Sunday, April 12, 2020
Something to think on …
One rainy Sunday when I was in the third grade, I picked up a book to look at the pictures and discovered that even though I did not want to, I was reading. I have been a reader ever since.
— Beverly Cleary, who turns 104 today.
Saturday, April 11, 2020
Our stunning media …
… Media Falls For Fake News Claiming Colin Kaepernick Signed.
It’s the so-called information age, and these ninnies don’t pause to verify. Why does anyone take them seriously?
Who was that masked man?
… Paul Davis On Crime: Even James Bond is Prudent Enough To Wear A Face Mask.
I am myself not so prudent.
Serving Him in Whom we live and move and have our being …
… The Catholic Artist in a Neo-Pagan Age | Church Life Journal | University of Notre Dame. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
It is my argument that the Christian artist must implicitly begin, as Mariani insistently begins, in the interior self-knowledge that springs forth on the lips of the Christian as testimony, confession, martyrdom. But we have also to re-explain the age to itself, to re-teach it, that is, to trust in the capacity of reason to grasp the truth and to treat its wide ranging inquiries not as a collection of amusing baubles, but as clues to salvation. We have to re-teach the age to trust the light of being, already before its eyes, for only then may the transformative word of the cross make an entrance.[10] And so, Paul’s speech in the Areopagus is not failed rhetoric, but the very model of our rhetoric, re-awakening our auditor to what it already in some way knows and then, by bearing witness to the cross, deepening that knowledge, before at last fulfilling it with something categorically new, the revelation of the face of Christ.
Something to think on …
All will be lost apart from happiness.
— Jacques Prévert, who died on this date in 1977
Friday, April 10, 2020
Ah, yes …
… First Known When Lost: Another April.
One of my fondest memories is of driving near Soldiers Grove, WI, just when the apple orchards had blossomed. They looked as if they had been covered in snow.
From the top of the hill, I could see the cherry trees -- in peak white bloom -- lining both sides of the street that climbs the opposite slope. The slope, and the houses on it, were covered in sunlight. A rainbow suddenly appeared above the hill on the other side of the valley. Descending, I passed blooming cherry trees, and, here and there, tall magnolia trees full of large pink-white blossoms.
One of my fondest memories is of driving near Soldiers Grove, WI, just when the apple orchards had blossomed. They looked as if they had been covered in snow.
Anniversary …
… Evelyn Waugh, d. 10 April 1966, R.I.P. | The Evelyn Waugh Society. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
The mystery of being …
… An Annual of the Dark Physics by Norman Dubie | Poetry Foundation. (Hat tip, Virginia Kerr.)
Some cautionary thoughts …
… COVID. ‘With’ ‘Of’ or ‘Because of’ | Dr. Malcolm Kendrick. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
… if you spend all your healthcare resources trying to treat one thing, everything else will suffer, because resources are not infinite. At present we have virtually shut down the NHS to deal with COVID.
I was scheduled to have my semi-annual knee shots on March 18. I was already a month behind in getting them because of Debbie's being in the hospital in February. On March 17, I got a call telling me that my appointment had been canceled and that the sports medicine department would be effectively closed until further notice. The other day I wrote to ask if there was anyone else nearby who could administer the shots. Apparently not. Well, mine is not a life-threatening condition. Just an increasingly painful one. So I have more and more to offer up for the souls in Purgatory. But, as Her Majesty would say, we are not amused.
They need all the help they can get …
… For the Unseen; A Sonnet For Carers | Malcolm Guite. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I have discovered that there is no better antidote for pride than caregiving.
In case you wondered …
… Why does God allow disasters? The astonishing reason is love - Catholic Herald. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Religion’s most successful enemies are its successes. It’s obvious: just contrast the Church of the catacombs with the Church of the Borgia popes. Which of the Apostles was the richest? Judas Iscariot, the first Catholic bishop to accept a government grant. (His successors are getting considerably more than 30 pieces of silver today, and not throwing it back.)
One great poet reads another …
… All Love, All Beauty. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
All poetry commentary should be this good.
Exact identity is lost as love and beauty are lost except absolutely available at the same fuzzy moment. First Larkin goes to the trouble to create a rich moving picture; then he erases it, or at least erases the object of it, Kitty or Katy, then he claps on the two biggest abstractions in English poetry: love and beauty. And it works like a charm.
All poetry commentary should be this good.
Something to think on …
Rules and models destroy genius and art.
— William Hazlitt, born on this date in 1778
Thursday, April 09, 2020
Arrest the bastard …
… California Declares Independence From Trump's Coronavirus Plans - Bloomberg.
Put his ass behind bars and don't let him out until he passes a civics test. Grandstanding buffoon.
Master of cool …
… Elmore Leonard, Florida Man | CrimeReads. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Leonard later explained that his visits to see his mom showed him Florida’s potential as a crime novel setting.
“Visiting her, I found Miami a great locale,” Leonard told Rolling Stone. “The high crime rate, the contrast in people—rich retirees, Cubans, boat-lifters—all kinds of good things are going on there for me.”
A saint to remember …
… Lessons from History on the Coronavirus Pandemic – Catholic World Report.
The seminary of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia is named after him. Someone should remind the current Archbishop.
The ultimate admonishment was a call for the heroism of holiness: “Do not be so forgetful of your priesthood as to prefer a late death to a holy one.” With such a holy and heroic leader, the priests began to rally to his side and to the sides of the thousands of sick and dying Milanese. The secular priests were the first to rally but the Capuchins were perhaps the most heroic, devoting themselves to working with the afflicted souls in the leperhouse. Astonishingly, none of the Archbishop’s companions caught the plague and the only religious house stricken with it was one which held aloof, in spite of the Archbishop’s pleas, refusing to help. As for Charles’ own heroism, we have the testimony of a Capuchin, Brother James:
He often goes to the lazar house [i.e. leperhouse] to console the sick … into huts and private houses to speak to the sick and comfort them, as well as providing for all their needs. He fears nothing. It is useless to try and frighten him. It is true that he exposes himself much to danger but as so far he has been preserved by the special grace of God, he says he cannot do otherwise. Indeed the city has no other help and consolation.
The seminary of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia is named after him. Someone should remind the current Archbishop.
Something to think on …
A man's style should be like his dress. It should be as unobtrusive and should attract as little attention as possible.
— C. E. M. Joad, who died on this date in 1953
Wednesday, April 08, 2020
Hmm …
… Bible publishers reporting jump in sales amid coronavirus fears - The Christian Post. (Hat tip, Tim Davis.)
What an ass …
… Pope Says Virus Is Nature's Response to the Climate Crisis | News and Politics.
I wish he and others in the hierarchy had as much faith in the faith they profess as they have in fashionable opinion.
Elizabeth Bowen
I've just finished The Death of the Heart -- and frankly, I'm not sure what to say. This is a celebrated novel of the interwar period, and Bowen is herself regarded as one of the lasting stylists of the twentieth century.
Part of the challenge, for me, is exactly that: Bowen's style. I found Death to be a real challenge to read: Bowen's syntax is complex, meandering. It's not Victorian in its density, but it's not far from it. And there's the matter of her characters, too: again, for me, the drama depicted in Death unravels in a fashion that's so painfully bourgeois. None of these characters -- neither men nor women -- appear likable: even Portia Quayne, whose awakening serves as the foundation for the novel, appears needy and naive. If is she mistreated by family and friends, that mistreatment failed to generate a sense of sympathy or emotion. Indeed, I was not sure whether this amounted to mistreatment at all -- or whether was, instead, the normal course of life.
Ultimately, the question, I think, is whether young people -- around sixteen, say -- can experience a 'death of the heart.' Bowen seems to think this is possible, but I, again, have my doubts: certainly, they can experience profound emotions (and I would not seek to minimize or demean that). But to commit a novel of this length to what amounts to one or two moments of disappointment or confusion is trying. In the end, I found myself rooting for no one in particular: I simply wanted all of the thinking to end, and a more sensible version of life to emerge.
Thinking for herself …
… and saying as much: Jan Morris, at 93, meditates on what it means to be old | The Spectator. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
‘I am well past my sell-by date,’ she claims with a wink. But then, ‘humanity is hardening’, she adds, as she rages against ‘these cyber-days’ and the ‘disadvantages’ of old age. ‘Never get old!’ If old age was once a bit of a joke, ‘grist to a writer’s mill’, it is also a very serious business indeed. Elizabeth has developed dementia, and Morris recounts with blistering honesty her own clumsy reactions to dementia’s challenges. Often she is irritated, then remorseful. She may be urbane, droll and commendably cheerful, but she is human.
Poet as sage and teacher …
… The Letters of Robert Frost: Volume Two review - The TLS. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
The best discovery of the workshop format he devised was his idea of getting beyond mere grading and marking. This mechanical part he believed should be left to a corps of grammar policemen, always on hand and decently paid to make local comments and corrections. But conversation of a special kind was what the rarer talents deserved. “The experienced older painter allows inexperienced younger painters to set up their easels alongside of his for what they can get out of his example, stimulation, and shop-talk” – so too with the experienced writer.
Listen in …
… COVID Check-In with Henry Wessells – The Virtual Memories Show.
“One of the great lines from AJ Liebling, which I wish I had known when I was 25, is, ‘Often alone, but seldom lonely.'”
Something to think on …
We would be in a nasty position indeed if empirical science were the only kind of science possible.
— Edmund Husserl, born on this date in 1859
Tuesday, April 07, 2020
Pulling no punches …
… Time to put China on lockdown for its dishonesty amid coronavirus crisis.
But wherever the virus came from, China’s response was inept, dishonest and utterly inconsiderate of the rest of the world. A competent, honest response would have placed the world on notice much earlier. A China that cared about the rest of the world would have halted flights abroad while this disease was spreading, instead of allowing its citizens to spread willy-nilly around the globe.
In case you wondered …
… How to Read Moby-Dick While Quarantined - InsideHook. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I just read it through, in college, as assigned, and thought it was great. Wish I'd thought of the scotch, though.
Very interesting …
… Justice, finally. – Catholic World Report.
As a citizen of Vatican City, Cardinal Pell did not have abandon his work in Rome to return to Australia for trial. The thought of appealing to his diplomatic immunity never occurred to him, though. For he was determined to defend his honor and that of the Australian Church, which he had led in addressing the crimes and sins of sexual abuse (and in many other ways) for years. George Pell placed his bet on the essential fairness of his countrymen. The High Court’s decision has vindicated that wager, finally. The reception of the court’s decision will tell a lot about whether the Australian media and the Australian people have learned anything from all of this.
Something to think on …
The education of circumstances is superior to that of tuition.
— William Wordsworth, born on this date in 1770
Monday, April 06, 2020
Checking out reality …
… If you imagine that a local business making surgical face masks is working 24/7, guess again.
The story of Bowen’s unhappiness is a cautionary tale about what can happen if Americans searching for cheaper prices send entire industries offshore to countries like Mexico and China.Everything Bowen has warned about has come true. He warned that allowing another country to serve as our main supplier of personal protection equipment has the potential to become a national security nightmare.
Worth noting …
… Coronavirus outbreak in the US is predicted to peak in 10 days | Daily Mail Online.
I'll be checking this site to see how this prophecy plays out.
The estimated peak day of the US outbreak is expected to occur in 10 days on April 16 with a projected 3,130 deaths that day, the data shows.
I'll be checking this site to see how this prophecy plays out.
Something to think on …
You must accept the truth from whatever source it comes.
— Maimonides, born on this date in 1135
Sunday, April 05, 2020
Well, well …
… COVID-19 Mortality Statistics | IP4PI – Independent Physicians for Patient independence. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Like essentially every American with a pulse, I have spent countless hours over the past weeks listening to both politicians and “experts” reporting the “data” and “statistics” on COVID19. Most people now appreciate that testing has been spotty at best and fraught with false negatives, and that therefore, we have likely woefully under-estimate the true number of cases of the virus.
That said, one of the numbers most frequently reported (daily) — and the one piece of data most commonly cited as a veritable certainty — is the number of deaths from COVID. Well here’s the sobering reality: The numbers being reported by the CDC are wrong. In fact, they are very, very wrong …
Have a listen …
… Replay: Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring | About Last Night.
See also: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1246474394106560520.html. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
See also: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1246474394106560520.html. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Blind of mind …
… ‘I have no mind’s eye’: what is it like being an author with aphantasia? | Books | The Guardian. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Decades ago, my wife began visualisation for meditation. I couldn’t do it. Not only could I not see an imaginary orange, I couldn’t see a circle or the colour orange. But I understood visualisation to be a special skill that you worked on. Rather like juggling. And I was sure that with practice I could accomplish either one of those.Then a year ago, I read an article online about aphantasia and all at once I understood that pretty much everyone visualised their thoughts all the time!
Something to think on …
Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way.
— Booker T. Washington, born on this date in 1856
Saturday, April 04, 2020
Hmm …
… the post-truth thought leaders at work – Snakes and Ladders.
Well, as I have said elsewhere, if life comes down to nothing more than not being dead, then it really doesn't amount to much. And, as a Christian, Jacobs surely believes that there are some things more important than life. I presume he has heard of martyrdom. Perhaps he is secretly in love with despotism.
Influences …
… Richard Bissell - Major Influence on Elmore.
More here: Remembering Dubuque’s Shakespeare, Richard Bissell - He Had a Great Influence on Elmore.
More here: Remembering Dubuque’s Shakespeare, Richard Bissell - He Had a Great Influence on Elmore.
Famed writer of the 1950s-1970s, author of “7½ Cents” (“The Pajama Game”), Dick Bissell was a river rat his entire life beginning at birth in 1913 until his death in 1977.
(Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Hmm …
… The Power of Absence: Reading Graham Greene during Lent - Image Journal. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I agree that suspending Mass is a moral imperative. But that doesn’t make it easy. We are in the middle of Lent—an already solemn season—and the absence of the Eucharist hurts.
I don't agree. And I think the government should keep out of it. Would I risk my life to take the Eucharist? Yes. For once I am in agreement with Pope Francis. And I am inclined to think that the bishops are careerists who really don't take what they profess to believe seriously. And I communicated that to my own archbishop.
See also: When our churches open again... (Hat tip, Rich Lloret.)
See also: When our churches open again... (Hat tip, Rich Lloret.)
When the pandemic crisis eases, and the world heads back into its normal routines, Catholic bishops will have some explaining to do.Indeed.
Something to think on …
Get rid of things or you'll spend your whole life tidying up.
— Marguerite Duras, born on this date in 1914
Friday, April 03, 2020
Indeed …
… Giorgio Agamben on coronavirus: “The enemy is not outside, it is within us.” | The Book Haven.
Bare life — and the danger of losing it — is not something that unites people, but blinds and separates them. Other human beings, as in the plague described in Alessandro Manzoni’s novel, are now seen solely as possible spreaders of the plague whom one must avoid at all costs and from whom one needs to keep oneself at a distance of at least a meter. The dead — our dead — do not have a right to a funeral and it is not clear what will happen to the bodies of our loved ones. Our neighbor has been cancelled and it is curious that churches remain silent on the subject. What do human relationships become in a country that habituates itself to live in this way for who knows how long? And what is a society that has no value other than survival?
Anniversary …
… Beyond Eastrod : Truman, the Marshall Plan, and a kid from the Mon valley.
I am old enough to remember newscasts showing President Truman taking his constitutional (walking all the way around the White House actually) at a speed that had the reporters covering him running to keep up. I also remember the attempt on his life that was made in 1950.
Appreciation …
… Bruce Dawe's passing is a great loss but his remarkable, socially aware poetry will remain relevant | Books | The Guardian. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
For decades, when you went into a second-hand bookshop in Australia, even if there was no poetry section, you’d find at least one book of poetry, and that book would be Bruce Dawe’s Sometimes Gladness. It wasn’t simply about a discarded book looking for a new owner, but the inevitable circulation of a school standard across the country. Innumerable copies of the many (updated) editions of this timeless classic were in high-school kids’ bags, lockers, bookcases, desks and maybe scattered on their floors after a heavy study session.
Cause for worry …
… The longer lockdown continues, the more imperiled we become | Spectator USA. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
We live in factional times, so scientists and commentators are dividing into COVID camps, though allying with the smaller skeptics crowd can be dangerous. (Some contrarians are getting death threats.) Yet even the establishment Imperial College London has reduced its projections of COVID-19’s UK mortality from 500,000 to under 20,000 — roughly the annual deaths from seasonal flu. No one knows yet for sure, but evidence abounds that the lethality of this virus may be in line with flu’s 0.1 percent, and possibly as low as 0.01 percent. The disease overwhelmingly fells the elderly with often-multiple co-morbidities. I don’t mean old people don’t matter. But absent this pandemic, a large portion of this ailing cohort would have been sadly slain by other illnesses in short order. As Dr John Lee noted last week, too, fatality figures fail to distinguish dying from COVID and merely dying with it.
A not-so-fine romance …
… We Love Big Brother | Peter Hitchens | First Things. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I fear so …
… During Covid-19 Lockdown, Crime Still Flourishes In Philadelphia. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
These policies will perpetuate Philadelphia’s violent-crime problems. Last week, a shooting targeted a man at a birthday party. Those shot included a one-year-old, 14-year-old, and four others. The reports of daily shootings continue, some in traditionally safe neighborhoods. It seems like violent crime is the only “business” surging in Philadelphia during the Covid-19 crisis.
Something to think on …
Some minds seem almost to create themselves, springing up under every disadvantage and working their solitary but irresistible way through a thousand obstacles.
— Washington Irving, born on this date in 1783
Thursday, April 02, 2020
Neat …
… David Hockney shares exclusive art from Normandy, as 'a respite from the news' - BBC News.
Just one glance at Ruby and you can tell that she is on top of things.
In case you wondered …
… Why this crisis is a turning point in history. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Well, if so, we had better hope for a better class of politician than we have seen in recent decades.
How much of their freedom people will want back when the pandemic has peaked is an open question. They show little taste for the enforced solidarity of socialism, but they may happily accept a regime of bio-surveillance for the sake of better protection of their health. Digging ourselves out of the pit will demand more state intervention not less, and of a highly inventive kind. Governments will have to do a lot more in underwriting scientific research and technological innovation. Though the state may not always be larger its influence will be pervasive, and by old-world standards more intrusive. Post-liberal government will be the norm for the foreseeable future.
Well, if so, we had better hope for a better class of politician than we have seen in recent decades.
Blogging note …
I have to go to the Reading Terminal Market for some things I cant get elsewhere. Blogging will resume sometime after I get back.
Something to think on …
I attacked those Western playwrights who use their influence and affluence to preach to the world the nihilistic doctrine that life is pointless and irrationally destructive, and that there is nothing we can do about it. Until everyone is fed, clothed, housed and taught, until human beings have equal leisure to contemplate the overwhelming fact of mortality, we should not (I argued) indulge in the luxury of "privileged despair."
— Kenneth Tynan, born on this date in 1927
Wednesday, April 01, 2020
Lovely …
… Farewell, Mrs. T | The American Conservative.
Here’s the thing: I have never met Terry, but have only known him through correspondence and text messaging over the years. And I never exchanged even that much communication with Mrs. T., as Terry called her. But to have been Terry’s reader on his blog and his Twitter feed was to have known this couple as if they were old friends. As Mrs. T.’s conditioned worsened over the past week, Terry let me and his readers know. I would fall asleep at night praying for her, and wake up praying for her. This says exactly nothing about my sanctity, and everything about how much I love these two people, whom I’ve never met.
Some science …
… Estimates of the severity of coronavirus disease 2019: a model-based analysis - The Lancet Infectious Diseases.
If I am reading this correctly, the overall fatality ratio seems to be 0·657%.
April Poetry and Videos and The Lou McKee's at North of Oxford …
… Getting to Philadelphia: New and Selected Poems by Thomas Devaney.
… Tricks of Light – New and Selected Poems by Thaddeus Rutkowski.
… The In(ter)vention of the Hay(na)ku – Selected Tercets 1996-2019 by Eileen R. Tabios.
… In Salem by Catherine Corman.
… I Have The Answer by Kelly Fordon.
… In The Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado.
… Poetry Videos to Get You Through April.
… The Lou McKee’s.
… Submissions are Open.
… Tricks of Light – New and Selected Poems by Thaddeus Rutkowski.
… The In(ter)vention of the Hay(na)ku – Selected Tercets 1996-2019 by Eileen R. Tabios.
… In Salem by Catherine Corman.
… I Have The Answer by Kelly Fordon.
… In The Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado.
… Poetry Videos to Get You Through April.
… The Lou McKee’s.
… Submissions are Open.
Appreciation …
… How G. E. M. Anscombe revolutionised 20th-century western philosophy | OUPblog. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
This piece could have used some proofing. It's Literae Humaniores, not Literae Humanities. And I hardly think we need to be reminded that the late Aristotle was an ancient philosopher.
Throughout her life, Anscombe was inspired by many philosophers, ancient and modern. Aristotle, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and Thomas Aquinas were three key sources of inspiration. However, she created new and original work which revolutionised action theory and moral, religious and ethical philosophy.
This piece could have used some proofing. It's Literae Humaniores, not Literae Humanities. And I hardly think we need to be reminded that the late Aristotle was an ancient philosopher.
Something to think on …
I do not know any way to explain why God's grace touches a man who seems unworthy of it.
— Whittaker Chambers, born on this date in 1901
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