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The following books by Robert Paul Wolff are available on Amazon.com as e-books: KANT'S THEORY OF MENTAL ACTIVITY, THE AUTONOMY OF REASON, UNDERSTANDING MARX, UNDERSTANDING RAWLS, THE POVERTY OF LIBERALISM, A LIFE IN THE ACADEMY, MONEYBAGS MUST BE SO LUCKY, AN INTRODUCTION TO THE USE OF FORMAL METHODS IN POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY.
Now Available: Volumes I, II, III, and IV of the Collected Published and Unpublished Papers.

NOW AVAILABLE ON YOUTUBE: LECTURES ON KANT'S CRITIQUE OF PURE REASON. To view the lectures, go to YouTube and search for "Robert Paul Wolff Kant." There they will be.

NOW AVAILABLE ON YOUTUBE: LECTURES ON THE THOUGHT OF KARL MARX. To view the lectures, go to YouTube and search for Robert Paul Wolff Marx."





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Saturday, August 22, 2020

CAN THIS POSSIBLY BE RIGHT?

Tomorrow my extended family will gather by zoom to celebrate the 90th birthday of my big sister, Barbara. She lives in a retirement community in Southern California and it grieves me deeply that I cannot be there in person for this important moment. Last night, at about 1 AM, I was lying awake in bed (don't ask) thinking about what I would say at the zoom party. I decided to tell a few stories about the Barbara I knew when we were both kids since I am the only person left in the world who knew her then. As my mind wandered, I found myself recalling the three summers I spent as a teenager at a left-wing "work camp," an eight week sleep away camp in the Berkshires where Northeast comfortably well-off parents of a left-wing persuasion sent their children to get an authentic work experience. One of the counselors was a dumpy young folklorist named Margot Mayo. It was she who introduced us to the work of Alan Lomax and to his greatest discovery, the magnificent Black folksinger and 12 string guitar player Huddie Ledbetter, or Leadbelly as he was known. I got to wondering what had happened to Margot Mayo so I got up and went to my computer to see whether by any chance she was on Wikipedia. Sure enough, there she was! It turns out Margot was born in 1910 which means that she was in her later 30s when I knew her. It also turns out, if Wikipedia can be believed, that she is still alive today at the age of 110!!

Can this possibly be right? If it is, she must be the oldest or almost the oldest person in the United States. As I drifted off to sleep, I gave some thought to what I might post on my blog in 2043.

4 comments:

David Zimmerman said...

Please look again. Wik. says she died in 1974:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margot_Mayo

Anonymous said...

"the three summers I spent as a teenager at a left-wing "work camp," an eight week sleep away camp in the Berkshires where Northeast comfortably well-off parents of a left-wing persuasion sent their children to get an authentic work experience."

Wow. This explains a lot actually. :)

David Palmeter said...

Please give Barbara my best.

Robert Paul Wolff said...

Indeed I will, David