… Phantom Captain by Kim Rosenfield.
… Yellow Brick Pilgrim by Joseph Farley.
Thursday, November 30, 2023
Something you probably didn’t know…
… How American Librarians Helped Defeat the Nazis - JSTOR Daily. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I sure didn’t know it.
Something to think on …
Live every day as your last, because one of these days, it will be.
— Jonathan Swift, born on this date in 1667
Wednesday, November 29, 2023
Raising doubts …
… With Good Intentions? The Myth of Progress | Reading Freely. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
In case you wondered …
… Who Doesn’t Like Music? Nabokov, For Starters (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
… there are people who don’t get on with music even though they’re not deaf, stupid or ignorant.
Something to think on …
You don't have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body.
— C. S. Lewis, born on this date in 1898
A fresh look …
… (14) Like a windowpane - by Dan Hitchens - The Pineapple. (Har tip, Dave Lull.)
The myth of Orwell’s plain style
Tuesday, November 28, 2023
Something to think on …
The works of the great artists are silent books of eternal truths.
— Stefan Zweig, born on this date in 1881
Monday, November 27, 2023
Good question …
… George Floyd's death led to a racial reckoning -- Where's the antisemitism reckoning?
Compare the response to George Floyd’s death with what happened when a pro-Palestinian demonstrator, Loay Abdelfattah Alnaji allegedly murdered a Jewish man, Paul Kessler.
Yeah, that’s the way it is …
… On Aging. (Hat tip, Dave lull.)
Old age is a slippery slope, but if you enjoyed sledding as a kid and improvising ever since, it shouldn’t be degrading. A pile of books-on-tape or unread magazines, a dog learning that its once-wise owner, huffing and puffing, has become worryingly fallible. No more “bearding the lion,” so to speak; we’re in survival mode, our eyes with crow’s-feet around them from squinting. Old age is not for sissies, the saying goes, though sissies undergo it. Passively, however, there are rewards, like no alarm clocks and the precedence given when traveling. Young folk feign curiosity asking about family history. Dozing off is forgiven and often a pleasure, and bores aren’t insulted.
Do we still need novels …
… Catching a Cloud. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
There is no denying the loss of cultural salience of the book in our world. The evidence is everywhere. When I travel on the Paris Metro, for example, I look around me to see who is reading a book: to which the answer is, usually, no one. By contrast, it is not unusual—in fact it is usual—to be surrounded by ten or even twenty people all to a man or woman glued ocularly to their telephone screens.
Flawed but impressive …
… The enormous humility of C.S. Lewis - The Spectator World. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
There is a certain coarseness to Lewis which the experience of falling in love chastened
Something to think on …
Killing time is not murder, it is suicide.
— Charles A. Beard, born on this date in 1874
Sunday, November 26, 2023
In case you wondered …
… What Makes Hamas Worse Than the Nazis.
… the Hamas killers 80 years later attached GoPro cameras to their helmets so they could livestream their atrocities over social media. Although the Nazis burnt Jews alive in barns on their retreat in 1945, they did not film themselves doing it. There are plenty of photographs of Nazis standing around death-pits full of Jewish corpses, but these were taken for private delectation rather than public consumption.
Something to think on …
Explanation separates us from astonishment, which is the only gateway to the incomprehensible.
— Eugène Ionesco, born on this date in 1909
Confronting the end …
… The Graces of Death and Nature | The Russell Kirk Center. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Saturday, November 25, 2023
Snapshots …
V
Nothing wrong with changing the subject,
Especially if it’s back to the original one.
We’re meant to harness and mount
Thought, not be trampled
Or dragged through the dust,
The choking cloud of plausibility.
And when we figure something
Out, we had better giddy up
Not just sit there.
Something to think on …
Security depends not so much upon how much you have, as upon how much you can do without.
— Joseph Wood Krutch, born on this date in 1893
Friday, November 24, 2023
Snapshots …
IV
He kicked a stone along the sidewalk
For a bit this afternoon, while walking back
From Center City, where he went looking
For a book, which he found, but found as well
He didn’t just now want after all, which is not to say
The trip was a waste of time, since
He did, in the end, get a kick out of it.He kicked a stone along the sidewalk
For a bit this afternoon, while walking back
From Center City, where he went looking
For a book, which he found, but found as well
He didn’t just now want after all, which is not to say
The trip was a waste of time, since
He did, in the end, get a kick out of it
What the hell …
… is going on in this country? WATCH: Latest Brigade of Suspicious Nazis Appears in Madison
Sorry. I have no tolerance fot neo-Nazis. Of course, I’m so old, I remember World War II.
Yes, indeed …
… Campus Reform | PROF GIORDANO: Revamp education to stop the cultural rot.
It is embarrassing that America ranks 25th in education in the world. As states like New York and Oregon redefine and/or eliminateproficiency standards, this decline will accelerate. With our public schools producing a lower-quality student body, our global university rankings continue to decline as they lower standards in response to students’ capabilities.
Recent college grads I have encountered have seemed remarkably ignorant — though they sure had some firm ideological beliefs.
Something to think on …
The duel between Christianity and atheism is the most important in the world, and the struggle between individualism and collectivism is the same struggle reproduced on another level.
— William F. Buckley Jr., born on this date in 1925
Thursday, November 23, 2023
Very good advice …
… (14) More big ideas for reforming higher ed - by Greg Lukianoff.
… I recommended an insistence that students and administrators alike are aware that shout-downs, disruptions of events, and mob censorship will not be tolerated. Every time there is a shout-down, a de-platforming, or a canceling on campus, the school needs to do an investigation asking two questions: Did administrators do anything to stop it? Did administrators do anything to encourage it? Failing at the first should get an administrator in trouble. Failing at the second should get them fired. Donors, with their immense power and influence, can do a lot on these fronts.
Something to think on …
Art is always the replacement of indifference by attention.
— Guy Davenport, born on this date in 1927
A. poem …
Observation
Now and then one needs a bit of chaos,
Even when grown old, perhaps then
Most of all, end time nearing, though questions
Still can be answered. Things seem so strange now,
The way they did, most likely, at the start.
In between, he’d acted like he had a clue.
Now he knows he never did, and sure
In hell doesn’t have one now. Little’s left
To happen, but something could prove momentous.
These days, brushing his hair, paying attention
To each stroke, he drifted into feeling
Without words, and simply was, alive
Past comprehension. That was the hard part:
Just saying yes. Leaping into being.
Wednesday, November 22, 2023
Blogging note …
I am about to take off for a visit to my dear wife, who is currently in a nursing home. Blogging will have tomtake a back seat for awhile.
Something to think on …
Wear a smile and have friends; wear a scowl and have wrinkles.
— George Eliot, born on this date in 1819
Tuesday, November 21, 2023
People pay lots of money to get this dumb?
. "Demeaning to Palestinians to imply that 'violence against human beings is bad.'"
I’m so dumb I thought violence against human beings is usually quite bad. And decapitating babies is especially bad. Here’ s my suggestion: Shut down the Ivy League for good and all. Anti-Semitic bastards. I’m not Jewish. I’m Catholic. But I’m old enough to remember a guy named Hitler.
Something to think on …
Life is God's novel. Let him write it.
— Isaac Bashevis Singer, born on this date in 1903
Snapshots …
III
Walking home the other night
A whiff of mown grass
Sped him in a moment elsewhere
Only for a moment
Years past.
A poem …
The Miracle of Breathing
By Jennifer Knox
Behold the miracle of breathing.
The bliss of nearly sleeping, dappled vision,
Spinning amongst carnations, lilies, and roses,
Remembering beloved faces of children.
She can't see, but imagines clouds above
Of sun-drenched apricot, ecstatic birds
Flying together above it all.
A heart can dream, even when it's in shards.
The food is not good, but somewhere there is love —
A family waiting for her to come home,
And meanwhile the miracle of breathing
Serves as the last bastion of joy.
“She's unresponsive.” Her hand feels more like a claw.
“Shall we turn off the machines and let her die?”
Monday, November 20, 2023
Something to think on …
The ways of Providence cannot be reasoned out by the finite mind ... I cannot fathom them, yet seeking to know them is the most satisfying thing in all the world.
— Selma Lagerlòf, born on this date in 1858
Anniversary …
… Revisiting Gettysburg - The Spectator World. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
The Ultima Thule of Gettysburg fandom is embodied in a Pittsburgh man who has amassed a stupendous collection of its props and costumes and who says that he has seen the movie (which in its briefest version runs 254 minutes) an astounding 3,000 times — a claim reminiscent of Wilt Chamberlain’s boast that he had conjugated with 20,000 women. One may admire the dedication of both men but…really?
The actual anniversary was yesrpterday.
RIP …
… AS Byatt obituary | Fiction | The Guardian.
I introduced Antonia at the Library a couple of times, and we had dinner together a couple of times She was a delightful person. Eternal rest grant unto her O Lord.
Sunday, November 19, 2023
Sad anniversary …
… JFK Was a Martyr of the Cold War | City Journal.
John F. Kennedy was murdered by a Communist in an age of superpower tensions—but 60 years later, a counterfactual mythology continues to mislead Americans.
In case you wondered …
… What a Work of Fiction is For - The Reading Experience. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Something to think on …
Poets are mysterious, but a poet when all is said is not much more mysterious than a banker.
— Allen Tate, born on this date in 1899
Snapshots …
Ii
The poem he was looking to write was one
Somebody who had never met him
Could take as an introduction
Saturday, November 18, 2023
Something to think on …
In each of us there dwells a mystery, and that mystery is the human personality.
— Jacques Maritain, born on this date in 1883
Friday, November 17, 2023
Snapshots …
I
Habit makes things you don’t want to do
So easy you do them anyway all the time.
It’s like finding out very late
You’ve taken a wrong turn
And must go a long way back
Before you can even start
Heading for home.
Sounds interesting
… Off the Beaten Path with County Highway - Front Porch Republic:. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
You can imagine the brainstorming for County Highway: “Remember when Rolling Stone was cool?” “Remember when you could say whatever you want, like the early days of National Lampoon magazine?”
Something to think on …
The main objection to killing people as a punishment...is that killing people is wrong.
— Auberon Waugh, born on this date in 1939
Thursday, November 16, 2023
A poem …
- For Dandelion Seeds
- By Jennifer Knox
Dandelion seed puffball you are mine.
Ghostly halo of love's beauty, you are
Like my love limed in moonlight when he comes,
When all is silvery shivers blown away.
Dandelion seed puffball you are mine.
Both of us used to mirror the sun.
Now being a shadow of what once was,
Silvery as the mirror of my love.
Dandelion seed puffball you are mine.
Blessed with wishes for the offering to abound
A dark listening mansion in my dreams
With a table set for loves long lost.
Someday they'll say: “When she grew old her hair grew dandelion gray,
As if her every wish could catch the wind and fly away.”
Blogging note …
I am about to take off for a visit to Debbie. That takes priority over blogging. Back later.
Something to think on …
Is there really someone who, searching for a group of wise and sensitive persons to regulate him for his own good, would choose that group of people that constitute the membership of both houses of Congress?
— Robert Nozick, born on this date in 1938
And the winners are …
… 25 Winning Photos from The 2023 Nature Conservancy Photo Contest. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden .)
Remembering …
… A poem by Anne Sexton on her 105th birthday | San Diego Reader. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden]
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