Friday, June 6, 2025

Hello, here's today's rip-roaring issue of Wolmania.

Item 1: a link

In the mid-19th century, an American holidaying in Paris was a logistical feat. And although the oceanic and overland legs of Twain’s journey required more patience and stamina than even a flight out of Newark, the hassle—and, more especially, the expense—worked in his favor. His task was to describe a place his readers were unlikely to have seen even in photographs.

One hundred fifty-eight years after Mark Twain’s visit, the number of Americans who travel to Europe annually far surpasses the population of the United States in the year he was born. Many of them—more than 3 million in 2022—head straight to France, which is now the most-visited country on Earth. Virtually every living American, save those blind from infancy, has seen images of Paris. There is no need for a civilian to travel there and describe it. And yet, the wastrel, the conniver—the author—must ask: Wouldn’t it be best to send one more? Just to be sure? Isn’t it possible that dispatching a 21st-century writer to Paris to tramp along in Twain’s wake might enhance the modern reader’s appreciation of Twain’s work by proxy? It’s certainly not impossible. Shouldn’t we follow this instinct? Mightn’t it be flat-out imperative for us to do so?

And that is how I got to Paris!

Caity Weaver, folks.

Item 2: a list

Mission: Impossible and Top Gun Movies, Ranked:

1. Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018)
2. Top Gun: Maverick (2022)
3. Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015)
4. Mission: Impossible (1996)
5. Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011)
6. Top Gun (1986)
7. Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One [of One] (2023)
8. Mission: Impossible III (2006)
9. Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning (2025)
10. Mission: Impossible 2 (2000)

Item 3: a media recommendation

Item 4: word of the week

Whilom

As the leaves fall from the trees, scattering to the winds, I remember the succulent fruit that whilom fell from the selfsame branches, rotting and fermenting in the meadow, until some bears ate them and got hammered.

Item 5: a photograph

See ya!

Until we meet again.