All Purls. No Swine.
A friend and I were chatting a couple of weeks ago about a shared love of authentic American music, and Iris DeMent's name came up. I've never seen her perform, but remember her from appearances on early A Prairie Home Companion days, when Garrison Keillor was genuinely entertaining and gently funny, before he became infected… Continue reading Tuneful Tuesdays: Iris DeMent, Our Town
Fifty-eight years ago today, on January 15, 1966, two of my family’s dearest friends were murdered. Alhaji Sir Ahmadu Bello (pictured right) was the Premier of Northern Nigeria and Sardauna of Sokoto. Alhaji Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa (ATB) was the first (and so far only) Prime Minister of a Nigeria that had achieved its independence from Britain on October 1,… Continue reading These Were My Father’s Muslims
Good grief. Not sure what's wrong with the US military retired, all the way from Generals down to Field Grade Officers. I think it's pretty safe to say that the grunts--the enlisted--the sad sacks, the jarheads, the squids, etc. don't suffer from this foolish nonsense, but honestly! LTC Vindman. General Mark (I'm in China's Corner)… Continue reading Lloyd Austin–For Fuck’s Sake, Don’t Be A Jerk
A bit more than three years ago, I wrote a post on Ricochet, When Computers Rule, about the Royal Mail scandal involving Fujitsu’s Horizon software and the plight of hundreds of UK “sub-postmasters” who’d been accused, prosecuted and convicted for fraud because, once the Fujitsu software system was implemented for Post Office management, their accounts… Continue reading Getting Their Reputations Back–The Royal Mail Horizon Scandal Staggers to the Finish Line, Courtesy of ITV
Got one of those annoying cheery little pop-ups on my phone this morning, announcing that December 22 is National Date Nut Bread Day. I love date nut bread. I was first introduced to it by a co-worker I'll call John (not his real name), in 1987 or so. The large hospital system I was working… Continue reading National Date Nut Bread Day, and the Complications of Memory
I woke up in the dark today at 0630 to 16 degrees Fahrenheit--minus 8.8 Celsius--temperatures, and a rather chilly bedroom. Long story, never mind. A few short hours later, the air temperature outside was only 35F (slightly above freezing). But--because of the cloudless sky and bright sunshine--the temperature in my little sunroom was 80F (26.6C). … Continue reading December 20, 2023
Lifted from a post two years ago this very day, and updated for the occasion: See, this is why I like doing random research for Quote of the Day posts. I can go out and do a bit of investigating (my family doesn’t call me the “data ferret” for nothing), and, willy-nilly, I nearly always… Continue reading “God bless us, every one, December 19, 2023!” (And a musical interlude)
It's self-pity. We are (at least recently) consumed by it. They are not. I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself. A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough without ever having felt sorry for itself--D.H. Lawrence, Self-Pity First, let's get something out of the way: I'm not a great fan of… Continue reading The Difference Between Humans and Animals, According to DH Lawrence
December 1, 2023 is the anniversary of a great many consequential events: 68 years since seamstress Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama bus; 888 years since England’s King Henry I died after eating a “surfeit of lampreys” (anyone who’s ever actually seen (or thought about) a lamprey may find… Continue reading Come, Come Thou Bleak December Wind (from Coleridge, Fragment 3)
Almost seven years ago, I wrote a post on Ricochet titled The Other Woman. It told the story of a tiny, feisty nun, a Sister of Charity who–I believe–eclipsed, and had more influence upon the late Mr. Right than almost all other women in my late husband’s life (this includes me, his wife of almost… Continue reading “I Disobey The Government!”