Tuesday, January 31, 2023

Poets and words …

 … Chasing the Ineffable. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

I make translation easier for myself by sticking mostly to poets writing in the mainstreams of their traditions. In most cases I can find scholarship and data bases that help to illuminate a word’s meanings, so my biggest frustrations occur with poetry that is more experimental.

Farewell …

… The last 747: Boeing workers reflect on an iconic plane like no other | The Seattle Times.

Wonderful …

… JazzProfiles: In Bloom Again With Blossom Dearie [From the Archives]. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

I met her once. One of the high points of my life. I had been a fan since her days on the Jack Paar show, the greatest late-night TV show ever.

Reviews revisited …

… beyond the bookmobile : 16 speculative journeys into a shocking future.

Something to think on …

Fundamentally a good author has his or her own sense of style. There is a natural, deep voice, and that voice is present from the first draft of a manuscript. When he or she elaborates on the initial manuscript, it continues to strengthen and simplify that natural, deep voice.
— Kenzaburō Õe, born on this date in 1935

Making things clear…

… Four Notes on the Gun Debate for the Reasonable.

Only a fool dismisses essential distinctions as pedantry. And if one is not willing to learn the elementary terminology of a debate, then one should  not presume to enter the debate.  One who does not understand such terms as abortifacientembryogamete, and viable should not enter the abortion debate, for example.

Upping the ante …

… things that matter : What sane person could ever use those damned things?.

Word of the Day …

… Corvine | Word Genius.

Monday, January 30, 2023

The genuine article …

… Can Philosophy be Debated? - by William F. Vallicella.

There is nothing adversarial  in a genuine philosophical conversation.  The person I am addressing and responding to is not my adversary but a co-inquirer.  In the ideal case there is between us a bond of friendship, a philiatic bond.  But this philiasubserves the eros of inquiry.  The philosopher's love of truth is erotic, in the root, not the sexual, sense of the term, the love of one who lacks for that which he lacks.  It is not the agapic love of one who knows and bestows his pearls of wisdom. God’s love is agapic; Socrates’ love of truth is erotic; Socrates’ love for his friends is philiatic.

This is a brilliant piece. This is philosophy as I learned it at a Jesuit college (long before the Jesuits went adrift). Getting together to inquire into the nature of things — which demands, of course, continual rehearsal.


Quite a correspondence …

… The Eliot–Hale Letters. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

This is a digital edition, free-to-access, of the complete surviving correspondence between T. S. Eliot (1888–1965) and Emily Hale (1891–1969)

Something to think on …

What his imagination is to the poet, facts are to the historian. His exercise of judgment comes in their selection, his art in their arrangement.
— Barbara Tuchman, born on this date in 1912

RIP …

Updated: Former CWR editor George Neumayr dies with malaria while in Africa.

Anniversary …

… things that matter : Impromptu performance broken up by London police.

Word of the Day …

… Tessellate | Word Genius.

Sunday, January 29, 2023

Mark thy calendar …

… Poetry Schedule February 1 to 15.

Tracking the decline …

… America’s war on words. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

“Killing two birds with one stone” and asserting “there’s more than one way to skin a cat” will consign you to the naughty step, as both expressions “normalize violence against animals.” Exclaiming “I killed it!” about your presentation at work is sure to make your mates blanch. (Whoops! The UK Home Office has banned the word “mate,” for reasons unexplained; perhaps white men found supremacist solidarity in the term.) Come now, “doing a good job should not be equated with death.” “Killing it” could “also be triggering if someone close to the recipient actually was killed.”

Which did not exist …

Thomas Jefferson ponders those Great Plains mammoths.

Lovely …

 … “A Lullaby” by Janet Lewis. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Something to think on …

True charity is the desire to be useful to others with no thought of recompense.
— Emanuel Swendenborg, born on this date in  1688

Just so you know …

… The jubilee year of Thérèse of Lisieux has just begun.

How time flies …

… things that matter : It has been three years, but it seems so much longer.

Word of tthe Day …

… Druthers | Word Genius.

Saturday, January 28, 2023

Worth remembering …

Introducing the “father of ecology and environmentalism.”

From the heart …

… When a Man is a Woman ... | by Julie Chovanes | Medium.

So true …

A Taste For God: De Lubac & Aquinas — Maureen Mullarkey. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

We’ve all encountered one …

Zealotry of Guerin: Poetry and Fiction by Christopher Guerin: Enigma.

Something to think on …

Sit down and put down everything that comes into your head and then you're a writer. But an author is one who can judge his own stuff's worth, without pity, and destroy most of it.
— Sidonie Gabrielle Colette, born on this date in 1873

Those were the days …

… things that matter : When filling your gas tank became a bit less stressful.

Word of the Day …

… Circumstellar | Word Genius.

Friday, January 27, 2023

God bless them …

French Embassy U.S. makes a hilarious mockery of the AP’s now-deleted style guide update.

Let’s not take another …

… things that matter : Taking another step closer to the apocalypse.

A grammarian opens up …

… A Q&A with Bryan Garner, "the least stuffy grammarian around" | OUPblog. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

I decided, quite consciously (though misguidedly), that if a big vocabulary impressed girls, I could excel at it as nobody ever had. By that time, my grandparents had given me Webster’s Second New International Dictionary, which for years had sat on a shelf in my room. I took it down and started scouring the pages for interesting, genuinely useful words. I didn’t want obsolete words. I wanted serviceable words and remarkable words. I resolved to copy out, by hand, 30 good ones per day—and to do it without fail.

The thrill of discovery …

… brave companions: Another detour introduces me to another great artist.

What crap …

Against Copyediting: Is It Time to Abolish the Department of Corrections? (Hat tip, Dave Lull.) 

It’s clear that copyediting as it’s typically practiced is a white supremacist project, that is, not only for the particular linguistic forms it favors and upholds, which belong to the cultures of whiteness and power, but for how it excludes or erases the voices and styles of those who don’t or won’t perform this culture. Beginning with an elementary school teacher’s red pen, and continuing with agents, publishers, and university faculty who on principle turn away work that arrives on their desk in unconventionally grammatical or imperfectly punctuated form, voices that don’t mimic dominance are muffled when they get to the page and also before they get there—as schools, publishers, and their henchmen entrench the idea that those writing outside convention are not writing “well,” and therefore ought not set their voices to paper at all.

This is called categorism. Instead of thinking of something on its own terms, you fit it into a category, in this case, I guess, so-called critical race theory. 

 

 

 

Me, too …

… things that matter : I thought this happened much earlier than 13 years ago.

Something to think on …

The hurrier I go, the behinder I get.
— Lewis Carroll, born on this date in 1832

Word of the Day …

… Stevedore | Word Genius.

Thursday, January 26, 2023

Embarrassing anniversary …

… things that matter : Some people really thought they could believe this guy.

Check this out …

 Photographer Catches the Rainbow-Prism Effect of Sunlight Passing Through Hummingbirds' Wings | Fstoppers. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)

Wow …

I met the oldest woman in the world—who shared her memories of Van Gogh in Arles. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.

Theoretically the young girl and the struggling artist could certainly have met, living as they did in the same town for 15 months in 1888-89. It was also quite plausible that Van Gogh patronised the family shop for canvas.

The power of imaginarion …

… reflections (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

If a writer’s aim be logical conviction, he must spare no logical pains, not merely to be understood, but to escape being misunderstood; where his object is to move by suggestion, to cause to imagine, then let him assail the soul of his reader as the wind assails an aeolian harp. If there be music in my reader, I would gladly wake it. Let fairytale of mine go for a firefly that now flashes, now is dark, but may flash again. Caught in a hand which does not love its kind, it will turn to an insignificant ugly thing, that can neither flash nor fly.

Side trip …

… brave companions: Taking a detour to meet the artist John Singer Sargent.

Some years ago, I saw Sargent’s great painting, Gassed.

Something to think on …

Forget the damned motor car and build the cities for lovers and friends.
— Lewis Mumford, who died on this date in 1990

Enthusiasm …

My reasons for rereading David McCullough’s 12 books.

Word of the Day …

… Emolument | Word Genius.

Wednesday, January 25, 2023

Wondrous …

O Child Beside The Waterfall by George Barker - Famous poems, famous poets. - All Poetry.

Q & A …

… Can Literature Provide Solace? by A. M. Juster and Stephen Edgar.

A fan’s notes …

 … My reasons for rereading David McCullough’s 12 books.

A first …

… things that matter : When we began watching something new on TV.

Something to think on …

What makes old age hard to bear is not the failing of one's faculties, mental and physical, but the burden of one's memories.
— W. Somerset Maugham, born on this date in 1874

Word of the Day …

… Ultroneous | Word Genius.

Just so you know …

… since our media is unlikely to tell you:

BREAKING: Secret Pope Benedict book is published blasting progressive Pope Francis, reveals US Catholic seminaries are havens of 'gay clubs' | The Post Millennial | thepostmillennial.com

Tuesday, January 24, 2023

Ah yes, I remember it well …

… A Podres Ode - BallNine.

Well worth ndering …

… Simone Weil in the Light of Plato

Inner purification and meditation, by which the soul "gathers herself together," are necessary for the philosopher's approach to the Real. The true philosopher aims at a separation of the soul from the body, and so must not fear death. We fear death because we love the body and its pleasures.

Something to think on …

There is nothing more marvelous or madder than real life.
— E. T. A. Hoffmann, born on this date in 1776

Great writer, and nice gy …

… The Vast Humanity of Anton Chekhov | The New Republic. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Bob Blaisdell’s new biography, Chekhov Becomes Chekhov, is absorbing, pleasurable, and as unaffected as its subject; and while describing Chekhov’s life through close readings of his multitudinous stories and correspondence over two years—1886 to 1887—he doesn’t simply (as the title promises) explain how Chekhov came to be Chekhov but rather how impossible it was for him to become anybody else.

Notable debut …

… Something personal goes on sale in U.S. in 1984.

Monday, January 23, 2023

Simply a masterpiece …

 …. Satin Doll, Duke Ellington.

A masterpiece …

Beloved, Let Us Once More Praise The Rain poem - Conrad Aiken.

Check this out …

 … Well worth reading.

Sounds pretty accurate to me …

…  THROUGH A COPYEDITOR’S EYES..

I was on The Inquirer copy desk for several years, and I was a copy editor of books for a good many years before that.

Many happy returns …

… Paul Davis On Crime: Happy 86th Birthday To Joseph Wambaugh, Former LAPD Detective Sergeant And The Author Of Classic Police Novels.

Something to think on …

If you know what you are going to write when you're writing a poem, it's going to be average.
— Derek Walcott, born on this date in 1930

Remembering …

… things that matter : North Korean Navy seizes U.S. Navy ship and crew.

Word of the Day …

… Swizzle | Word Genius.

Sunday, January 22, 2023

Worth considering …

The Real January 6 | Power Line.

The January 6th protest was milder than any of the hundreds of Black Lives Matter riots the summer before, and led to no serious destruction of Capitol artifacts. But the Democrats en masse pretended to be horrified. They denounced the protest as an “armed insurrection” and compared it to Pearl Harbor and 9/11 and other enemy attacks on the United States which resulted in thousands of deaths.


I don’t think the Democrats pretended to be “horrified’. I think they were worried that they had been found out and that many would disagree for various reasons.  This is what happens when those entrusted with managing government think that the top priority is their maintaining power by pandering to fashionable coteries.

Indeed …

… The Night Also Belongs to the Lord - The Stream.

The left is the deadly enemy of joy. This is why Adam Kinzinger recently made fun of Lauren Boebert for dancing. You can’t attain Utopia if people are dancing and skateboarding and gardening and racing mini-bikes and having keg parties; it’s much more important to police dance clubs and censor jokes

In case you wondered …

 … How to live without jargon and clichés. (Hatip, Dave Lull.)

Something to think on …

Growing old-it's not nice, but it's interesting.
—  August Strindberg, born on this date in 1849

Anniversary …

… things that matter : SCOTUS legalizes reproductive homicide.

Word of the Day …

… Andiron | Word Genius.

Saturday, January 21, 2023

Introduction …

… brave companions: This collection of essays is an introduction to much more.

These days …

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

Remembering…

… things that matter : Celebrating grandmothers, hugs, and Patsy Cline.

Something to think on …

The single fact of existing is already a true happiness.
— Blaise Cendrars, who died on this date in 1961

Hmm …

 … “The four-beat line is the soul of English poetry.“

In case you wondered …

…  Language Log — Why we all need subtitles now. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

A fine poet and likely a saint …

The Vow She Kept.  (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Sor Juana devoted herself to investigating as much as possible of this world while also serving the demands of the next.

Word of the Day …

… Circadian | Word Genius.

Friday, January 20, 2023

My town …

… Philadelphia's Kensington neighborhood looks like a scene from the WALKING DEAD | Daily Mail Online.

I started life not far from Kensington. My family used to shop there. I bought my first Classics Illustrated in the Woolworth’s there. A friend of mine some months drove me through. The place bore no resemblance to the place I remember. What a bunch of losers. Of course, our worthless DA is no help. 

 

Debut …

… Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Fiction: 'The Small Timer'.

At the movies back then …

Going to the movies on 1/20/50 — Gun Crazy.

A book to study …

 ‘THAT HIDEOUS STRENGTH,’ BY C. S. LEWIS. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Both the Greta Thunberg cult and N.I.C.E. are hostile to human procreation. Today’s progressives, though “sex-positive” in theory, in fact despise any human sexual activity that could produce natural offspring.

 Does anyone remember that Perelandra, the second volume of Lewis’s trilogy, was made into an opera by Donald Swann, one half of the comedy duo Flanders and Swann?

More here.

Quite a day …

… things that matter : Celebrating cheese, heroes, martyrs, and more.

Something to think on …

Kind hearts are the garden, kind thoughts are the roots, kind words are the blossoms, kind deeds are the fruit.
— John Ruskin, who died on this date in 1900

The way things looked …

… Lush Kodachrome Photos of Manhattan In The Early 1940s - Flashbak. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)

Word of the Day …

… Implacable | Word Genius.

Thursday, January 19, 2023

Mark thy calendar …

… 2nd Wednesdays Poetry at Northeast Regional Library- Philadelphia- February 8th | North of Oxford.

Anniversary …

… things that matter: Prolific author and SF master publishes his first novel.

Classics …

 10 Books Turning 100 This Year | New & Used Books From Thriftbooks.com. (Hat tip, Jon Caroulis.’

Ah, yes …

Poetry | National Review: Inertia, By A.M.  Juster. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

For your reading pleasure …

… Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Fiction: 'The Big Move'.

Hmm …

… Priest says he went to Hell, wouldn't wish it on his worst enemy - The Jerusalem Post

Johnson continued, adding that there is a section of Hell where music is played. He says he heard songs there like Rihanna's "Umbrella" and Bobby McFerrin's "Don't Worry Be Happy". Sounds nice, right? No. He said that it's not the original artists who sing the songs, but a group of demons that use the words to torture us. 

A masterpiece …

… The Poor You Have Always With You - Front Porch Republic. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

As the Word of God is “a red-hot iron,” men are inclined to pick it up with a pair of tongs, to hold it at a distance. Too many preachers end up “purring like a tabby cat” instead of “feeling the pain of it”—the wound of the Word that leaves us stripped of pretense, pulling groans for redemption from the bowels of our souls.

Something to think on …

A man is no less a slave because he is allowed to choose a new master once in a term of years.
— Lysander Spooner, born on this date in 1808

Travelin’ man …

… In Berlin with Germany's top publisher, and top literary agent.

Birthday …

… things that matter: One of the most fascinating figures in American literature.

Interesting …

… The Plate by Anthony Hecht | Poetry Magazine. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)

Anthony Hecht would have turned 100 on January 16  (my brother would have turned 89.

A clean world …

… Devoted to Perry Mason - The American Spectator | USA News and Politics. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Word of the Day …

… Effulgence | Word Genius.

Wednesday, January 18, 2023

A poem …

 Essences

For Linda

Gazing at the sky he wondered

If clouds were what they suggested

And only incidentally what they

Were made of. Ingredients of ink tell

Neither tale nor truth and one body’s much

The same as any other’s though nobody’s

Quite the same as anybody else.

What is real is the effect, not the cause,

The painting, not the pigment.


Well-deserved praise …

 Paul Johnson: Committed to Truth for Its Own Sake - The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

Marx’s own mother, I learned from Johnson, said she wished her freak show of a son “would accumulate some capital instead of just writing about it.” Moreover, the great historian informed us that Marx “never set foot in a mill, factory, mine or other industrial workplace in the whole of his life,” steadfastly abjured invitations to do so, and denounced fellow revolutionaries who did. He never let a fact or a glimmer of reality stem the flow of poison from his pen. He had no money because he refused to work for it, then cursed those who had it and didn’t share it with him

Congratulations …

… Bard College Professor Jenny Xie Awarded a 2023 Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship in Literature.

“I strive to create work that demonstrates the vital force unassimilated language can have, of the power and charge that can pulse through words when they behave differently, against rules and convention, and against forces that collude to render language more utilitarian, more homogenous, and free of nuance and rich complexity,” she writes.

Something to think on …

The less men think, the more they talk.
— Baron de Montesquieu, born on this date in 1689

Details …

… things that matter: On the birth of John Adams in Braintree, Massachusetts.

RIP …

… Jonathan Raban, travel writer and novelist, dies aged 80 | Jonathan Raban | The Guardian. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Dana Gioia is having a party – and you can come, too! Celebrate his sixth collection of poems on Feb. 16 ! (Hat tip, Dave Lull.))

Another day at the movies …

Most men have known at least one …

Word of the Day …

… Diaspora | Word Genius.

Tuesday, January 17, 2023

Hmm …

… Rise in middle-aged white 'deaths of despair' may be fueled by loss of religion, new research paper argues - MarketWatch.

Goals …

… And now it’s time for a few words from the late David McCullough (and a world-weary, curmudgeonly blogger)

Quite a haul …

… things that matter: How not to steal two millions dollars in seventeen minutes.

Something to think on …

Maybe we've been too silly to deserve a world like this.
— Nevil Shute, born on this date in 1899

Very nice …

Dawn Song by Dorothea Lasky..

RIP …

Ronald Blythe obituary | Science and nature books | The Guardian. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

The greatest saint of modern times …

… The jubilee year of Thérèse of Lisieux has just begun.

Word of the Day …

… Skookum | Word Genius.

Monday, January 16, 2023

May she rest in peace …

… Gina Lollobrigida, Italian film legend dubbed "the most beautiful woman in the world," dies at 95 - CBS News.

Martin Luther King, Jr., classicist …

… How Was MLK Inspired by the Classics.

What can we say, other than that he was a great man?

Begging to disagree …

things that matter: Some positives and negatives about Paul Johnson.

Naturally, the left-wing Guardian would take this position. Paul Johnson was a great writer and a great historian.

Interesting …

… Surprising Research Reveals Religion Is Not the Main Reason for Rejection of Evolution in Schools.


Also interesting is something Werner Heisenberg said: “I think that modern physics has definitely decided in favor of Plato. In fact the smallest units of matter are not physical objects in the ordinary sense; they are forms, ideas which can be expressed unambiguously only in mathematical language.”

So do many …

… I'm Sorry, I Do Love The Chosen | Stand Firm. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Dallas Jenkins making an eminantly watchable program about Jesus and his disciples. His source material is the biblical gospel accounts, with, by his own admission, lots of expert exegetical, doctrinal, and theological advice from various scholars. He draws on the Old Testament and tradition and then works out possible backstories and imaginative reckonings of Jesus’ ministry. As one person I like very much on Twitter put it, it’s basically “historical fiction” in that a lot of what is going on is straight out of the Bible, but then a lot of it isn’t as well.

Something to think on …

Creativity represents a miraculous coming together of the uninhibited energy of the child with its apparent opposite and enemy, the sense of order imposed on the disciplined adult intelligence.
— Norman Podhoretz, born on this date in 1930

Not your usual strike …

… things that matter: When the workers were just not cutting it in early 1946.

Somebody should tell them …

…  about the First Amendment: Video shows security booting man with ‘Jesus Saves’ shirt from Mall of America.

Word of the Day …

 Rhonchisonant | Word Genius.

Saturday, January 14, 2023

I’m so old …

…  i can rember this : “I can dream, can’t I?” goes to #1 on 1/14 in 1950.

Another must-read …

… The best of Paul Johnson - The Spectator World.

He was great historian and a great writer. His biography of Eisenhower is outstanding.

This is must reading …

… Global Warming: Questions that Need Distinguishing.

This is a wonderful demonstration that philosophy is grounded in asking the pertinent quedtions. 

Tracking the decline …

… Young sacrifice belief in God on altar of Satanism.

OK, I’m an old guy who had four years of sacred theology and studied Thomism (as well as existential phenomenology). But that at least gives me some grounds for thinking these people are ignorant. Try mysticism, folks.

Still cause for concern…

… The Integrity of Poetry by Micah Mattix | Articles | First Things. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

So where are we today, thirty years after Can Poetry Matter? We are still awash in mediocre verse. The only difference is that now people are reading it. Poets still write flat, fragmented verse to demonstrate they’ve learned the rules of the game and can now teach others those rules. Gioia rightly observed that this is ­poetry-as-a-means-to-an-end. But the ready-made and sloganeering work of the Instapoets is also poetry-as-a-means-to-an-end, though sometimes a more lucrative one. Political poems always run the risk of turning into propaganda, but the political language of Gorman’s poetry, for example, lacks the earnestness of even the worst kind of political poem. She doesn’t hope to change minds, only to profit from minds that are already changed.

Time for a smile …

Short poem: ‘Punster’. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Word of the Day …

… Subsume | Word Genius.

Hmm …

…. The Interval. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Newsy anniversary …

… things that matter: And now we return to our regularly scheduled programming.

Something to think on …

The world's becoming a museum of socialist failures.
— John Dos Passos, born on this date in 1896

Friday, January 13, 2023

A little worrisome …

… things that matter: Two things to share on Friday the 13th.

Hmm ~

… things that matter: Arranged in hierarchy according to the dignity of birth.

Plus ça change …

… The Integrity of Poetry by Micah Mattix | Articles | First Things. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

So where are we today, thirty years after Can Poetry Matter? We are still awash in mediocre verse. The only difference is that now people are reading it. Poets still write flat, fragmented verse to demonstrate they’ve learned the rules of the game and can now teach others those rules. Gioia rightly observed that this is ­poetry-as-a-means-to-an-end. But the ready-made and sloganeering work of the Instapoets is also poetry-as-a-means-to-an-end, though sometimes a more lucrative one. Political poems always run the risk of turning into propaganda, but the political language of Gorman’s poetry, for example, lacks the earnestness of even the worst kind of political poem. She doesn’t hope to change minds, only to profit from minds that are already changed.

Something to think on …

The separation of state and church must be complemented by the separation of state and science, that most recent, most aggressive, and most dogmatic religious institution.
— Paul Feyerabend, born on this date in 1924

Word of the Day …

… Phalanx | Word Genius.

Thursday, January 12, 2023

RIP …

 Paul Johnson, Prolific Historian Prized by Conservatives, Dies at 94 - The New York Times.

One of my favorite writers I will remember him in my prayers tonight.

Blogging note …

 I am inthe ER with Debbie, who is being checked our head injuries resulting fromfallf.

Hmm …

…  Words, Words, Words. (Hat tip, zdave Lull.)

The subtitle to Marche’s essay is: “The College Essay is Dead.” Perhaps because Marche no longer teaches, he does not realize that the obit is a bit late: the college essay died years ago. During my three decades of teaching at a public university, I have encountered a dwindling number of students who can write a declarative sentence, much less a clear thesis. Perhaps more important, they have no desire to learn how.

That Plato and Aristotle had reservations about writing is one thing. As it happens, writing has been around now for quite some time now and has given quite a few masterpieces. There is something to be for learning how to do it.

January Poetry at North of Oxford …

 … Three Poems by T.J. Masluk.

… Two Poems by Cameron Morse.

… September in the Meadow by Robert Milby.

… Purple Flowering Grief by Brian Builta.

Fallen hero …

… things that matter: Death of a patriot in Princeton (and other news).

Something to think on …

You look back and see how hard you worked and how poor you were, and how desperately anxious you were to succeed, and all you can remember is how happy you were.
— Jack London, born on this date in 1876

RIP …

… Charles Simic, Pulitzer prize-winning poet, dies at age 84 | Poetry | The Guardian.

He and I spent a very pleasant evening dining and tslking many years ago. 

Word of the Day …

… Harlequin | Word Genius.

Wednesday, January 11, 2023

Ah, yes …

… Poem by g emil reutter - oddball magazine.

So-called higher education …

… Award-winning immigrant professor loses faith in American higher education system | The College Fix.

The straw that broke the camel’s back for Svoronos came in 2020 after he reprimanded a student who came late to class, saying to her what he has said to many other aspiring med students: “a doctor who comes in late is called an undertaker.”

Distinctions …

… 'Spirituality' and 'Religion' - by William F. Vallicella.

I rather enjoy telling people that I am not spiritual, but religious.

Something to think on …

You may not get everything you dream about, but you will never get anything you don't dream about.
— William James, born on this date in 1842

Strange, but lovely …

… things that matter: He does not think that I haunt here nightly.

Wonder if she’ll head to Cuba …

… Paul Davis On Crime: Cuban Spy Ana Montes Released From Prison.

Word of the Day …

… Avouch | Word Genius.

Tuesday, January 10, 2023

Imagination matters …

 things that matter: Reading a poem while waiting for the hematologist.

There are enough of them …

… Simone Weil on False Gods - by William F. Vallicella.

Not as common as people think …

 things that matter: Common sense in the past and in the present.

Something to think on …

The heads of strong old age are beautiful beyond all grace of youth.
— Robinson Jeffers, born on this date in 1887

A poem …

 Now and Then


Circumstance, as usual, conducted

His affairs, flourishing life's ornaments.

So now, grown old, he finds himself, as years

Before, alone at times, and finds as well

He thinks as then, and sees how that is good.

He has not strayed too far: Usual birds

And garden, standard house plants, strolls still grand,

Though slower. God's about, and always has

Been. So he pays scant heed to time and deed

Once over. Here and now is where he means

To be, though here and now just now

Only draw him back, suspending tense,

Elsewhere and here conjoined in palimpsest —

Faded parchment, layered script — time in between

So long ago and now dissolving into somewhere

Once before, as if his mother were nearby,

Attaching her heart to flowers, vines, and thorns,

Allowing him to be what he's become.


Word of the Day …

… Venturesome | Word Genius.

Monday, January 09, 2023

Saturday, January 07, 2023

January Reviews at North of Oxford …

 … A Magician Among the Spirits by Charles Rammelkamp.

… Beyond Repair by J.C. Todd.

… Pacific Light by David Mason.

… A Summoning by Nicole McCarthy. 

… Portable Light- New and Selected Poems 1991-2021 by Mike James.

… Commonplace by Hugo Garcia Manríquez (trans. NAFTA).


They knew better …

… Riddle solved: Why was Roman concrete so durable? | MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

During the hot mixing process, the lime clasts develop a characteristically brittle nanoparticulate architecture, creating an easily fractured and reactive calcium source, which, as the team proposed, could provide a critical self-healing functionality. As soon as tiny cracks start to form within the concrete, they can preferentially travel through the high-surface-area lime clasts. This material can then react with water, creating a calcium-saturated solution, which can recrystallize as calcium carbonate and quickly fill the crack, or react with pozzolanic materials to further strengthen the composite material. These reactions take place spontaneously and therefore automatically heal the cracks before they spread. Previous support for this hypothesis was found through the examination of other Roman concrete samples that exhibited calcite-filled cracks.

Birthday anniversary …

… Anecdotal Evidence: 'Elegant in Its Hard Simplicity'. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

The war against stupidity …

… Of 'Blind Review' and Pandora's Box.

In the early '80s I attended an APA session organized by a group that called itself PANDORA: Philosophers Against the Nuclear Destruction of Rational Animals.  One of the weighty topics that came up at this particular meeting was the very name 'Pandora.'  Some argued that the name is sexist on the ground that it might remind someone of Pandora's Box, which of course has nothing to do with the characteristic female orifice, but in so reminding them might be taken as a slighting of that orifice.  ('Box' is crude slang for the orifice in question.)  I pointed out in the meeting that the name is just an acronym, and has nothing to do either with Pandora's Box or the characteristic female orifice.  My comment made no impression on the politically correct there assembled. 

At Earth’s edge …

… Zealotry of Guerin: Poetry and Fiction by Christopher Guerin: The Flammarion Engraving.

Something to think on

Mystery is the essence of divinity.
— Zora Neale Hurston, born on this date in 1891

The way things were …

… things that matter: POTUS tells world that U.S. has new nuclear weapon..

Word of the Day …

… Prink | Word Genius.

Friday, January 06, 2023

I never make them myself …

Nine literary New Year’s resolutions. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)

Most of these, though, I already do. Hey, I wasn’t born yesterday.

A wonderful story about a wonderful person …

… The Woman Who Abandoned a Successful Recording Career to Play Music for the Dying. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

This life story would be impressive under any circumstances, but especially so when you consider that Therese Schroeder-Sheker had a brilliantly successful career as a recording artist and concert hall performer. She could have spent her entire life as a music star, but instead put her primary focus on serving those in the most dire and hopeless situations.

Oddly, the only famous musicians I’ve got to know were mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves and tenor Luciano Pavarotti, both of whom turned out to be just nice people. Of course, Temple Painter, who was a world-famous harpsichordist, wax simply a dear friend. 


 

No easy journey …

Bertha Benz — the PR pioneer who introduced the world to the car. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Her problem was that Karl had no marketing sense. He had a perfectly workable car that should, by then, have been flooding the streets of Germany and beyond. Instead he just kept trying to make it better. It was as if Steve Jobs had gone all the way to the iPhone 10 before bothering to put his phone in the shops. 

In case you wondered …

… What Makes Poetry Christian by Andrew Frisardi. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

… Mattix rightly notes that Christian poetics asserts that a poem’s life is a sign of the higher creative principles at work in the world. So Christian poetry “is inherently double – both surface and depth, material and immaterial.” The poems in this book are accordingly multifaceted and stamped with the poets’ lives, from the psalm-like directness and fluid cadences of the late North Dakotan poet-farmer Timothy Murphy, to the unadorned Mennonite physicality of Pennsylvanian Julia Spicher Kasdorf, to Louisianan Jennifer Reeser’s blend of Anglo-American prosody with Native American prayer and song.