @ @ @ @ rising arrest rates and longer sentences—was not merely a response to crime but a system @ @ @ @ @ The drug war was in part a politically motivated strategy , a backlash to the @ @ @ @ @ was also a reflection of conscious and unconscious biases fuelled by media portrayals of drug @ @ @ @ @ David Remnick .
“ Those racial stereotypes were resonant of the same stereotypes of slaves @ @ @ @ @ Crow era .
”

Photograph by Ben Garvin / NYT / Redux
The United States has the largest prison population in the world. But, until the publication of Michelle Alexander’s book “The New Jim Crow,” in 2010, most people didn’t use the term “mass incarceration,” or consider the practice a social-justice issue. Alexander argued that the increasing imprisonment of black and brown men—through rising arrest rates and longer sentences—was not merely a response to crime but a system of racial control. “The drug war was in part a politically motivated strategy, a backlash to the civil-rights movement, but it was also a reflection of conscious and unconscious biases fuelled by media portrayals of drug users,” Alexander tells David Remnick. “Those racial stereotypes were resonant of the same stereotypes of slaves and folks during the Jim Crow era.”


newyorker--2020-01-21--Mary South Reads “You Will Never Be Forgotten”

Mary South reads her story from the January 27 , 2020 , issue of the magazine .
South will publish @ @ @ @ @ story collection “ You Will Never Be Forgotten , ” in March .

Photograph by Nina Subin
Mary South reads her story from the January 27, 2020, issue of the magazine. South will publish her first book, the story collection “You Will Never Be Forgotten,” in March.


newyorker--2020-01-21--How Donald Trump’s Unlikely Legal Team Will Try to Defend Him

President Trump ’ s insight into what captivates the American people , and what draws the attention of the news media , remains remarkable .
Consider , for example , how he cast—that seems the right word—the defense team for his impeachment trial , which begins today in the United States Senate .
There are not many legal celebrities in the United States , but Trump now has two of them : Kenneth Starr , the erstwhile pursuer of Hillary and Bill Clinton as the independent counsel during the Whitewater ( and more ) matter , and Alan Dershowitz , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ famous clients , and , lately , his own conduct .
How can we not wonder how Starr , who inveighed against what he called the dishonesty of the Clintons , will contrive to defend this President ?
What will Dershowitz , a one-time liberal and a civil libertarian , say about his new client , who is openly hostile to the values enshrined in the Bill of Rights ?
And how did Trump manage to find not one but two famous lawyers who had previously joined forces to defend Jeffrey Epstein , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s ?
Five of the President ’ s eight lawyers have appeared frequently on Fox News , and they ’ ve been hired to put on an entertaining show for the Senate .
( Pat Cipollone , the White House counsel , Jane Raskin , a member of Trump ’ s legal defense team , and Eric Herschmann are the exceptions . )
But the showmanship that ’ s likely to be on display should not obscure what ’ s really going on here .
The outcome of the trial is not in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sixty-seven senators will vote to remove Trump from office .
But there is a real question about whether the trial will involve any fact-finding—that is , the presentation of witnesses and new documentary evidence .
Trump ’ s real priority , and that of the Republican leadership in the Senate , is to make sure that never happens .
Dershowitz is likely to be the crucial figure on the Senate floor .
He is currently trying to portray himself as more of a neutral constitutional expert , rather than as a full-fledged member @ @ @ @ @ @ @ That semantic dodge is meant to elevate his core argument : that the two articles of impeachment , even if they accurately describe the President ’ s conduct , are not impeachable offenses .
It ’ s worth addressing that argument , because it ’ s likely to be crucial to the Senate trial , not just on the merits but on the issue of whether the seven House managers named by Nancy Pelosi last week will be allowed to call witnesses .
The first article charges Trump with abuse of his constitutional @ @ @ @ @ @ @ government of Ukraine .
The claim is a familiar one by now .
Trump withheld congressionally authorized funds , and also personal Presidential attention , from Ukraine in an effort to force the announcement of an investigation of former Vice-President Joe Biden , Trump ’ s putative 2020 opponent , and Biden ’ s son Hunter .
The second article charges Trump with obstructing Congress , by refusing all demands for witnesses and documents in the Ukraine investigation .
Dershowitz says , and all of Trump ’ s lawyers will argue , that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ high crime and misdemeanor , the standard for impeachment established in the Constitution .
Dershowitz does not say exactly that a President must commit a crime—an actual criminal offense—to commit a high crime and misdemeanor , but that ’ s what his position comes down to in the real world .
He is worried , rightly , about Congress trying to evict a President simply because of policy differences .
But neither of the articles refers to any good-faith dispute over Trump ’ s performance in office .
Rather , both charge core @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s position misses is that impeachment is designed specifically to police Presidential conduct—to make sure that a President does not abuse the powers which that office alone possesses under our system of governance .
This is why Bill Clinton ’ s conduct should not have been impeachable .
Lying under oath about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky was likely a crime—perjury—but it was not an abuse of Presidential power , and thus not a high crime and misdemeanor .
What makes Dershowitz ’ s argument so important in the context of Trump @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Republican senators an excuse to vote against witnesses .
If his view is adopted , it means that Republicans can accept the truth of factual assertions from the House managers , for the sake of argument , and still vote to exclude new witnesses .
By this reasoning , the witnesses would not offer anything of value because they would only testify to conduct that is not impeachable , anyway .
That ’ s the real point , and the real danger , of Dershowitz ’ s argument ; it gives Republicans cover @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump and his followers ( and his enablers , such as Dershowitz ) surely recognize that the facts in this case will show how much the President abused his power through his dealings with Ukraine .
( The Government Accountability Office just added to those facts by finding that the withholding of funds for Ukraine was illegal . )
If the House managers are allowed to call witnesses , those witnesses will likely make the case against Trump even stronger .
At some level , the President ’ s defenders must know that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ That ’ s why Trump has taken every opportunity to block the facts from coming out .
Today , the President ’ s lawyers reveal their true agenda : to persuade the Senate to preserve Trump ’ s incriminating secrets .

President Trump’s insight into what captivates the American people, and what draws the attention of the news media, remains remarkable. Consider, for example, how he cast—that seems the right word—the defense team for his impeachment trial, which begins Tuesday, in the United States Senate. There are not many legal celebrities in the United States, but Trump now has two of them: Kenneth Starr, the erstwhile pursuer of Hillary and Bill Clinton as the independent counsel during the Whitewater (and more) matter, and Alan Dershowitz, defender of O.J. Simpson, other famous clients, and, lately, his own conduct. How can we not wonder how Starr, who inveighed against what he called the dishonesty of the Clintons, will contrive to defend this President? What will Dershowitz, a onetime liberal and a civil libertarian, say about his new client, who is openly hostile to the values enshrined in the Bill of Rights? And how did Trump manage to find not one but two famous lawyers who had previously joined forces to defend Jeffrey Epstein, who was a friend of Trump’s?
Five of the President’s eight lawyers have appeared frequently on Fox News, and they’ve been hired to put on an entertaining show for the Senate. (Pat Cipollone, the White House counsel, Jane Raskin, a member of Trump’s legal defense team, and Eric Herschmann are the exceptions.) But the showmanship that’s likely to be on display should not obscure what’s really going on here. The outcome of the trial is not in doubt; there is no way that sixty-seven senators will vote to remove Trump from office. But there is a real question about whether the trial will involve any fact-finding—that is, the presentation of witnesses and new documentary evidence. Trump’s real priority, and that of the Republican leadership in the Senate, is to make sure that never happens.
Dershowitz is likely to be the crucial figure on the Senate floor. He is currently trying to portray himself as more of a neutral constitutional expert, rather than as a full-fledged member of Trump’s defense team. That semantic dodge is meant to elevate his core argument: that the two articles of impeachment, even if they accurately describe the President’s conduct, are not impeachable offenses. It’s worth addressing that argument, because it’s likely to be crucial to the Senate trial, not just on the merits but on the issue of whether the seven House managers named by Nancy Pelosi last week will be allowed to call witnesses.
The first article charges Trump with abuse of his constitutional powers, through his dealings with the government of Ukraine. The claim is a familiar one by now. Trump withheld congressionally authorized funds, and also personal Presidential attention, from Ukraine in an effort to force the announcement of an investigation of former Vice-President Joe Biden, Trump’s putative 2020 opponent, and Biden’s son Hunter. The second article charges Trump with obstructing Congress, by refusing all demands for witnesses and documents in the Ukraine investigation. Dershowitz says, and all of Trump’s lawyers will argue, that neither article charges conduct that is a high crime and misdemeanor, the standard for impeachment established in the Constitution.
Dershowitz does not say exactly that a President must commit a crime—an actual criminal offense—to commit a high crime and misdemeanor, but that’s what his position comes down to in the real world. He is worried, rightly, about Congress trying to evict a President simply because of policy differences. But neither of the articles refers to any good-faith dispute over Trump’s performance in office. Rather, both charge core violations of Presidential duties. What Dershowitz’s position misses is that impeachment is designed specifically to police Presidential conduct—to make sure that a President does not abuse the powers which that office alone possesses under our system of governance. This is why Bill Clinton’s conduct should not have been impeachable. Lying under oath about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky was likely a crime—perjury—but it was not an abuse of Presidential power, and thus not a high crime and misdemeanor.
What makes Dershowitz’s argument so important in the context of Trump’s case is that it gives Republican senators an excuse to vote against witnesses. If his view is adopted, it means that Republicans can accept the truth of factual assertions from the House managers, for the sake of argument, and still vote to exclude new witnesses. By this reasoning, the witnesses would not offer anything of value because they would only testify to conduct that is not impeachable, anyway. That’s the real point, and the real danger, of Dershowitz’s argument; it gives Republicans cover to cut short the Senate trial.
Trump and his followers (and his enablers, such as Dershowitz) surely recognize that the facts in this case will show how much the President abused his power through his dealings with Ukraine. (The Government Accountability Office just added to those facts by finding that the withholding of funds for Ukraine was illegal.) If the House managers are allowed to call witnesses, those witnesses will likely make the case against Trump even stronger. At some level, the President’s defenders must know that Trump’s conduct is impeachable. That’s why Trump has taken every opportunity to block the facts from coming out. On Tuesday, the President’s lawyers reveal their true agenda: to persuade the Senate to preserve Trump’s incriminating secrets.


newyorker--2020-01-21--The Twitterstorians Trying to De-Trumpify American History

It ’ s easy to be down on Twitter these days .
The platform is overrun by bots and trolls .
Its most prominent user has been issuing statements like “ I JUST GOT IMPEACHED FOR MAKING A PERFECT PHONE CALL !
” But a more optimistic view was on display at a reception that the American Historical Association hosted recently in a conference space at a Sheraton hotel , in Manhattan , as part of its annual gathering .
It was a reception for Twitterstorians—historians with Twitter accounts , who have been attracting big followings with their historically informed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ America in the year 2020 .
( Bloggers were invited , too . )
Attendees snacked on tuna rolls , empanadas , wine , and beer and gossiped about their colleague ’ s latest tweets .
“ Did you see Kevin Gannon ’ s tweet ?
” someone said , referring to a nineteenth-century American historian with a large Twitter following .
“ He was sitting next to Cory Booker on the plane ride here !
” Historians do lots of things online .
They promote their books , discuss pedagogy , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ example : “ FILL IN THE BLANK : A pod of whales .
A murder of crows .
A __________ of historians.
” Replies included “ an argument , ” a “ digression , ” and “ a contingency.
” ) A historian named Jason Herbert hosts a ritual called Historians at the Movies , in which Twitterstorians watch a movie and live-tweet it , providing context and commentary .
“ This past week we watched ‘ Malcolm X , ’ ” Robin Mitchell , an assistant professor at California State University Channel @ @ @ @ @ @ @ where she was sipping wine around a standing table with about five colleagues .
“ There was a scene where Malcolm X was getting his hair relaxed , and I was , like , ‘ Are there any good books about black hair ?
’ And I immediately got five good book recommendations.
” Mitchell , whose Twitter handle is @ ParisNoire , created what she calls “ the infamous ‘ shit happens ’ clause , ” which her students can invoke to get an extension on an assignment , so they don @ @ @ @ @ @ @ up with a sob story .
“ I posted about it on Twitter , and I think twenty-two thousand people liked it , ” she said .
“ It ’ s absurd.
” But Twitterstorians have been preoccupied with more weighty matters in the Trump era , a time when the President and his followers are known for spreading dubious versions of American history .
Donald Trump recently wrote , of his impeachment hearings , “ More due process was afforded to those accused in the Salem Witch Trials , ” which is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ taken it upon themselves to correct the record .
The crowd at the Sheraton mentioned the “ rock stars ” of social media : Kevin Kruse , at Princeton ; Joanne Freeman , at Yale ; Heather Cox Richardson , at Boston College .
They discussed epic Twitter threads .
In December , Nikki Haley claimed that the Confederate flag was about “ service and sacrifice and heritage ” until the mass murderer Dylann Roof “ hijacked ” it in the name of racial violence .
Kevin Levin , a Civil War historian @ @ @ @ @ @ @ brandishing the flag during the civil-rights era , and an engraving depicting the Fort Pillow massacre , when Confederates murdered black Union soldiers after they ’ d surrendered .
“ Dylann Roof didn ’ t ‘ hijack ’ the meaning of the Confederate flag from these men , ” he wrote .
“ He embraced it.
” The bogeyman of Twitterstorians is Dinesh D ’ Souza , a conservative writer who has become the MAGA crowd ’ s court historian .
His latest book , the best-selling “ Death of a Nation , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ attempts to link today ’ s Democratic Party to the Nazi Party of the nineteen-thirties .
Last fall , D ’ Souza asked his 1.4 million Twitter followers , “ If Frederick Douglass were alive today , is there any doubt he ’ d be a Republican and a Trump supporter ?
” Kruse tweeted in response , “ This might well be the stupidest thing you 've ever said here , and that ’ s saying a lot .
Congrats !
” The prominent Twitterstorians have all tangled with D ’ Souza @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Last February , he began an extensive response to D ’ Souza ’ s Democrats-and-Nazis argument with “ Fine , let ’ s do this.
” Aiden Bettine , a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Iowa , groaned at the mention of D ’ Souza ’ s name , and said , “ Oh , my god , he ’ s the worst !
” “ What is his thing ?
” Mitchell said .
“ Like , ‘ The Democrats are racist , ’ because he doesn ’ t understand @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rights ?
” Leah LaGrone Ochoa , a Ph.D. candidate at Texas Christian University , noted that Twitter has some advantages as a medium for debate .
“ What it allows us to do as historians is inject evidence into the universe , ” she said .
“ Screenshots of newspapers from different time periods .
Letters that politicians wrote to each other.
” “ There it is , ” Mitchell said .
“ It ’ s all about the primary sources !
” Another historian noted that Kruse ’ s threads are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ receipts.
” Ochoa , who is from rural Texas , attempted to bring evidence to an online debate with relatives who supported creating a local Confederate Memorial Day on the grounds that Confederate soldiers were merely defending their “ heritage.
” She pointed out that slavery was central to the Confederate cause .
“ I was citing evidence from Karen Cox ’ s book ‘ Dixie ’ s Daughters , ’ about how the Daughters of the Confederacy created this Lost Cause narrative and created school curriculums to teach it to us Southerners @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ t go over well .
“ I was called a revisionist and a liberal Commie , ” she said .
But she was glad that she ’ d put another narrative out there .
“ I think it ’ s a real opportunity for us , ” Gannon , who teaches at Grand View University , and whose Twitter handle is @ TheTattoedProf , said .
“ We ’ re in these public spaces and , to quote Liam Neeson in ‘ Taken , ’ we have a very particular set of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are heavily tattooed , has almost seventy thousand followers and has tangled with D ’ Souza , too .
He has reservations about Twitter as a teaching forum .
“ It ’ s not a deliberative space , ” he said .
“ The real struggle for me is it ’ s very easy to be angry online all the time .
But , if all you ’ re doing is yelling , there ’ s nothing of substance there.
” David Trowbridge , an associate professor at Marshall University , said , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ our best.
” “ Well , sometimes it is , ” Edward T. O ’ Donnell , an associate professor at the College of the Holy Cross , said .
O ’ Donnell , whose Twitter handle is @ InThePastLane , is the creator of the annual Weemsy Awards , for “ the biggest history fails of the year.
” He crowdsources the nominations from Twitterstorians .
Last year ’ s winners included President Trump , who said during a Fourth of July speech that George Washington ’ s army “ took over @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and the conservative writer Erick Erickson , who , in criticizing the Times ’ s 1619 Project , opined about “ the cost white people paid to free slaves.
” Gannon argued , “ We ’ re at a particularly dangerous moment , historically speaking , ” noting the way that “ history , or versions of it , have been weaponized against marginalized communities.
” He went on , “ When people are reading history and thinking , ‘ I wonder what it would be like to live during the Civil War @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the good guys , ’ well , what you ’ re doing now is probably what you would have done then.
” “ Somebody said that on Twitter a while ago , ” O ’ Donnell said .
“ It was , like , ‘ Remember that time in history class when you were reading about the abolitionist movement and said , ‘ I definitely would have stood up ’ ?
Well , now is one of those times.
” Trowbridge cleared his throat .
“ My small viral moment was that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Oh , that was you ?
” O ’ Donnell said .
“ I instantly retweeted that !
” Trowbridge looked pleased .
“ I think I went from five followers to five hundred.
” The conversation found its way back to D ’ Souza , who is not just controversial for his arguments but also because Twitterstorians can ’ t agree on how to handle him .
“ Dunking on Dinesh D ’ Souza—people will say , ‘ Why do you do it ?
You ’ re giving this guy oxygen , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , to an extent , that ’ s true .
But one of the reasons we are where we are in America is because bad-faith actors are throwing this stuff out there , and it goes unchallenged.
” He went on , “ That dude ’ s got a million followers .
Half of them are probably bots .
But it ’ s a big ol ’ platform and a microphone .
And if that tweet comes across your crazy uncle ’ s Facebook feed , and there ’ s not something underneath @ @ @ @ @ @ @ no , it didn ’ t happen this way— ’ ” “ And here ’ s why , ” Gannon said .
“ Then it ’ s a problem .
Personally , I have nothing to say to Dinesh D ’ Souza .
But , if we are going to continue to be a democratic society , we have to be honest about our history.
” He went on , “ In medieval times , the term for people like us was ‘ remembrancer.
’ It wasn ’ t necessarily someone who was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ones who remembered the bad times and warned people , ‘ Hey , we ’ re about to do that again.
’ So we ’ re remembrancers .
This is what we do .
”

It’s easy to be down on Twitter these days. The platform is overrun by bots and trolls. Its most prominent user has been issuing statements like “I JUST GOT IMPEACHED FOR MAKING A PERFECT PHONE CALL!” But a more optimistic view was on display at a reception that the American Historical Association hosted recently in a conference space at a Sheraton hotel, in Manhattan, as part of its annual gathering. It was a reception for Twitterstorians—historians with Twitter accounts, who have been attracting big followings with their historically informed takes on the dumpster fire that is America in the year 2020. (Bloggers were invited, too.) Attendees snacked on tuna rolls, empanadas, wine, and beer and gossiped about their colleague’s latest tweets. “Did you see Kevin Gannon’s tweet?” someone said, referring to a historian of nineteenth-century America, who has a large Twitter following. “He was sitting next to Cory Booker on the plane ride here!”
Historians do lots of things online. They promote their books, discuss pedagogy, and play nerdy word games. (For example: “FILL IN THE BLANK: A pod of whales. A murder of crows. A __________ of historians.” Replies included “an argument,” a “digression,” and “a contingency.”) A historian named Jason Herbert hosts a ritual called Historians at the Movies, in which Twitterstorians watch a movie and live-tweet it, providing context and commentary. “This past week we watched ‘Malcolm X,’ ” Robin Mitchell, an assistant professor at California State University Channel Islands, said at the Sheraton, where she was sipping wine around a standing table with about five colleagues. “There was a scene where Malcolm X was getting his hair relaxed, and I was, like, ‘Are there any good books about black hair?’ And I immediately got five good book recommendations.” Mitchell, whose Twitter handle is @ParisNoire, created what she calls “the infamous ‘shit happens’ clause,” which her students can invoke to get an extension on an assignment, so they don’t have to lie or come up with a sob story. “I posted about it on Twitter, and I think twenty-two thousand people liked it,” she said. “It’s absurd.”
But Twitterstorians have been preoccupied with more weighty matters in the Trump era, a time when the President and his followers are known for spreading dubious versions of American history. Donald Trump recently wrote, of his impeachment hearings, “More due process was afforded to those accused in the Salem Witch Trials,” which is not strictly accurate. Many Twitterstorians have taken it upon themselves to correct the record. The crowd at the Sheraton mentioned the “rock stars” of social media: Kevin Kruse, at Princeton; Joanne Freeman, at Yale; Heather Cox Richardson, at Boston College. They discussed epic Twitter threads. In December, Nikki Haley claimed that the Confederate flag was about “service and sacrifice and heritage” until the mass murderer Dylann Roof “hijacked” it in the name of racial violence. Kevin Levin, a Civil War historian, responded with photographs showing white mobs brandishing the flag during the civil-rights era, and an engraving depicting the Fort Pillow massacre, when Confederates murdered black Union soldiers after they’d surrendered. “Dylann Roof didn’t ‘hijack’ the meaning of the Confederate flag from these men,” he wrote. “He embraced it.”
The bogeyman of Twitterstorians is Dinesh D’Souza, a conservative writer who has become the MAGA crowd’s court historian. His latest book, the best-selling “Death of a Nation,” compares Trump to Abraham Lincoln and attempts to link today’s Democratic Party to the Nazi Party of the nineteen-thirties. Last fall, D’Souza asked his 1.4 million Twitter followers, “If Frederick Douglass were alive today, is there any doubt he’d be a Republican and a Trump supporter?” Kruse tweeted in response, “This might well be the stupidest thing you've ever said here, and that’s saying a lot. Congrats!” The prominent Twitterstorians have all tangled with D’Souza, but Kruse is his best-known adversary. Last February, he began an extensive response to D’Souza’s Democrats-and-Nazis argument with “Fine, let’s do this.”
Aiden Bettine, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Iowa, groaned at the mention of D’Souza’s name, and said,“Oh, my god, he’s the worst!”
“What is his thing?” Mitchell said. “Like, ‘The Democrats are racist,’ because he doesn’t understand the way the parties shifted after civil rights?”
Leah LaGrone Ochoa, a Ph.D. candidate at Texas Christian University, noted that Twitter has some advantages as a medium for debate. “What it allows us to do as historians is inject evidence into the universe,” she said. “Screenshots of newspapers from different time periods. Letters that politicians wrote to each other.”
“There it is,” Mitchell said. “It’s all about the primary sources!”
Another historian noted that Kruse’s threads are so popular because “he brings the receipts.”
Ochoa, who is from rural Texas, attempted to bring evidence to an online debate with relatives who supported creating a local Confederate Memorial Day on the grounds that Confederate soldiers were merely defending their “heritage.” She pointed out that slavery was central to the Confederate cause. “I was citing evidence from Karen Cox’s book ‘Dixie’s Daughters,’ about how the Daughters of the Confederacy created this Lost Cause narrative and created school curriculums to teach it to us Southerners,” she said. It didn’t go over well. “I was called a revisionist and a liberal Commie,” she said. But she was glad that she’d put another narrative out there.
“I think it’s a real opportunity for us,” Gannon, who teaches at Grand View University, and whose Twitter handle is @TheTattoedProf, said. “We’re in these public spaces and, to quote Liam Neeson in ‘Taken,’ we have a very particular set of skills.” Gannon, whose burly arms are heavily tattooed, has almost seventy thousand followers and has tangled with D’Souza, too. He has reservations about Twitter as a teaching forum. “It’s not a deliberative space,” he said. “The real struggle for me is it’s very easy to be angry online all the time. But, if all you’re doing is yelling, there’s nothing of substance there.”
David Trowbridge, an associate professor at Marshall University, said, “It’s not us at our best.”
“Well, sometimes it is,” Edward T. O’Donnell, an associate professor at the College of the Holy Cross, said. O’Donnell, whose Twitter handle is @InThePastLane, is the creator of the annual Weemsy Awards, for “the biggest history fails of the year.” He crowdsources the nominations from Twitterstorians. Last year’s winners included President Trump, who said during a Fourth of July speech that George Washington’s army “took over the airports” from the British, and the conservative writer Erick Erickson, who, in criticizing the Times’s 1619 Project, opined about “the cost white people paid to free slaves.”
Gannon argued, “We’re at a particularly dangerous moment, historically speaking,” noting the way that “history, or versions of it, have been weaponized against marginalized communities.” He went on, “When people are reading history and thinking, ‘I wonder what it would be like to live during the Civil War? I certainly would have been one of the good guys,’ well, what you’re doing now is probably what you would have done then.”
“Somebody said that on Twitter a while ago,” O’Donnell said. “It was, like, ‘Remember that time in history class when you were reading about the abolitionist movement and said, ‘I definitely would have stood up’? Well, now is one of those times.”
Trowbridge cleared his throat. “My small viral moment was that one,” he said.
“Oh, that was you?” O’Donnell said. “I instantly retweeted that!”
Trowbridge looked pleased. “I think I went from five followers to five hundred.”
The conversation found its way back to D’Souza, who is not just controversial for his arguments but also because Twitterstorians can’t agree on how to handle him. “Dunking on Dinesh D’Souza—people will say, ‘Why do you do it? You’re giving this guy oxygen,’ ” Gannon said. “And, to an extent, that’s true. But one of the reasons we are where we are in America is because bad-faith actors are throwing this stuff out there, and it goes unchallenged.” He went on, “That dude’s got a million followers. Half of them are probably bots. But it’s a big ol’ platform and a microphone. And if that tweet comes across your crazy uncle’s Facebook feed, and there’s not something underneath it that says, ‘Hey, no, it didn’t happen this way—’ ”
“And here’s why,” O’Donnell added.
“And here’s why,” Gannon said. “Then it’s a problem. Personally, I have nothing to say to Dinesh D’Souza. But, if we are going to continue to be a democratic society, we have to be honest about our history.” He went on, “In medieval times, the term for people like us was ‘remembrancer.’ It wasn’t necessarily someone who was well liked. Because they were the ones who remembered the bad times and warned people, ‘Hey, we’re about to do that again.’ So we’re remembrancers. This is what we do.”