Animals, Ave Atque Vale, Friendship, Love

Xuxa!

She is, unequivocally, the most charming puppy it’s ever been my privilege to know.  (For those interested or even just wondering–or perhaps choking a bit over the unfamiliar word–it’s pronounced SHOO-sha, being a Basque girl’s name, native to the Pyrenees.) “She has such a feminine head,” said my veterinarian, when I texted her a photo.  And… Continue reading Xuxa!

History, Literature, Quote of the Day, Writing

On the 956th Anniversary of the Battle of Hastings

William the Conqeror WILLIAM THE FIRST was the first of our kings, Not counting Ethelreds, Egberts and things, And he had himself crowned and anointed and blest In Ten-Sixty-I-Needn’t Tell-You-The-Rest But being a Norman, King William the First By the Saxons he conquered was hated and cursed, And they planned and they plotted far into… Continue reading On the 956th Anniversary of the Battle of Hastings

Culture, Plain Speaking

Thailand’s Shame

The news today is peppered with stories of Thailand’s deadliest mass killing by a single individual, one perpetrated by an ex-policeman at a children’s day-care center. Apparently, this former cop was dismissed from the force last year after allegations of drug-dealing,** for which he was facing imminent trial. According to Reuters, he had been in… Continue reading Thailand’s Shame

Ave Atque Vale, Culture, Entertainment, Music

Loretta Lynn, R.I.P.

Loretta Lynn has died at the age of 90. Some who know me might find my love of American country music a bit odd.  Mr. Right never did.  He understood that it hearkened back to centuries ago, to the traditions of English, Scottish, Welsh, and Irish ballads, and to the stories those songs told, stories… Continue reading Loretta Lynn, R.I.P.

Culture, History

Mount Rushmore: Check it Out While You Still Can!

Ninety-five years ago today, on October, 4, 1927, John Gutzon de la Mothe Borglum, son of Danish immigrants, and a prominent American sculptor, set chisel and dynamite to stone and began what is his best-known work, the carvings of the 60-foot-high heads of four American Presidents: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt… Continue reading Mount Rushmore: Check it Out While You Still Can!