All Purls. No Swine.
A lightly-edited post from several years ago, in honor (or despight) of Jack Kerouac's 101st birthday today. My contempt for the man--and everything he represents--hasn't changed. What a rotten, deranged, misogynistic bastard. Unfortunately, and increasingly, it seems that--these days--there are those who find such people inspiring and worthy of emulation. Particularly on social media. But… Continue reading On Household Relations and the Natural Order of Things, 2024 Edition
. . . from Geoffrey Chaucer, who, as with so many other things, is often credited with starting it all. His dream vision poem, The Parliament of Fowls, was written about 1380 and begins with the narrator (who seems not to know how to love, has perhaps never been in love, and will very likely never… Continue reading Happy Seynt Valentyn’s Day!
Cannot believe it's here already. Where has January gone? And February almost half-over! (That it isn't quite, in about 23 hours--in my time zone--can only be attributed to the fact that this is a leap year.) Ubi sunt? (The Latinistas among us (the one or two that I know of) will understand this.) It's a… Continue reading Pancake Tuesday, 2024
Celebrating the 546th anniversary of William Caxton's printing of Dictes and Sayenges of the Phylosophers, perhaps the first book ever printed in the English language on November 18, 1477, by dusting off an old post with a tangential relationship to the subject: Imagine yourself, if you will, as an inhabitant of late 14th-century England.… Continue reading Reality TV, 1387 Edition (Redux)
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
Well, here's an oldie but goodie. I was reminded of it by a recent post on Ricochet about Euripides's play, Medea (speaking of oldies but goodies). That post has to do with the retelling of the story of the figure with her roots firmly in Greek mythology who marries Jason of Golden Fleece and Argonauts… Continue reading Revisiting “Patient Griselda,” 2023: Was She a Perfect Wife, or a Credulous Fool?
I know many of you know them by heart. I’ve seen some of you say so, on Ricochet, over the past thirteen years. At some point in your lives, you probably had them thrust at you; you might have struggled through them; maybe you cheated with the Cliffs Notes; perhaps you said you couldn’t possibly… Continue reading The First Eighteen Lines: “Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote”
Today (February 13, 2023), I'm reviving a post from just six months ago. For a couple of reasons: First, because today is the anniversary of the birthday of the incomparable Eleanor Farjeon, who was born 142 years ago today, on February 13, 1881. She's mentioned, although peripherally, in the post below. And second, because of… Continue reading Happy Birthday, Eleanor Farjeon!, And RIP, Richard III
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 “My Kingdom for a Horse!”
Some time go, I saw this story, and sent the link to my stepdaughter and sister at approximately the same time as my stepdaughter sent the link to me and my sister, and only a moment or two before my sister sent the link to my stepdaughter and me. The circle of life. Connections. Not… Continue reading Shedding Some Light on Those Beastly Dark Ages