All Purls. No Swine.
A few years ago, I wrote a post on "The Great American Novel." What follows, on this, just the eighty-eighth anniversary of the publication of Margaret Mitchell's Gone With The Wind (what a very young country is this United States), is a lightly edited version of that post, and a few remarks on why we… Continue reading From Gone With the Wind to China Beach, The “N-Word” in Popular Culture
Those are the last words spoken by Shakespeare's villainous King Richard III, as he desperately dashed about Bosworth Field, just before being hacked to smithereens by by the opposition--the soldiers of Henry Tudor--after which (IRL, now) Richard's naked body was thrown across a horse (presumably not his own) and taken to Leicester, where he was… Continue reading King Richard III
More than seven years ago, just before the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States sent the world into perpetual "tilt" mode , I wrote this post on Ricochet. I'm reprising it here on the day my mother would have turned 96. November 6, 2016: I spent several hours this morning doing… Continue reading The Simple Things–On the 96th Anniversary of My Mother’s Birth
Dateline June 20, 2024: Happy Summer Solstice! I’m always reminded, on this “longest day,” of the trip that Mr. She and I made to England, and the day we spent at Stonehenge and (just down the road a bit) Avebury. Avebury is another Neolithic Henge, but in this case, the stones surround the village. Once… Continue reading The Summer Solstice, 2024
Lather. Rinse. Repeat: Certain is it that there is no kind of affection so purely angelic as of a father to a daughter. In love to our wives there is desire; to our sons, ambition; but to our daughters, there is something which there are no words to express. So said Joseph Addison, seventeenth-century essayist,… Continue reading Happy Father’s Day, 2024!
I thought that name was familiar, when I saw it on a notification elsewhere, earlier today. Here's why: Heinrich Hoffman was born in Frankfurt on June 13, 1809. His mother died when he was an infant, and his father subsequently married her sister for what was--by all accounts--a happy marriage for all involved. After qualifying… Continue reading Happy 215th Birthday, Dr. Heinrich Hoffman!
My recent post about my stepdaughter mentioned her sense of humor and cited a letter of introduction she wrote about me to a group of ladies we didn't know, but with whom we were embarking on a trip to Italy. Among the many (excellent) qualities she related regarding her stepmother, there was this: Also, RWKJ… Continue reading The Story of Oliver
Into each life, some rain must fall. But not into ours. Our lives are where the garbage is delivered. — Jenny Today (June 10) is Jenny's birthday, and it's been three years since I first posted this here. In her honor, I'm proud to do so again: Ever have one of those days, weeks, months,… Continue reading Quote of the Day, June 10, 2024: On Life’s Vicissitudes
She was one of those Dad always referred to as a "poppet," an anachronism if ever there was one, and which would probably get him hauled into court--and maybe locked up--today. But considering the pantheon of women he referred to as such--youthful, elderly, married, single, personally known to him and not, I'm inclined to view… Continue reading Happy Birthday, Virginia McKenna!
I first published this post five years ago, on June 6, 2019–the seventy-fifth anniversary–when Auntie Pat was still alive (she was 95 at the time). I really miss her: June 5, 2019: I just got off the phone with her and–shameless self-promotion alert–she’ll be 96 next month, and is my Dad’s last surviving sibling. I phoned her… Continue reading Five Years On: Auntie Pat on Operation Overlord