Tuesday, April 30, 2024
Something to think on …
There is nothing that is comparable to it, as satisfactory or as thrilling, as gathering the vegetables one has grown.
— Alice B.Toklas, born on this date in 1877
Monday, April 29, 2024
Something to think on …
To certain people there comes a day when they must say the great Yes or the great No.
— Constantine P. Cavafy, born on this date in 1863
Something to think on …
Original sin is the only doctrine that's been empirically validated by 2,000 years of human history.
— G. K.Chesterton, born on this date in 1874
Sunday, April 28, 2024
Appalling …
… It Was Only a Matter of Time Before We Saw Something Like This at These Pro-Hamas Rallies.
Those of an age remember quite well who coined te phrase “final solution.’
A problem with stop signs and niceness …
… It’s Not “Midwest Nice” to Break the Rules. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
In case you wondered …
… Why College Degrees Are Losing Their Value.
I graduated from college in 1964, when fewer than 10 percent of the population had a bachelors degree. Today that number has increased to more that 50 percent. But many recent college graduates I have met fail to impress — such as the one who a few months ago interrupted a conversation I was having over a beer with an artist friend of mine to tell us that Hitler wasn’t a socialist. We weren’t talking about Hitler or socialism, but I turned to him and said, “Guess you don’t know German.” Then I told him that NAZI means Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei — National Socialist German Workers Party.
Of course, when I went to what is now St. Joseph’s University, it only cost $600 a year, which my family could afford. Now it’s about 50 grand. Hence, the student loan problem.
Something to think on …
I am convinced of the afterlife, independent of theology. If the world is rationally constructed, there must be an afterlife
— Kurt Gödel, born on this date in 1906
Saturday, April 27, 2024
Expel them all …
… The extremist leaders of Columbia's anti-Israel protest camp.
After all, they alread think they know everything.
Choosing unknowing …
… Resisting our 'new dark age'. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I want to know less about the things that divide us and more about the things that unite us. Less about the scandalous and personal and more about the transcendent and universal.
Friday, April 26, 2024
Something to think on …
The things you think about determine the quality of your mind. Your soul takes on the color of your thoughts.
— Marcus Aurelius, born on this date in 121
Thursday, April 25, 2024
I should think not …
… This strong evidence of the link between covid vaccines and cancer can no longer be ignored - The Conservative Woman.
I didn’t get the vaccine. My cardiologist agreed. I am in the top 1 percent of the population to die of a heart attack. I also got tested for Covid frequently, since I couldn’t visit Debbie without being tested. Always negative. I have a good immune system.
Something to think on …
What a haunting, inescapable riddle life was.
— Walter de la Mare, born on this date in 1873
Wednesday, April 24, 2024
Interesting …
I don’t usually opine on this subject, but I have some personal info that I think is pertinent. As a love child — i.e., illegitimate — I was surely a candidate for abortion, though I doubt the thought ever crossed my mother’s mind. Trust the science, we are told. Well, the basic science is that the fetus is a genetically unique living being. If the pregnancy is a threat to the mother’s life, that may prove an exception — though the mother may be willing to take the risk. But in the case of rape, both mother and child are victims. They could bond on that. I do not think the mother’s convenience should be decisive. After all, there are ways of having sex that can prevent pregnancy. OK, I’m a man. So how much does my opinion count? But I think the matter is deserving of more careful pondering. We are talking about taking a life. Who knows what that kid might achieve?
Something to think on …
Three hours a day will produce as much as a man ought to write.
— Anthony Trollope, born on this date in 1815
Tuesday, April 23, 2024
Another racist
… Liberal mayor makes discriminatory comments that have people concerned ,
Maybe he should check out Martin Luther King: “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
Excuse me, your Honor …
So this clown can decide what parts of the Constitution are admissible in her courtroom. Remove her.
A tradition we can do without …
… It Always Starts With the Jews.
These so-called students are obviously ignoramuses, and that’s the kindest thing one can say.
Something to think on …
Like all great rationalists you believed in things that were twice as incredible as theology.
— Halldor Laxness, born on this date in 1902
Word master …
… Dostoevsky’s idiom. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
… Dostoevsky owes much of his verbal virtuosity to intuition rather than deliberate strategy. In every case, his word choice, however bizarre it first appears, makes the most accurate and mean ingful response to the momentary situation created by the plot or a character’s im mediate experience.
Monday, April 22, 2024
Something to think on …
I am content; that is a blessing greater than riches; and he to whom that is given need ask no more.
— Henry Fielding, born on this date in 1707
Cause for concern …
… The Moral Rot at the Heart of Our Elite Institutions,
One scientist explained a while back (I forget who) that it took him years to make the connection between the fact that every time he read about something he knew in the media, it was wrong, and the fact that this was true of almost everything he read.
Sunday, April 21, 2024
Something to think on …
God never made an ugly landscape. All that sun shines on is beautiful, so long as it is wild.
— John Muir, born on this date in 1838
Saturday, April 20, 2024
This is distressing
Translation services under assault by The Machine. Sadly, this is going to get worse before it gets better
Hmm …
… Antarctica Is Colder, Icier Today Than At Any Time In 5,000 Years - Climate Change Dispatch.
Here is a review I wrote some years ago that seems pertinent: Cold spell near? Geologist digs deeper on climate change.
Just so you know …
… (18) Social Utility and the Value of Pure Inquiry.
Social utility is a value. But truth is a value that trumps it. The pursuit of truth is an end in itself. Paradoxically, the pursuit of truth as an end in itself may be the best way to attain truth that is useful to us.
Friday, April 19, 2024
If you're in London...
...A new exhibit explores The Troubles in Northern Ireland through portraiture
Seasonal nostalgia …
… The story of Vince Maney - The Spectator World. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I’m old enough to have seen the A’s play at Shibe Park.
Thursday, April 18, 2024
Yet another poem …
… this one by me.
Elegy
In Memory of Zelda
The aging princess presides
Over the ruin of the late king’s palace.
The dowager queen cannot help
But notice the walls give way,
The dust gather. The aging princess
Toasts her aging consort and complains.
Hounds bay among debris, the moon
Opaquely shines through soiled panes.
The dowager queen listens and wanly smiles.
“A driving rain may streak,” she thinks,
“But never cleanse the windows,
Whether of house or soul. All
Gives way, nothing being done.
Time was, the princess danced
Beneath a moon effulgent, not opaque,
And children gamboled on the lawn.
The children now are fled
To regions where auroras dance instead.
How it will end seems clearer
Than the windowpanes, though when
Remains obscure, as always.” The aging princess
Takes her aging consort by the hand
And leads him in a halting sarabande.
The royal cats cry out, extend their claws.
The dowager queen listens and wanly smiles.
In case you wondered …
…(18) On Relevance in Philosophy Education.
In the Jesuit college I attended, logic and metaphysics were required course. I also studied the history of philosophy and existential phenomenology.
One of my favorite poets …
… Poem of the week: Sea Rose by HD | Poetry | The Guardian. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden,.)
Honoring a centenary …
… The talented Evan S. Connell - The Spectator World. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
His claim to immortality is Mrs. Bridge, which astonishes in its build-up of quiet power. Like many books that are ostensibly about nothing at all, it is, of course, about everything.
Wednesday, April 17, 2024
Something to think on …
Every person who has ever lived has lived an unbroken succession of unique occasions.
— Thornton Wilder, born on this date in 1897
Tuesday, April 16, 2024
Something to think on …
Politics is a thing that only the unsophisticated can really go for.
— Kingsle Amis, born on this date in 1922
Latter-day nonsense …
… Another day, another pronoun | The New Criterion. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I have better things to do than ponder pronouns.
Monday, April 15, 2024
Something to think on …
If you have work to do, don't wait to feel like it; set to work and you will feel like it.
— Henry James, born on this day in 1843
Our greatest essayist …
… Lucky Joe. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Epstein has been called a conservative, but that is only because the shallowness prevailing among the well-educated is usually leftist. What he really is is an exposer of bullshit in all its smelly varieties.
Sunday, April 14, 2024
Truth and faith …
… Errol Morris on Documentary Filmmaking and Christopher Hitchens - Air Mail.
Truth is a quest. An endless procession through a labyrinth of evidence to a deeper understanding of what really is out there in the world. And yet, truth itself is something that we can’t know for certain—except, perhaps, under controlled or limited circumstances.
Another word …
… Fettle | Word Genius.
Many will recall the final stanza of Gerard Manley Hopkins’s “Felix Randall” —
How far from then forethought of, all thy more boisterous years,
When thou at the random grim forge, powerful amidst peers,
Didst fettle for the great grey drayhorse his bright and battering sandal!
Still,deserving some room at the top …
… Desire and Ambition. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
In a literary sense, Room at the Top is a landmark work of Northern realism. “Certainly no one until John Braine had described the exact kind of urges operating within the post-war specimen,” wrote [Kenneth] Allsop.
His influence only increases …
… Lessons From the Life of Evelyn Waugh - The American Spectator | USA News and Politics. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Although he was born nearly 121 years ago and died nearly 60 years ago, Waugh’s life is one filled with lessons for Catholics today.
More to him than you may have though …
… W.S. Gilbert | Alexander Larman | The Critic Magazine. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Something to think on …
Sooner or later, man has always had to decide whether he worships his own power or the power of God.
— Arnold J. Toynbee, born on this date in 1889
Saturday, April 13, 2024
A poem …
You are the sun in the corner of my picture
In a dream I am putting together
A puzzle. I think it is Eden
But I'm not sure- green here, a flower there.
And where would Eden be without trees?
You're the sun in the corner of my picture;
A look here, a contour there, and hints that
You're a lover who cannot be possessed.
But you are in my Eden and I am glad.
Assembling a puzzle of Eden leaves me
Halfway between architect and shaman.
There may be few ways to get it right.
“Unlucky”, I say to deflect attention.
It's best to have a good reason to talk to God
I'm always a fuck up but I get that right.
Jennifer Knox
Something to think on …
We are the breakers of our own heart.
— Eudora Welty, born on this date in 1909
Friday, April 12, 2024
Something to think on …
I don't necessarily start with the beginning of the book. I just start with the part of the story that's most vivid in my imagination and work forward and backward from there.
— Beverly Cleary, born on this date in 1916
Thursday, April 11, 2024
Something to think on …
We see things as we are, not as they are.
— Leo Rosten, born on this date in 1908
Here’s to you …
… Drinking, a poem by Gabriela Mistral. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden,)
This past Sunday, April 7, marked the. 135th anniversary of Gabriela Mistral’s birth.
Wednesday, April 10, 2024
God bless her …
… Contrarian Lionel Shriver deftly satirizes anti-intellectualism in 'Mania' : NPR.
Lionel is a dear friend.
Real poetry for children …
… How Dennis Lee Cooked Up Alligator Pie | The Walrus. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Sound advice …
… Autograph letter - Signed - Robert Frost - Bauman Rare Books. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Something to think on …
The most learned are often the most narrow minded.
— William Hazlitt, born on this date in 1778
Tuesday, April 09, 2024
Something to think on …
The devil's finest trick is to persuade you that he does not exist.
— Charles Baudelaire, born on this date in 1821
Monday, April 08, 2024
Something to think on …
The perception of duration itself presupposes a duration of perception.
— Edmund Husserl, born on this dat in 1859
Sunday, April 07, 2024
Take a look at these …
… Dublin, Banville, and the Novel.
I was on assignment in Dublin some years, working on a piece about the centenary of Bloomsday. Ireland is a lovely place.
Something to think on …
For me, religiosity is ... the constant remembrance of the presence of the soul.
— Gabriela Mistral, born on this date in 1889
Saturday, April 06, 2024
Another blogging note …
I just have too much to do just now. Blogging is going to be spotty for a while. I’ll post when I can. Bear in mind I try to read is sent to me before I post a link. That takes time.
Blogging note …
I have much to deal with in my personal life these, not least of which is my wife’s current infirmity. So I will get to blogging when I can. Please bear with me.
Thin in every sense
… Posthumous publication: Honoring an author’s wishes or literary grave robbing. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Novels in translation are often prey for the whims of quixotic or plain bad writing, but lines such as “his whole being radiated a distinctive air through his fresh eau de cologne” are not just bathetic but suggest that either the book’s translator Anne McLean was not up to the job or, more likely, Márquez’s existing work was so poor that even the most talented interpreter would be unable to make headway with its incomprehensibilities and banalities.
A poem by a master …
… The Giantess by Richard Eberhart | Poetry Magazine. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
Eberthart, who died in 2005 at 101, would have turned 120 yesterday.
A dubious biography …
… Mist, Fog and Funder - Quadrant Online. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Despite its ostensible focus being on Eileen Blair, Wifedom is largely a personal attack on Orwell himself.
For your reading pleasure …
… Today’s Poem: Here. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I spent a pleasant day once chatting with Rhina at the West Chester University Poetry Conference.
Something to think on …
The man who can speak acceptably is usually given credit for an ability out of all proportion to what he really possesses.
— Lowell Thomas, norn on this date in 1892
Friday, April 05, 2024
Blogging note …
I had a very long day yesterday, and this morning, most uncharacteristically, I overslept. So I have things to do right now, and blogging will have to wait until this afternoon, when I return from my mabdatiory daily walk.
Something to think on …
Body and spirit are twins: God only knows which is which.
— Algernon Charles Swinburne, on this date in 1837
Thursday, April 04, 2024
Gathering poems …
… A Garden of Verses - JSTOR Daily. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Drawing from a tradition with antecedents in antiquity, the practice of editing a commonplace book required a student to collect fragments of writing that interested them—portions of dialogue, bits of sermons, selections of poems—and arrange them together
Contemplating curtail call …
… Everything Must Go: The Stories We Tell About the End of the World by Dorian Lynskey - review by Mark Blacklock. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Evidently, the time is ripe for a survey of the branch of cultural production concerned with the end of the world. And yet, as Lynskey points out, tales have been told about it for as long as we’ve been doing story.
Something to think on …
Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.
— Maya Angelou, born on this date in 1928
For the season …
… Easter Movies: "Hail Caesar!" and "Risen" ~ The Imaginative Conservative. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Wednesday, April 03, 2024
A fine writer …
… Critics At Large : Podcast: Interview with Judith Fitzgerald (1985). (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Judith and I used to correspond back in the day. God rest her soul.