All Purls. No Swine.
A gently revised revisit of a post from many years ago: Dear Dad, Sixteen years ago today I got the phone call that I’d been expecting for several months, but kept on hoping would never come. My sister told me that you were gone. I don’t think I’ve ever completely recovered. Oh, I’ve moved on… Continue reading Dear Dad–2023
There are differing opinions in the academic world when it comes to one of Rudyard Kipling's best known poems, My Boy Jack, written in 1916. Here's the text: "Have you news of my boy Jack?” Not this tide. "When d'you think that he'll come back?" Not with this wind blowing, and this tide. "Has any… Continue reading My Boy Jack: In Memoriam, John Kipling. And Worlds That Are Gone.
From Miles Davis and John Coltrane: https://youtu.be/9Zyr0IDaRXQ I shall not be dancing naked in the fields, or widdershins at midnight around the church tower, or anywhere else for that matter. I will be out looking at the sunset and appreciating the changing of the seasons (anyone who doesn't think summer's over wasn't standing with me… Continue reading Autumn Equinox, 2023
I do. And here it is again... https://youtu.be/Gs069dndIYk At the time, I was twenty-three and in college. A few months later, I started my first "real" job. Where were you?
Well. In addition to the birth of the "One-Woman Positivity Machine" which I've previously mentioned, your humble correspondent was born 69 years ago today. But, enough about me. What do you think about me? LOL. Someone actually said that to me (not sarcastically or ironically), once. In other news: Virgil, the Roman poet best known… Continue reading What Else Happened on September 20?
There is a fountain of youth: it is in your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of people you love. When you learn to tap this source, you will truly have defeated age. — Sofia Villani Scicolone And there is much more from the young woman who once… Continue reading A One-Woman Positivity Machine
I don't know if I'd want to adjudicate a competition for "most quoted man in English literature" between William Shakespeare and Samuel Johnson, but I thought I'd celebrate the 314th anniversary of the great man's birth with a few of his bon-mots. (Or should that be bons-mot? There is a rule about such things, but… Continue reading Happy Birthday, Dr. Johnson!
On what would have been Roy Acuff's 120th birthday (September 15, 2023) here's his greatest hit, from 1936. A much-loved family favorite, one which I've lost count of the live performances of which (by so many others) I've viewed over the years: https://youtu.be/kpQBiyNCeXc When it comes to "Crazy Tennesseans" I can't help noticing that many… Continue reading The Wabash Cannonball–On Relatives and Crazy Hillbillies, if not Much Else
Several months ago, I wrote a "very preliminary" book review of John Blashford-Snell’s From Utmost East to Utmost West: My Life of Exploration and Adventure. Happily, someone took me up on the challenge to read the entire book and write the actual whole thing, and the result is this post on the Ricochet main feed. (Worth… Continue reading On Family Memories and the Meaning of “Gift”
Nessun maggior dolore Che ricordarsi del tempo felice Ne la miseria--Dante Alighieri, The Inferno It's been translated six ways from Sunday over the years. A few examples: Oh! how grievous to relate Past joys, and tread again the paths of fate--tr. Henry Boyd, 1802 There is no greater pain than to recall a happy… Continue reading Unlike Francesca, I Always Remember the Happy Hours with Gladness