All Purls. No Swine.
My maternal Great Granny was a fearsome old bat. She was born in 1869, just four short years after the US Civil War ended and (only five days subsequently) Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. She died a few months before Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. What a lifespan. I was fourteen when she died, and… Continue reading Easter 2024: On Silk Purses, Sow’s Ears, and Horse’s Asses
https://youtu.be/akb0kD7EHIk (See here for the story of this video.)
So, there I was, yesterday, out and about in my nearest small town, leaving the local Tractor Supply (chicken, sheep, and bird feed) and pulling out onto the closest major highway (State Route 19 which runs North to South the entire length of Western Pennsylvania, from the West Virginia Border to Erie, just south of… Continue reading Karma Delivery–If Only
I probably won't make them today, owing to some leftover dreaded lurgy from a bout of something approaching pneumonia, but they, and a number of other family Easter traditions are in my thoughts. From Ricochet, four Good Fridays' ago now: Hot Cross Buns! A Good Friday tradition I don’t always adhere to but which, for… Continue reading “One a penny, two a penny…Hot Cross Buns!” And a Bit more Good Friday Randomness
Matthew 5:44. We are instructed to pray for these appalling people. This Easter week, I can't help reflecting that it's one of the hardest things to do in all of Christianity. Because my own Christian charity extends only so far, I resolve the dilemma in my own mind, thus: "You have to live with yourselves… Continue reading A Prayer for “them which despitefully use [us] and persecute [us]”
Four years ago today, North Macedonia, a former region of Yugoslavia, became the 30th country to join NATO. I rarely think about Macedonia, except on occasions when I see bags of frozen vegetables in the local Giant Eagle consisting of a mixture of butter beans and corn. My mother called it "macedoine,"** although most Internet… Continue reading Macedonia Baptist Bunnies! A Thanksgiving Story for the Run-Up to Easter 2024
A man who is often dubbed "America's favorite poet," Robert Lee Frost, was born 150 years ago today, on March 26, 1874.* Those who've stuck with me for a bit may know that modern American poetry isn't really my wheelhouse, but Robert Frost has some merit, never more so than with his poem, "The Road… Continue reading Plain Speaking: Robert Frost
“If we had no winter the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.” — Anne Bradstreet, Meditations Divine and Moral So, there I was, looking for a quote about Spring, about how glad I am that the cycles go on, and that this… Continue reading Quote of the Day: By a Gentlewoman of Those Parts
Wow. Eight hundred twenty five years ago today, King Richard I (Lionheart) was wounded by a crossbow bolt whilst fighting in France. He died thirteen days later, on April 6, 1199. In Hoc Signo Vinces. He has a troublesome history on many fronts, not least of which is his tie-in to anti-Jewish violence, something which… Continue reading Lionheart–Sometimes She’s a Woman
Technically, I missed it. In 2024, the first day of Spring came yesterday--a day early--on Tuesday, March 19 (blame the leap year. And the almost-pneumonia.) But it's arrived. Someone apparently forgot to tell the gods of the Weather Channel, though. While we've had several days in the 60s, and a few in the 70s over… Continue reading Happy (Roughly) First Day of Spring!