Well, it’s official: “The US Senate has passed a resolution formalizing business attire as the proper dress code for the floor of the chamber . . .” I have quoted the opening sentence of this article. Men must wear a coat and tie. “The resolution doesn’t specify what is deemed as business attire for women on the Senate floor.”

I’m sure this is right — the code. Decorum and all. That’s what we heard during the contretemps over this issue: “decorum.” I was disgusted to hear it from people who, in other circumstances, are among the least decorous people on earth. But what can you do?

I have written a fair amount about this subject over the years, and I won’t go on at too great a length now. But I would like to tell at least one story — a story that longtime readers have heard before.

Rudolf Nureyev had recently defected. The mother of a friend of mine was taking him to lunch. I believe she was a publicist or agent — I can’t quite remember. The city, however, was London.

She had booked a table at a club. But the club would not admit Nureyev — because he was not wearing a coat and tie. Instead, the great dancer was wearing one of those tunics he favored. A shimmering blue number. He was probably the most elegantly dressed man in London. But he was not wearing a tie.

The men inside the club were, of course. And you can believe: They did not look half as good as Nureyev (as why should they have?).

Well, rules are rules. Codes are codes. Decorum and all. But isn’t it a little . . . silly?

I had a dear old friend who liked to meet me at a club in New York. The club required a coat and tie. Boy, would I chafe. (Literally?) This was especially true in the summer, when it was hot and humid.

My friend was a stylish and wonderful lady, for whom I would have done anything. But I was very crabby about the club.

“It’s 85 degrees outside. You have required me to put on long pants, a long-sleeved shirt, and a jacket. Plus a tie! What kind of friend are you? And there you are, in a lovely lightweight dress, with no sleeves. Cool as a cucumber. You are appropriately dressed. I’m sweatin’ like a sow in this parka you’ve made me put on.”

“Oh, Jay,” she would say.

I think they have it about right in India, the Persian Gulf, and other such regions. I’m not sure we have it right in the West — even if we refrigerate our rooms, to ease our donning of jackets . . .

• Allow me to alert you to a potential dress-code issue:

• It’s a little early in my column for a language item, but let’s do one anyway. Above, I quoted a sentence: “The resolution doesn’t specify what is deemed as business attire for women on the Senate floor.” That “as” is unfortunate. Far better is “what is deemed business attire.”

• Out of Africa, some news: “Nobel-prize winning gynaecologist announces plans to run for president of DRC.” (“Democratic Republic of the Congo.”) The subheading of the article reads, “Denis Mukwege won the Nobel peace prize in 2018 for his campaign against sexual violence.”

Dr. Mukwege is one of the most impressive men I have ever met. I interviewed him in 2016. (For the resulting article, go here.) I knew, upon leaving him — indeed, while I was sitting with him — that I had met a great man.

About his running for president, I am of two minds. Sometimes great men do well in politics. What I mean is, sometimes they make a positive difference. I think of Václav Havel. But sometimes it can all go wrong. I think of Aung San Suu Kyi and her wretched compromises.

Anyway, the Congolese are lucky to have Denis Mukwege among them (and so is humanity).

• Sardar Pashaei is a dissident and activist from Iran. He lives here in America and is a U.S. citizen. I spoke with him last summer. (For an article, go here.) His brother Saman had just been arrested by the Iranian authorities. They arrested him in order to punish Sardar, in a sense.

“See what you have done?” says a dictatorship (any of them). “You have caused us to arrest, imprison, and torture your brother. It’s all on you.”

Last week, my friend Sardar tweeted this:

• “John Kelly goes on the record to confirm several disturbing stories about Trump.” Kelly, as you know, is the retired Marine Corps general who was one of President Trump’s chiefs of staff. The article quotes Kelly as follows:

“What can I add that has not already been said? A person that thinks those who defend their country in uniform, or are shot down or seriously wounded in combat, or spend years being tortured as POWs, are all ‘suckers’ because ‘there is nothing in it for them.’ A person that did not want to be seen in the presence of military amputees because ‘it doesn’t look good for me.’”

A bit more:

“A person that has no idea what America stands for and has no idea what America is all about. A person who cavalierly suggests that a selfless warrior who has served his country for 40 years in peacetime and war should lose his life for treason — in expectation that someone will take action. A person who admires autocrats and murderous dictators. A person that has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution, and the rule of law.”

Finally:

“There is nothing more that can be said. God help us.”

I have quoted only some of what General Kelly said. His words are important, I think. I believe his testimony about Trump. About what he saw. Obviously, Republicans will bristle at Kelly, or hate him. They turned on General Mattis too, when Mattis was candid about Trump.

My feeling is this: Guys like Kelly and Mattis have too much honor in them to play along with wrong — at least indefinitely. They did what they could, in rotten circumstances.

• If the polls are to be believed, Republicans are set to nominate Trump for a third time. Big donors are courting Glenn Youngkin, apparently. (Youngkin is governor of Virginia.) They are keen to stop Trump. They want Youngkin to enter the race, at this late date.

But listen: There is no shortage of candidates. If Republicans want to nominate Trump for a third time, they will. No matter who else is in the race. By all evidence, he is the people’s choice, or at least the Republicans’ choice.

Parties and movements tell you who they are by the leaders they select. Isn’t it so?

• About the drama surrounding Kevin McCarthy and the House, I have 40 things to say. I will confine myself to a music item, so to speak. Did you see this?

I thought of the Mahler Sixth Symphony. Behold the mighty hammer blow.

• While music is on my mind: Here is my “chronicle” in the current New Criterion. Here is a review of Nabucco, Verdi’s opera, at the Met. And here is a review of Lise Davidsen, the Norwegian soprano, in recital.

• Let me return to language — and give the floor to Joyce Carol Oates, for whom I am grateful:

Sing it, JOC!

• You may have listened to President Lyndon Johnson, on the phone with his tailor. It is a very colorful conversation (if “conversation” is the right word). (This is mainly a one-way deal.) I’d like to point out one thing. Johnson complains that his pockets aren’t big or long enough. When he sits down, his money and his knife fall out.

I remember when men routinely carried knives in their pockets. You no more went around without a pocketknife than without your keys or dough.

Anyway, if you have not yet listened to LBJ, treat yourself.

• Holy smokes — quite a lineup. Grim.

“Enjoy your day!” it says at the bottom.

That sign is from an elevator in Milwaukee. Feel like seeing a moonrise over Lake Michigan?

Out and about, I met a poet, from Scotland — Robert Burns:

The Milwaukee shoreline, on a warm, sunny morning. Isn’t it beautiful?

And this, of course, is the best sign in America — what you see in the Milwaukee airport just after screening:

Once you’ve been discombobulated, you have to get recombobulated. For my money, the American vernacular is one of the joys of life.

Catch you later.

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