All Purls. No Swine.
Yes, I thought about Geoffrey Chaucer one week ago today, on October 25, 2023. I know perfectly well that that was the 623rd anniversary of his death, which occurred on October 25, 1400. But I was otherwise occupied at the time, and I didn't get around to commemorating it. Herewith, an echo from well over… Continue reading A Lapse in Deed, if not in Thought: Celebrating Geoffrey Chaucer
While this is a lovely little couplet, with nary a verb in sight, it’s not my favorite Ezra Pound poem. That one is his parody of the Medieval English round, “Sumer is Icumen In,” which starts out: Winter is Icumen In Lhudde sing Goddamm . . . And, indeed, I was singing away and giving… Continue reading These Poems No Verbs
One of the most delightful parts of my weekend is opening my email (yes, really, I know how sad that sounds) on Sunday sometime and discovering Douglas Murray’s latest “Things Worth Remembering” installment for The Free Press. I’m a basic (paid) subscriber to the site, so I get all the links and can read the… Continue reading “Seeing God in a Cat”
In digging around for something to post about today, I see that it's exactly sixteen years since The Spice Girls released their upcoming Greatest Hits album, announcing that it would be exclusively available at the Victoria's Secret lingerie chain for two months before it was released anywhere else. https://youtu.be/ot_hI9m95pE Never really been a fan. (Yawn.)… Continue reading Adding Spice, and Sexiness, to Life
Easy. You discover others who haven't done so. They are plentiful. And inspiring. All you have to do is go to ricochet.com to find them.
Breathes there an English expat girl with soul so dead, who never to herself has said, “Well, having heard that bloody song again, I’m just going off–not for the first time–to have a quiet little cry…” Here's the song: https://youtu.be/hKdRpDpIR70 Unlike most popular stars of the 1970s and 80s, Roger Whittaker ploughed his own furrow… Continue reading Roger Whittaker: The Last Farewell
Well, OK, it's a headline from sixty-two years ago today, but who's counting? https://www.youtube.com/shorts/IpdcFKHOrZU?feature=share Not worried. I've already said, here and elsewhere, that in the event of cataclysm, disaster, nuclear catastrophe, holocaust, or anything else, I'm heading for the chicken coop. Most resilient and steadfast structure on the property. I know. I built it. Water--check.… Continue reading People! Build Nuclear Bomb Shelters! Or Else!
Some things never change. On 25th October 1854, during the Battle of Balaclava, 670 British soldiers under the command of Lord Cardigan, launched an ill-fated attack upon a well-defended Russian artillery battery and sustained 40 percent casualties in the form of approximately 120 killed, and at least 160 wounded. Fifty were taken prisoner. Also killed… Continue reading “Theirs But To Do and Die”
October 3, 2023 is the 107th anniversary of the birth of James Alfred Wight, better known to the world as James Herriot, the author of upwards of a dozen beloved books about his Yorkshire veterinary practice from the 1930s onwards, and one of the three most influential authors of my book-filled youth. (The others were… Continue reading Changing My Life, One Book at a Time–Happy Birthday, James Herriot!
"Who is Angela Rippon?" You may ask. And it's perfectly fine if you do. I'm ready to go to war on her behalf. I know who Angela Rippon is mostly because I'm old enough to remember her insurgence on the BBC as its first permanent female journalist on the national television news. And also--not to… Continue reading You Go, Girl! In Praise of Angela Rippon