All Purls. No Swine.
I remember the day, on Church Lane in Handsworth, at a time very different, in the late 1950s. With my maternal grandparents and my mother. Early church service (the children's service) at St. Mary's. Sermon by the vicar, the Reverend James Charles Harrison Tompkins, he who my father suspected had always had a lifelong infatuation… Continue reading On This Easter Sunday
Matthew 5:44. We are instructed to pray for these appalling people. This Easter week, I can't help reflecting that it's one of the hardest things to do in all of Christianity. Because my own Christian charity extends only so far, I resolve the dilemma in my own mind, thus: "You have to live with yourselves… Continue reading A Prayer for “them which despitefully use [us] and persecute [us]”
I wear the chain I forged in life,” replied the Ghost. “I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it--Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol First off, Happy Birthday, Charles Dickens! He was born 212 years ago,**… Continue reading Quote of the Day: On the Chains We Make (Or Don’t)
Oh, yes. Many have come before: Entertaining Angels: The Gift from God Edition Entertaining Angels: Life Comes Full Circle Edition (AKA the "Little Chick Chick Edition) Entertaining Angels: The Lamb in the Living Room Occasional Quote of the Day: Entertaining Angels And the one that started it all Entertaining Angels: Four-Legged Ones, Mostly Which brings… Continue reading Entertaining Angels: Here We Go Again Edition
Whatever the cause, my memory is my memory, it does what it does, gathers and curates as it sees fit, and there's just as much truth in what I remember and how I remember it as there is in so-called objective facts. Things like chronology and cause-and-effect are often just fables we tell ourselves about… Continue reading Quote of the Day: On Narcissism and Truth
Crimenutely. Subsequent to the leak of an English-language copy to The Guardian, and the "accidental" release--a week before its scheduled date--onto Spanish bookshelves of Prince Harry's autobiography Spare (known in Spain as En La Sombra--In the Shadow), the revelations have fallen thick and fast: Prince William once shoved Harry into a dog bowl, causing Prince… Continue reading Private Parts: The Memoirs of Captain Harry Wales
Well, there's the Wayne Newton original, which probably should come with a trigger warning, if only because of his execrable German pronunciation: https://youtu.be/0m_giioppT4 And then there's the karaoke music. You're welcome to sing along with my revised lyrics: https://youtu.be/DNL6I-NMhTw Schadenfreude, darling, schadenfreude I find myself feeling overjoyed. Blogging site, on the Internet Was the place… Continue reading The Joys of Schadenfreude
“The internet is not where you hide – it’s where you are found.“–Emily Aston Perrin I’ve been giving the advice found in the title of this post to student writers and friends for decades. It’s advice I follow myself, as anyone who’s read more than a few of my posts (thank you) must know. And… Continue reading Write What You Know
This is not a post about the merits (or otherwise) of the British monarchy. Nor about how glad the former colony on this side of the pond is, or should be, to have crawled out from under the yoke of it. Nor about what fools these British be for keeping it around, even in its… Continue reading Martin Bashir Gets His Comeuppance, Courtesy of Lord Dyson
I had my last conversation with Granny (my mother’s mother) not too long before she died. She was in her mid-eighties at the time, almost bedridden from the arthritis that had plagued her for decades, and mentally, she was getting a little bit woolly. The past, though, was still clear in her mind, and she… Continue reading Wisdom From My Granny