Saturday, September 02, 2023
Something to think on …
All good and true book-lovers practice the pleasing and improving avocation of reading in bed ... No book can be appreciated until it has been slept with and dreamed over.
— Eugene Field, born on this date in 1850
Friday, September 01, 2023
A poem …
… written by my daughter, Jennifer Knox.
Summer Lightning
What were you doing when the lightning came,
When the world fairly glistened with fireflies?
And then there was thunder, like God at the door.
Your heart did not stop, though maybe it tried.
And what were you doing when the lightning came?
Thoughts of my true-love, a flash of his eyes.
And then came the thunder to snuff us like ants,
Come to your senses, this lady-bug flies!
And what were you doing when the lightning came,
To shatter the glass of the jewel-cleaved sky?
A heartbeat, a heartbeat, then thunder came.
My children lay sleeping, and never a cry.
By light of lightning my lover I see
A pause, then thunder; he's crying for me
This is wonderful …
… My Summer With Leo Tolstoy. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
… At some point I understood I hadn’t made a commitment of time but entered a world. It is about life—parties and gossip and thwarted elopements in the night, religious faith and class differences and society, men and women and personal dreams and private shames. It is about military strategy, politics and the nature of court life, a world that exists whether the court is that of Czar Alexander in 1812, or the White House or a governor’s office today. And of course it is about the Napoleonic wars, and Russia’s triumph after Napoleon’s invasion.
Something to think on …
The single fact of existing is already a true happiness.
— Blise Cendrars, born on this date in 1887
Thursday, August 31, 2023
City life …
… Gritty Photos of Life on New York's Subway in the 1970s and 1980s. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
Have a look …
… Beats connection: Allen Ginsberg’s inner circle – in pictures. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
For those who believe and those who don’t …
… Mystical precision | The New Criterion. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Espaillat’s precision with regard to language exists to show language’s limits. This is the revelation she offers for religious readers: spiritual truth is not, at the end of the day, reducible to language.
But Espaillat has a revelation for agnostic readers as well.
Something to think on …
We shall walk together on this path of life, for all things are part of the universe and are connected with each other to form one whole unity,
— Maria Montessori, born on this date in 1870
Wednesday, August 30, 2023
Poem …
Discernment
Amid the darkness place the sun,
That veteran god, from deepest night
Evoking brightest day. Make plain
Imagination’s gestures are
But acts of faith, and loss of faith
An absence of imagination.
Merely perceiving misperceives:
We must invite what our eye bears —
Sunflower, catbird, passing cloud —
Into the tabernacle of the heart,
There where the lamp of vision flares.
I think the God hypothesis is sounder …
… Is our universe a simulation and, if so, is it breaking down?
Aquinas and Augustine were pretty sharp cookies. James Joyce read a page of Aquinas in Latin every day. And Joyce was a pretty sharp cookie. If it’s all a simulation, then the simulators must be behind religion. Wonder why? Maybe Somebody created the simulators.
In case you wondered …
… How to Save Hollywood With This 1 Weird Trick.
This isn’t rocket surgery. Some of the biggest box office successes — including the original “Star Wars” — were shot on budgets that wouldn’t even pay the caterering crew on “Thor: Love and Thunder.” While there’s still plenty of room for big-budget summer blockbusters, regularly spending $200 million or more on things like a Snow White reboot that can’t afford more than one dwarf is a bit much.
Much in what he says …
… (12) The cult of victimhood - by Tom Knighton.
People seem to figure out all the ways they can be oppressed, all the ways they can be victimized, just so they can have some kind of status.
Once upon a time, a guy cams walking toward me opening a switchblade. I positioned my walking stick (it used to be a fashion statement, but now is a utility) in a way that caused him to pause. I said to him — yes, really — “Go ahead, make my day,” That’s when he realized I was planning to take out one of his eyes. If you’re coming at me with a knife, I have no reason to be nice to you. He folded up the knife, turned around, and walked away.
Talk about nuts …
… Climate change outrage erupts when Martha Stewart uses iceberg as cocktail garnish on vacation cruise - TheBlaze.
It ain’t Martha who’s nuts. It’s the people who think using a little bit of iceberg for a cocktail contributes to “global warming.” Get real.
Annotated Joyce …
… Arruginated. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
One of the great values of this huge book, two and a half times the length of Ulysses itself, is to interrogate this idea. In the introduction, the authors quote Stephen Dedalus in the Scylla and Charybdis episode: ‘A man of genius makes no mistakes. His errors are volitional and are portals of discovery.’ But only half this last sentence is true. Joyce’s errors in Ulysses were not volitional or even versions of his unconscious; he would have corrected them had he known of them.
Something to think on …
A theory that you can't explain to a bartender is probably no damn good.
— Ernest Rutherford, born on this date in 1871
Something to think on …
There are no generalizations in American politics that vested selfishness cannot cut through.
— John Gunther, born on this date in 1991
Fairy tale opera …
… Solo Opera Takes on a Big Project With Lori Laitman’s The Three Feathers. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
“This is a fairy tale that is both archetypal and unfamiliar,” said Gioia. “It’s about an old king who has to pick an heir. In the original Grimm story, he has three sons; our version has three daughters. One daughter is very domineering, one is extravagant, and the youngest is a bookworm who no one takes seriously. He then says he has the perfect solution, [and for that] I’ve written a good aria, ‘The Treasure Song,’ which is a patter song [about] his box with three magic feathers.”
Tuesday, August 29, 2023
Poem …
Pilgrimage
Pray the journey lasts long enough
To be enriched with lingering detours
Along paths beckoning to villages
Where time holds no sway, until
You find yourself, grateful at last,
To learn there won’t be any heading home.
The marriage of arrogance and stupidity …
… San Francisco Police Union Blasts Bakery for Refusing to Serve Cops in Uniform - The Messenger.
I hope, if they’re ever robbed, they have the decency not to call the police.
So much for impartiality …
… Associated Press Coverage of Courts, Climate Bankrolled by Dozens of Left-Wing Foundations.
Small wonder trust in the media is so low.
Hmm …
Even among Biden’s innumerable lies, this one sets a new standard for mendacity, as every detail of it is false: the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964, eight and a half years before Biden entered the Senate, Thurmond voted against it, and the segregationist senator didn’t die until nearly forty years later. Is it the dementia? Or is it just Joe being Joe? It’s increasingly hard to tell the difference.
Tracking the decline …
… How therapy turned on itself. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
What’s happened to psychotherapy is, writ small, what’s happened to western education, healthcare, left-of-center governments and NGOs, as well as the civil service, the sciences and the arts. By its nature, this nihilistic doctrine corrupts from within every sphere it invades. CSJ resembles the fibrous, species-threatening fungus in The Last of Us, which smothers cities and takes malign control of human minds. At length, elites oppose the very purpose of their professions. Hence the National Trust despises the culture it’s pledged to preserve. The British Museum gives away its artifacts. Doctors reject western medicine for indigenous superstitions. Classicists denounce the Greeks and Romans as too white. English professors renounce Shakespeare. Therapists renounce therapy.
Something to think on …
The great force of history comes from the fact that we carry it within us, are unconsciously controlled by it in many ways, and history is literally present in all that we do.
— James Baldwin, born on this date in 194
Things these days …
… (12) Bears, Boston and the Gods of the Copybook Headings.
We need only look at the treatment of such other topics as crime, terrorism, and warfare to see examples of the same sort of misplaced sentimentality and willful ignorance. Tolerance of criminality leads to more crime; tolerance of terrorism leads to more terrorism; efforts to appear defenseless lead to war, subsidies for homelessness produce more homeless people.
Monday, August 28, 2023
Blogging note …
I spent the greater part of today being by very nice young gentleman from Belgium. I learned a lot from our conversation
Something to think on …
Conversation in its true meaning isn't all wagging the tongue; sometimes it is a deeply shared silence.
— Robertson Davies, born on this date in 1913
Being and revelation …
… A Poet of Philosophy and Prayer. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
The scholar Cynthia Haven remarks on her blog for Stanford that, “Helen became preoccupied with the Thomistic notion of esse, and sees ‘nothingness’ as the primary temptation of humankind.”
Sunday, August 27, 2023
Oops, just saw this …
… Althouse: "Musk has become a hyper-exposed pop-culture figure, and his sharp turns from altruistic to vainglorious, strategic to impulsive, have been the subject of innumerable articles..."
The comments are priceless — and accurate. Ronan can write. He comes up short on thought. And the New Yorker isn’t what it used to be.
Also some commenters claim got his start 200 million dollars from his old man. Do some research.
Trump’s old man didn’t have the kind of money. He did, however, lend his so 1 million dollars — at interest. I like his dad.
Another blogging note …
I’m not feeling well. May blog some more tonight, but otherwise I’m off until tomorrow. Debbie is also not feeling well either.
Welcome to old age, which ain’t for sissies and demands a sense of humor.
Something to think on …
The work is with me when I wake up in the morning; it is with me while I eat my breakfastin bed and run through the newspaper, while I shave and bathe and dress.
— C. S. Forester, born on this date in 1899
Saturday, August 26, 2023
Really?
… Pennridge educators warn they aren’t ready to teach a curriculum crafted by a Hillsdale College-connected consultant.
So we have a bunch of teachers who don’t feel up to teaching basic American history, which I gather they haven’t been teaching. I became an avid reader of history when I was in grade school, thanks to being about it in class.
Something to think on …
Only those who are capable of silliness can be called truly intelligent.
— Christopher Isherwood, born on thi date in 1994
More crankiness …
… How to write a biography without biographical information | Washington Examiner. (Hat tip, Dave lull.)
I’m not sure I get the point of this …
… Saint of What? - Taki's Magazine. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I’m no saint. So I think it would be unwise of me to pass judgment on those who may be saints.
Friday, August 25, 2023
Something to think on …
Love isn’t an act, it’s a whole life..
— Brian Moore, born on this date in 1921
Thursday, August 24, 2023
Much in what he says …
… Jerry Willbur: Does politics attract big liars, or does it create them?
In my view, we have the worst political class in our history.
Take a look at these …
… Incredible Nature Photography by Pepe Soho | Moss and Fog. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
Hmm …
… 10 U.S. Place Names NOT Pronounced Like Their Worldly Inspirations.
Some years ago, when I was on assignment in Elko, NV, I quickly learned (and reported) that the local pronunciation of Nevada was Nevaada, not Nevahda, when in Rome …
Something to think on …
Think of this - that the writer wrote alone, and the reader read alone, and they were alone with each other.
— A. S. Byatt, born on this date in 1936
A true innovator …
… Dorothy Liebes, the “Mother of Modern Weaving”. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
One of the most fascinating aspects of Liebes’ life was her close association with the renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright and his wife Olgivanna.
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