Something of a train wreck at the personal level, but he leaves behind some lovely music. Rest in peace. https://youtu.be/OVAA9Ov-z0k
Month: January 2023
My Lily of Laguna–My Lily and My Rose
It's always a risk to go sailing down rabbit holes, because you never know what you might turn up when you hit bottom. Thus, after a recent conversation with a family member about the previous paternal generation of Rights, and its love of the early 20th century music-hall oeuvre. My father and his siblings were… Continue reading My Lily of Laguna–My Lily and My Rose
On Hatred: What Did CS Lewis Have To Say?
Yes, it's a marvelous conundrum: I remember Christian teachers telling me long ago that I must hate a bad man's actions but not hate the bad man: or, as they would say, hate the sin but not the sinner...I used to think this a silly, straw-splitting distinction: how could you hate what a man did… Continue reading On Hatred: What Did CS Lewis Have To Say?
An Open Letter To My Spectacles–2023 Edition
Argh. It's setting up to be one of those days, and it's barely even light outside. Here's an oldie but goodie reflecting the situation this morning at Chateau Right: Dear Spectacles, I’m giving you fair warning here: I’ve had enough. Enough of your silly games. Enough of listening to you snicker as I stumble blindly… Continue reading An Open Letter To My Spectacles–2023 Edition
Restaurant Review: African Cuisine in Pittsburgh, PA
Well, that was fun. I've just returned from a day in Pittsburgh with friends, and lunch at the African Cuisine Restaurant in the Squirrel Hill section of the city. It's a small, informal, place featuring Nigerian food, the first of its kind in the Steel City, and which opened in March 2021, when things were… Continue reading Restaurant Review: African Cuisine in Pittsburgh, PA
January 15
Lord. Here we are, halfway through January already. And it's still Christmas in my house, although I've started to take the decorations down. Won't be long until I'm regretting doing so. Especially the tree. Because, soon enough, it'll be time to start all over again. And if I'd just left everything up, I wouldn't have… Continue reading January 15
Who Frightens the Copyright? Probably Not He Who(m) You Think
Who owns the copyright, once a photo enters public discussion? LOL No matter of contract (there is none), or employer (there is none), or any other here. Going forward, if you or your slavering ninnies would like to continue to use my own photograph--or any others--of you (as you've done on multiple sites--and on which… Continue reading Who Frightens the Copyright? Probably Not He Who(m) You Think
School: What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Stronger, Units of Measure Edition
Yeah, really. I've written before about the expressed similarities which my late husband observed might have been true when it came to those between British boarding school children and those who signed up for the US military. "Yes," he used to observe, when I told him about my childhood difficulties with privacy, bathing, personal space,… Continue reading School: What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Stronger, Units of Measure Edition
For Jenny Alice May Mapson (Auntie Betty): 2023
She was born in Birmingham on January 23, 1912, into an England that was rending itself apart. Suffragettes demanding a woman’s right to vote were chaining themselves to Parliament’s railings, smashing storefront windows in Oxford Street, and living-room windows in Downing Street. Newly-empowered Socialist labor unions were flexing their muscle, threatening strikes in coal mining,… Continue reading For Jenny Alice May Mapson (Auntie Betty): 2023
Quote of the Day: On Narcissism and Truth
Whatever the cause, my memory is my memory, it does what it does, gathers and curates as it sees fit, and there's just as much truth in what I remember and how I remember it as there is in so-called objective facts. Things like chronology and cause-and-effect are often just fables we tell ourselves about… Continue reading Quote of the Day: On Narcissism and Truth