All Purls. No Swine.
He died, 159 years ago today. Twelve days before he died, on April 14, 1865, Booth shot US President Abraham Lincoln in the back of the head: Lincoln died the next morning. An intensive manhunt discovered Booth hiding in a barn on a Virginia tobacco farm, and--under threat from the detectives that they would torch… Continue reading John Wilkes Booth: Twenty-Something
Tradition has it that, on April 23 in AD 303, a young and promising Roman soldier in the army of the Emperor Diocletian was beheaded after gruesome torture, and died professing his Christian faith to the end. Very little is known of his life, but it’s believed he was born into a devout Christian family,… Continue reading A Bloody Cross–April 23, 2024, A Day for England
I've used this phrase, which is Latin for "the history of [my] calamities," facetiously before, in a post which describes a turbulent period in my life--some forty years ago now Today, though, I reference the work by twelfth century scholar Peter Abelard, who died 882 years ago, on April 21, 1142. Although a brilliant scholar… Continue reading Historia Calamitatum–Remembering Peter Abelard
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Three years ago tomorrow, I wrote a post about the "three snowmen," the last cold-weather intervals of Spring before it's safe to begin serious planting and garden work outside. April 21, 2021 heralded the arrival of the last one for the year. Fast forward three… Continue reading The Snowman Cometh
Ernie Pyle died 79 years ago today, on April 18, 1945 in the Iejima Okinawa Prefecture of the Empire of Japan, killed in action while doing what he loved. Having missed out on his first ambition–to serve in World War I–he undertook the study of journalism at Indiana University, and eventually found a career at… Continue reading “War makes strange giant creatures out of us little routine men who inhabit the earth”–Ernie Pyle
The title of this post is a slight misquotation of the original, which stems from April 14, 1970 and--in the words of Jack Swigert, Apollo 13's Command Module Pilot--was actually, "Okay, Houston...we've had a problem here." The post title comes from the 1995 film, Apollo 13, and has passed into the vernacular as the authentic… Continue reading “Houston, We Have A Problem”
A recent conversation on Ricochet brought to mind a post I wrote in the Dark Ages of social media, in this case, in 2012. Twelve years ago. And it's still there and available to the members, although it can't be viewed on the public Internet. I'm about to fix that. I wrote it just after… Continue reading Why I’ll Always Have a Soft Spot for Bill Clinton, No Matter What
On this April 16, 2024, a day that would have been my grandmother Molly's 126th birthday, I bring back a post originally published on Ricochet on April 16--Easter Sunday--2017. Happy Birthday, Granny! My grandmother Molly could be a rather stern old lady. She was born when Queen Victoria was still on the throne, on April… Continue reading On Granny. Oh, and On Chocolate, Too. And a Few Other Things As Well
It's an idiom mostly associated with--or so I understand--life in these United States, and it generally means that one gambles on a matter on which one isn't sure of the outcome, but which might return well on an investment, if things work out. Over the course of my life, I've generally taken "fliers" only as… Continue reading Taking a Flier. As it were.
So sue me. I've never really pretended to a deep acquaintance with, nor understanding of, mid twentieth-century American playwrights and screenwriters. And so we have Days of Wine and Roses, a 1958 teleplay by JP Miller with Cliff Robertson and Piper Laurie , which I've always gotten spectacularly mixed up with Splendor in the Grass,… Continue reading The Brief Sum of Life–In Praise of the Liberal Arts