All Purls. No Swine.
That's the famous quote from the French Benedictine Monk, Dom Perignon, which was supposedly uttered for the first time 330 years ago this evening, on August 4, 1693, when--after considerable effort and quite a few missteps----he and a small group of his fellows are thought to have to have perfected the recipe and the technique… Continue reading “Come Quickly, I am Tasting the Stars!”
I’ve mentioned once or twice that I’m an avid fan of the novels of mystery writer Louise Penny. A friend of mine introduced me to them several years ago, and at first I was hesitant, wondering how I’d get along with a Francophone Chief Inspector of the Sûreté du Québec, and his adventures in and… Continue reading The Things We Love: In Memoriam, Rupert Brooke
While August 2 is not the birthday of T.E. Lawrence (that's exactly two weeks from today), it is the birthday of the man whose most famous screen role was his portrayal of the British soldier, diplomat, adventurer, and writer. Peter O'Toole, who died in 2013, would have been 91 years old today. His portrayal, in… Continue reading Lawrence of Clouds Hill
Well, we're well over halfway to 2024's "Kiss a Ginger Day!" No sense letting Prince Harry have all the fun, so I think I'll throw my hat into the ring with a a lightly-edited version of a post originally published on the member feed on Ricochet, more than six years ago, on 2017's smoochy day,… Continue reading Growing Up Ginger, Again
I turn 81 in a few days and I intend to spend my remaining time looking at beautiful things, starting with my wife, and enjoying music and comedy and theater and the writing of writers who make me happy. It isn't what they taught me at the University of Minnesota. They hung T.S. Eliot's "The… Continue reading Recovering From “Garrison Keillor Disease”