Wednesday, September 21, 2016
Tuesday, September 20, 2016
Hanging with ignoramuses …
… Feature: Life Among the Thought Leaders. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
The rest of the evening was given over to discussion. Our salon brought back memories of the film courses I took in college. Some people argued that if the scenario in the film happened in real life the world would be more violent. Some said the opposite was the case. Others complained that the film was misogynistic. Others said it was not. Some called the film “sad.” Some insisted it was “hopeful.” A gentleman in the back row confusingly referred to Children of Men as “propaganda,” on behalf of what government or cause I could not say. No one mentioned religion except Fukuyama.These are people who think in categories.
Ho-hum …
… The Trouble with Sombreros by Francine Prose | NYR Daily | The New York Review of Books. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
For many Mexicans, the sombrero (now worn almost exclusively as a costume accessory by mariachis) perpetuates the myth of the backward, old-fashioned campesino, a throwback to an earlier century, chattering away in the heavily-accented, high-pitched, rapid-fire rhythms of Speedy Gonzales, the cartoon mouse, in his big yellow sombrero. In the past one more often saw—painted on dinner plates and tourist knick-nacks, embroidered on felt jackets—a caricature of a Mexican peasant dozing off, drunk or just lazy, leaning against a cactus, his face obscured by an enormous sombrero.
For many Mexicans. Not sure how many. And no matter. They're the ones we have to cater to, not those others who sensibly don't give a damn. I'll bet I know more Mexicans than Francine Prose does. She should come visit my neighborhood sometime. She was, by the way, one of those who protested giving a PEN award to Charlie Hebdo.
Underrated poet …
… Solitary Praxis: Henry Wadsworth Longellow's first published poem.
I reviewed a biography of Longfellow some years back. Among other things, he was a genuinely good man.
Something to think on …
I think in order to move forward into the future, you need to know where you've been.
— Charles Williams, born on this date in 1886
RIP …
… D. Keith Mano, Author Whose Focus Was Christianity, Dies at 74 - The New York Times. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Monday, September 19, 2016
I had no idea …
… who the greatest living author was: Reluctant Habits | a cultural forum in ever-shifting standing.
Strange and brilliant …
… On the Poetry of Kathleen Hart: Everything that Rises Must Converge | Catholic World Report - Global Church news and views. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Hart, as she writes of herself in these poems, is someone with a keen sense of how fragile the unity of ourselves is. But rather than writing a poetry that merely confesses the wounding of falling apart, she draws on that experience in order to perceive with special acuity something that is true not just about her but about all of us and about the world. If all things in nature are borrowings of disparate elements drawn together in often delicate unities, where the whole may be greater than the sum of its parts, but the parts remain visible nonetheless, then Hart, as someone with a sense of how things fall apart, is especially positioned to celebrate their uncanny coming together in the first place.
Hear, hear …
… Solitary Praxis: "To Autumn" by John Keats.
I usually say that Keats is the second-greatest poet in English, reserving first place for venerable Will.
But if you're talking strictly lyric poetry, Keats is the master of words as music. And a lovable figure to boot. The recent film about him, Bright Star, is worth seeing.
I usually say that Keats is the second-greatest poet in English, reserving first place for venerable Will.
But if you're talking strictly lyric poetry, Keats is the master of words as music. And a lovable figure to boot. The recent film about him, Bright Star, is worth seeing.
Virtually lost …
… Andrew Sullivan: My Distraction Sickness — and Yours. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Eliot discerned this decades ago:
Here is a place of disaffection
Time before and time after
In a dim light: neither daylight
Investing form with lucid stillness
Turning shadow into transient beauty
Wtih slow rotation suggesting permanence
Nor darkness to purify the soul
Emptying the sensual with deprivation
Cleansing affection from the temporal.
Neither plentitude nor vacancy. Only a flicker
Over the strained time-ridden faces
Distracted from distraction by distraction
Filled with fancies and empty of meaning
Tumid apathy with no concentration
Men and bits of paper, whirled by the cold wind
That blows before and after time,
Wind in and out of unwholesome lungs
Time before and time after.
Eructation of unhealthy souls
Into the faded air, the torpid
Driven on the wind that sweeps the gloomy hills of London,
Hampstead and Clerkenwell, Campden and Putney,
Highgate, Primrose and Ludgate. Not here
Not here the darkness, in this twittering world.
Eliot discerned this decades ago:
Here is a place of disaffection
Time before and time after
In a dim light: neither daylight
Investing form with lucid stillness
Turning shadow into transient beauty
Wtih slow rotation suggesting permanence
Nor darkness to purify the soul
Emptying the sensual with deprivation
Cleansing affection from the temporal.
Neither plentitude nor vacancy. Only a flicker
Over the strained time-ridden faces
Distracted from distraction by distraction
Filled with fancies and empty of meaning
Tumid apathy with no concentration
Men and bits of paper, whirled by the cold wind
That blows before and after time,
Wind in and out of unwholesome lungs
Time before and time after.
Eructation of unhealthy souls
Into the faded air, the torpid
Driven on the wind that sweeps the gloomy hills of London,
Hampstead and Clerkenwell, Campden and Putney,
Highgate, Primrose and Ludgate. Not here
Not here the darkness, in this twittering world.
Something to think on …
Novelists do not write as birds sing, by the push of nature. It is part of the job that there should be much routine and some daily stuff on the level of carpentry.
— William Golding, born on this date in 1911
Sunday, September 18, 2016
Hmm …
… Safe spaces are not the only threat to free speech | Timothy Garton Ash | Opinion | The Guardian.
Here, anyone who believes that free speech is vital to a university must draw the line. For what these student activists are claiming when they insist that, for example, Germaine Greer may not speak on a particular campus (because of her view that a woman is not “a man without a cock”), is that one group of students has the right to prevent another group of students hearing a speaker whom the second group actually wants to hear. Such no-platforming is, in effect, student-on-student censorship. It is an abuse of language to suggest that anyone can seriously be “unsafe” because someone whose views they find offensive or upsetting is speaking in a room on the other side of campus.
Mark thy calendar …
Green Line Café Open Reading - $50 in prizes for Best Poem 9/20
& 100 Thousand Poets For Change – The Philadelphia Reading 9/24
THE GREEN LINE CAFE
POETRY SERIES PRESENTS
AN OPEN POETRY READING
You will be given 3 minutes to read your poetry.
50 Dollars In Gift Certificates for Best Poem:
THE RONALD JOHNSON POETRY AWARD.
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2016, 7PM
HOSTED BY
LEONARD GONTAREK
Sign Up In Advance:
gontarek9@earthlink.net
THE GREEN LINE CAFE
45TH & LOCUST STREETS,
Philadelphia, PA
Across from Clark Park
http://greenlinecafe.com/
This Event Is Free
+
PEACE/WORKS,
POETRY IN COMMON,
& THE GREEN LINE CAFE
POETRY SERIES
PRESENT
100 THOUSAND POETS FOR CHANGE
- THE PHILADELPHIA POETS
POETS FOR CHANGE – West Philly, USA
Saturday, September 24, 2016 2-5 PM
S
This Is An Open Reading.
Each poet is invited to read poems
on a social or political issue. Your
poems and one poem BY SOMEONE ELSE.
5 Minutes.
Sign Up In Advance:
gontarek9@earthlink.net
(Please plan to attend the entire event.)
HOSTED BY
LEONARD GONTAREK
(Please note the address for this event
there are other Green Line Café locations.)
THE GREEN LINE CAFE
AT 43rd & Baltimore Avenue,
ACROSS FROM CLARK PARK
Philadelphia PA, USA
THE READING WILL BE HELD OUTDOORS
greenlinecafe.com
This Event Is Free
This reading is in participation with
100 Thousand Poets For Change –
Poets And Artists Worldwide
Unite For Peace And Justice
Visit their site here:
http://100tpc.org/
And on Facebook here:
https://www.facebook.com/
Lindens
So much sweetness –
the city’s been anesthetized;
a skinny boy, who barely
takes up space on earth,
and a dog,
and I, a soldier in an unseen war,
and a river I love.
The lindens bloom.
Adam Zagajewski
Coming Up:
October 18, 7PM
Autumn McClintock
Reading & Signing her debut book,
After the Creek
& 100 Thousand Poets For Change – The Philadelphia Reading 9/24
THE GREEN LINE CAFE
POETRY SERIES PRESENTS
AN OPEN POETRY READING
You will be given 3 minutes to read your poetry.
50 Dollars In Gift Certificates for Best Poem:
THE RONALD JOHNSON POETRY AWARD.
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2016, 7PM
HOSTED BY
LEONARD GONTAREK
Sign Up In Advance:
gontarek9@earthlink.net
THE GREEN LINE CAFE
45TH & LOCUST STREETS,
Philadelphia, PA
Across from Clark Park
http://greenlinecafe.com/
This Event Is Free
+
PEACE/WORKS,
POETRY IN COMMON,
& THE GREEN LINE CAFE
POETRY SERIES
PRESENT
100 THOUSAND POETS FOR CHANGE
- THE PHILADELPHIA POETS
POETS FOR CHANGE – West Philly, USA
Saturday, September 24, 2016 2-5 PM
S
This Is An Open Reading.
Each poet is invited to read poems
on a social or political issue. Your
poems and one poem BY SOMEONE ELSE.
5 Minutes.
Sign Up In Advance:
gontarek9@earthlink.net
(Please plan to attend the entire event.)
HOSTED BY
LEONARD GONTAREK
(Please note the address for this event
there are other Green Line Café locations.)
THE GREEN LINE CAFE
AT 43rd & Baltimore Avenue,
ACROSS FROM CLARK PARK
Philadelphia PA, USA
THE READING WILL BE HELD OUTDOORS
greenlinecafe.com
This Event Is Free
This reading is in participation with
100 Thousand Poets For Change –
Poets And Artists Worldwide
Unite For Peace And Justice
Visit their site here:
http://100tpc.org/
And on Facebook here:
https://www.facebook.com/
Lindens
So much sweetness –
the city’s been anesthetized;
a skinny boy, who barely
takes up space on earth,
and a dog,
and I, a soldier in an unseen war,
and a river I love.
The lindens bloom.
Adam Zagajewski
Coming Up:
October 18, 7PM
Autumn McClintock
Reading & Signing her debut book,
After the Creek
Dr. Johnson and his birthday …
… Anecdotal Evidence: `I May Live Better in the Time to Come'.
Next month, I will mark my 75th birthday. I suppose I will even celebrate. I don't feel quite for the alternative.
Next month, I will mark my 75th birthday. I suppose I will even celebrate. I don't feel quite for the alternative.
Birthday remembrance …
… Our Debt to Dr Johnson | History Today. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
For this we can be endlessly grateful because his more than 400 essays in the Rambler, Idler and Adventurer – psychological, literary, political, social, ethical, and religious – encourage us to take a good hard look at ourselves, to think who we are, how we are responding to the world around us, how we have arrived where we are and where we are heading.
Hear, hear …
… The Problem with Wanting to "Change the World" | Foundation for Economic Education.
I’m certain that there’s a great deal in the world that could be changed for the better. But I’m equally certain that no such beneficial change will be achieved by social-engineering performed by politicians and other government officials.The only contribution one make to improve the world is to present the world with a single improved unit — your improved self.
Lost and found …
… The long wait for F Scott Fitzgerald's 'lost stories' - BBC News. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Pop music, that is …
… Music Books: 100 Best of All-Time | Billboard. (Hat tip, Virginia Kerr.)
The Oliver Sacks book sounds interesting.
The Oliver Sacks book sounds interesting.
Something to think on …
The love of life is necessary to the vigorous prosecution of any undertaking.
— Samuel Johnson, born on this date in 1709
Saturday, September 17, 2016
Early Medieval Europe
Increasingly, I find myself moving backward in time: moving earlier in Europe's past. My most recent stop is the early medieval period - specifically the stretch between the fall of Rome in 410 and the Norman invasion of England in 1066.
To learn more, I picked up J. M. Wallace-Hadrill's Barbarian West, which provides an accessible, if at times dated, approached to the period.
I took away several points:
- While the fall of Rome was a profound event, it did not happen over night. In fact, Wallace-Hadrill argues that by the tenth century, Europeans across what are today France and Germany continued to imagine themselves as successors to Rome. In this way, the collapse of the empire extended for the better part of six centuries, with rulers fashioning themselves as inheritors to that golden age.
- It remains something of a mystery what precipitated the migration of the Huns west toward Europe in the fourth century. Regardless, the result was significant: the Goths (of what is now Germany) were awakened, and pushed, for the first time, toward Rome. Chaos ensued as mobilized groups of both Huns and Goths worked their way south and west. The empire never recovered.
- Wallace-Hadrill provides a compelling vision of the tenth century, especially: First, the notion of empire, he argues, had been exchanged for a local experience (of law, politics, and economics). Wallace-Hadrill writes, for instance, of local lords, and identifies the birth of feudalism with this final push away from Roman ideas of empire. Second, while individuals were organized according to local forces, nations nevertheless took shape. France emerged during this period as a coherent geographical space, ruled by a recognized king. That monarch had both civic and ecclesiastical power, a mixture with which Wallace-Hadrill associates the tenth century.
- No doubt, the introduction of Christianity into the early medieval landscape produced a complex set of results - none, perhaps, more profound than the dynamic confronting the crumbling Roman empire. Wallace-Hadrill provides a helpful juxtaposition: was the collapse of the empire to be seen as fate or as the withering of fortune? Was it the result of divine intervention or human folly? And further, if Christinaity was to be accepted, where did individual salvation fit into the mix?
- With marauding groups from the north and east encircling Rome, there might not have time to fully consider these questions, but they could not have been ignored. The answers, it seems, were delayed: indeed, as Wallace-Hadrill suggests, they didn't emerge until centuries later, when the feudal system finally replaced - for better or worse - the Roman system of rule. By this time, individual salvation was the name of the game.
Ongoing debate …
… ''Climate Fictions'': What Dr Amitav Ghosh from Brooklyn got wrong in his sweet but brief shout-out to the cli-fi community worldwide on page 43 of his new book.
See also: Book Review: Why don’t our writers take the climate crisis seriously? (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
See also: Book Review: Why don’t our writers take the climate crisis seriously? (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
It seems to me that by employing the phrase "climate change," all of these writers make plain that they don't understand climate to begin with. Climate is characterized by a non-linear dynamic, which is to say it is a state of continuous change, otherwise known as a chaotic system. So the only thing to do, if you don't want climate to change, is to do away with climate. But of course what is really being addressed is the hypothetical direction of the change climate may be taking. This has led to nonsense about curbing CO2, rather a difficult proposition, given that it is produced by all aerobic organisms.
But another question has to do with why this is such an important task for the writers of fiction. Since, whether anybody likes it or not, we really can't say for sure what the climate will be like decades hence, wouldn't fiction that weighed in on the global-warming debate (which is what it seems we are really talking about), amount to propaganda? And is that the direction fiction writers want to go in? The great thing about fiction is that it is made up. If you want to write a novel set in the future, you can give it any climate you want. And if you write a really good story with really interesting characters to go along with it, I might well read and enjoy it. But I'll get my actual science and policy data elsewhere, thank you.
Oh, and if the global warming catastrophe turns out not to happen, the books that hyped it will be forgotten.
Oh, and if the global warming catastrophe turns out not to happen, the books that hyped it will be forgotten.
Something to think on …
Glance at the sun. See the moon and stars. Gaze at the beauty of the green earth. Now think.
— Hildegard von Bingen, who died on this date in 1179
The way we are …
… The Devil and Whittaker Chambers | Francis P. Sempa | First Things. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Instead of destroying man by seducing him to do evil, the Devil’s strategy was to destroy man by seducing him through good. The best way to accomplish that was to send Hell underground, persuade man that Satan does not exist, and in the name of Science and Progress remove God from the center of creation and the universe. Without God, there was no absolute standard of conduct. What followed was the terror of the French Revolution; industrial oppression of men, women, and children; the horrors of communism; world wars and the use of science for greater destructiveness, culminating in atomic weapons. “I have brought man to the point of intellectual pride,” boasted the Devil, “where self-extermination lies within his power.”
Friday, September 16, 2016
Borrowed thoughts...
...Sure Signs of an Outsourced College Essay
Surprising that an admission officer would not have heard of Rabindranath Tagore.
Politics ancient and modern …
… The Iron Lady’s Courtiers - WSJ. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
… in the story of the “Senecans” is an affirmation of the importance of political discourse and, unfashionable as it is to say so today, even of the governing elite itself.Except that those comprising the governing elite these are unlikely to even know who Seneca was. They are not educated. They are merely credentialed.
Hmm …
… Do trees have brains? | Daily Mail Online.
If you spend a lot of time in the woods by yourself you will get a sense of a presence.
If you spend a lot of time in the woods by yourself you will get a sense of a presence.
Strolling with Miss Emily …
… Solitary Praxis: Walking home through the garden with Emily Dickinson via the Final Harvest.
The poem cited does indeed have a peculiar carpe diem ring to it.
The poem cited does indeed have a peculiar carpe diem ring to it.
Something to think on …
No history can be a faithful mirror. If it were, it would be as long and as dull as life itself. It must be a selection, and, being a selection, must inevitably be biased.
— T. E. Hulme, born on this date in 1883
Thursday, September 15, 2016
Pitch perfect …
… Lionel Shriver on dangerous 'fad' of cultural appropriation: full text. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Membership of a larger group is not an identity. Being Asian is not an identity. Being gay is not an identity. Being deaf, blind, or wheelchair-bound is not an identity, nor is being economically deprived.
If we embrace narrow group-based identities too fiercely, we cling to the very cages in which others would seek to trap us. We pigeonhole ourselves. We limit our own notion of who we are, and in presenting ourselves as one of a membership, a representative of our type, an ambassador of an amalgam, we ask not to be seen.
Hmm …
… Are literary judgments subjective? | Prospect Magazine. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
… admitting that there may be a subjective element to literary critical judgments does not entail that all such judgments are subjective, or entirely subjective. Literary judgments may be objective up to a point, but not beyond that point. The precise point where objectivity runs out would depend on the work in question. Accepting that there may be subjective patches in the field of literary criticism does not entail an acceptance that the whole endeavour is subjective and (therefore) pointless.
Obviously, if only science or mathematics can arrive at the truth, then there's no reason for putting anyone on trial for a crime, since guilt or innocence cannot really be determined scientifically in any strict sense. Regarding literature, there is certainly objectively bad writing. A plot can be demonstrably nonsensical (I give you The Da Vinci Code). It is in fact easy to demonstrate why a bad book is bad. But in some cases, not everyone will agree. I think Cormac McCarthy's The Road is objectively bad. Lots of people do not share my view. I think they are wrong. They think I am.
Anniversary …
… Solitary Praxis: Agatha Christie's birthday and books.
I think Dame Agatha summed up her appeal quite nicely: "I specialize in murders of quiet, domestic interest."
I think Dame Agatha summed up her appeal quite nicely: "I specialize in murders of quiet, domestic interest."
Coming into his own …
… John O’Hara: The Last Detail - Esquire Classic. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
O'Hara's star will continue to rise. My recommendation: Sermons and Soda-Water, a trio of novellas — especially fine is "Imagine Kissing Pete." Here's a piece I wrote on the occasion of O'Hara's centenary, which discusses Sermons and Soda-Water: O'Hara is Best ...
O'Hara's star will continue to rise. My recommendation: Sermons and Soda-Water, a trio of novellas — especially fine is "Imagine Kissing Pete." Here's a piece I wrote on the occasion of O'Hara's centenary, which discusses Sermons and Soda-Water: O'Hara is Best ...
History notes …
Hello again, history mate. Hope you've had a good summer. I'm excited that Embattled Freedom, my nonfiction book about a fugitive-slave enclave in Northeastern Pennsylvania, is on track for release by the end of the year. I'm in the midst of developing a related educational website, and soon hope to make advance book orders available. And I've already got one talk scheduled, in Scranton.
Meanwhile, here are two new history nuggets for your edification:
Something to think on …
One doesn't recognize the really important moments in one's life until it's too late.
— Agatha Christie , born on this date in 1890
Wednesday, September 14, 2016
Reductio ad absurdum
…Shirley Jackson’s Haunted Women - The Atlantic. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Shirley Jackson's works deserve better than to be used to illustrate contemporary idelogical points of dubious validity.
Shirley Jackson's works deserve better than to be used to illustrate contemporary idelogical points of dubious validity.
In case you mssed it …
… An ode to summer: Your reader-submitted photos (and a poem!).
The poem is by my friend and colleague John Timpane.
The poem is by my friend and colleague John Timpane.
Weigh in …
… Solitary Praxis: Solving the Mystery: why we read crime, detective, and mystery fiction.
Well, at the start of the Bible, a murder takes place. God solves that one.
The passage of time …
… Last Word: Prairie Romanesque | Commonweal Magazine. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Gee, I remember my wife and me sitting with Jody Bottum some years ago and talking about his little girl, Faith. Now, here I am, linking to a lovely piece Faith has written.
Gee, I remember my wife and me sitting with Jody Bottum some years ago and talking about his little girl, Faith. Now, here I am, linking to a lovely piece Faith has written.
Something to think on …
The real community of man is the community of those who seek the truth, of the potential knowers.
— Allan Bloom, born on this date in 1930
Tuesday, September 13, 2016
Arthur Rimbaud
I'll admit, I couldn't make much of Arthur Rimbaud's Illuminations.
On one hand, I suppose what I took from the collection was Rimbaud's skepticism of poetry, his desire to move beyond its pretense and scaffolding. I made this out clearly in two poems - The Bridges and Vigils - where Rimbaud undermines the poetic impulse by engaging in a sort of self-sabotage. In the former, he concludes with a cynical allusion to poetry's "theatricality," while in the latter, in Vigils, he crafts a vision of life and love - only to second guess himself and wonder: "Then it was only this?" He continues: "The dream cools."
I'm no expert on poetry - and my difficulty with Illuminations speaks, I think, to my frustration with it as a form. Still, there were moments in the collection where Rimbaud ascends to a higher plane, where he captures a timeless quality as well as a quality very much of his time. For me, that was the most interesting part of Illuminations: the time at which Rimbaud was writing - right around 1875. Europe had entered a period of peace, and of pronounced artistic experimentation. You can see that experimentation, especially, in Rimbaud: there are hints of everything that was to come next: Dadaism, Surrealism, Psychoanalysis...the list goes on.
But what I enjoyed most were those moments of beauty Rimbaud was able to weave: those moments - like in Phrases - where we he imagines a world reduced to nothing, but a world in which he still manages to find his love. There were other moments, too (like in Workers), where Rimbaud reaches for more, where he refuses to drag an image "behind him," opting instead to embrace a different "destiny."
Ultimately, I craved the moments most where Rimbaud trades the "suburban pastoral" for the emergent city, for what he calls "death without tears," the "mud of the street." Rimbaud does not always complete the trade, and it's often unclear what exactly he means in his poems dedicated to cities. But regardless, there's something there - and in 1875, on the cusp of modernity, it seems that Rimbaud both discovered and created (and in equal measure). The result is a difficult work, but one that rises to what was to come next.
"Live coals raining down gusts of frost -- Sweetness!"
...This is Rimbaud.
Blogging note …
I have a terribly busy day ahead of me. I have to leave momentarily and will not be back until maybe 9 tonight. I may be able to blog intermittently throughout the day. We shall see.
Speaking truth to provincials …
… the Literary Saloon at the complete review - Lionel Shriver and 'cultural appropriation'. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
That's our Lionel.
"I like saying things you’re not supposed to say."
That's our Lionel.
Monday, September 12, 2016
Hmm …
… Laurel S. Peterson op-ed: Of what use is poetry in the face of tragedy? - The Hour. (Hat tip, G. E. Reutter.)
I think it is wrong to approach poetry from a utilitarian perspective. Art, obviously, makes reference to life, but to regard it as a treatment for life's ills is to place upon it a burden it cannot bear.
I think it is wrong to approach poetry from a utilitarian perspective. Art, obviously, makes reference to life, but to regard it as a treatment for life's ills is to place upon it a burden it cannot bear.
And the winner is …
… Sharon Olds wins $100,000 Wallace Stevens poetry award | Books | The Guardian. (Hat tip, G. E. Reutter.)
What's your preference …
… Solitary Praxis: Emily Dickinson - "The Pedigree of Honey" - two versions.
I like them both, though the first is more mysterious.
I like them both, though the first is more mysterious.
Something to think on …
An idealist is one who, on noticing that roses smell better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup.
— H. L. Mencken, born on this date in 1880
Sunday, September 11, 2016
Hmm …
… Are your kids back in school? Time to apologize to them | Fox News.
As a parent myself, I literally apologized to each of my children—and not just once—for the fact that so much of their time as grade school and junior high school and high school students (even at private school) was being spent on memorization, regurgitation and rote learning that amounted to busy work and the warehousing of them, physically and mentally.Depends on what you're memorizing. Pretty hard to learn the times tables or Englsh orthography without memorization. And memorizing poems and reciting them is the best way to learn poetry. Actually, learning to use your memory is a good thing. And getting some facts and figures down by rote gives you something to think and talk about. And not everything that is useful to do is fun.
Hmm …
… Dolphins recorded having a conversation 'just like two people' for first time.
Methinks we would have to know the subject of their communication before jumping to any conclusion about how nearly it resembles human conversation.
Methinks we would have to know the subject of their communication before jumping to any conclusion about how nearly it resembles human conversation.
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