All Purls. No Swine.
Well, it's NCAA basketball time again. I know this only because I turned on the TV the other night, and there it was. I watch very few current programs, so I am always somewhat peeved when the event I've planned my evening around disappears, especially when it is replaced by something so absurd as a… Continue reading “Historia Calamitatum”
To be infatuated with the power of one's own intellect is an accident which seldom happens but to those who are remarkable for the want of intellectual power. Whenever Nature leaves a hole in a person's mind, she generally plasters it over with a thick coat of self-conceit--Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Outre-Mer, A Pilgrimage Beyond the… Continue reading Quote of the Day: Longfellow On Self-Conceit
219 years ago, on the night of February 16, 1804, a young Lieutenant in the United States Navy led the first of his two expeditions that year into Tripoli Harbor, this one to set fire to, and destroy, the frigate USS Philadelphia, which--some months earlier--had run aground and been captured by the Tripolitan army of… Continue reading Quote of the Day: “The Shores of Tripoli”
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
I rarely contemplate the works of Charles Dickens for very long before thinking about a college professor of mine (we're talking mid-1970s here). This individual was a native of South Korea, and he taught at my alma mater, Duquesne University, from 1973-1990. I understand that--in his chosen field, as the 'writer-in-residence,' and as a professor… Continue reading Happy Birthday, Charles Dickens! On Hearts, Tempers, and the Magic of Touch
https://youtu.be/N1KvgtEnABY Brigadier-General Ripper actually had a few intelligent things to say on other matters. But what he's most remembered for are his very essential, obsessive, lunatical, misogynistic, rantings. Sad. But funny. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, premiered 59 years ago today, on January 29, 1964.
I don't know about you, but I rarely hear anyone using the phrase "living the dream" other than sarcastically, or to indicate that he or she is doing anything but. It may have originated, somewhere in the latter-half of the twentieth century to mean that it was possible, in these United States, to become, or… Continue reading “Living the Dream”
O wad some Pow'r the giftie gie us To see oursels as ithers see us! It wad frae mony a blunder free us, An' foolish notion Ah! The sainted Rabbie Burns. Scotland's national poet. Romantic to the end. Socialist. Raconteur. A man who dropped his seed wherever he felt like it, upon whichever woman struck… Continue reading Burns Supper Night: 2023
The house of delusions is cheap to build but drafty to live in, and ready at any instant to fall--A.E. Houseman The last time I wrote a post on this quote from one of my favorite poets, was in August of 2021. It was on a completely different subject, but I ended it thus: Sometimes,… Continue reading QOTD: “The House of Delusions,” Take Two
Yes, it's a marvelous conundrum: I remember Christian teachers telling me long ago that I must hate a bad man's actions but not hate the bad man: or, as they would say, hate the sin but not the sinner...I used to think this a silly, straw-splitting distinction: how could you hate what a man did… Continue reading On Hatred: What Did CS Lewis Have To Say?