Oh, to be in England, Now that April’s there, And whoever wakes in England Sees, some morning, unaware, That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf, While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough In England – now!! In general, and despite my childhood infatuation with the… Continue reading Thoughts of Abroad, From Home, in April, 2025
Category: Literature
Reflections on “The Pied Piper of Hamelin”
The Pied Piper of Hamelin is one of my least favorite childhood stories, one so redolent of evil--with overtones of perversity-- that I pretty much deep-sixed it to the memory hole of my life, absent unusual circumstances which occasionally and repugnantly bring it to mind for one reason or another. If you’re not familiar with… Continue reading Reflections on “The Pied Piper of Hamelin”
Quote of the Day 2025: “The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool”
The quote in the title is from As You Like It, and it contains a lot of wisdom, but that’s not really the quote of the day. So, April Fool! Today’s actual quote of the day comes from Charles Lamb, who was born in 1775, in London, to a middle-class lawyer’s clerk and his wife, in… Continue reading Quote of the Day 2025: “The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool”
Happy Seynt Valentyn’s Day!
. . . from Geoffrey Chaucer, who, as with so many other things, is often credited with starting it all. It's a post which has largely gone before, but a sentiment which--to my mind--never goes out of date: Chaucer's dream vision poem, The Parliament of Fowls, was written about 1380 and begins with the narrator… Continue reading Happy Seynt Valentyn’s Day!
It’s The Eve of St. Agnes (Again)
An oldie but (to my mind) a goodie: There are some personal anniversaries I celebrate in my iPhone calendar app. Birthdays, death days, anniversaries, significant--even tragic--events of family, friends, and loved ones. Plenty of all those. Perhaps more than my fair share of a couple of them. But a few events superimpose themselves, irrespective of… Continue reading It’s The Eve of St. Agnes (Again)
Uniquely Human Memories–2024
A repost, because it matters: Here dead we lie because we did not choose To live and shame the land from which we sprung. Life, to be sure, is nothing much to lose; But young men think it is, and we were young. —A.E. Housman I think of Alfred Edward Housman (1859-1936) as my “hometown”… Continue reading Uniquely Human Memories–2024
In Memoriam, James Thurber
Anyone who reads at all diversely during these bizarre 1920s cannot escape the conclusion that a number of crazy men and women are writing stuff which remarkably passes for important composition among certain persons who should know better--James Thurber on Gertrude Stein Bless. I last wrote about Thurber several years ago, on the anniversary of… Continue reading In Memoriam, James Thurber
Swift and Sure. The more things change, the more they stay the same: Jonathan Swift, RIP
‘For,’ said he, ‘as flourishing a Condition as we may appear to be in to Foreigners, we labour under two mighty Evils: a violent Faction at home, and the Danger of an Invasion, by a most potent Enemy, from abroad. As to the first, you are to understand, that for about seventy Moons past there have been two struggling Parties… Continue reading Swift and Sure. The more things change, the more they stay the same: Jonathan Swift, RIP
This Day in Knitting History. And Something Else: “Boldly they rode and well”
Some things never change. One-hundred seventy years ago today, on 25th October 1854, during the Battle of Balaclava (1) 670 British soldiers under the command of Lord Cardigan(2), 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.… Continue reading This Day in Knitting History. And Something Else: “Boldly they rode and well”
Oscar Wilde on What Suffering Teaches Us
Somehow (I’m still not quite sure how), a long-ago conversation with a friend turned to the topic of Oscar Wilde. You know, the guy who said “I can resist anything except temptation,” and “A man’s face is his autobiography. A woman’s face is her work of fiction.” That Oscar Wilde. But the quote that my friend… Continue reading Oscar Wilde on What Suffering Teaches Us