From DR. BOLI’S UNABRIDGED DICTIONARY.

Artist (noun).—Anyone who has a political opinion but is too inarticulate to write an op-ed column.

. 4 comments.

Comments

  1. tom says:
    May 18, 2025 at 6:07 am

    I don’t think they had op-ed columns in, say, Caravaggio’s day.

    Reply
    • heloise says:
      May 18, 2025 at 3:30 pm

      Not opinion-editorials literate and in columnar layout, true, but they did have bars and taverns and public houses where one might speak easily, eased even further by lubricating beverages (albeit dis-eased by the auditing by powers that were and their informant crowdsources, whether haphazard or systematic). 

      So were artists silent in these venues?  The definition as given seems to imply they would have been.

      Note also:
      In composition and public speaking and other communication courses, we are taught: First, know your audience.  In a surveillance regime supplemented by informants, part of knowing your audience is ascertaining whether anyone is listening who might denounce or betray you.  Perhaps you might rather speak quietly to a trusted few, remembering that optimists think that three may keep a secret if two of them are dead, while realists think that three may keep a secret if all three of them are dead, and even then it’s not a sure thing (diaries, correspondence, memoranda in triple-triplicate, caches and logfiles, etc.).  (By “surveillance regime supplemented by informants” I definitely include Puritan-like small towns; the “regime” need not be a bureau of a national government.)

      Reply
  2. The Mad Soprano says:
    May 18, 2025 at 5:28 pm

    Wowch, Dr. Boli! You’d better put those matches down before you burn someone again!

    Reply
  3. Belfry Bat says:
    May 20, 2025 at 4:05 am

    Then, who wrote the essay that was mounted to the wall so we letters folks could know what the Art Really Means?

    Reply

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