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Book Review: ‘Trespassers at the Golden Gate,’ by Gary Krist

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Book Review: ‘Trespassers at the Golden Gate,’ by Gary Krist

There were always those who did not conform: Krist’s wide canvas is peopled with intriguing minor figures like Ah Toy, a Chinese immigrant sex worker; a French frog-catcher, Jeanne Bonnet, who fell afoul of restrictions on cross-dressing; and Mary Ellen Pleasant, a civil rights pioneer who fought to desegregate the city’s streetcars. But these individuals rarely had the means to bend the city to their own tastes and notions of justice.

And when one of the men in power — a married lawyer named Alexander Parker Crittenden — was brazenly killed by his lover, the younger, licentious, murderous woman became the scapegoat, bearing all the sins of the city.

Except for brief vignettes from the trial, Krist’s narrative does not return to the scene of the crime for more than 200 pages. This structure demands a fair amount of investment in people whose motives and morals are muddled, at best. Crittenden, his wife and his lover, Laura Fair, had all migrated to San Francisco from the antebellum South, and carried with them the prejudices of those origins: They were pro-slavery, anti-Lincoln and, in due course, Confederate sympathizers (a cause for which the Crittendens’ eldest son died). “Unfortunately,” as Krist puts it rather mildly, it was Crittenden who, while briefly serving in the California State Legislature, was responsible for writing a “notorious statute” banning the testimony of nonwhite defendants from admissibility in court.

These were people who benefited from the restrictive moral code of a “mature” Victorian city, even as they chafed at its constraints. Crittenden, who is described repeatedly as “restless” or “reckless,” did not amass a great deal of actual influence: His political ambitions were thwarted, and what money he earned ran through his hands like fool’s gold. Still, he moved around the country freely, enjoying, as his frustrated lover put it, “the man’s thousand privileges,” which included leaving his wife and children for months or years on end.

During one of those extended wanderings, in pursuit of the riches flowing out of Nevada’s silver mines, Crittenden met Fair, then a 26-year-old with a young daughter, running a boardinghouse with her mother. “Thrice married — twice divorced and once (somewhat suspiciously) widowed — the hotheaded and independent Fair refused to be fixed by the feminine clichés of her time. Amid the rampant speculation in precious metals, she amassed a substantial investment portfolio and occasionally lent her lover money.

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Valentin-Yves Mudimbe, 83, Dies; African Scholar Challenged the West

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Valentin-Yves Mudimbe, 83, Dies; African Scholar Challenged the West

Mr. Mudimbe was unapologetic. “To the question ‘what is Africa?’ or ‘how to define African cultures?’ one today cannot but refer to a body of knowledge in which Africa has been subsumed by Western disciplines such as anthropology, history, theology or whatever other scientific discourse,” he told Callaloo. “And this is the level on which to situate my project.”

Valentin-Yves Mudimbe was born on Dec. 8, 1941, in Likasi, in the Katanga Province of what was then the Belgian Congo, to Gustave Tshiluila, a civil servant, and Victorine Ngalula. At a young age, he said in 1991, he “began living with Benedictine monks as a seminarist” in Kakanda, in pre-independence Congo. He had “no contact with the external world, even with my family, and indeed had no vacations.”

When he was 17 or 18, he recalled, he decided to become a monk, this time among the Benedictine “White Fathers” of Gihindamuyaga, in Rwanda. But in his early 20s, already “completely francophonized,” he abandoned the religious life and entered Lovanium University in Kinshasa, graduating in 1966 with a degree in Romance philology. In 1970 he received a doctorate in philosophy and literature from the Catholic University of Louvain, in Belgium. He then returned to Congo to teach.

In the 1970s Mr. Mudimbe published, among other writings, three novels, all translated into English: “Entre les Eaux” (1973), published in English as “Between the Waters”; “Le Bel Immonde” (“Before the Birth of the Moon,” 1976); and “L’Écart” (“The Rift,” 1979). The principal characters in these novels “find it impossible to tie themselves to anything solid,” the scholar Nadia Yala Kisukidi commented in Le Monde.

At the end of the 1970s, when the offer came from Mr. Mobutu to be “in charge of, I guess, ideology and things like that,” as Mr. Mudimbe put it to Callaloo, he reflected that “I didn’t think of myself and I still don’t think of myself as a politician.” After he established himself in the United States, his focus turned to essays and philosophy; among other books, he wrote “L’Odeur du Père” (1982), “Parables and Fables” (1991) and “Tales of Faith” (1997).

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Poetry Challenge: Memorize ‘Recuerdo’ by Edna St. Vincent Millay

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Poetry Challenge: Memorize ‘Recuerdo’ by Edna St. Vincent Millay

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Someone once defined poetry as “memorable speech.” By that standard, each of us has committed at least some poetry to memory. Nursery rhymes, song lyrics and movie catchphrases all find their way into our heads, often without any effort on our part.

More formal memorization used to be a common classroom ritual. Schoolchildren would stand and recite approved works for their teachers and peers. That kind of learning has mostly gone out of fashion, which may be a sign of progress or a symptom of decline. Either way, school shouldn’t be the only place for poetry.

And learning a poem by heart doesn’t have to be drudgery. It can be a way of holding onto something beautiful, a morsel of verbal pleasure you can take out whenever you want. A poem recited under your breath or in your head can soothe your nerves, drive away the noise of everyday life or grant a moment of simple happiness.

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At a time when we are flooded with texts, rants and A.I. slop, a poem occupies a quieter, less commodified corner of your consciousness. It’s a flower in the windowbox of your mind.

There are millions of them available, in every imaginable style, touching on every facet of experience. You could store a whole anthology in your brain.

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But let’s start with one: “Recuerdo,” by Edna St. Vincent Millay.

“Recuerdo,” first published in 1919 in Poetry magazine, is the recollection of a night out on the town — or more precisely on the water, presumably the stretch of New York Harbor served by the Staten Island Ferry. We asked some friends of the Book Review — poets, novelists, playwrights, actors and other literature lovers — to recite it for us, and a bunch said yes.

Today, Ada Limón, Ina Garten and Ethan Hawke will introduce you to the poem. Here’s the first of the three stanzas.

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Recuerdo by Edna St. Vincent Millay 

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We were very tired, we were very merry 

We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry. 

It was bare and bright, and smelled like a stable 

But we looked into a fire, we leaned across a table, 

We lay on a hilltop underneath the moon; 

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And the whistles kept blowing, and the dawn came soon. 

Ada Limón, U.S. poet laureate

Why did we pick “Recuerdo”? We combed through our shelves like Goldilocks, looking for a poem that was just right: not too difficult, but not too simple; not obscure but not a chestnut; not a downer but not frivolous either. We didn’t want a poem that was too long, and we thought something that rhymed would be more fun — and easier — to memorize than a cascade of free verse.

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Millay, who was born in Maine in 1892 and was a fixture of the Greenwich Village bohemian scene in the 1920s, caught our eye for a few reasons. In her lifetime, she was a very famous poet.

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Edna St. Vincent Millay in 1923.

John Lofman/Published with permission of The Edna St. Vincent Millay Society

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She was a decidedly modern author who often wrote in traditional forms, and who has stayed popular through 100 years of fluctuating fashion. Her verse, while serious and sophisticated, carries its literary baggage lightly.

When you get to the second stanza of “Recuerdo,” read here by Ina Garten, you realize that it has a hook.

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We were very tired, we were very merry 

We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry; 

And you ate an apple, and I ate a pear, 

From a dozen of each we had bought somewhere; 

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And the sky went wan, and the wind came cold, 

And the sun rose dripping, a bucketful of gold. 

Ina Garten, cook and author

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It’s a city poem, but one that incorporates some arresting nature imagery (the sun, the moon, the wan glow of dawn). It delivers a confidential message — addressed to a “you” who shares the memory of those moments by the fire and in the moonlight — while striking a convivial, sociable tone.

The poem concludes with an impulsive act of generosity that carries a hint of melancholy. Here’s Ethan Hawke, reading the third and final stanza.

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We were very tired, we were very merry, 

We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry. 

We hailed, Good morrow, mother! to a shawlcovered head, 

And bought a morning paper, which neither of us read; 

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And she wept, God bless you! for the apples and pears, 

And we gave her all our money but our subway fares. 

Ethan Hawke, actor

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That’s it. The night is over; another day is here with its obligations and routines; we’re about to trade the open air of the ferry for the crowded underground platforms of the subway.

This poem stands up to repeated readings. It stays in your mind and your ear. It’s a fun poem about having fun, though of course there’s more to it than that. The poem expresses the desire to hold on to a fleeting experience, to fix it in words and images before it’s washed away on the tide of time.

“Recuerdo,” in Spanish, can mean recollection or souvenir, which is kind of perfect. The speaker summons bits and pieces of a memorable night, organizing them into verses that bring those hours back to life, even though they’re gone forever. We pick up those verses, and — impossibly but also unmistakably — we’re right there with her, inhaling the sea-kissed morning air.

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So here is the challenge: Memorize this poem! Why? Because it’s unforgettable.

Below, you’ll find a game designed to help you learn “Recuerdo.” Today your goal is to master that wonderful refrain. (Once you’ve done that, you’ll have one third of the poem.) As the Challenge continues through the week, we’ll look closely at how the poem is made, at what it’s about and at the extraordinary woman who wrote it. There will be new games and videos every day, until we disembark on Friday, poem in hand. Bon voyage!

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Your first task: Learn the first two lines!

Question 1/3

Let’s start with the refrain. Fill in the rhyming words.

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We were very tired, we were very merry 

We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry. 

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Tap a word above to fill in the highlighted blank. Need help? Click “See Full Poem
& Readings” at the top of the page.

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Edited by Gregory Cowles, Alicia DeSantis, Nick Donofrio and Joumana Khatib. Additional editing by
Emily Eakin, Tina Jordan, Laura Thompson and Emma Lumeij. Design and development by Umi Syam and
Eden Weingart. Additional design by Victoria Pandeirada. Video production by Caroline Kim.
Additional video production by McKinnon de Kuyper. Photo editing by Erica Ackerberg. Illustration
art direction by Tala Safie.

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Illustrations by Hannah Robinson.

Audio of “Recuerdo” from “Edna St. Vincent Millay in Readings From Her Poems” (1941, RCA); accompanying
photograph from Associated Press.

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When Kristen Kish, ‘Top Chef’ Host, Hits the Mute Button

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When Kristen Kish, ‘Top Chef’ Host, Hits the Mute Button

There was a point when I wore kitchen clogs, which I found uncomfortable. Then, Birkenstocks, but your heel’s exposed. Your sock’s going to get soaked, especially when you’re flooding the floors to clean at the end of the night. Blundstones are waterproof and they look good. I can go from the airplane to out in the wild, right into the kitchen and I feel like they fit all those scenarios.

When I opened my restaurant in the Line hotel in Austin, it was in every single room. My wife had to tell me what it was because I was like, “What are these wooden sticks in here for?” I travel with it and when I’m in dressing rooms, studios and hotels, it just makes everything smell familiar to me, regardless of where I am.

When I’m eating different flavors throughout the day — snacking on things or trying 15 dishes on “Top Chef” — at a certain point, my mouth starts to just feel gross. Brushing my teeth, tongue scraping and flossing help me reset a little bit.

A lot of women’s pants have little pockets that go down maybe three inches. I need them to touch my thigh. Because I’m not a purse kind of person, I like to fit my wallet, keys and mints all in my pocket if I can. I have a stylist for any clothes that I wear in public or on television. When fending for myself, I’m going to wear pants that are two times too big, comfortable and with deep pockets. Lululemon dance studio relaxed fit mid-rise cargo pants are so comfortable. Not only do they have deep pockets, they also have cargo and back pockets.

My preference is the stick. I always carry it in my left pocket; that’s just where it lives. I don’t leave home without it and it’s stashed in random places in our house — on my desk, in the junk drawer downstairs, two in our bedroom. I buy them in bulk and take great pride in finishing them.

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My mom used to tell me, “You look like I look like a cow chewing gum.” But it keeps cadence and there’s something in the rhythm of chewing where if I’m doing a task, especially if I’m cooking for hours, it’s a place for the anxiety to go. You know, how people relax with knee bouncing.

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