Wednesday, August 31, 2022

A pair of masters …

… James Joyce's divine comedy - UnHerd. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Dante speaks of such grand affairs as heaven and hell, church and state, while Joyce loftily dismisses the lot of them. … 
… Dante chose to write in the vernacular (and thus for the common reader) rather than in Latin, and in doing so played a major role in establishing everyday Italian as the literary language of his people. It was a choice which helped to revolutionise the writing of other European cultures as well. … 
… For his part, Joyce has an uncannily well-tuned ear for the speech of working-class Dubliners, and Ulysses, which is awash with pub talk, gossip, political polemic and satirical invective, is one of the first novels in English to portray what we might now call mass culture.

A few days of listening to Dubliners speak made it much easier for me to read Ulysses. You might say it is written in Dublinese. 

 

Anniversary …

… To whom do you wish to speak?

Lewis the scholar …

… The Scholarly Lewis: A Review of The Medieval Mind of C.S. Lewis - Front Porch Republic. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Baxter is right to emphasize that a great mind is formed by the Great Books and his book discusses important themes in and influences on Lewis. However, I cannot but help think of Lewis’s own words

The student is half afraid to meet one of the great philosophers face to face. He feels himself inadequate and thinks he will not understand him. But if he only knew, the great man, just because of his greatness, is much more intelligible than his modern commentator. The simplest student will be able to understand, if not all, yet a very great deal of what Plato said; but hardly anyone can understand some modern books on Platonism. It has always therefore been one of my main endeavours as a teacher to persuade the young that firsthand knowledge is not only more worth acquiring than secondhand knowledge, but is usually much easier and more delightful to acquire.

Pre- reading …

 … “The Dam is Becoming Dangerous and May Possibly Go!"

They are always worth pondering …

 once upon a time : Pondering the mysteries of time.

Something to think on …

We shall walk together on this path of life, for all things are part of the universe and are connected with each other to form one whole unity.
— Maria Montessori, born on this date in 1870

In honor of his centenary …

… BBC Sounds - Larkin Revisited - Available Episodes. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Poetry live (as it were) …

… Timothy Green on Twitter: "The prompt two weeks ago, via @cati_porter was to write a poem based on overheard dialogue. We had a classic car show in town, and these guys were three blocks from their destination. It was a scene. Quotes are real, if squeezed a bit to fit the tetrameter sonnet. https://t.co/XkfmkFd2Bg" / Twitter. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Word of the Day …

… Percentile | Word Genius.

Tuesday, August 30, 2022

Broadway bound

Sympathy for ‘The Devil Wears Prada’. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

This new adaptation takes the popular movie by its horns, retaining reference points for the film’s devotees while updating the story for these less innocent yet more sensitive times.

A third choice …

When Culture Celebrated Men and Their Search for God.

This kind of God-infused theme runs throughout American literature, from Moby Dick, which is as much a metaphysical pilgrimage as a hunting story, to the spiritually charged novels of Walker Percy like Love in the Ruins and The Thanatos Syndrome. Holden Caulfield was not a high school dropout roaming around New York getting drunk and looking for prostitutes; he was a traumatized young man tenuously holding on to his sanity and trying to find some kind of religious moral stability in a world of corruption. Could Dean Moriarty in On the Road, a book that Jack Kerouac described as “two guys out looking for God,” really be compared to Ben Stiller in “Dodgeball”? 

Burying sacred books …

… Sacred Texts and Respectful Burial. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

The congregation owns its own cemetery, and the burial was scheduled for a time when the board was planning to meet at the cemetery. The rabbis were kept in the loop, and they were in charge of the ceremony. There is no traditional liturgy or ritual for the event.

Something to think on …

It was the secrets of heaven and earth that I desired to learn; and whether it was the outward substance of things or the inner spirit of nature and the mysterious soul of man that occupied me, still my inquiries were directed to the metaphysical, or in its highest sense, the physical secrets of the world.
— Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, born on this date in 1797

Word of the Day …

… Decoction | Word Genius.

Monday, August 29, 2022

Just wondering …

 Why doesn’t YouTube take steps to ban the clown who posts all these phony obituaries?

Good question …

… The Age of Abundance is Over... So How do We Prepare?

I’ve been alive since WWII.  I think I came to take it for granted that things would steadily improve. It seems Inwas wrong.

Indian puzzle …

… once upon a time : More than a mere mystery featuring Moriarty.

At least he mostly likes it …

From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life, 1500 to the Present. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Unfortunately the book peters out at the end rather disappointingly. His thesis is that Western culture has fallen into decadence …

It looks that way to me, too. 

What a wonderful story …

 A White Guy Walks Into A Black Church . . . | Big Trial | Philadelphia Trial Blog. (Hat tip, Paul Davis.

A significant anniversary …

Free book offer — The Dead Sea Scrolls.

Religion and science …

God’s Ongoing Story: On John Haught’s “God After Einstein” (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
The puzzling aspect of this book is the unclear status played by Einstein himself. Haught has Einstein “allow for” many advances in thought. Yet, as you finish reading the book, you wonder whether Einstein is really such a flexible cipher. The brilliance of Haught’s work over the decades is his equal-opportunity critique against both the religious distortions of science and the scientific distortions of religion. Sentences like “The world thus leans not on the past, as the materialist assumes, but on the future, as hope requires” show a mind honed by metaphysics without abstruseness.

My own feeling is that faith is something to be experienced, not theorized about. Mysticism is the ground of faith. Anyone who has had the least experience of the transcendent knows that it is real? 

Remembering …

… A Poem for World Mosquito Day | Flowers For Socrates.(Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Something to think on …

The Bible is one of the greatest blessings bestowed by God on the children of men. It has God for its author; salvation for its end, and truth without any mixture for its matter. It is all pure.
— John Locke, born on this date in 1632

Word of the Day …

… Opulence | Word Genius.

Sunday, August 28, 2022

She’s this in heaven now, I’m sure …

 … Judith Durham — The Lord’s Prayer.

Smile, even though you’re praying …

… The Seriousness of Humor - The Catholic Thing. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Christian mirth is a fruit of trust. If we do not trust God, then we have no sense of proportion. Without trust in him, we see ourselves as in charge and responsible for everything. And there’s nothing funny about that. The man who trusts in God can both weep for his sins and laugh at his imperfections. He knows that God is in control, and that he is not. So, he can afford to be lighthearted.

I don’t get this …

… Why are lesbians no longer welcome at Pride? | The Spectator.

I’ve always got along with lesbians and they with me — they are women, and I like women. I also get along with gay guys. My friend Katherine and I shared power of attorney for a gay couple. But now lesbians can’t participate in Pride?

The road to recovery …

… No Promises by Eve Tushnet. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

In confession you do not seek primarily moral improvement but reconciliation with God. The confessional is less a classroom and more a trysting place. In my own life, my best current understanding of what I’m doing is not that I’ve turned away from drunkenness and to abstinence; abstinence is an absence. It’s slightly more true to say that I am turning from drunkenness to sobriety: a path of peace. But it is most true to say that I hope to turn from drunkenness to Christ. And this in all things: not from vice to virtue but from vice to God

Bottom line …

… Minimal Metaphysics for Meditation. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

My conclusion is that no one is likely to take up and stick with serious meditation, meditation as part of a spiritual quest, unless he is the recipient of a certain grace, a certain free granting ab extra.  (Here I go beyond Pali Buddhism which leaves no place for grace, and beyond Evola as well.)  He must be granted a glimpse of the inner depth of the self. But not only this.  He must also be granted a willingness to honor and not dismiss this fleeting intimation, but instead center his life around the quest for that which it reveals.  

Just so you know …

 7 Facts About Trailblazing Writer George Eliot.

For your reading pleasure …

 … Six poems published at Home Planet News.

Faith and love …

… Siris: Doctor Gratiae. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

‘50s snapshots …

… once upon a time : Unpleasant black and white snapshots from 1950s.

Something to think on …

This is the Great Theatre of Life. Admission is free, but the taxation is mortal. You come when you can, and leave when you must. The show is continuous. Goodnight.
— Robertson Davies, born on this date in 1913

Word of the Day …

… Quasi | Word Genius.

Saturday, August 27, 2022

Authentic worship …

… The Secret Of Latin Mass (And Divine Liturgy) - The American Conservative. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

I have always supported the Latin mass's availability, because my gosh, why would you not? I cannot understand at all why Pope Francis is so bound and determined to crush this venerable rite of the Catholic Church. Anyway, as a Catholic, I understood in my mind why it affected people so strongly, and wanted them to have access to that. But for some reason, it left me cold.

I grew up with the Latin Rite. If they wanted it said, they should have just used the translation in the missals, which wasn’t tin-eared. For instance:

It is truly meet and just, right and availing unto salvation that we should at all time and in all places give thanks unto Thee, O holy Lord, Father almighty and everlasting God …

That has been reduced to “it is right and just.” 

Interesting …

… HOW IT STARTED.

All the news unfit to print…

… once upon a time : NYT publishes three stories about Communism in USA.

Blogging note …

 I have errands to run, and I still don’t feel so hot. I have what Alka-Seltzer commercial called the blhs — like the blues, but physical.

Façades …

The Density of Urban Life. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)

A suite of poems …

…  Zealotry of Guerin: Poetry and Fiction by Christopher Guerin: RIVER POEMS.

A poet well worth reading again …

… The Wondrous and Mundane Diaries of Edna St. Vincent Millay | The Nation. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

The editor of the collection, Daniel Mark Epstein, ventures that “few, if any, serious reputations” in American literature “have so quickly arisen and burned so brightly” as Millay’s: In 1923, only 12 years removed from her days as a surrogate mother, she became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for poetry, and in her highly publicized life she also became known for her many flesh-and-blood lovers in the literary world as well as her fatal addiction to morphine.

Something to think on …

Anyone who needs more than one suitcase is a tourist, not a traveler.
— Ira Levin, born on this date in 1929

Word of the Day …

… Escutcheon | Word Genius.

Setting records straight …

Debating which creature was Europe’s fastest game bird.

Friday, August 26, 2022

I remember this quite well …

… once upon a time : The Army general runs afoul of the U.S. president.

I also remember watching MacArthur’x farewell address to Congress. (I would late study that speech in the rhetoric and public speaking course I had.

Sam’s Mom …

The surprise about Mark Twain’s mother in Kentucky.

Another blogging note …

 I am not feeling well today. Maybe I will blog again tonight.

Just so you know …

… Climate Change Forecasts :: Right & Free.

Blogging note …

I over slept this morning, which is very unusual of me. Anyway, I have things to do and must go out. So blogging won’t resume until later.

Word of the Day …

… Eloquent - Dictionary Scoop.

Pennsylvanians v. Washington …

They would “shake the government to its foundation.”

Something to think on…

Only those who are capable of silliness can be called truly intelligent.
— Christopher Isherwood, born on this date in 1904

Thursday, August 25, 2022

Watson’s wives …

… once upon a time : The ladies love Dr. Watson, and Watson loves the ladies.:

Pathetic …

… University gives 'trigger warning' for 'Huckleberry Finn'. (Hat tip, Paul Davis.)

God forbid than an portray his times as they actually were. How did so many stupid people get to run our educational system?

All aboard …

That’s really one helluva way to run a railroad, Harry..

Smart birds …

… Anthony Etherin on Twitter: "GULLS (Sonnet) By light, we mull their lull of flight and white of skull, but gulls, tonight, will flock to shore and swarm the dock, before the storm...." / Twitter. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Well, not really …

… once upon a time : Variety of life forms discovered on the moon.

Something to think on …

It would seem evident, therefore, that the secret of the American short story was the treatment of characteristic American life, with absolute knowledge of its peculiarities and sympathy with its method.
— Bret Harte, born on this date in 1836

Anniversary …

… Max Beerbohm Sesquicentennial The Daily Cartoonist. (Hat tip Dave Lull.)

Word of the Day …

… Causerie | Word Genius.

Wednesday, August 24, 2022

Blessed are the copy editors …

. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

If error were simply an issue of a wrong comma here or an incorrect word there it wouldn’t be nearly as interesting, but mistakes undergird our lives, even our universe. They can be detrimental, beneficial, neutral. When Lockheed Martin designed the Mars Climate Orbiter using American units and NASA assumed that they’d used the metric system instead, a discrepancy that resulted in that satellite crashing into the red dust of the fourth planet from the sun—that was a mistake. And when the physician Alexander Fleming left out a culture plate which got contaminated, and he noticed the flourishing of a blue mold that turned out to be penicillin—that was a mistake. Errors in how people hear phonemes are what lead to the development of new languages; mistakes in an animal’s DNA propel evolution; getting lost can render new discoveries. Sometimes the flaw is that which is most beautiful. 

This former copy editor cannot help pointing out that lead in this paragraph should be led. That’s the past tense of  lead (pronounced leed). True, the past tense of lead does sound like the metal, lead.

Centenary …

… The Waste Land at 100 | Jason M. Baxter | First Things. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Eliot at one hundred is still shocking. Although he wrote before the digital and personal computing revolutions, cheap air travel, and mobile phones, he nevertheless lived in a world that was qualitatively like ours, even if quantitatively it would continue to accelerate.

 

Getting away …

… once upon a time : Abandoning reality and pursuing the adventures.

Can you believe it ?

… EXCLUSIVE: Vaccinated Making Up Higher Proportion of COVID-19 Metrics in US.

Well, if you  believe all the crap the government’s been feeding us, you mght have a hard tim with this.

Something to think on …

Good sense about trivialities is better than nonsense about things that matter.
-— Max Beerbohm, born on this date in 1872

Living faith …

Jane Greer - Four Poems. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

The way things were …

… once upon a time : In response to the growing hysteria in the United States.

Words of the Day …

… Belgard | Word Genius.

Tuesday, August 23, 2022

Appalling …

… Canadian soldier suffering with PTSD offered euthanasia by Veterans Affairs | Fox News.

Wonderful …

 … 1964: Philip LARKIN and John BETJEMAN on Poetry | Monitor | Classic arts interview | BBC Archive. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)


Politics, I guess …

 The CDC (Finally) Admitted the Science on Natural Immunity. Why Did It Take so Long? - Foundation for Economic Education.

“The newly released data show people who once had a SARS-CoV-2 infection were much less likely than never-infected, vaccinated people to get Delta, develop symptoms from it, or become hospitalized with serious COVID-19,” Science staff writer Meredith Wadman noted.

Just so you know …

Why Robert Lowell, Famed as a Poet, Should Be Remembered for His Prose. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)

Lowell was easily the pre-eminent poet of his generation and certainly, for good or ill, the most influential. The young today read and study Sylvia Plath by the yard, and her confessional mode of poetry — a poetry focused on the intimate details of one’s inner, psychological life — has long been the prevailing fashion among them. But Lowell was Plath’s teacher and great influence; his 1959 volume “Life Studies” effectively introduced and popularized confessional poetry in this country.

Seasonal sadness …

… The Late-Summer Melancholy of 'The Swimmer': (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

If you appreciate this feeling, as I do, there is no better work of fiction than “The Swimmer,” John Cheever’s 1964 story, which teems with the languid sadness of summer’s final act. The shift between the promise of freedom and an awareness of the coming cold happens so smoothly, so quickly in the story that I am somehow astounded each time I read it.

Rebels and their cause …

… once upon a time : Open and avowed rebellion in America.

Something to think on …

Life is a sexually transmitted disease and the mortality rate is one hundred percent.
— R. D. Laing, who died on this date in 189

In case you wondered …


It turns out that the reason why the saints are held as models for us is not because we are meant to imitate the circumstances of their life, but rather, the manner they respond to those circumstances. In any particular moment, the test is not, “how does my life measure up to the saints,” rather the test is, “what would a saint do now, in this moment?”

Word of the Day …

… Acme | Word Genius.

Monday, August 22, 2022

Why waste money on places like this …

UMass Lowell bans students from viewing ‘offensive’ material.

They obviously haven’t a clue as to what constitutes education.  I went to a Jesuit college. You’d be surprised how open the discussions were. Today’s Jesuits, unfortunately, apparently are woke — which of course means purblind.

A D-Day preview …

… once upon a time : Near twenty four thousand men ready to land in a moment.

Indeed there are …

 once upon a time : There are worse crimes than burning books.

Hmm …

Dead Poets’ Society isn’t the movie you thought it was. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Keating is motivated by the idea that his students should be taught not “what to think” but “how to think.” Again, does this sound familiar? The phrase “free thinkers” comes up repeatedly. But what happens when you learn “how to think” without ever learning *what to think*?

I liked the movie when I saw it, but that’s the only time I’ve seen it. 

An appreciation of appreciation …


The essays in this book explore authors as varied as Dryden, Henry James, and Norman Mailer, but the subject is always the English heroic line, both the formal heroic line now commonly called “iambic pentameter” and the entire concept of the heroic within English prose and verse.



Something to think on …

Of course I talk to myself. I like a good speaker, and I appreciate an intelligent audience.
— Dorothy Parker, born on this date in 1893

Word of the Day …

… Canonical | Word Genius.

Sunday, August 21, 2022

A masterpiece …

 Do the Dead Know what Time It Is? by Kenneth Patchen - Famous poems, famous poets. - All Poetry.

Latter-day anti-Catholicism …

Podcast: Concerning the right-wing rosary attack – was that Atlantic feature really 'news'?

Now, are the vast majority of pro-Catechism Catholics online and in pews who seek to defend church teachings on marriage, sexuality, the sanctity of all human life (conception to natural death) urging their folks to buy closets of rapid-fire weapons and join militias?

Did this vague, vague language in one of America’s most influential news-and-commentary magazines suggest precisely that? Yes. Is the point that traditional Catholics — these wackos may even go to Confession, attend Latin Masses or favor other traditional forms of liturgy — are digitally adjacent to the bullet-rosary fringe folks? You betcha. That’s the whole Big Idea Here.

My grandmother’s brother was notably anti-Catholic. So I was instructed not to mention  the Church when he visited. I dealt with the problem by never being home when he visited.

 

In praise of a master…

… once upon a time : David McCullough fosters love of history.

The real-life Q …

Writing Gaia review: what my friend James Lovelock’s letters reveal. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Calling the theory Gaia, the goddess of the Earth, was a red rag to the biology bulls. The name came from the novelist William Golding, a friend of Lovelock's. He thought it spot-on; the biologists thought it showed what an airy-fairy mess of spilt religion Gaia was. After a flurry of interest in the Seventies, Gaia was in effect suppressed in the Eighties.

Something to think on …

Doing little things with a strong desire to please God makes them really great.
— Francis de Sales, born on this date in 1567

A fair appraisal …

… Flannery O’Connor’s Religious Imagination.

Not just for laughs …

… Wanted: More Comic Novels. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

A comic novel isn’t necessarily one that sets out to be funny above all else. As critic James Wood has written, “comedy is the angle at which most of us see the world, the way that our very light is filtered”. The comic mode can take many forms. In the English language, think of Sterne’s encompassing digressions, Austen’s irony, Dickens’ drollery, and Joyce’s puns and parodies

Word of the Day …

 Sprag | Word Genius.

Saturday, August 20, 2022

Supernatural fiction …

… once upon a time : The book written by Mark Twain's ghost.

One of life’s myterious dramas …

… Zealotry of Guerin: Poetry and Fiction by Christopher Guerin: Turtle.

At least Ike knew when to withdraw …

… once upon a time : Review of U.S. policy in the Far East.

This is certainly worrisome …

… Apple reveals security vulnerabilities affecting iPhones and iPads | Daily Mail Online. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Portrait of a saint …

 … Godric. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)


Written as the hermit’s memoir, dictated late in life to his disciple Reginald of Coldingham, whose contemporary Latin manuscript is the historical source of knowledge about Godric’s life, Buechner’s novel is at its best in detailing the unwilling saint’s war within:

I can no longer hold my water and itch in places I haven’t scratched these twenty years for the clownish stiffness in my bones. It’s Reginald that has to swab my bum and deems the task a means of grace. I’ve got an old dam’s dugs. My privities hang loose as poultry from a hook. My head wags to and fro. There’s times my speech comes out so thick and gobbled I’d as well to save my wind. But the jest is bitterer yet, for deep inside this wrecked and ravaged hull, there sails a young man still.


Something to think on …

Doubt is not the opposite of faith; it is one element of faith.
— Paul Tillich, born on this date in 1886

Word of the Day …

 Caliginous | Word Genius.

Friday, August 19, 2022

I’m ready to move to Finland …

Supporters defend Finnish PM Sanna Marin’s right to party after video leak.

Who would be without adventure?

… once upon a time : In Defense of the Adventure Novel.

Dickens and the spectral world …

Charles Dickens: ‘Fascinated Skeptic’ of the Supernatural..

A bit of history …

The Science Was Just as “Settled” 110 Years Ago as It Is Today… Except for the Bits in the Middle.

Something to think on …

There has been a lot of progress during my lifetime, but I'm afraid it's heading in the wrong direction.
— Ogden Nash, born on this date in 1902

Just so you know …

… once upon a time : August 19th can be a bad day to be a suspected witch.

Word of the Day …

… Quidnunc | Word Genius.

Thursday, August 18, 2022

Just so you know …

9 Words You’re Saying Incorrectly.

I am pleased to report that I got them all right except the first. You learn something new every day.

Welcome to the world of publishing =

once upon a time : American Literature Loses Out to Consolidation

Early in my so-called career as  a book editor, i made pretty good living. But when my principal client — J. B. Lippincott — was bought by Harper’s — that was the beginning of the endfor that phase of my career.

RIP …

… Wolfgang Petersen Dead: Troy, The Perfect Storm Director Was 81 - Variety.

A sweet tale …

… once upon a time : The delicious history of good humor begins in Ohio.

Man on the run …

… Chicago writer offers his take on Rabbit, Run | THE JOHN UPDIKE SOCIETY. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

“As I was working my way through the first section of Rabbit, Run,” Reardon wrote, “I was puzzled that anyone would want to read so much about a guy who seemed aimless, selfish and irresponsible. By the time I finished the book, I was far beyond such puzzlement. I wanted to know what happened next to Rabbit and immediately ordered a copy of Rabbit Redux.”



Something to think on …

Memory belongs to the imagination. Human memory is not like a computer which records things; it is part of the imaginative process, on the same terms as invention
— Alain Robbe-Grillet, born on this date in 1922

Word of the Day …

… Efficacy | Word Genius.

Wednesday, August 17, 2022

Up close and personal …

… Artist Explores the Beauty of Birds in an Online Exhibition. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)

RIP

… Mary Helen Scriver | Obituaries | cutbankpioneerpress.com. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Dave also sends along:




How many have you read?

Ranked: The 50 best books of the past 100 years — do you agree? (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

A long run …

… once upon a time : Brusha, brusha, brusha.

Listen in …

 Episode 499 – Hayley Campbell.

Somehing to think on …

It is wrong to have an ideal view of the world. That's where the mischief starts. That's where everything starts unravelling.
— V. S. Naipaul, born on this date in 1932

Down on the farm …

… once upon a time : Animal Farm remains relevant even now.

Surfing …

… Lev Mak Looks Back from Venice Beach.  (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Word of the Day …

… Bel-Esprit | Word Genius.

Tuesday, August 16, 2022

A little bit of history …

The European Climate Megadrought – Which Happened 482 Years Ago.

In case you wondered …

… Why Americans are increasingly dubious about going to college..

… while the pandemic certainly made things worse, the downturn took hold well before it started. Demographics alone cannot explain the scale of this drop. And statistics belie the argument that recent  high school graduates are getting jobs instead of going to college: Workforce participation for 16- to 24-year-olds is lower than it wasbefore Covid hit, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, or BLS, reports.

Maybe it has something to do with today’s colleges and universities  not being worth attending. Oh, you get credentials, but you don’t really know much.

Warnings …

… once upon a time : We were warned against electing someone like FDR.

Talk about conspiracy theory …

… The Extremist Gun Culture Trying to Co-Opt the Rosary - The Atlantic.

They don’t want rosaries to get into the hands of Catholics who oppose abortion.

Well, I say the rosary every day and I also oppose abortion.  But I’m not planning to assault anybody.


 

Pond and pages …

… once upon a time : Frog animated in color, and sports illustrated on paper.

Something to think on …

Intellectuals say simple things in difficult ways. Artists say difficult things in simple ways.
— Charles Bukowski, born on this date in 1920

Finale …

… Paul Davis On Crime: Get Saul: AMC Crime Drama 'Better Call Saul' Comes To An End.

Word of the Day …

… Coruscate | Word Genius.

Monday, August 15, 2022

RIP …

Died: Frederick Buechner, Popular Christian ‘Writer’s Writer’ and ‘Minister’s Minister’. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

The answer, he said, was simply this: “Listen to your life.”

See also: A Shelf Called Remember: How Frederick Buechner Built Up My Faith.

When I started reading, what caught my attention was a serious Christian who seemed to see what I could feel but couldn’t really articulate: that life is a mystery, a mystery that’s a plotline, a plotline that connects us with the story of Jesus.

These stories, he wrote, “meet as well as diverge, our stories and his, and even when they diverge, it is his they diverge from, so that even by his absence as well as by his presence in our lives, we know who he is and who we are and who we are not.”


(Hat tip, Dave Lull.)





This is important …

 

… the finest words of all, demonstrating how morbid it all was, came from a man dead for 10 years. In the first rounds of the fatwa, Christopher Hitchens had tirelessly stumped for Rushdie. Now, in this latest, unexpected round, Hitchens was summoned from his grave. All weekend, videos of him defending Rushdie were shared, videos where Hitchens spoke with an unimaginable frankness, videos where he spoke with more force, more intelligence, and more authority than anybody alive today.

Blogging note …

 I have to head out shortly to Wills Eye Hospital to see about the state of my cataracts. Will resume blogging sometime later.

Lots of medals …

… once upon a time : Remembering a bright moment during the dark days.

Follow the yellow brick road …

… once upon a time : We were off to see the Wizard and the Beatles.

Word of the Day …

… Errant | Word Genius.

Saturday, August 13, 2022

Sounds good to me …

Defund the FBI.

Did we say defund? Yes. But we don’t mean simply to cut its funding, as leftists have disastrously proposed for police forces across the country. We mean tear down the entire rotting edifice of the FBI and replacing it with a new agency that respects the Constitution and holds itself accountable to all Americans, not just the woke far left.

I don’t know when the FBI decided to be our version of the KGB, but I don’t like it and want something done about it.

Doubtful attribution

Mark Twain should have said, “Don’t quote me on that.”

Dangerous water …

… Zealotry of Guerin: Poetry and Fiction by Christopher Guerin: DAM.

Listen in …

… Dana Gioia on Christianity and Poetry | R. R. Reno | First Things. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.7

Editor R. R. Reno is joined by Dana Gioia to talk about his article from the August/September issue, “Christianity and Poetr.

Something to think on …

You cannot imagine at all how much you interest God; He is interested in you as if there were no one else on earth.
— Julien Green, who died on this date in 1998

Unhappy anniversary …

… once upon a time : Colonial forces defeated at sea in 1779.

Word of the Day …

… Isopolity | Word Genius.

Friday, August 12, 2022

Let us pray …

Salman Rushdie is on ventilator and may lose an eye after attack, agent says – latest updates.

Cave exploration …

… once upon a time : Where the Adventures of Mark Twain Began.

Cause for gratitude …

… once upon a time : Remembering David McCullough and The American Spiri.

If you're in London...

 ...Check out this year's Design Festival

Philly’s Soros DA …

… Krasner's Eviction Of Reporter Unprecedented & Unconstitutional | Big Trial | Philadelphia Trial Blog. (Hat tip, Paul Davis.)

"Krasner is engaging in unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination against you," wrote Mark Zecca, a former senior attorney in city of Philadelphia's Law Department. 

In case you wondered …

… Here’s Why John Updike Designed His Own Book Covers(Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Updike was deeply invested in the form his words would take. In a speech accepting the National Book Foundation medal, he described the dizzy happiness of seeing his words in print and credited Harry Ford, the designer of his first novel, The Poorhouse Fair, for the “delicious striped jacket and an elegant page format, in the typeface called Janson, that I have stuck with for over forty books since.” 

Something to think on …

Faith is not belief. Belief is passive. Faith is active.
— Edith Hamilton, born on this date in 1867

God-given …

… once upon a time : Belief in those rights that are inalienable or unchangeable.

Word of the Day …

… Anthropoglot | Word Genius.

Thursday, August 11, 2022

One patriot on another …

… once upon a time : David McCullough on the life of patriot John Adams

Appreciation …

… The Poetic Life of Samuel Menashe - The Millions (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

In his later years, Menashe sometimes seemed rueful about his lack of recognition, even as he marveled over his long overdue accolades and the legacy they granted to his work. In a 2005 interview with Adam Travis of the Poetry Foundation, he said that his had been “the opposite of a life buttressed by grants and having a publisher and going to him every few years with new poems. Each time I’ve had to start from scratch.” When asked if there were any merits to obscurity, his reply could not have been more emphatic: “NO! No, no, no, no, no! You want your work to be read. Obscurity means you’re not read.”

Word of the Day …

 Silt | Word Genius.

Something to think on …

… The roots of art and play lie very close together.
— Angus Wilson, born on this date in 1913

Just joking …

POTUS announces, “We begin bombing in five minutes.”

Wednesday, August 10, 2022

A masterpiece …

… Layers of Blankets by Doug Holder | North of Oxford. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)

What a poem..

When we got our start …

… once upon a time : News reaches London about American independence.

Words of wisdom …

… Paul Davis On Crime: Hemingway On Listening.

What might have been …

… Archive Dive with the Superior Telegram: How a Superior woman almost built a Frank Lloyd Wright house on Apple Podcasts. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Aliases …

… Sergeant Fathom tried but discarded in favor of 12 feet.

Something to think on …

What is philosophy for the Catholic but the way intelligence lives its faith?
— Don Colacho

Anniversary …

Candid Camera — the debut of a television.

Blogging note …

 I have a lot to do today. So blogging will be light..

Word of the Day …

…  Contradistinction | Word Genius.

Tuesday, August 09, 2022

August Poetry at North of Oxford …

 … The Abalone Hunt by Emily Bilman.

… from Decarceration by Charline Lambert, translated from the French by John Taylor.

… Two Poems by Mark B. Hamilton.

… The Harpist Jonel Abellanosa.

… Layers of Blankets by Doug Holder.

But you knew this, right?

… Political Experts Aren't Really Experts | RealClearScience.

Well, where was Luther from …

Germany’s “Synodal Path” Takes the Church Toward Disaster.

Since the Second Vatican Council, so much been done in an attempt to “bring the Church closer to the faithful.” In the process, the progressivists strip Holy Mother Church of everything that could represent sacredness and hierarchy

Appreciation …

Pittsburgh native David McCullough remembered as ‘guiding light’ for preserving Western Pa. history.

Coming to the big screen …

… James Marsh to Direct Samuel Beckett Biopic 'Dance First' - Variety. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Titled after Beckett’s famous ethos on life “Dance first, think later,” the film is a sweeping account of the life of this icon of 20th-century literature.

Something to think on …

Poetry should begin with emotion in the poet, and end with the same emotion in the reader. The poem is simply the instrument of transference.
— Philip Larkin, born on this date in 1922

Grace and illness …

Flannery O’Connor and a Little Girl Named Mary Ann.

Viator | Word Genius

… Viator | Word Genius.

Sunday, August 07, 2022

RIP …

… Judith Durham, Australian folk icon who sang Georgy Girl, dies at 79 | EW.com.

Good to know …

… Contrary To The Conventional Wisdom, Data Shows Christianity Is NOT Disappearing From America - HillFaith.

“The research has shown that Gen Z is one of the least Christian [generations] … It does raise questions as to, ‘is there a real relationship between the amount of religious identification and the mental health problems that we see in Gen Z?’ And of course there’s a whole host of other factors, but from my perspective and spiritual understanding, I would say there is certainly a significant relationship there.”