A partial indulgence is available to all the other faithful,
wherever they may be during World Youth Day, if, with a contrite heart, they
pray fervently that Christian youth
* be strengthened in the
profession of the Faith;
* be confirmed in love and reverence toward
their parents; and
* form a firm resolution to follow "the holy norms
of the Gospel and Mother Church" in living out their present or future
family
life, or whatever vocation they are called to by God.(Taken from http://www.ewtn.com/wyd2005/news2005.asp)
Friday, August 19, 2005
For Catholics
If you're a mal-practicing Catholic like me, you can use all the help you can get. I meant to post this two days ago, but it's still not too late to get in on this:
A Note About Comments
I will remove all spam posted in the comments. Also, should the issue come up, I will very likely remove any comment I deem grossly inappropriate. I've a pretty broad view of what's appropriate; people who act like they were brought up well aren't likely to post anything I'd remove.
Wednesday, August 17, 2005
More on the Humpty Dumpty Question
A few entries back, I posted Uncle Pookie's question about Humpty Dumpty. Well, I then happened to be rereading the Alice books (which, incidentally, I did not enjoy as much as when I was a child, although the songs are still great fun) and noticed that even back then Humpty Dumpty was already being depicted as an egg. Hmm. Why? Wikipedia offers four suggestions. One was that the nursery rhyme was originally a riddle, the answer to which was that HD was an egg. There were also two military explanations and a political explanation; I'd suggested to Uncle Pookie that the rhyme might refer to a political downfall, but I'm not so sure I buy the Wiki explanation of its referring to Richard III--for one thing, by the time he fell off his horse in Bosworth field, it was pretty much over for him and I don't think any of his men or horses were trying to put him together again.
Hurricanes and Poets, Or This Date in History
Thirty-six years ago today Hurricane Camille hit the Mississippi Gulf Coast. This was a particularly nasty hurricane. I used to hear about it growing up, although my family lived nowhere near the coast. Not that that mattered, as Camille caused damage clear up to Tennessee. An interesting afternote is that in the late '90s when another hurricane (Georges?) was supposed to hit the same area, people left the coast in droves. No nonsense about "riding it out" or not wanting to evacuate. They just left. A friend said she heard a national news reporter express surprise at how quickly and orderly everyone had complied with the suggestion they move inland. "Hah, those people still remember Camille." They knew--from experience--you just can't reason with hurricane season.
Today is also the 75th anniversary of Ted Hughes' birth. I have read almost nothing by him this past five years, but he used to mean a great deal to me and I was saddened by his death in '98. When I do read more of him in the future, I am curious how my Catholicism will affect my reading of him; I was a pagan when I used to read him, and that inevitably affected my taste for a poet who equated the poet's role with that of a shaman and who had a taste for astrology, magick, and myths. There's nothing wrong with the mythic imagination, but as occultism is forbidden to me now I've adopted the Christianity that doesn't come off looking so good in his poems, reading his work may feel different to me. But there's always his great love of nature running through his work, so I'm sure I'll still find pleasure there.
Today is also the 75th anniversary of Ted Hughes' birth. I have read almost nothing by him this past five years, but he used to mean a great deal to me and I was saddened by his death in '98. When I do read more of him in the future, I am curious how my Catholicism will affect my reading of him; I was a pagan when I used to read him, and that inevitably affected my taste for a poet who equated the poet's role with that of a shaman and who had a taste for astrology, magick, and myths. There's nothing wrong with the mythic imagination, but as occultism is forbidden to me now I've adopted the Christianity that doesn't come off looking so good in his poems, reading his work may feel different to me. But there's always his great love of nature running through his work, so I'm sure I'll still find pleasure there.
Okay, Now for a REAL Travesty
I've been listening to Bat Out of Hell lately while sewing. I think I've come to prefer it over Bat Out of Hell 2; I definitely appreciate it a lot more than I used to. But it reminds me of something I've long thought a travesty: That 70s Show has never once mentioned Bat Out of Hell! Admittedly I haven't had TV in over a year, so I missed all of last season, and I missed some episodes even before, but I didn't miss many. And I never heard one reference to BOOH or Meat Loaf. The show covered 1977 and 1978, when BOOH was released and got popular.
And it was really popular. Until about 1995, it was the bestselling debut album ever. It continues to sell, I've read, several million copies a year and is one of the best selling albums ever. Even in the rural town I lived in in the 70s--a town of about 500 people in an area that is usually a couple of years behind the times in fashions & fads--my teenaged cousin had a copy in her room.
This wouldn't seem like such a big deal if BOOH references wouldn't have fit in so well on the show. It's not hard to imagine a couple of Paradise By the Dashboard Light* jokes, and Hyde would surely have liked BOOH; moreover, the title track would have worked well in that episode where Hyde met the female biker who loved him and left him (or laid him and left him). But I guess the show is actually more about today than it is about the '70s, so no luck.
*If you've never heard it, Paradise By the Dashboard Light, in addition to being funny and provoking nostalgia in adults who weren't so chaste in their youth as they should have been, serves as a morality tale about the dangers of giving your word impulsively and/or of doing your thinking with your erectile tissue.
And it was really popular. Until about 1995, it was the bestselling debut album ever. It continues to sell, I've read, several million copies a year and is one of the best selling albums ever. Even in the rural town I lived in in the 70s--a town of about 500 people in an area that is usually a couple of years behind the times in fashions & fads--my teenaged cousin had a copy in her room.
This wouldn't seem like such a big deal if BOOH references wouldn't have fit in so well on the show. It's not hard to imagine a couple of Paradise By the Dashboard Light* jokes, and Hyde would surely have liked BOOH; moreover, the title track would have worked well in that episode where Hyde met the female biker who loved him and left him (or laid him and left him). But I guess the show is actually more about today than it is about the '70s, so no luck.
*If you've never heard it, Paradise By the Dashboard Light, in addition to being funny and provoking nostalgia in adults who weren't so chaste in their youth as they should have been, serves as a morality tale about the dangers of giving your word impulsively and/or of doing your thinking with your erectile tissue.
Brainwashing 101
If you want a peek at what's going on at the other end of the educational spectrum, there's a film at academicbias.com you may want to watch. It runs about forty-five minutes, is free, and can be watched on RealPlayer, QuickTime, or WindowsMedia. No short film can give more than the smallest taste of this large a subject, but if you haven't heard much about the curtailing of freedoms on college campuses in the US, it might be worth your time to watch it. Or listen while you do something else.
Sadly, nothing in the film surprised me. I have read about many similar cases over the past 5-10 years.
Sadly, nothing in the film surprised me. I have read about many similar cases over the past 5-10 years.
Building a Better (?) World Through School Supplies
In Sam's Club yesterday, I saw a large Crayola multipack that advertised itself as being good for teachers and day care owners. The pack contained numerous small boxes of crayons, in three categories: Classic Crayons (of course), Construction Paper Crayons (sure, why not), and Multicultural Crayons (WHAT?! Did I just read that?) No, I am not making this up. Multicultural Crayons. The box claimed they would be good for "teaching diversity".
That last bit gave me a clue what the "multicultural" boxes might contain--I didn't know before; I thought maybe it was crayons named after different cultures or geographical areas--but one box had had its plastic wrap torn off, so I opened it up to check. The "multicultural" boxes contained what were apparently intended to be various skin tones, although as I remarked to Uncle Pookie at the time, "That [the waxy white crayon] isn't a a flesh tone anywhere in the world, outside of certain films set in a largely mythical Transylvania."
Now, this is pretty silly. Look what it says about the mindset of whoever at Crayola came up with that idea: people with different skin colors are so different from one another that they automatically form a whole different culture. Skin color is really, really important in determining who you are, I guess.
Crayola claims these crayons are good for "teaching diversity", but to them diversity apparently just means having different flesh tones. You don't have to tell children that people come in multiple skin colors. You do have to teach small children how to blow their noses, but unless you're living in a small, racially homogenous, and completely isolated community with no television or photos from the outside world, you don't have to tell children that people come in different skin colors. They notice this on their own. And they don't need a special box of "multicultural" crayons to depict these skin colors in their drawings, either. All of those colors are available in any mid-size or large box of crayons.
And why teach "diversity"--which, remember, just means different skin color, not different languages, traditions, religions, clothing, or cultural taboos--anyway? Children already know different skin colors exist. Do they know how to read? Or recognize shapes or add and subtract?
***
(Note: None of the above should be interpreted as an attack on Crayola. They didn't invent this kind of silliness, even if some "ideas" or marketing person there has bought into it. As far as I know Crayola still makes a fine crayon.)
That last bit gave me a clue what the "multicultural" boxes might contain--I didn't know before; I thought maybe it was crayons named after different cultures or geographical areas--but one box had had its plastic wrap torn off, so I opened it up to check. The "multicultural" boxes contained what were apparently intended to be various skin tones, although as I remarked to Uncle Pookie at the time, "That [the waxy white crayon] isn't a a flesh tone anywhere in the world, outside of certain films set in a largely mythical Transylvania."
Now, this is pretty silly. Look what it says about the mindset of whoever at Crayola came up with that idea: people with different skin colors are so different from one another that they automatically form a whole different culture. Skin color is really, really important in determining who you are, I guess.
Crayola claims these crayons are good for "teaching diversity", but to them diversity apparently just means having different flesh tones. You don't have to tell children that people come in multiple skin colors. You do have to teach small children how to blow their noses, but unless you're living in a small, racially homogenous, and completely isolated community with no television or photos from the outside world, you don't have to tell children that people come in different skin colors. They notice this on their own. And they don't need a special box of "multicultural" crayons to depict these skin colors in their drawings, either. All of those colors are available in any mid-size or large box of crayons.
And why teach "diversity"--which, remember, just means different skin color, not different languages, traditions, religions, clothing, or cultural taboos--anyway? Children already know different skin colors exist. Do they know how to read? Or recognize shapes or add and subtract?
***
(Note: None of the above should be interpreted as an attack on Crayola. They didn't invent this kind of silliness, even if some "ideas" or marketing person there has bought into it. As far as I know Crayola still makes a fine crayon.)
Saturday, August 13, 2005
Animal Story and The Way We Talk
I saw a news story yesterday about a couple of teenagers in Canada who gave a dead cat an emergency C-section. I like animal stories, and I am glad not all of the kittens had to die with the mother cat and that a cat who'd lost her kittens was able to adopt new ones. But a point of language struck me.
We--and by "we" I mean everyone, including MSM--have no problem referring to what's in the womb of a pregnant cat as "kittens"--i.e. the usual word for immature cats. Or what's inside the womb of a pregnant dog as "puppies" (the usual word for immature dogs), etc. It is only when referring to what's inside the womb of a human that using the usual word for its offspring--i.e. "baby"--becomes controversial.
Some people not only won't say "baby" but will correct those who do: "It's not a baby, it's a fetus!" (Never mind that "fetus" comes from the Latin for "baby" or "offspring".) And MSM stories that involve pregnant women and what they're carrying sometimes say "baby" and sometimes "fetus" or other; an ongoing news story may see the same being go from being referred to as "fetus" to "baby"--for example, things along the line of "Fetus Missing" to "Baby Found" this past winter when that pregnant woman was murdered and her, um, "product of conception" stolen. And it's not always clear why MSM choose to use one word over the other. Maybe wanted uterine passengers are "babies" and uterine passengers that are not wanted by the mother--or that the speaker/writer think the woman shouldn't have--are "fetuses"? Of course the MSM has to be careful how it talks about things to avoid offending readers/viewers, but I think sometimes they're playing the same game the non-media people are: change what you call it and you'll change what it is.
And none of this is to suggest that "fetus", "embryo", etc. are incorrect, only to point out that it's a bit odd for no one to mind our saying "kitten" in a place where our saying "baby" would have people yelling at us.
You know, maybe the "it's not a baby, it's a fetus" people are a bit like those people who get very angry when human evolution is mentioned, but who don't bat an eye when, say, badger evolution is mentioned or when their doctors talks to them about bacteria and viruses adapting to our medical treatments or when pesticide companies talk about insects evolving to endure our current pesticides.
After discovering that the cat's body was still warm, they
decided to try to save its kittens ...
[She] made an incision into the mother cat's belly and could
see the kittens.
She pulled them out and found that two of four kittens were
still alive...
We--and by "we" I mean everyone, including MSM--have no problem referring to what's in the womb of a pregnant cat as "kittens"--i.e. the usual word for immature cats. Or what's inside the womb of a pregnant dog as "puppies" (the usual word for immature dogs), etc. It is only when referring to what's inside the womb of a human that using the usual word for its offspring--i.e. "baby"--becomes controversial.
Some people not only won't say "baby" but will correct those who do: "It's not a baby, it's a fetus!" (Never mind that "fetus" comes from the Latin for "baby" or "offspring".) And MSM stories that involve pregnant women and what they're carrying sometimes say "baby" and sometimes "fetus" or other; an ongoing news story may see the same being go from being referred to as "fetus" to "baby"--for example, things along the line of "Fetus Missing" to "Baby Found" this past winter when that pregnant woman was murdered and her, um, "product of conception" stolen. And it's not always clear why MSM choose to use one word over the other. Maybe wanted uterine passengers are "babies" and uterine passengers that are not wanted by the mother--or that the speaker/writer think the woman shouldn't have--are "fetuses"? Of course the MSM has to be careful how it talks about things to avoid offending readers/viewers, but I think sometimes they're playing the same game the non-media people are: change what you call it and you'll change what it is.
And none of this is to suggest that "fetus", "embryo", etc. are incorrect, only to point out that it's a bit odd for no one to mind our saying "kitten" in a place where our saying "baby" would have people yelling at us.
You know, maybe the "it's not a baby, it's a fetus" people are a bit like those people who get very angry when human evolution is mentioned, but who don't bat an eye when, say, badger evolution is mentioned or when their doctors talks to them about bacteria and viruses adapting to our medical treatments or when pesticide companies talk about insects evolving to endure our current pesticides.
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
Random Thoughts
As a pagan, I believed that the universe and all within it, living or non-living, was intricately and beautifully connected in the vast web of life and that everything within that web had its purpose. As a Catholic, I believe that God created the whole world, that everything in it is intricately and beautifully inter-connected, and that everything and everyone in it has a God-given purpose or purposes. None of this has helped me to figure out the purpose of the flea or to reconcile myself to its existence.
***
With all the American litigiousness and nannystate-ism, how long will it be before sales clerks are carding children who want to buy candy?
***
Why are middle-of-the-night self-revelations never anything good? Why when we're lying there, staring into the darkness, and suddenly have a flash of insight, is it never anything like "You know, I'm really charming when I try!" or "More of my actions have been motivated by genuinely unselfish good will than I ever realized before."
***
A society in which a large number of people have started to use the word "pimp" to refer to good things is a society in trouble.
***
We never hear about senile dementia in animals, but surely it must exist. They can get other problems associated with human old age--arthritis, cancer, etc.--so why not senility. My old cat has certainly become peculiar enough this past year.
***
Winston Churchill--Gryffindor or Slytherin? I'm thinking Gryffindor.
***
In spite of the people who, when they're defending their multiple piercings and tattoos, say you can't tell anything about a person by how he looks, appearances do tell us some things. I was behind a van recently that had a bumpersticker that said "You can't be both Catholic and pro-abortion" and whose vanity license plate said EWTN. Based on appearances, I think there's just the teensiest chance that van's owners were Catholic.
***
Given all those cause-related colored ribbons and rubber bracelets out there, you'd think someone would market a set of one or the other in the liturgical colors. It would be educational for the wearer, who'd have to keep an eye on the calendar to know which color to wear each day, and educational for any viewer who were to ask what that ribbon/bracelet stands for. It would be a much smaller version of what Regina Doman was talking about.
***
I keep hearing girls refer to dresses with plunging halter-top fronts and backs cut so low they're below the bra-strap line, fitted waists, and gathered skirts as "fifties housewife dresses". I don't know where these girls were brought up, but where I come from, I don't think there were many '50s housewives wearing dresses cut so low they couldn't wear a bra. I never saw Lucy and Ethel wearing one of those either.
***
People who are heavily into bdsm, etc. deride people who aren't into those things as liking "plain vanilla" sex, with the implication that vanilla people are boring and somehow less sexy. But really, who's less sexually sensitive--the people who greatly enjoy vanilla sex (maybe with the occasional bit of chocolate sauce) and are fully satisfied by that, or the people who must have an array of exotic supplemental objects and/or alternative practices to get off?
***
Random thought from Uncle Pookie: "How do you know Humpty Dumpty was an egg?" He's right. When we do what good literary students do and go back to the text, we see there's no mention whatever of Humpty being an egg.
***
With all the American litigiousness and nannystate-ism, how long will it be before sales clerks are carding children who want to buy candy?
***
Why are middle-of-the-night self-revelations never anything good? Why when we're lying there, staring into the darkness, and suddenly have a flash of insight, is it never anything like "You know, I'm really charming when I try!" or "More of my actions have been motivated by genuinely unselfish good will than I ever realized before."
***
A society in which a large number of people have started to use the word "pimp" to refer to good things is a society in trouble.
***
We never hear about senile dementia in animals, but surely it must exist. They can get other problems associated with human old age--arthritis, cancer, etc.--so why not senility. My old cat has certainly become peculiar enough this past year.
***
Winston Churchill--Gryffindor or Slytherin? I'm thinking Gryffindor.
***
In spite of the people who, when they're defending their multiple piercings and tattoos, say you can't tell anything about a person by how he looks, appearances do tell us some things. I was behind a van recently that had a bumpersticker that said "You can't be both Catholic and pro-abortion" and whose vanity license plate said EWTN. Based on appearances, I think there's just the teensiest chance that van's owners were Catholic.
***
Given all those cause-related colored ribbons and rubber bracelets out there, you'd think someone would market a set of one or the other in the liturgical colors. It would be educational for the wearer, who'd have to keep an eye on the calendar to know which color to wear each day, and educational for any viewer who were to ask what that ribbon/bracelet stands for. It would be a much smaller version of what Regina Doman was talking about.
***
I keep hearing girls refer to dresses with plunging halter-top fronts and backs cut so low they're below the bra-strap line, fitted waists, and gathered skirts as "fifties housewife dresses". I don't know where these girls were brought up, but where I come from, I don't think there were many '50s housewives wearing dresses cut so low they couldn't wear a bra. I never saw Lucy and Ethel wearing one of those either.
***
People who are heavily into bdsm, etc. deride people who aren't into those things as liking "plain vanilla" sex, with the implication that vanilla people are boring and somehow less sexy. But really, who's less sexually sensitive--the people who greatly enjoy vanilla sex (maybe with the occasional bit of chocolate sauce) and are fully satisfied by that, or the people who must have an array of exotic supplemental objects and/or alternative practices to get off?
***
Random thought from Uncle Pookie: "How do you know Humpty Dumpty was an egg?" He's right. When we do what good literary students do and go back to the text, we see there's no mention whatever of Humpty being an egg.
A Modest Swimsuit
I have no problem with a basic swimsuit--you know, the kind you see on competitive swimmers or in Azumanga Daioh's swim classes--myself, but for modesty or other reasons some women prefer not to show their bottoms. The swimdress is a good option for those women, as well as being an attractive choice for women who don't have the same concerns. I've liked those flirty little skirted swimdresses ever since I was a kid and I think it's unfortunate they aren't more readily available; they're tasteful, feminine, and more flattering to the average female form than most of the suits out there.
I recently found a tutorial on how to make a swimdress. This swimdress is different from the suits with the little skirt, and is more of a sheath-like dress, worn over a pair of bottoms. It's just as nice, though. The gist of the instructions: Buy a tankini swimsuit plus a duplicate suit in a larger size, cut off the larger tank below the breast and sew the resulting tube of fabric to the other tank.
McCall's #4848 has a swimdress pattern, but it has spaghetti straps and looks no better than the two tankini reconstruction job. And I think you'd have to be either good at sewing knits or very optimistic in your chances of having beginner's luck to attempt a swimsuit from scratch. I'm neither.
I recently found a tutorial on how to make a swimdress. This swimdress is different from the suits with the little skirt, and is more of a sheath-like dress, worn over a pair of bottoms. It's just as nice, though. The gist of the instructions: Buy a tankini swimsuit plus a duplicate suit in a larger size, cut off the larger tank below the breast and sew the resulting tube of fabric to the other tank.
McCall's #4848 has a swimdress pattern, but it has spaghetti straps and looks no better than the two tankini reconstruction job. And I think you'd have to be either good at sewing knits or very optimistic in your chances of having beginner's luck to attempt a swimsuit from scratch. I'm neither.
100% Catholic, Albeit Not the Best Example
You scored as Roman Catholic. You are Roman Catholic. Church tradition and ecclesial authority are hugely important, and the most important part of worship for you is mass. As the Mother of God, Mary is important in your theology, and as the communion of saints includes the living and the dead, you can also ask the saints to intercede for you.
What's your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com |
Sunday, August 07, 2005
In Praise of a Skirt
Like most American women my age, I grew up in pants and shorts. In the early '70s my mother sometimes dressed me in short dresses (fortunately none quite so short as the early Cindy Brady-type dresses, like these), but by the time I got to first grade she had me living in pants. From then until adolescence, the only time I wore skirts or dresses was when I went to church; Baptists frowned upon females wearing pants. And although in adolescence, when I began to be able to choose some of my own clothes, I began to occasionally wear skirts by choice, the association had already been made: dresses and skirts were for "dressing up" and they were uncomfortable. (I also associated church with "ugly dresses", but that's another story.)
That association changed this summer. Earlier this summer I made myself a jeans-to-skirt skirt. I've never liked denim skirts, but I do like thriftiness, and I had a pair of too loose jeans with some puppy-toenail snags on them that I didn't think the thrift store would want. So I set to, to make a skirt, using the usual two triangle insertion method. The method is shown on innumerable websites, but I like the about.com tutorial best; you can ignore the information about including a slit, because why would you be making a skirt so tight you can't walk without a slit? (Another method, using four triangles, is shown at SavvySeams.) I had only one pair of jeans, so unlike the skirt on about.com, my skirt ended up coming only just below the knee (it's kneelength when I sit), which is a really short skirt for me. (I tend to wear mid-calf or ankle-length skirts because I look best in mid-calf length hemlines and because I've always thought short skirts were a little too frivolous for someone of my oh-so-serious beatnik-ish, hippie-ish aesthethics.) I also left a fringe on the bottom, rather than hemming it, because the fabric spoke to me and asked to be left that way; I've never liked fringe before, hippie-ish aesthetics notwithstanding. So now I have a fringed denim skirt.
And guess what? It's super-comfortable. I've worn it more this summer than any other item of clothing I own. I wear it around the house to work in or waste time in, but it's not too sloppy or immodest to wear out grocery shopping or thrifting. It's cooler than shorts--all that upward draft. (A long crinkle cotton skirt or dress can be even cooler, but they're not exactly work clothes.) So who knew skirts could be comfortable and could be work clothes, as well as "dress up" clothes? Every generation of women before mine, as well as a great many women my age or younger. I guess I'm just slow. Add this to last year's revelation about aprons. (I discovered, after another thrifty recycle, that if you wear an apron, you don't have to look like a street urchin in the kitchen.) Funny how I'm just now learning things my grandmothers knew all their lives.
I've since made two more pants-to-skirt recons: a black denim skirt (neatly hemmed) out of a pair of damaged men's jeans and a long, hippie-ish skirt out of my favorite (but frayed at the inner thigh) pants and some sunflower fabric. My first one is my favorite though.
Note: A skirt-from-jeans is not only a good way to recycle pants you don't like anymore or that have a small tear or other damage, it's also a good project for a woman who's losing weight and doesn't want to invest a lot in new clothes while she's losing; the jeans that have become uncomfortably loose quickly become a skirt with a comfortable amount of ease.
That association changed this summer. Earlier this summer I made myself a jeans-to-skirt skirt. I've never liked denim skirts, but I do like thriftiness, and I had a pair of too loose jeans with some puppy-toenail snags on them that I didn't think the thrift store would want. So I set to, to make a skirt, using the usual two triangle insertion method. The method is shown on innumerable websites, but I like the about.com tutorial best; you can ignore the information about including a slit, because why would you be making a skirt so tight you can't walk without a slit? (Another method, using four triangles, is shown at SavvySeams.) I had only one pair of jeans, so unlike the skirt on about.com, my skirt ended up coming only just below the knee (it's kneelength when I sit), which is a really short skirt for me. (I tend to wear mid-calf or ankle-length skirts because I look best in mid-calf length hemlines and because I've always thought short skirts were a little too frivolous for someone of my oh-so-serious beatnik-ish, hippie-ish aesthethics.) I also left a fringe on the bottom, rather than hemming it, because the fabric spoke to me and asked to be left that way; I've never liked fringe before, hippie-ish aesthetics notwithstanding. So now I have a fringed denim skirt.
And guess what? It's super-comfortable. I've worn it more this summer than any other item of clothing I own. I wear it around the house to work in or waste time in, but it's not too sloppy or immodest to wear out grocery shopping or thrifting. It's cooler than shorts--all that upward draft. (A long crinkle cotton skirt or dress can be even cooler, but they're not exactly work clothes.) So who knew skirts could be comfortable and could be work clothes, as well as "dress up" clothes? Every generation of women before mine, as well as a great many women my age or younger. I guess I'm just slow. Add this to last year's revelation about aprons. (I discovered, after another thrifty recycle, that if you wear an apron, you don't have to look like a street urchin in the kitchen.) Funny how I'm just now learning things my grandmothers knew all their lives.
I've since made two more pants-to-skirt recons: a black denim skirt (neatly hemmed) out of a pair of damaged men's jeans and a long, hippie-ish skirt out of my favorite (but frayed at the inner thigh) pants and some sunflower fabric. My first one is my favorite though.
Note: A skirt-from-jeans is not only a good way to recycle pants you don't like anymore or that have a small tear or other damage, it's also a good project for a woman who's losing weight and doesn't want to invest a lot in new clothes while she's losing; the jeans that have become uncomfortably loose quickly become a skirt with a comfortable amount of ease.
Thursday, July 14, 2005
Misc. Stuff, Including More Barbies I Can Get Behind
I had some minor computer troubles lately that made using Blogger a pain, but here's some fun stuff I would have otherwise posted this past week.
***
I've seen altered dolls before, but I didn't realize the extent of this little subculture/hobby/craft. I was browsing the pattern catalogues in Wal-Mart last week, looking for a particular style of dress, and came across Simplicity number 4696, a Barbie--sorry, 11 1/2 inch fashion doll--"Extreme Doll Makeover". Actually it's patterns for a couple of outfits with instructions for modifications that may or may not be extreme. That very night, while looking for something else, I happened to come across the delightfully-named website of the woman who made the two dolls pictured on Simplicity #4696. Her Doll Gallery is fantastic; the Valkyrie section is my favorite, although there are great-looking dolls in every section and I particularly like the Chicks in Chain Mail doll. (Chicks in Chain Mail is a series of light-hearted fantasy stories, edited by Esther Freisner and featuring, as you might guess, chicks in chain mail. I've not read all the books, but I enjoyed what I read.) The dolls' weapons are made by the dollmaker's husband, a knifemaker; I like all the weapons, but the Barbie-sized battle ax made me ooh and aww more than anything. For people who want to alter their own dolls, Valkyrie has a lot of tips.
To see more people's altered dolls, search Dogpile or EBay for the terms FDMAA or OOAK. In addition to altered 11 1/2 inch fashion dolls, you'll also find "reborn" baby dolls and others.
***
I enjoy Maclin Horton's posts on the Caelum et Terra blog, but the most interesting post of his this past week was his link to what he calls "the definitive judgement on Harry Potter." I could find some things to quibble with in the post he links to, but it is pretty close to what he says it is.
I believe the Regina Doman who wrote that judgement on HP is the same Regina Doman or Schmiedicke who wrote an article on liturgical dressing in Domestic-Church. I'm not interested in dressing according to the liturgical colors for the simple reason that I don't look good in any of those colors except green (and not the shade of green usually seen in priest's vestments either), but I'm fascinated by her account of the Mary Dress and the Mary Jumper because I prefer simplicity of dress and am interested in pattern-free clothes. I just wish she'd posted photos of her wearing samples of each.
***
The current Foamy has Germaine making her own clothes because all the clothing in the local stores is "slutwear for teens". A recent episode had her complaining that she couldn't find a pair of pants without something written across the butt. Now if it were Jerry Falwell complaining that would be one thing. And if it were a non-prudish but decidedly grumpy person such as myself complaining--and I assure you I have been doing so the past couple of years--that would be another thing. But when a Gothy, bitch-hermit wannabe, tank-top-wearer like Germaine is fed up with how revealing fashions are, things have officially gone too far.
I think the tide is turning, albeit slowly. I'm seeing more knee-length skirts, and hear talk of the "sexy librarian" look (a big step up from the cheap whore look), gypsy skirts, and prairie dresses. Also I think the minor fad-let of girls wearing revealing slip-dresses over jeans comes from a (possibly unconscious) desire for more modesty; it reminds me of Wendy Shalit talking about women wearing split skirts who, when a breeze comes by, instinctively try to close the slit.
(I don't remember where I read that bit from Shalit, but she has several things available online. Click here for the first chapter of her book and here for a speech she gave.)
***
I've seen many hummingbirds, but I have never seen a hummingbird nest. Here's a story-in-photos of a hummingbird nest and its occupants. Even if you're grossed out by baby birds and glossy, full-color, photographic depictions of bird shit, keep going till the end--the size comparison is amazing. (Link via The Anchoress.)
***
Here's a pattern I want to try: Dolly Hugs. It's a small cloth doll that is made so that its arms will drape around a child's neck as if it were hugging the child. Yeah, yeah, it sounds nauseating, but the doll looks cute and the pattern is incredibly simple. The pattern is free, provided it's used for non-commercial, preferably charitable purposes. That's the other part I like--the pattern was created with troubled children in mind.
***
I've seen altered dolls before, but I didn't realize the extent of this little subculture/hobby/craft. I was browsing the pattern catalogues in Wal-Mart last week, looking for a particular style of dress, and came across Simplicity number 4696, a Barbie--sorry, 11 1/2 inch fashion doll--"Extreme Doll Makeover". Actually it's patterns for a couple of outfits with instructions for modifications that may or may not be extreme. That very night, while looking for something else, I happened to come across the delightfully-named website of the woman who made the two dolls pictured on Simplicity #4696. Her Doll Gallery is fantastic; the Valkyrie section is my favorite, although there are great-looking dolls in every section and I particularly like the Chicks in Chain Mail doll. (Chicks in Chain Mail is a series of light-hearted fantasy stories, edited by Esther Freisner and featuring, as you might guess, chicks in chain mail. I've not read all the books, but I enjoyed what I read.) The dolls' weapons are made by the dollmaker's husband, a knifemaker; I like all the weapons, but the Barbie-sized battle ax made me ooh and aww more than anything. For people who want to alter their own dolls, Valkyrie has a lot of tips.
To see more people's altered dolls, search Dogpile or EBay for the terms FDMAA or OOAK. In addition to altered 11 1/2 inch fashion dolls, you'll also find "reborn" baby dolls and others.
***
I enjoy Maclin Horton's posts on the Caelum et Terra blog, but the most interesting post of his this past week was his link to what he calls "the definitive judgement on Harry Potter." I could find some things to quibble with in the post he links to, but it is pretty close to what he says it is.
I believe the Regina Doman who wrote that judgement on HP is the same Regina Doman or Schmiedicke who wrote an article on liturgical dressing in Domestic-Church. I'm not interested in dressing according to the liturgical colors for the simple reason that I don't look good in any of those colors except green (and not the shade of green usually seen in priest's vestments either), but I'm fascinated by her account of the Mary Dress and the Mary Jumper because I prefer simplicity of dress and am interested in pattern-free clothes. I just wish she'd posted photos of her wearing samples of each.
***
The current Foamy has Germaine making her own clothes because all the clothing in the local stores is "slutwear for teens". A recent episode had her complaining that she couldn't find a pair of pants without something written across the butt. Now if it were Jerry Falwell complaining that would be one thing. And if it were a non-prudish but decidedly grumpy person such as myself complaining--and I assure you I have been doing so the past couple of years--that would be another thing. But when a Gothy, bitch-hermit wannabe, tank-top-wearer like Germaine is fed up with how revealing fashions are, things have officially gone too far.
I think the tide is turning, albeit slowly. I'm seeing more knee-length skirts, and hear talk of the "sexy librarian" look (a big step up from the cheap whore look), gypsy skirts, and prairie dresses. Also I think the minor fad-let of girls wearing revealing slip-dresses over jeans comes from a (possibly unconscious) desire for more modesty; it reminds me of Wendy Shalit talking about women wearing split skirts who, when a breeze comes by, instinctively try to close the slit.
(I don't remember where I read that bit from Shalit, but she has several things available online. Click here for the first chapter of her book and here for a speech she gave.)
***
I've seen many hummingbirds, but I have never seen a hummingbird nest. Here's a story-in-photos of a hummingbird nest and its occupants. Even if you're grossed out by baby birds and glossy, full-color, photographic depictions of bird shit, keep going till the end--the size comparison is amazing. (Link via The Anchoress.)
***
Here's a pattern I want to try: Dolly Hugs. It's a small cloth doll that is made so that its arms will drape around a child's neck as if it were hugging the child. Yeah, yeah, it sounds nauseating, but the doll looks cute and the pattern is incredibly simple. The pattern is free, provided it's used for non-commercial, preferably charitable purposes. That's the other part I like--the pattern was created with troubled children in mind.
Monday, July 11, 2005
"Sometimes Even Good Men Go Away"
Mudville Gazette has songs written by American soldiers. Chesterton talked about modern people not singing but listening to one man sing, for the inadequate reason that he does it better, when we should all sing and write our own songs, etc. That is true folk art--art by ordinary folks. I think Chesterton would approve of these men's efforts, just as I think he would approve of filk.
Sunday, July 10, 2005
Team America (/England/Catholic) Song, Bound to Offend Someone
Stuttaford in the Corner linked to the following 7/7/05 tribute to England: For Our British Friends. Do not click on it if you are offended by a certain versatile four-letter word that is often thought to be Anglo-Saxon, but is actually a Dutch borrowing; in fact, you should skip this post. The tribute is the Team America song, with "England" replacing "America". So, sing with me:
I told Uncle Pookie about this, and happened to mention "weird hats".
Uncle Pookie: We need to make one for the Vatican.
Me: [pause]SWISS GUARDS!
U.P.: **** Yeah! Bulletproof Pope-mobile! **** Yeah! Moral authority over billions of people! **** Yeah! Tall hats! **** Yeah!...Apostolic succession! **** Yeah!
Benny Hill--**** Yeah!
Maggie Thatcher--**** Yeah!
James Bond--**** Yeah!
Dead parrots pining for the fjords--**** Yeah!
Longbows--**** Yeah!
Cheerfully adopting words from other languages, so English bears the postmark of every place we've ever visited--**** Yeah!
Fish and chips---**** Yeah!
Churchill--**** Yeah!
Well, you get the idea. Though longbows--at least those really great ones at Agincourt--were Welch, and the best James Bond was played by a Scotsman. I figure the whole UK counts.I told Uncle Pookie about this, and happened to mention "weird hats".
Uncle Pookie: We need to make one for the Vatican.
Me: [pause]
U.P.: **** Yeah! Bulletproof Pope-mobile! **** Yeah! Moral authority over billions of people! **** Yeah! Tall hats! **** Yeah!...Apostolic succession! **** Yeah!
Our Lady of Prompt Succor, Pray for Us
Thanks to our move last year, I live pretty close to the Gulf Coast. We seem pretty safe here--from this one, anyway--but whenever a hurricane might hit anywhere near New Orleans, I think of Our Lady of Prompt Succor. Protection from hurricanes may not be what she is famous for, but I suspect she's been prayed to many times when hurricanes were imminent. Possibly even by some of the same people who have hurricane parties in boarded-up bars in the French Quarter while waiting for the hurricane. :-)
Saturday, July 09, 2005
I'm Starting to Suspect I Have No Life
In the tradition of James Lilek's Gallery of Regrettable Food, it's Threadbared.Com. Great old sewing pattern envelopes (also knitting, crochet, and macrame pics) and plenty of snarkiness. Viewing is especially recommended for when you're feeling snarky. Very funny. Although I could have lived just fine without their informing me of the existence of butt bras.
Friday, July 08, 2005
We Band of Brothers (and Sisters)
I am pleased to see that England is handling yesterday's terrorist attacks on London civilians so well. I often fear that the Anglosphere is losing its collective backbone, but it looks as if England, at least, is still made of stronger stuff than Spain.
As for the terrorists, I am, as a Catholic, compelled to pray for the souls of my enemies, and I do frequently pray for a conversion of heart for all terrorists. But I hope that meanwhile they are all brought to swift justice. It does me no credit to say so, but I'll confess I don't particularly care if the justice they meet is tempered with mercy or not; we women can be bloodthirsty when it comes to the protection and defence of our own.
As for the terrorists, I am, as a Catholic, compelled to pray for the souls of my enemies, and I do frequently pray for a conversion of heart for all terrorists. But I hope that meanwhile they are all brought to swift justice. It does me no credit to say so, but I'll confess I don't particularly care if the justice they meet is tempered with mercy or not; we women can be bloodthirsty when it comes to the protection and defence of our own.
Wednesday, July 06, 2005
Art Attacks
No, not When Art Attacks, but Art Attacks, a British arts & crafts program for children. I've never seen it, but its website has a lot of fun projects available. They're meant for children, but many of them would be just as much fun for adults. Check it out:
http://www.hitentertainment.com/artattack/menu_artattacks.html
http://www.hitentertainment.com/artattack/menu_artattacks.html
Ma'am/Sir and Mr./Mrs./Miss/Miz
In The Corner today Rod Dreher linked to a Dallas News article on the decline of ma'am and sir and there was some talk about that and Mr./Mrs./Miss. I've commented on honorifics before, but here's a few more comments.
Like Dreher, I grew up being taught to say ma-am and sir. I'm not extremely attached to the terms (a polite yes or no has never bothered me), but I do favor their general use by children and their being used by nearly everyone when talking to the very elderly (other elderly people excepted.) The terms may be in decline even here in the South, but they haven't died out all together. And I'll admit that I always think more favorably of people who use those terms; when I hear those terms coming easily to the lips of someone my age, I know that person was "raised right".
Also like Dreher--probably because he was brought up in Louisiana and I in Mississippi--I was brought up calling most adults by their first name plus Mr. or Miss. (Incidentally, we pronounced Miss in those circumstances more like Ms., possibly because of its being used for both married and unmarried women.) Some adults--for example, schoolteachers--we called by their last name plus honorific. We never called adults by their first name. Back then I would have been shocked to hear a fellow child call an adult by his first name, and I do not like to hear it even now.
The first name plus honorific custom is still alive, by the way. Possibly more so than the ma'am/sir thing. I hope it doesn't decline further, because I think preserving distinction between adults and children is a good idea. Even if adults are all pretending to be chums by insisting on first names, children aren't adults and having children use honorifics for adults helps foster respect of authority.
It may be silly, but it recently occurred to me I would really like for someone--anyone--to call me Mrs. F----. Just once. I've been married ten and a half years and I don't think anyone has ever called me Mrs. Married Name. I've received a few letters addressed to Mrs. Suzanne --- and the diocesan newspaper is addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Uncle Pookie, but no one has ever called me Mrs. Pookie. Being called Miss Suzanne by politely brought up children, while nice, isn't quite the same, as I've been called that since at least the age of seventeen. Being called by my first name only is definitely not the same. It's a small thing, but it would be nice to hear. I'm an old married woman myself, but I suspect there may be a few brides out there who, deprived of ever hearing it in our first-name-only society, might like to be called Mrs. New Last Name.
The funny thing about my wanting to be called Mrs. ---- is that I actually had to think for a while before I decided to take my husband's last name. I always knew I would never want to marry, then I did decide to marry but had to think about whether to take his name or not, now I just wish someone would actually call me Mrs. Life's a funny old thing.
Like Dreher, I grew up being taught to say ma-am and sir. I'm not extremely attached to the terms (a polite yes or no has never bothered me), but I do favor their general use by children and their being used by nearly everyone when talking to the very elderly (other elderly people excepted.) The terms may be in decline even here in the South, but they haven't died out all together. And I'll admit that I always think more favorably of people who use those terms; when I hear those terms coming easily to the lips of someone my age, I know that person was "raised right".
Also like Dreher--probably because he was brought up in Louisiana and I in Mississippi--I was brought up calling most adults by their first name plus Mr. or Miss. (Incidentally, we pronounced Miss in those circumstances more like Ms., possibly because of its being used for both married and unmarried women.) Some adults--for example, schoolteachers--we called by their last name plus honorific. We never called adults by their first name. Back then I would have been shocked to hear a fellow child call an adult by his first name, and I do not like to hear it even now.
The first name plus honorific custom is still alive, by the way. Possibly more so than the ma'am/sir thing. I hope it doesn't decline further, because I think preserving distinction between adults and children is a good idea. Even if adults are all pretending to be chums by insisting on first names, children aren't adults and having children use honorifics for adults helps foster respect of authority.
It may be silly, but it recently occurred to me I would really like for someone--anyone--to call me Mrs. F----. Just once. I've been married ten and a half years and I don't think anyone has ever called me Mrs. Married Name. I've received a few letters addressed to Mrs. Suzanne --- and the diocesan newspaper is addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Uncle Pookie, but no one has ever called me Mrs. Pookie. Being called Miss Suzanne by politely brought up children, while nice, isn't quite the same, as I've been called that since at least the age of seventeen. Being called by my first name only is definitely not the same. It's a small thing, but it would be nice to hear. I'm an old married woman myself, but I suspect there may be a few brides out there who, deprived of ever hearing it in our first-name-only society, might like to be called Mrs. New Last Name.
The funny thing about my wanting to be called Mrs. ---- is that I actually had to think for a while before I decided to take my husband's last name. I always knew I would never want to marry, then I did decide to marry but had to think about whether to take his name or not, now I just wish someone would actually call me Mrs. Life's a funny old thing.
Japan v. Contemporary America
Azrael, of "I am a Japanese School Teacher", has a newish post that compares how the death of one of his students was handled by the Japanese school to how the death of one of his classmates in his own US (Californian, I think) school was handled. Guess which approach works better, A.) disrupting normal routine, encouraging students to emote about their trauma, and bringing in grief counselors, or B.) having a brief talk about it, then expecting everyone to soldier on.
Speaking of Japan, Rich Lowry's recent cover article--I think it was "Unleash Japan!"--in National Review is really interesting and worth reading.
Speaking of Japan, Rich Lowry's recent cover article--I think it was "Unleash Japan!"--in National Review is really interesting and worth reading.
Wednesday, June 29, 2005
Misc. Fun Stuff Online
I have said on these pages in the past that Barbie is not a nice girl. I take it back. Here's a Barbie I can cheer for.
***
Viking Kittens. This is an oldie, but still a cutie. It disappeared from its site of origin for a long time (possibly because its creator apparently doesn't know cute from the hole in the ground that is some of the things he replaced it with), but Ace of Spades recently posted a new (to me) address for it.
***
This guy may be a little too fond of pregnant animals; then again maybe it's just that English is not his first language and he doesn't realize he sounds a bit odd. Either way, there's a lot of pictures of pregnant animals. I couldn't look at them all, but here's my favorites:
A proud pregnant lady (dog variety).
A not-so-ladylike pregnant dog.
Ever seen a pregnant meerkat?
A number of pictures of the big cats were notable for the casualness with which big-bellied pregnant cats loll about on tree limbs. I want to tell them to get down from there, to think of the kits for heaven's sake.
I don't know if egg-bearing creatures are considered pregnant before they lay, but one of Stephen Jay Gould's books had an amazing x-ray picture of a dodo-like bird that's egg makes up about 40% of its mass by the time its mature. That's an "it could be worse" type comment you could run by the nearest pregnant woman. (Note: I take no responsibility for harm to your person incurred by following my suggestions.)
(Hat tip to BoingBoing)
***
Ever get the feeling you're being watched?
***
Viking Kittens. This is an oldie, but still a cutie. It disappeared from its site of origin for a long time (possibly because its creator apparently doesn't know cute from the hole in the ground that is some of the things he replaced it with), but Ace of Spades recently posted a new (to me) address for it.
***
This guy may be a little too fond of pregnant animals; then again maybe it's just that English is not his first language and he doesn't realize he sounds a bit odd. Either way, there's a lot of pictures of pregnant animals. I couldn't look at them all, but here's my favorites:
A proud pregnant lady (dog variety).
A not-so-ladylike pregnant dog.
Ever seen a pregnant meerkat?
A number of pictures of the big cats were notable for the casualness with which big-bellied pregnant cats loll about on tree limbs. I want to tell them to get down from there, to think of the kits for heaven's sake.
I don't know if egg-bearing creatures are considered pregnant before they lay, but one of Stephen Jay Gould's books had an amazing x-ray picture of a dodo-like bird that's egg makes up about 40% of its mass by the time its mature. That's an "it could be worse" type comment you could run by the nearest pregnant woman. (Note: I take no responsibility for harm to your person incurred by following my suggestions.)
(Hat tip to BoingBoing)
***
Ever get the feeling you're being watched?
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Of Interest to Dickens Fans
In addition to live digital feed, BBC7 keeps the last six days of its programming available free of charge online. Sunday they aired Miriam Margolyes' one-woman show, Dickens' Women, in which she talks about Dickens' life and acts out scenes from his novels. Very entertaining. It should be available until the end of the week.
Book Meme
Banshee at the Aliens in This World blog (good if you are Catholic and like anime) tagged everyone with the book meme. So here's my responses.
1. Total number of books I've owned. Hard to say, as I've been culling regularly ever since I was 11 or 12 and realized I'd have no space for new books unless I got rid of my Nancy Drews and kiddie books. Then when we moved here last year, I had to go beyond my usual culls and cut 'til it hurt. So I probably own about 200 now, but have owned two, maybe three thousand.
2. Last book I bought. An Introduction to English Poetry, by James Fenton. (Two dollars for pristine secondhand!) It just came in the mail yesterday. I opened the package right before bed, opened the book just to glance at the first page, and had read three chapters before I forced myself to stop. Writing about poetry is usually dry, so I'm impressed with Mr. Fenton, that he can make me have to force myself to stop reading.
3. Last book I read. One of the Azu Manga Daioh mangas. (FWIW I recommend watching the anime instead; the anime has cheerful music and Chiyo-chan's unbelievably enormous cuteness and Osaka's spaciness only fully come through in animation.) Other than graphic stuff, I went through a few craft books in the past few days--I hesitate to say I read craft books, I just sort of go through them. I can't remember the last novel or nonfiction book I read cover-to-cover. Possibly The Black Tower by P.D. James.
3.A. Books I'm currently reading. An Introduction to English Poetry, obviously. The Proud Tower by Barbara Tuchman and Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers. I have a few things by the bed that I dip into periodically--several poetry anthologies, a collection of Fulton Sheen's essays, and The Imitation of Christ. But I go at those in such fits and starts, I don't really think of myself as reading them.
4. Five books that mean a lot to me. I hate this kind of question. But here's five that mean a lot, not necessarily mean the most.
1. Little Women, because it was the first novel I fell in love with. I talked about this in a previous post.
2. Heretics, by G. K. Chesterton. It was the first book I read by Chesterton, and thus my introduction--other than a Father Brown story or two--to that delightful mind. I think people undervalue Heretics because Orthodoxy overshadows it.
3. Witches Abroad, by Terry Pratchett. That was the first novel I read by Pratchett. And when I'd read it I actually got angry at my husband because he'd had it sitting on his bookshelves for years and had never told me how funny it was. We now have nearly every Discworld novel, but I still recommend most Pratchett newbies start with Witches Abroad. (I may give a different recommendation if I know something more about the person's reading tastes.)
Pratchett, incidentally, said in an interview in Weird Tales that he's a fan of Chesterton. Because Pratchett lived in Chesterton's town as a boy, there were a lot of Chesterton's books about, and he read them because they were there. (I understand that; I read whatever was there as a child.) He said that there's no better training for a fantasy writer, because Chesterton teaches a person to turn things upside down or sideways and see them anew.
4. The Great Divorce, by C. S. Lewis. I read this during my conversion. After I read it, I believed in hell. Before, the idea would have seemed preposterous, but Lewis described hell in terms that I could understand. Fully.
5. On questions like this it's usually considered bad form to name either the Bible or Shakespeare's Complete Works. I don't see why I can't name a play though, and it's Much Ado About Nothing. That was the first Shakespeare play I fell in love with. I'd already read Romeo and Juliet, and I won't dispute that R&J is better, but R&J didn't start my lifelong love of Shakespeare. MAAN did.
When I was, I believe, thirteen, I happened to turn on PBS one night and they were showing MAAN. I think it was the complete works Shakespeare Plays series that BBC did in the late 70s through the early 80s; some of the productions were bad, but I greatly enjoyed what I saw that night. Before I went to bed I got out the old, limp red-covered, two-columns-to-the-page, garage sale Complete Works I had and read MAAN straight through. I knew I was on to something.
In addition to starting a long-term literary love affair, MAAN probably created--it certainly nurtured--my preference for the bickering couple of fiction, rather than the starry-eyed romantics. I tend to trust the bickering couples over the romantics in life as well.
Like Banshee, I tag everyone.
1. Total number of books I've owned. Hard to say, as I've been culling regularly ever since I was 11 or 12 and realized I'd have no space for new books unless I got rid of my Nancy Drews and kiddie books. Then when we moved here last year, I had to go beyond my usual culls and cut 'til it hurt. So I probably own about 200 now, but have owned two, maybe three thousand.
2. Last book I bought. An Introduction to English Poetry, by James Fenton. (Two dollars for pristine secondhand!) It just came in the mail yesterday. I opened the package right before bed, opened the book just to glance at the first page, and had read three chapters before I forced myself to stop. Writing about poetry is usually dry, so I'm impressed with Mr. Fenton, that he can make me have to force myself to stop reading.
3. Last book I read. One of the Azu Manga Daioh mangas. (FWIW I recommend watching the anime instead; the anime has cheerful music and Chiyo-chan's unbelievably enormous cuteness and Osaka's spaciness only fully come through in animation.) Other than graphic stuff, I went through a few craft books in the past few days--I hesitate to say I read craft books, I just sort of go through them. I can't remember the last novel or nonfiction book I read cover-to-cover. Possibly The Black Tower by P.D. James.
3.A. Books I'm currently reading. An Introduction to English Poetry, obviously. The Proud Tower by Barbara Tuchman and Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers. I have a few things by the bed that I dip into periodically--several poetry anthologies, a collection of Fulton Sheen's essays, and The Imitation of Christ. But I go at those in such fits and starts, I don't really think of myself as reading them.
4. Five books that mean a lot to me. I hate this kind of question. But here's five that mean a lot, not necessarily mean the most.
1. Little Women, because it was the first novel I fell in love with. I talked about this in a previous post.
2. Heretics, by G. K. Chesterton. It was the first book I read by Chesterton, and thus my introduction--other than a Father Brown story or two--to that delightful mind. I think people undervalue Heretics because Orthodoxy overshadows it.
3. Witches Abroad, by Terry Pratchett. That was the first novel I read by Pratchett. And when I'd read it I actually got angry at my husband because he'd had it sitting on his bookshelves for years and had never told me how funny it was. We now have nearly every Discworld novel, but I still recommend most Pratchett newbies start with Witches Abroad. (I may give a different recommendation if I know something more about the person's reading tastes.)
Pratchett, incidentally, said in an interview in Weird Tales that he's a fan of Chesterton. Because Pratchett lived in Chesterton's town as a boy, there were a lot of Chesterton's books about, and he read them because they were there. (I understand that; I read whatever was there as a child.) He said that there's no better training for a fantasy writer, because Chesterton teaches a person to turn things upside down or sideways and see them anew.
4. The Great Divorce, by C. S. Lewis. I read this during my conversion. After I read it, I believed in hell. Before, the idea would have seemed preposterous, but Lewis described hell in terms that I could understand. Fully.
5. On questions like this it's usually considered bad form to name either the Bible or Shakespeare's Complete Works. I don't see why I can't name a play though, and it's Much Ado About Nothing. That was the first Shakespeare play I fell in love with. I'd already read Romeo and Juliet, and I won't dispute that R&J is better, but R&J didn't start my lifelong love of Shakespeare. MAAN did.
When I was, I believe, thirteen, I happened to turn on PBS one night and they were showing MAAN. I think it was the complete works Shakespeare Plays series that BBC did in the late 70s through the early 80s; some of the productions were bad, but I greatly enjoyed what I saw that night. Before I went to bed I got out the old, limp red-covered, two-columns-to-the-page, garage sale Complete Works I had and read MAAN straight through. I knew I was on to something.
In addition to starting a long-term literary love affair, MAAN probably created--it certainly nurtured--my preference for the bickering couple of fiction, rather than the starry-eyed romantics. I tend to trust the bickering couples over the romantics in life as well.
Like Banshee, I tag everyone.
Not Enough Babes in the Woods
Yesterday I read a fascinating Newsweek article on some of the less well-known consequences of Europe's de-population:
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/8359066/site/newsweek/
The unexpected (by me, anyway) consequences include reforestation, the return of wolves, a decrease in biodiversity (as farmland becomes forest, there is an initial, generations-long decrease in biodiversity as meadow flora and fauna are lost), and sewer problems.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/8359066/site/newsweek/
The unexpected (by me, anyway) consequences include reforestation, the return of wolves, a decrease in biodiversity (as farmland becomes forest, there is an initial, generations-long decrease in biodiversity as meadow flora and fauna are lost), and sewer problems.
Friday, June 24, 2005
A Sewing Tip You Won't Hear From Sandra Bettzina
Wear shoes in your sewing room. Especially if it's carpeted. No matter how obsessively careful you are about keeping up with pins, some of the little things find their way into the carpet, where they lie in wait for bare feet. My head must be harder than my feet, because I had to pull more than one pin from my sole before I finally learned.
Saturday, June 18, 2005
Tony Soprano vs. the New Age Guy
The recent news about French men supposedly wanting to be pregnant, should the technology become available (at least some Europeans want to have babies), and a fluff piece about macho men being out and vain metrosexuals being in (which I don't believe) that got a lot of comments online have had me thinking fondly of Tony Soprano this week. Especially that episode with the wandering bear where Tony feels bad because he's afraid he can't properly protect his wife now they're separated; it ends with a great scene of him sitting in the back yard with a shotgun, waiting and watching in case the bear should come back. Sure, Tony is a bad man, but at least he's masculine. I think most women would rather have a man who cares about protecting his wife and home than one whose biggest worry is whether he gets equal mirror time in the bathroom.
Much Ado About a Handkerchief
As best I remember, I haven't read Othello since I was a teenager, but over the past few weeks I've watched two movie versions and listened to an audio version several times. (I like to listen to audio books as I do housework or sew.) The movies were the 1995 Othello, starring Laurence Fishburne and Kenneth Branagh, and Orson Welles' 1950s version. I didn't watch the 1995 one back in the '90s because I hadn't seen a trailer and feared it would be a mishmash of political correctness; to my pleasure, it wasn't . The script seemed to be trimmed pretty close to the bone, but it made a good movie, and the actors, scenery, and costumes were good. I especially liked Branagh's performance as Iago. Orson Welles' version, which was extensively restored in the '90s, is very interesting visually; it looks and sounds something like a horror film--not inappropriate considering what happens in the story is rather horrific.
Some random thoughts about the movies and the play itself:
* Some years ago I tried to watch Laurence Olivier's Othello, but I couldn't get past his blackface. Orson Welles looks boyish at times, but his blackface is much better than Olivier's.
* I don't know if it's a good idea to cast a handsome man like Laurence Fishburne as Othello. His appearance contributes to the erotic appeal of the DVD cover, but it makes all those "why would she choose him" comments hard to understand. Of course, I'm looking at this with 21st century American eyes, not the eyes of an early 17th century English audience, most of whom had likely never seen a black man; perhaps any black man would look odd to them. Still I think I would have chosen a man who's a bit older and less attractive than Fishburne to emphasize the differences between Othello and Desdemona.
* Branagh's Iago is somewhat more convincing that that of MacLiammoir in Welles' film. I can't fault the latter's acting; it's just that it's easier to imagine Othello--or anyone else--trusting the good-looking Branagh than the slimy, devious-looking Wellesian Iago.
* Iago's speeches are textbook studies of how to convince someone of malicious slanders: act very reluctant to cast aspersions, hint more than you say, suggest there may be nothing in it, etc. The same things that worked in Shakespeare's day work today.
* It is hard to like Othello, because jealousy is so unattractive. Still, I think Othello may be, by nature, no more jealous than the average person. His real fault seems to be that he is too willing to trust what others say. Iago says as much when he's planning his revenge. The hell of this is that, once his jealousy is aroused, his trusting nature doesn't extend to trusting Desdemona.
* Some people suggest Othello and Desdemona never consummated their marriage, because of the short time they had together on their wedding night, Iago's later comment that O hadn't yet made sport with D, and D asking Emilia to put her wedding sheets on the bed the night she was murdered (the usual rationale given is "who'd want to put the wedding sheets--presumably blood-stained--back on the bed?"). Both of these movies assume the marriage was consummated. I certainly hope so. The story is too terrible as it is, without thinking they never got to enjoy the physical side of their marriage before it was destroyed.
* Does no one just die in this play, or do they all keep talking after you think they're dead?
* I like the way Othello, before he murders her, tells D that if she can remember any sins she's never repented of, to pray forgiveness of them now, because he doesn't want to kill her soul. In this story it makes the murder all the more poignant to know how much he loves her and doesn't want to kill her, but I like the worldview that allows people (okay, fictional characters) to think of this when they have time before they kill. You used to see it in some older stories or movies. For example in The Cowboys, where even the bad guys allow Roscoe Lee Brown's character to make his peace with God before they string him up. (OTOH, one of them had earlier shot John Wayne in the back. It's a situational thing.) No one in movies does this any more, probably because we're more brutal and because the audience is less likely to understand the gesture.
* This is a very single-minded plot. The military thing is quickly resolved with no trouble to anyone, by an act of God. Who cares what happens to Cassio, except as it impacts O & D? The only other thing resembling a subplot is Iago's exploitation of Roderigo, and that never really amounts to much. Everything is driving toward making Othello jealous enough to punish Desdemona with death. It's very focused. But, now I think about it, is it really more focused than the other tragedies or does it just seem so because of the smallness of its outward action (everything hangs on one small handkerchief)? I'll have to think about this some more.
* Does Iago really think Othello cheated with Emilia? It sounds like mere excuse when he says it himself, but we later hear Emilia allude to Iago having accused her of that. (Also Iago's "It is a common thing" sounds like a slur on Emilia's virtue to me, but once again we're talking my 20th-century bred ears; it could just be a general insult.) The 1995 film suggests it is true, by having Branagh and Fishburne exchange significant looks when Iago says at the end "What you know, you know." I can't decide.
Some random thoughts about the movies and the play itself:
* Some years ago I tried to watch Laurence Olivier's Othello, but I couldn't get past his blackface. Orson Welles looks boyish at times, but his blackface is much better than Olivier's.
* I don't know if it's a good idea to cast a handsome man like Laurence Fishburne as Othello. His appearance contributes to the erotic appeal of the DVD cover, but it makes all those "why would she choose him" comments hard to understand. Of course, I'm looking at this with 21st century American eyes, not the eyes of an early 17th century English audience, most of whom had likely never seen a black man; perhaps any black man would look odd to them. Still I think I would have chosen a man who's a bit older and less attractive than Fishburne to emphasize the differences between Othello and Desdemona.
* Branagh's Iago is somewhat more convincing that that of MacLiammoir in Welles' film. I can't fault the latter's acting; it's just that it's easier to imagine Othello--or anyone else--trusting the good-looking Branagh than the slimy, devious-looking Wellesian Iago.
* Iago's speeches are textbook studies of how to convince someone of malicious slanders: act very reluctant to cast aspersions, hint more than you say, suggest there may be nothing in it, etc. The same things that worked in Shakespeare's day work today.
* It is hard to like Othello, because jealousy is so unattractive. Still, I think Othello may be, by nature, no more jealous than the average person. His real fault seems to be that he is too willing to trust what others say. Iago says as much when he's planning his revenge. The hell of this is that, once his jealousy is aroused, his trusting nature doesn't extend to trusting Desdemona.
* Some people suggest Othello and Desdemona never consummated their marriage, because of the short time they had together on their wedding night, Iago's later comment that O hadn't yet made sport with D, and D asking Emilia to put her wedding sheets on the bed the night she was murdered (the usual rationale given is "who'd want to put the wedding sheets--presumably blood-stained--back on the bed?"). Both of these movies assume the marriage was consummated. I certainly hope so. The story is too terrible as it is, without thinking they never got to enjoy the physical side of their marriage before it was destroyed.
* Does no one just die in this play, or do they all keep talking after you think they're dead?
* I like the way Othello, before he murders her, tells D that if she can remember any sins she's never repented of, to pray forgiveness of them now, because he doesn't want to kill her soul. In this story it makes the murder all the more poignant to know how much he loves her and doesn't want to kill her, but I like the worldview that allows people (okay, fictional characters) to think of this when they have time before they kill. You used to see it in some older stories or movies. For example in The Cowboys, where even the bad guys allow Roscoe Lee Brown's character to make his peace with God before they string him up. (OTOH, one of them had earlier shot John Wayne in the back. It's a situational thing.) No one in movies does this any more, probably because we're more brutal and because the audience is less likely to understand the gesture.
* This is a very single-minded plot. The military thing is quickly resolved with no trouble to anyone, by an act of God. Who cares what happens to Cassio, except as it impacts O & D? The only other thing resembling a subplot is Iago's exploitation of Roderigo, and that never really amounts to much. Everything is driving toward making Othello jealous enough to punish Desdemona with death. It's very focused. But, now I think about it, is it really more focused than the other tragedies or does it just seem so because of the smallness of its outward action (everything hangs on one small handkerchief)? I'll have to think about this some more.
* Does Iago really think Othello cheated with Emilia? It sounds like mere excuse when he says it himself, but we later hear Emilia allude to Iago having accused her of that. (Also Iago's "It is a common thing" sounds like a slur on Emilia's virtue to me, but once again we're talking my 20th-century bred ears; it could just be a general insult.) The 1995 film suggests it is true, by having Branagh and Fishburne exchange significant looks when Iago says at the end "What you know, you know." I can't decide.
Thursday, June 16, 2005
Nausea and Loathing in America
The news has been boring me lately, but the things reported still have the capacity to sicken me--and at the moment I don't mean the horrific crimes we hear about all too often, but the seemingly unending accumulation of small stupidities along the path to total wussification of Western society. How many more articles on things like schools eliminating the honor roll because someone who wasn't on it might collapse from deflated self esteem when seeing a list of high achievers (if the honor roll in government school might be said to represent high achievement) that didn't contain his own precious name will I be able to read before I snap and take to the woods. And I would have to take to the woods, because now that I'm Catholic I'm not supposed to take to the bell tower anymore. And do you know how horribly humid the woods in my part of the world are?
The only two articles in recent weeks that I've really enjoyed were the one about the 74-pound Labrador retriever who fought down a 120-pound, rampaging Pit bull to protect a stranger child (I'd link to it, but the Chicago Sun-Times no longer has the story up) and this one about an increase in Catholic hermits. I mostly enjoyed the latter one because (in addition to suggesting something is stirring, as the Anchoress suggests about the increase in the more usual kind of religious vocations) it provides me with an excuse for my coming withdrawal to the woods. "Religious hermit" probably sounds better on a resume than "crazed misanthrope".
Incidentally it's dogs like that Lab and that sweet African dog who rescued an abandoned baby a few weeks back that make me wonder why anyone would think it's an insult to be called a bitch.
The only two articles in recent weeks that I've really enjoyed were the one about the 74-pound Labrador retriever who fought down a 120-pound, rampaging Pit bull to protect a stranger child (I'd link to it, but the Chicago Sun-Times no longer has the story up) and this one about an increase in Catholic hermits. I mostly enjoyed the latter one because (in addition to suggesting something is stirring, as the Anchoress suggests about the increase in the more usual kind of religious vocations) it provides me with an excuse for my coming withdrawal to the woods. "Religious hermit" probably sounds better on a resume than "crazed misanthrope".
Incidentally it's dogs like that Lab and that sweet African dog who rescued an abandoned baby a few weeks back that make me wonder why anyone would think it's an insult to be called a bitch.
Americans Teaching in Japan
If you're looking for a bit of Japanese culture (and the occasional reminder that non-Americans get their ideas about America from our exported TV, music videos, etc.), a young American man has a series of posts up about his experiences teaching English in Japan. Apparently things have changed somewhat since Bruce Feiler wrote Learning to Bow, his book about teaching English in Japan. Should I be glad that it isn't only we Americans whose pop culture is filth, who've defined deviancy down, etc.?
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
Batman Begins
Thomas Hibbs' review of Batman Begins in today's NRO is pretty much on the money. BB is the best live action superhero movie I've yet seen*; it has real character development and some interesting explorations of fear and justice as well as cool gadgets and good action scenes. Well worth a trip to the theater, even at evening movie prices.
*On the animated front, The Incredibles might be able to beat it, but the two movies are so different it's hard to compare.
*On the animated front, The Incredibles might be able to beat it, but the two movies are so different it's hard to compare.
Thursday, June 09, 2005
Praying for Artists
Penn & Teller's attack on Mother Teresa was covered by a number of Catholic bloggers a couple of weeks back. What I didn't hear many people saying is that we should all be praying for Penn & Teller. Maybe I'm more sensitive to this than I should be, because I've long enjoyed P&T's work. Whatever the reason, though, I do think Catholics should be praying for them. If not because it's a shame for anyone to be lost to a materialistic worldview, then because they are talented performers who promote that worldview, encouraging others to think that way. And if not for that reason, then because Penn just became a father, and that little girl is going to grow up being taught that Mother Teresa and her nuns are "f***ing c***s".
Of course, it shouldn't stop at P&T. I've long thought that, considering the power of writers and artists (including visual artists, actors, musicians, filmmakers, etc.) to influence thought, Catholics should be praying for all of them. So far I've spent more time thinking I should do it, than actually doing it. Mea culpa.
Here's a non-denominational Christian group who make it their job to pray for people in Hollywood:
http://www.hollywoodprayernetwork.org/
I'm not much of a joiner myself, but it seems like an okay group; I'm glad to know there are people out there praying for people in the entertainment industry.
As for me, I am going to do my best to remember to pray for writers and artists more often. I owe so much of the richness in my experience to artists from the past--not just Catholics or those who lived in predominantly Catholic cultures, but others who sought Truth and Beauty in their work. I'm going to pray that more artists today seek Truth and express it in their work.
I hope there are saints praying for this too. During my conversion I was inspired and gladdened by PJPII's Letter to Artists--really, can you imagine Jerry Falwell writing that?--and right now I am imagining John Paul the Great in heaven praying for artists on earth. With Chesterton. Maybe Flannery O'Connor and Shakespeare are there too, praying with Michelangelo and Fra Angelico? Along with St. Luke and St. John, and untold numbers of others.
Of course, it shouldn't stop at P&T. I've long thought that, considering the power of writers and artists (including visual artists, actors, musicians, filmmakers, etc.) to influence thought, Catholics should be praying for all of them. So far I've spent more time thinking I should do it, than actually doing it. Mea culpa.
Here's a non-denominational Christian group who make it their job to pray for people in Hollywood:
http://www.hollywoodprayernetwork.org/
I'm not much of a joiner myself, but it seems like an okay group; I'm glad to know there are people out there praying for people in the entertainment industry.
As for me, I am going to do my best to remember to pray for writers and artists more often. I owe so much of the richness in my experience to artists from the past--not just Catholics or those who lived in predominantly Catholic cultures, but others who sought Truth and Beauty in their work. I'm going to pray that more artists today seek Truth and express it in their work.
I hope there are saints praying for this too. During my conversion I was inspired and gladdened by PJPII's Letter to Artists--really, can you imagine Jerry Falwell writing that?--and right now I am imagining John Paul the Great in heaven praying for artists on earth. With Chesterton. Maybe Flannery O'Connor and Shakespeare are there too, praying with Michelangelo and Fra Angelico? Along with St. Luke and St. John, and untold numbers of others.
Why Am I Thinking of Chesterton's The Flying Inn?
Michelle Malkin links to a video of a few Islamists demonstrating in NYC:
http://michellemalkin.com/archives/002684.htm
Ignore the flag-stomping and tearing. I've seen worse from American anti-war demonstrators. No, what's interesting here is not the video, but the audio.
Listen to the whole thing. In addition to the expected stuff about Islam dominating the whole world, these guys urge other Muslims not to be afraid, because this country is not like "back home", where protesting the government gets you taken in for turture. No, one of the "loopholes" of the US government, they say, is that it allows freedom of expression, so they have the right to verbally abuse the US and to stomp on its flag in the street.
Interesting. I mean, interesting even aside from the tacit acknowledgement that many, if not all, Muslim countries are oppressive. It's interesting because it shows that Islamists in progressive Western countries know they can use Western freedom against the West. They can use our freedom of expression laws to call for our destruction, and we will stand by, passively and politely listening, because to attempt to stop them or even to argue against them would be to judge them (the greatest of all sins), not to mention being a failure to celebrate their diversity--probably "hate speech" too.
http://michellemalkin.com/archives/002684.htm
Ignore the flag-stomping and tearing. I've seen worse from American anti-war demonstrators. No, what's interesting here is not the video, but the audio.
Listen to the whole thing. In addition to the expected stuff about Islam dominating the whole world, these guys urge other Muslims not to be afraid, because this country is not like "back home", where protesting the government gets you taken in for turture. No, one of the "loopholes" of the US government, they say, is that it allows freedom of expression, so they have the right to verbally abuse the US and to stomp on its flag in the street.
Interesting. I mean, interesting even aside from the tacit acknowledgement that many, if not all, Muslim countries are oppressive. It's interesting because it shows that Islamists in progressive Western countries know they can use Western freedom against the West. They can use our freedom of expression laws to call for our destruction, and we will stand by, passively and politely listening, because to attempt to stop them or even to argue against them would be to judge them (the greatest of all sins), not to mention being a failure to celebrate their diversity--probably "hate speech" too.
Friday, June 03, 2005
Something Is Stirring
The Anchoress has a must-read post up today.
http://theanchoressonline.com/2005/06/02/the-holy-spirit-stirs-then-ravishes/
Taken with her recent post on the apparent increase in vocations
http://theanchoressonline.com/2005/06/02/the-holy-spirit-stirs-then-ravishes/
and other healthy signs (especially the increasing number of converts), it is very easy to think she may be right--something is stirring.
http://theanchoressonline.com/2005/06/02/the-holy-spirit-stirs-then-ravishes/
Taken with her recent post on the apparent increase in vocations
http://theanchoressonline.com/2005/06/02/the-holy-spirit-stirs-then-ravishes/
and other healthy signs (especially the increasing number of converts), it is very easy to think she may be right--something is stirring.
More Evidence I'm Male
The Guardian has tests to tell you whether your brain is male or female--actually, whether it tends toward empathising or systemising.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/news/page/0,12983,937443,00.html
I took them, and, according to them, either I'm male or low-level autistic. I scored a 32 (below normal) on the empathising and a 43 (above average) on the systemising; I think I'd have scored higher on the empathising if they'd distinguished more between knowing what other people are thinking and feeling and caring, especially caring enough to let it affect your actions. Ah well, God's garden has room even for the five-petalled clovers and slightly wonky daisies, right?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/news/page/0,12983,937443,00.html
I took them, and, according to them, either I'm male or low-level autistic. I scored a 32 (below normal) on the empathising and a 43 (above average) on the systemising; I think I'd have scored higher on the empathising if they'd distinguished more between knowing what other people are thinking and feeling and caring, especially caring enough to let it affect your actions. Ah well, God's garden has room even for the five-petalled clovers and slightly wonky daisies, right?
Thursday, June 02, 2005
They Call Me Mr. Tibbs
One of the Amazon.com reviews for a 1959 film called The Best of Everything has the following memory of 1959 office life:
Well why not? And what does being only 19 have to do with it? Married is married, and once upon a time we had the idea that even very young married people were adults.
But I don't mean to snipe at the reviewer. What I dislike is the fact that we don't still call people Mr., Mrs., or Miss. Who decided that this was to be a first name only society? I don't remember being asked to vote on it. And I would have voted nay if I had been.
Honorifics convey respect for the other person. We once cared about showing respect and called most other people by their last name and an honorific. Nowadays every workplace has its employees on first name basis, whether they want to be or not. In the past, college students and even some high school students were addressed as Mr. and Miss in class; nowadays it's not unheard of for the students to call the teachers by their first names. Complete strangers who see my name on a form or on my debit card call me by my first name. People I've never met send me unsolicited mail urging me to buy their products, yet my potential patronage of their business doesn't rate a Mrs. (or even a Ms.) And has all of this faux chumminess made us a friendlier society? Hardly. I say we should bring back Mr. and Mrs. and Miss and, yes, even the rather silly Ms. Let's try for a little dignity and respect in both public and private life.
"I was married then and remember being addressed as "Mrs." by my boss, even
though I was only 19 years old."
Well why not? And what does being only 19 have to do with it? Married is married, and once upon a time we had the idea that even very young married people were adults.
But I don't mean to snipe at the reviewer. What I dislike is the fact that we don't still call people Mr., Mrs., or Miss. Who decided that this was to be a first name only society? I don't remember being asked to vote on it. And I would have voted nay if I had been.
Honorifics convey respect for the other person. We once cared about showing respect and called most other people by their last name and an honorific. Nowadays every workplace has its employees on first name basis, whether they want to be or not. In the past, college students and even some high school students were addressed as Mr. and Miss in class; nowadays it's not unheard of for the students to call the teachers by their first names. Complete strangers who see my name on a form or on my debit card call me by my first name. People I've never met send me unsolicited mail urging me to buy their products, yet my potential patronage of their business doesn't rate a Mrs. (or even a Ms.) And has all of this faux chumminess made us a friendlier society? Hardly. I say we should bring back Mr. and Mrs. and Miss and, yes, even the rather silly Ms. Let's try for a little dignity and respect in both public and private life.
A New Magazine, Plus Thrifty Protestants Vs. Lazy Catholics
There's a fairly new magazine (it seems to be at its third issue) online called In Character . It bills itself as a magazine of "everyday virtues" and each issue is built around a theme--so far, creativity, thrift, and purpose, with loyalty up next. What I've sampled so far is pretty good, certainly better than the dreck in many women's magazines. Gregory Wolfe's article "In God's Image: Do Good People Make Good Art?" is very good and is of particular interest to Flannery O'Connor fans. (NRO reprinted it in a more accessible font size, so I recommend reading it there.) I also enjoyed Damien Cave's history of thrift stores and the reminiscing in "You Kill It, You Eat It and Other Lessons of My Thrifty Childhood".
That last article touches on thrift's relation to religion. Thrift is usually associated with Protestantism and "the Protestant work ethic". But today's evangelicals are usually just as consumeristic as their secular brethren; let's not even ask about "liberal" Protestants. The author says that, while we can no longer depend on religion to bring back the virtue of thrift, "It is within Catholic social teaching that one finds currently the strongest case being made on behalf of what is reasonably called thrift as a theologically grounded virtue." This, in spite, Catholicism's traditional reputation of encouraging slacking off by having all those holy days and religious festivals.
There's a thesis to be written on the subject of how Protestantism came to be associated with thrift and hard work. (Actual conversation at my house: Auntie Suzanne, exhorting Uncle Pookie to do something: Where's your Protestant work ethic? Uncle Pookie: I'm Catholic. And so are you.) I know Calvinism must come into and probably Puritanism, but there's also the question of why Protestants whose cry is "faith alone", would promote hard work as a sign of salvation. Also how much of this is the idea that if it's fun it can't be moral (aka general tight-assedness) or that if it's uncomfortable it must be virtuous? And why would the faith most associated with the Middle Ages not be associated with thrift--wasn't everyone thrifty by necessity, except for when building cathedrals or having the odd feast? (If you had to spend many man-hours spinning and weaving to get a small amount of cloth, imagine how careful you'd be in how you cut and sewed it and how you wore the subsequent garment. Now imagine all your goods represented a similar investment of time.) Many of the early Christians (Catholics, whether Jack Chick will admit it or not) were downright ascetic, and monastics have to work as well as pray. How do attitudes toward thrift relate to self-expression or church architecture? How does thriftiness affect the spirit? And if actual history and theology aren't enough to hang a thesis on, then there's the area of the great psychobable god of our age, self-esteem: Do any Catholics suffer low self-esteem because a great civil virtue is associated with Protestants? Probably not, since hardly anyone in our consumer-driven, materialistic culture cares about thrift, but that doesn't mean a college student couldn't BS about it for 20, 30, or a couple hundred pages.
That last article touches on thrift's relation to religion. Thrift is usually associated with Protestantism and "the Protestant work ethic". But today's evangelicals are usually just as consumeristic as their secular brethren; let's not even ask about "liberal" Protestants. The author says that, while we can no longer depend on religion to bring back the virtue of thrift, "It is within Catholic social teaching that one finds currently the strongest case being made on behalf of what is reasonably called thrift as a theologically grounded virtue." This, in spite, Catholicism's traditional reputation of encouraging slacking off by having all those holy days and religious festivals.
There's a thesis to be written on the subject of how Protestantism came to be associated with thrift and hard work. (Actual conversation at my house: Auntie Suzanne, exhorting Uncle Pookie to do something: Where's your Protestant work ethic? Uncle Pookie: I'm Catholic. And so are you.) I know Calvinism must come into and probably Puritanism, but there's also the question of why Protestants whose cry is "faith alone", would promote hard work as a sign of salvation. Also how much of this is the idea that if it's fun it can't be moral (aka general tight-assedness) or that if it's uncomfortable it must be virtuous? And why would the faith most associated with the Middle Ages not be associated with thrift--wasn't everyone thrifty by necessity, except for when building cathedrals or having the odd feast? (If you had to spend many man-hours spinning and weaving to get a small amount of cloth, imagine how careful you'd be in how you cut and sewed it and how you wore the subsequent garment. Now imagine all your goods represented a similar investment of time.) Many of the early Christians (Catholics, whether Jack Chick will admit it or not) were downright ascetic, and monastics have to work as well as pray. How do attitudes toward thrift relate to self-expression or church architecture? How does thriftiness affect the spirit? And if actual history and theology aren't enough to hang a thesis on, then there's the area of the great psychobable god of our age, self-esteem: Do any Catholics suffer low self-esteem because a great civil virtue is associated with Protestants? Probably not, since hardly anyone in our consumer-driven, materialistic culture cares about thrift, but that doesn't mean a college student couldn't BS about it for 20, 30, or a couple hundred pages.
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
Just When You Think Things Can't Get Any Weirder...
http://www.drudgereport.com/flash3.htm
I will never understand anti-semitism. I've known that for a long time. It never even occurred to me that I might one day have to attempt to understand anti-semites who move to Israel.
Israeli police have discovered a ring of about 20 local
neo-Nazis, young emigrants from the former Soviet Union, but are uncertain how
to proceed against them as Israel has no specific laws against supporting Nazi
beliefs, the Israeli daily Maariv reported Tuesday.
I will never understand anti-semitism. I've known that for a long time. It never even occurred to me that I might one day have to attempt to understand anti-semites who move to Israel.
Monday, May 30, 2005
Memorial Day
My family is fortunate. As far as I know, none of my relatives have died in war since the Civil War. Other families have not been so lucky. But we have all been fortunate to have those men who were willing to fight and die on our behalf.
Michelle Malkin has a good collection of Memorial Day links:
http://michellemalkin.com/archives/002592.htm
Michelle Malkin has a good collection of Memorial Day links:
http://michellemalkin.com/archives/002592.htm
Friday, May 27, 2005
Madden and Kingdom of Heaven
Something to Look Forward To
Seeing yet another headline about Baby Boomers recently, it dawned on me that we Gen Xers have something to look forward to when we become old: all the Baby Boomers will have died off, so we finally--finally!--won't have to hear about them anymore.
Thursday, May 26, 2005
Around the Web
"On Human Life", a pastoral letter from Archbishop Chaput on the 30th anniversary of Humanae Vitae
http://guweb2.gonzaga.edu/~dewolf/chaput.htm
"The Real History of the Crusades", by Thomas F. Madden, a really good article on the Crusades from Crisis magazine
http://www.crisismagazine.com/april2002/cover.htm
Painted Churches, a collection of pictures of medieval wall paintings in English churches. I've only just started looking at this site and so haven't seen everything, but it's interesting so far.
http://www.paintedchurch.org/conpage.htm
The Art Renewal Center, a site filled with beautiful pictures. It's another site I've only explored a little, but that's because there's so much there.
http://www.artrenewal.org/
Also, I note with sadness that Father Bryce Sibley has decided to end his blog, A Saintly Salmagundi. I figured I would like Fr. Sibley the moment I saw his Mary, Exterminatrix of Heresies picture--plenty of people see Our Lady as speaking softly, not many picture her carrying a big stick! I wish Fr. Sibley good luck with his new projects.
http://guweb2.gonzaga.edu/~dewolf/chaput.htm
"The Real History of the Crusades", by Thomas F. Madden, a really good article on the Crusades from Crisis magazine
http://www.crisismagazine.com/april2002/cover.htm
Painted Churches, a collection of pictures of medieval wall paintings in English churches. I've only just started looking at this site and so haven't seen everything, but it's interesting so far.
http://www.paintedchurch.org/conpage.htm
The Art Renewal Center, a site filled with beautiful pictures. It's another site I've only explored a little, but that's because there's so much there.
http://www.artrenewal.org/
Also, I note with sadness that Father Bryce Sibley has decided to end his blog, A Saintly Salmagundi. I figured I would like Fr. Sibley the moment I saw his Mary, Exterminatrix of Heresies picture--plenty of people see Our Lady as speaking softly, not many picture her carrying a big stick! I wish Fr. Sibley good luck with his new projects.
A Question From the Lizard Queen, and Book-hunger
The Lizard Queen posed this question a few days back:
For me, the most important book here is Little Women. My Easter basket when I was in second grade included several children's abridged books, one of which was Little Women. Although I'd been reading for a while and although I'd enjoyed being read to before that, Little Women was the first book I fell in love with. I read my children's abridged copy over and over again, then got an unabridged copy and read that again and again. Whenever I've winnowed my collection of books, a copy of Little Women has always made the cut. I've not read it much since adulthood, but when I have, it's been with pleasure.
Alcott had me with the first scene. Even the first sentence: Jo grousing about Christmas not being Christmas without any presents. A complaining girl. And, as we see later in that scene, a girl who's not comfortable with all the frills and frippery that society wants to force on girls. A nonconformist, then, and a girl who writes and acts in plays. A girl with spirit. A girl whose family accepts her, odd though she may seem to some. What girl wouldn't like to be Jo, hidden away in her attic, writing on an overturned pan for a desk while a pet rat watches? Especially when there's a loving family downstairs?
Little Women showed me that it was normal for girls to have ambitions, and that imperfect girls could still be the heroines of their stories. It also showed me a world in which people think about right and wrong, rather than just assuming that whatever the majority around them think is good is so. My affection for Little Women led me to read whatever biographical material about Alcott I could, and that led me to read more about or by other of the New Englanders around her, such as Thoreau. It contributed to my affection for 19th century literature. Most important, though, is that, because of the simple fact of this being the first book I fell in love with, it cemented by love of books and reading.
Another book that changed my life--that helped me become me--was an old high school English literature book. I don't know the name, or how it came to be around my home. It had a picture of waves breaking on the cover, and I think it was published in the 1960s; I once saw a copy in a flea market and recognized it immediately and with pleasure, although I avoided the temptation to buy it. I used to play with this book before I really read it. I would look at all the many pictures of English monarchs and writers through the ages. I began to read a bit here and there, whether I understood much of it or not; I remember being much struck by Frank O'Conner's story "Christmas Morning" at age nine or ten, though I couldn't have told you squat about the Irish situation or what the Latin hymns the father sings meant. I ignored it for a couple of years and then in early adolescence, I went through and read pretty much all of it again.
I think I may owe my Anglophilia to this book and part of my love of English literature. Many writers that I later came to love I first encountered there--Ted Hughes, for example. It has colored my mind to some extent; for example, whenever I think of Somerset Maugham I see the drawing of him in that book.
Another book--or rather set of books--was an old set of red-backed books called, I believe, The Children's Hour. Each volume had different things. I loved the one with the biographical stories best. I pored over that many times. I learned a bit of history that way, and I think that's where I picked up my liking for biography.
If the Lizard Queen had asked about our favorite books as a child, I would answer differently, though Little Women would still head the list. Like many little girls, I LOVED Nancy Drew. I saved my money to go to the bookstore on our occasional trips to the mall in another town (I lived somewhere with no bookstore and no public library) and those carefully saved dollars usually went to buy a new Nancy Drew. Nancy is crap, I'm afraid, but I still get nostalgic when I see those covers--my era covers, not the ones before or, God help us, the awful ones since--and if they'd only make fabric printed with the scenes that used to be in the endcovers, I'd buy it. Another favorite was Harriet the Spy. The Little House on the Prairie books were read and reread (all except Farmer Boy, which I never bothered to buy.) There were a lot of other books I enjoyed, but this is a pretty good list of childhood--and by that I mean pre-adolescence, not pre-adult--favorites.
Really though, I read whatever I could find. Because of having no public library, having limited access to the school library even during the school year (yeah, they were wild about reading and learning at my school), and having no local bookstore to spend my few dollars, my childhood was marked by book-hunger. I could never find enough to read. I read women's magazines and the National Enquirer, just to have something to read as a child. (The way I learned about sex as a child was reading those "How to Talk to Your Children about Sex" articles in magazines like Woman's Day; because they assumed basic knowledge of the subject, I was left with some weird gaps in my knowledge until I decided to pursue the subject further after puberty hit.) Some of my teachers participated in the Weekly Reader book club program (children could order relatively inexpensive books from a selected list and have them delivered to the classroom), and that helped a lot, but it wasn't there all the time. I loved it when in my early adolescence my mother discovered garage sales; books were and are always the first thing I noticed in any garage sale.
Book-hunger as a child affects the person as an adult. When I married and moved in with my husband, I had access to a good public library for the first time in my life; I felt I was being given treasure for free every time I walked to the library desk with my armful of books. I was thirty or close to it before I began to feel less gluttonous in bookstores--less of a need to check every book I saw, afraid I might never have the opportunity to buy that book again, more comfortable in my ability to buy pretty much what I want (space limitations aside), and so on.
What books that you read as a kid changed your life such that you
wouldn't be *you* today if it weren't for those books and, in fact, you can
still read them today and still feel what you felt back then and maybe more
so?
For me, the most important book here is Little Women. My Easter basket when I was in second grade included several children's abridged books, one of which was Little Women. Although I'd been reading for a while and although I'd enjoyed being read to before that, Little Women was the first book I fell in love with. I read my children's abridged copy over and over again, then got an unabridged copy and read that again and again. Whenever I've winnowed my collection of books, a copy of Little Women has always made the cut. I've not read it much since adulthood, but when I have, it's been with pleasure.
Alcott had me with the first scene. Even the first sentence: Jo grousing about Christmas not being Christmas without any presents. A complaining girl. And, as we see later in that scene, a girl who's not comfortable with all the frills and frippery that society wants to force on girls. A nonconformist, then, and a girl who writes and acts in plays. A girl with spirit. A girl whose family accepts her, odd though she may seem to some. What girl wouldn't like to be Jo, hidden away in her attic, writing on an overturned pan for a desk while a pet rat watches? Especially when there's a loving family downstairs?
Little Women showed me that it was normal for girls to have ambitions, and that imperfect girls could still be the heroines of their stories. It also showed me a world in which people think about right and wrong, rather than just assuming that whatever the majority around them think is good is so. My affection for Little Women led me to read whatever biographical material about Alcott I could, and that led me to read more about or by other of the New Englanders around her, such as Thoreau. It contributed to my affection for 19th century literature. Most important, though, is that, because of the simple fact of this being the first book I fell in love with, it cemented by love of books and reading.
Another book that changed my life--that helped me become me--was an old high school English literature book. I don't know the name, or how it came to be around my home. It had a picture of waves breaking on the cover, and I think it was published in the 1960s; I once saw a copy in a flea market and recognized it immediately and with pleasure, although I avoided the temptation to buy it. I used to play with this book before I really read it. I would look at all the many pictures of English monarchs and writers through the ages. I began to read a bit here and there, whether I understood much of it or not; I remember being much struck by Frank O'Conner's story "Christmas Morning" at age nine or ten, though I couldn't have told you squat about the Irish situation or what the Latin hymns the father sings meant. I ignored it for a couple of years and then in early adolescence, I went through and read pretty much all of it again.
I think I may owe my Anglophilia to this book and part of my love of English literature. Many writers that I later came to love I first encountered there--Ted Hughes, for example. It has colored my mind to some extent; for example, whenever I think of Somerset Maugham I see the drawing of him in that book.
Another book--or rather set of books--was an old set of red-backed books called, I believe, The Children's Hour. Each volume had different things. I loved the one with the biographical stories best. I pored over that many times. I learned a bit of history that way, and I think that's where I picked up my liking for biography.
If the Lizard Queen had asked about our favorite books as a child, I would answer differently, though Little Women would still head the list. Like many little girls, I LOVED Nancy Drew. I saved my money to go to the bookstore on our occasional trips to the mall in another town (I lived somewhere with no bookstore and no public library) and those carefully saved dollars usually went to buy a new Nancy Drew. Nancy is crap, I'm afraid, but I still get nostalgic when I see those covers--my era covers, not the ones before or, God help us, the awful ones since--and if they'd only make fabric printed with the scenes that used to be in the endcovers, I'd buy it. Another favorite was Harriet the Spy. The Little House on the Prairie books were read and reread (all except Farmer Boy, which I never bothered to buy.) There were a lot of other books I enjoyed, but this is a pretty good list of childhood--and by that I mean pre-adolescence, not pre-adult--favorites.
Really though, I read whatever I could find. Because of having no public library, having limited access to the school library even during the school year (yeah, they were wild about reading and learning at my school), and having no local bookstore to spend my few dollars, my childhood was marked by book-hunger. I could never find enough to read. I read women's magazines and the National Enquirer, just to have something to read as a child. (The way I learned about sex as a child was reading those "How to Talk to Your Children about Sex" articles in magazines like Woman's Day; because they assumed basic knowledge of the subject, I was left with some weird gaps in my knowledge until I decided to pursue the subject further after puberty hit.) Some of my teachers participated in the Weekly Reader book club program (children could order relatively inexpensive books from a selected list and have them delivered to the classroom), and that helped a lot, but it wasn't there all the time. I loved it when in my early adolescence my mother discovered garage sales; books were and are always the first thing I noticed in any garage sale.
Book-hunger as a child affects the person as an adult. When I married and moved in with my husband, I had access to a good public library for the first time in my life; I felt I was being given treasure for free every time I walked to the library desk with my armful of books. I was thirty or close to it before I began to feel less gluttonous in bookstores--less of a need to check every book I saw, afraid I might never have the opportunity to buy that book again, more comfortable in my ability to buy pretty much what I want (space limitations aside), and so on.
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
Can't I Love Somebody Else's Neighbors?
I love today's Pearls Before Swine. It's funny and deep. I'm Rat (though slightly less than I used to be.)
http://www.comics.com/comics/pearls/index.html
http://www.comics.com/comics/pearls/index.html
Sunday, May 22, 2005
Are English People Who No Longer Applaud The English Kicking France's Butt Really Still English?
What can I say about this, other than I suspect the people behind this are the same kind of people who think it's racist for the British national anthem to declare that Britain's people shall never be slaves:
Read the rest here:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1622627,00.html
Maybe the BBC (yeah, right) needs to run a marathon of Olivier's 1944 Henry V to boost spirits. I'm a patriotic, native American, and when I watch or read Henry V, even I'm willing to cry, "God for Harry, England, and St. George!"
Organisers of a re-enactment to mark the bicentenary of the
battle next month have decided it should be between “a Red Fleet and a Blue
Fleet” not British and French/Spanish forces....[The official
literature] describes the re-enactment not as the battle of Trafalgar but
simply as “an early 19th-century sea battle”.
Read the rest here:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1622627,00.html
Maybe the BBC (yeah, right) needs to run a marathon of Olivier's 1944 Henry V to boost spirits. I'm a patriotic, native American, and when I watch or read Henry V, even I'm willing to cry, "God for Harry, England, and St. George!"
Planetwalker
Here's a piece on John Francis, a man whose response to the 1971 San Francisco Bay oil spill was to give up motorized vehicles :
http://www.grist.org/news/maindish/2005/05/10/hertsgaard-francis/index.html
(Via Riding Sun)
For 22 years, Francis walked pretty much everywhere. (There was also a 17 years-long vow of silence in the middle.) Apparently he still walks quite a bit; according to the planetwalk website he's off on a 7-year walk.
I suspect our opinions would diverge on a number of issues, but I respect Francis' committment to the environment. So many people are unwilling to stand up for their beliefs in any way that might make them seem odd to their more mainstream countrymen. So we get Catholics who rush to assure people that "of course they don't accept all that sex stuff", Jews with Christmas trees in their living rooms, and environmentalists driving gas guzzlers. Nice to see someone who's willing to put the shoe on the road for his beliefs.
http://www.grist.org/news/maindish/2005/05/10/hertsgaard-francis/index.html
(Via Riding Sun)
For 22 years, Francis walked pretty much everywhere. (There was also a 17 years-long vow of silence in the middle.) Apparently he still walks quite a bit; according to the planetwalk website he's off on a 7-year walk.
I suspect our opinions would diverge on a number of issues, but I respect Francis' committment to the environment. So many people are unwilling to stand up for their beliefs in any way that might make them seem odd to their more mainstream countrymen. So we get Catholics who rush to assure people that "of course they don't accept all that sex stuff", Jews with Christmas trees in their living rooms, and environmentalists driving gas guzzlers. Nice to see someone who's willing to put the shoe on the road for his beliefs.
Monday, May 16, 2005
Misc. Tidbits
Is This Parish Faithful?
Father Shane Tharp at Catholic Ragemonkey posts a list of 23 ways to identify a faithful Catholic parish. Seems a good list to me.
The Meaning of Their Motherhood
WSJ has an interesting article about unmarried and poor mothers--or, more specifically, about a book called Promises I Can Keep, which is about poor, unmarried women. What having unmarried parents does to a child's well-being needs to be talked about far more than it is, but I've seen articles that discuss it more fully than this one. What is most interesting to me here is the discussion of why unmarried women of lower economic status have children out of wedlock.
That's expanded on in the article, but basically, the idea is that poor, unmarried women have children because they want children. That's hard to fault, however much I believe that making children outside of wedlock is a terrible idea or dislike taxpayers being expected to support this behavior. The article is worth reading because it suggests reasons other than a welfare check for poor women find having babies good, but marriage less so.
Quote of the Day
From an interview with Michael Novak
Who's Really to Blame
However dishonest and prejudiced the MSM are in always assuming the worst of the United States and its military, Andrew C. McCarthy is correct in laying blame for the Newsweek riots on militant Islam.
Father Shane Tharp at Catholic Ragemonkey posts a list of 23 ways to identify a faithful Catholic parish. Seems a good list to me.
The Meaning of Their Motherhood
WSJ has an interesting article about unmarried and poor mothers--or, more specifically, about a book called Promises I Can Keep, which is about poor, unmarried women. What having unmarried parents does to a child's well-being needs to be talked about far more than it is, but I've seen articles that discuss it more fully than this one. What is most interesting to me here is the discussion of why unmarried women of lower economic status have children out of wedlock.
"Far more than their middle-class counterparts, low-income women
are likely to see abortion as wrong and childlessness as a tragedy. It's not a
fabulous career or sexual and romantic adventure that endows life with purpose;
it's having a baby."
That's expanded on in the article, but basically, the idea is that poor, unmarried women have children because they want children. That's hard to fault, however much I believe that making children outside of wedlock is a terrible idea or dislike taxpayers being expected to support this behavior. The article is worth reading because it suggests reasons other than a welfare check for poor women find having babies good, but marriage less so.
Quote of the Day
From an interview with Michael Novak
"In a world of nihilism, or even relativism, comfort and
convenience are as significant as liberty. To most people, they may be even more
attractive. In Europe, it seems as if they are."
Who's Really to Blame
However dishonest and prejudiced the MSM are in always assuming the worst of the United States and its military, Andrew C. McCarthy is correct in laying blame for the Newsweek riots on militant Islam.
Historical Lunatic
Which Historical Lunatic Are You?
I am William John Cavendish-Bentinck-Scott, the Fifth Duke of Portland! I'm so proud.
I am William John Cavendish-Bentinck-Scott, the Fifth Duke of Portland! I'm so proud.
Friday, May 13, 2005
One Catholic Woman
The Cafeteria is Closed posts an amazing story about a Catholic woman who rescued 2,500 Jewish babies and children from a Nazi-controlled Polish ghetto:
http://closedcafeteria.blogspot.com/2005/05/catholic-heroes_12.html
She was arrested, beaten, and narrowly escaped execution for her trouble.
http://closedcafeteria.blogspot.com/2005/05/catholic-heroes_12.html
She was arrested, beaten, and narrowly escaped execution for her trouble.
44,000,000 Pennies
Last Saturday, while doing the dishes, I found myself wondering what 44,000,000 pennies looked like. (No, I'm not quite sure what brought that on.) Forty-four million is the supposed number of legal abortions in the USA since Roe v. Wade was handed down from our robed masters. It occurred to me that if people collected 44,000,000 pennies, not only would I and anyone else who's ever wondered it know what 44 million pennies look like, but it would be a good fund-raiser for a pro-life group. (44,000,000 cents = $440,000)
Of course it took only another moment or two to realize that this is hugely impractical. Most groups could never raise that kind of money, and even if they could, they'd rather have nice paper currency than a huge bunch of heavy, unwieldy pennies.
But I still like the idea. I think it could work on a smaller scale. A small pro-life group trying to collect the number of legal abortions per day in the US in pennies would be doable. That's somewhere between $300 and $400, I think; that doesn't sound like an impossible amount to collect or to roll afterward. In between collecting and rolling for deposit, there could be a themed display--"each penny represents a baby aborted today" or something like that. I don't know, maybe people wouldn't like the idea, but it might be an attention-getting fundraiser; most people have spare pennies lying around.
Of course it took only another moment or two to realize that this is hugely impractical. Most groups could never raise that kind of money, and even if they could, they'd rather have nice paper currency than a huge bunch of heavy, unwieldy pennies.
But I still like the idea. I think it could work on a smaller scale. A small pro-life group trying to collect the number of legal abortions per day in the US in pennies would be doable. That's somewhere between $300 and $400, I think; that doesn't sound like an impossible amount to collect or to roll afterward. In between collecting and rolling for deposit, there could be a themed display--"each penny represents a baby aborted today" or something like that. I don't know, maybe people wouldn't like the idea, but it might be an attention-getting fundraiser; most people have spare pennies lying around.
More Young, Faithful Catholics
Here's a good website I found recently:
http://angrytwins.blogspot.com
Especially worth visiting for the stuff on the Underground Church in China. Makes you feel really wimpy for things like, say, groaning to yourself about how hard it is to kneel for "long" periods of time on padded kneelers. (Not that I've ever done such a thing, no, I'm a paragon of asceticism, me.)
http://angrytwins.blogspot.com
Especially worth visiting for the stuff on the Underground Church in China. Makes you feel really wimpy for things like, say, groaning to yourself about how hard it is to kneel for "long" periods of time on padded kneelers. (Not that I've ever done such a thing, no, I'm a paragon of asceticism, me.)
No Ammo Please, We're British
Back in the winter I watched the rather good Hitchcock film, The Lady Vanishes, which has a scene with guns.
The bad guys are threatening and our hero and heroine gather together the other English train passengers, explain the trouble, and ask for help. Not only are they able to get help from their fellow Brits just because they're Brits, but when the bad guys start shooting, the English pick up the gun or two that is available to them and start shooting back. I immediately felt a sort of nostalgic pleasure, thinking to myself that, what with the stringent gun-control laws now ravaging Britain, you wouldn't be able nowadays to depend on the English passengers to know how to use the gun--or willing to use it, if they knew! (Actually in the film there was one Englishman in favor of appeasement; he got himself shot.) Sherlock Holmes and Watson may have carried revolvers when the game was afoot and Chesterton's Innocent Smith may have carried a gun to shoot at people who needed waking up, but it seems that nowadays the only Brits who dare have guns are criminals.
If this post John Derbyshire made in the Corner yesterday is to be believed, it's a wonder the British military is still allowed (unloaded) guns:
Say it ain't so: The British are now so gun-shy, even their MILITARY is gun-shy. A reader forwarded this, headed: "On British and Australian individual weapon procedure, from a friend in Country": "Our British and Australian colleagues immediately unload all guns (rifles and pistols) upon coming back through the wire, even though we live in a uninterrupted combat zone. Since we have to depend on them, I habitually ask, 'Are all your guns loaded?' Imagine my surprise when I first discovered that, in British military jargon, 'loaded' translates to 'transport mode.' [loaded magazine, but empty chamber]
"They are so afraid of actually putting a live round in the chamber of any rifle or pistol, most even carry outside the wire with an empty chamber. When they do load, they instantly unload every chance they get, even when it is conspicuously unwise to do so.
"Loaded guns are treated as if they carried some contagious disease!
"Don't get me wrong. Brits and Aussies are good soldiers, but they have been philosophically castrated by their respective nanny-states. In their national confusion, fear of guns has become a ubiquitous, domestic obsessionn, and it has spilled over, even into the military.
"These two nations will indeed be lucky to survive this current period of world history."
Oh, how the mighty have fallen!
(And, yes, I know the examples I gave of happy English gun-users in the past are fictional characters.)
The bad guys are threatening and our hero and heroine gather together the other English train passengers, explain the trouble, and ask for help. Not only are they able to get help from their fellow Brits just because they're Brits, but when the bad guys start shooting, the English pick up the gun or two that is available to them and start shooting back. I immediately felt a sort of nostalgic pleasure, thinking to myself that, what with the stringent gun-control laws now ravaging Britain, you wouldn't be able nowadays to depend on the English passengers to know how to use the gun--or willing to use it, if they knew! (Actually in the film there was one Englishman in favor of appeasement; he got himself shot.) Sherlock Holmes and Watson may have carried revolvers when the game was afoot and Chesterton's Innocent Smith may have carried a gun to shoot at people who needed waking up, but it seems that nowadays the only Brits who dare have guns are criminals.
If this post John Derbyshire made in the Corner yesterday is to be believed, it's a wonder the British military is still allowed (unloaded) guns:
Say it ain't so: The British are now so gun-shy, even their MILITARY is gun-shy. A reader forwarded this, headed: "On British and Australian individual weapon procedure, from a friend in Country": "Our British and Australian colleagues immediately unload all guns (rifles and pistols) upon coming back through the wire, even though we live in a uninterrupted combat zone. Since we have to depend on them, I habitually ask, 'Are all your guns loaded?' Imagine my surprise when I first discovered that, in British military jargon, 'loaded' translates to 'transport mode.' [loaded magazine, but empty chamber]
"They are so afraid of actually putting a live round in the chamber of any rifle or pistol, most even carry outside the wire with an empty chamber. When they do load, they instantly unload every chance they get, even when it is conspicuously unwise to do so.
"Loaded guns are treated as if they carried some contagious disease!
"Don't get me wrong. Brits and Aussies are good soldiers, but they have been philosophically castrated by their respective nanny-states. In their national confusion, fear of guns has become a ubiquitous, domestic obsessionn, and it has spilled over, even into the military.
"These two nations will indeed be lucky to survive this current period of world history."
Oh, how the mighty have fallen!
(And, yes, I know the examples I gave of happy English gun-users in the past are fictional characters.)
Thursday, May 12, 2005
Evil, eee-vuull!
Supposedly Auntie Suzanne is
Well, I suppose it's better than being un-creatively evil. (Link via Catholic Ragemonkey.)
Well, I suppose it's better than being un-creatively evil. (Link via Catholic Ragemonkey.)
Sunday, May 08, 2005
The Roads to Serfdom
VE Day is a good time to look back, and Theodore Dalrymple has an essay on the path Britain has taken since the war. If you've wondered how the British went from being a tough, independent people who stood alone against Hitler to being a welfare state, filled with people who expect government to solve all problems, start reading here:
http://www.city-journal.org/html/15_2_oh_to_be.html
Dalrymple manages to work George Orwell, F. A. Hayek, Hilaire Belloc, and even Oscar Wilde into his essay.
http://www.city-journal.org/html/15_2_oh_to_be.html
Dalrymple manages to work George Orwell, F. A. Hayek, Hilaire Belloc, and even Oscar Wilde into his essay.
Saturday, May 07, 2005
Eat What's On the Table Kids
There's a great new blog called The Cafeteria Is Closed . I'd heard of it already, but I didn't visit until I saw it linked by The Curt Jester. Well worth a visit. It's great to see young, orthodox Catholics. (I don't mind admitting that I like the fact he's politically conservative too.) I am sorry to see anyone leave the Church, whether out of apathy or out of anger that the Church doesn't conform to the world, but with faithful, enthusiastic converts coming in to replace the discontent, will we really miss them?
Friday, May 06, 2005
The 65% Solution
No, it's not a Sherlock Holmes story in which Holmes' drug use has gotten way out of hand. It's an idea for giving schools more of what they need (more teachers and/or more classroom supplies such as computers & laboratory equipment) without raising taxes. George Will, in his April 11th column, said
"[Patrick Byrne's] idea — call it The 65 Percent Solution — is politically delicious because it unites parents, taxpayers and teachers while, he hopes, sowing dissension in the ranks of the teachers unions..."
The plan is to get every state to pass a law that says each school district must spend 65% of its educational operating budget on classroom instruction--i.e. teachers' salaries and educational supplies, instead of bureacrat's salaries. Sounds good to me. More money in the classroom may not solve problems such as low expectations, teachers who know more about educational theory than the subject they're teaching, the self-esteem culture, or the kind of relativism that says "all answers are equally valid so why teach good spelling/grammar/whatever"; but it would at least mean that more of our tax dollars made it into the classrooms, where it has a chance of doing some good, rather than into administrative pockets, where it won't.
First Class Education has more, including a graphic that will tell you how much your state stands to gain in classroom funds, should it adopt a 65% rule. (Four states already meet the 65% goal.)
"[Patrick Byrne's] idea — call it The 65 Percent Solution — is politically delicious because it unites parents, taxpayers and teachers while, he hopes, sowing dissension in the ranks of the teachers unions..."
The plan is to get every state to pass a law that says each school district must spend 65% of its educational operating budget on classroom instruction--i.e. teachers' salaries and educational supplies, instead of bureacrat's salaries. Sounds good to me. More money in the classroom may not solve problems such as low expectations, teachers who know more about educational theory than the subject they're teaching, the self-esteem culture, or the kind of relativism that says "all answers are equally valid so why teach good spelling/grammar/whatever"; but it would at least mean that more of our tax dollars made it into the classrooms, where it has a chance of doing some good, rather than into administrative pockets, where it won't.
First Class Education has more, including a graphic that will tell you how much your state stands to gain in classroom funds, should it adopt a 65% rule. (Four states already meet the 65% goal.)
Chesterton, 2 Diets, and Some Exercise
The Curt Jester links to The Chesterton Diet.
I'm all in favor of a daily diet of Chesterton, and the Chesterton Diet sounds pretty good too.
I still think the No-S diet guy is on to something, though. Even if he does recommend something I have trouble picturing Chesterton doing: Shovelglove. On the other hand, Chesterton might like the metaphor--or way of imagining--Reinhard Engels comes up with for the other physical activity he recommends. (Chesterton would supplement that activity with hansom cab rides, of course.)
I'm all in favor of a daily diet of Chesterton, and the Chesterton Diet sounds pretty good too.
I still think the No-S diet guy is on to something, though. Even if he does recommend something I have trouble picturing Chesterton doing: Shovelglove. On the other hand, Chesterton might like the metaphor--or way of imagining--Reinhard Engels comes up with for the other physical activity he recommends. (Chesterton would supplement that activity with hansom cab rides, of course.)
Thursday, May 05, 2005
I'm Moving to Texas
You know Texas must be a great place to live, because its state legislators have so little to do they have to invent busy work for themselves.
http://www.abc.net.au/sport/content/200505/s1359862.htm
Apparently one of the most pressing issues in Texas is revealing cheerleader outfits and smutty cheerleader dance routines. I mean, come on.
Look, I'm no fan of the mainstreaming of pornography. I think schoolgirls performing for crowds dance moves that would look more at home in a topless bar is a bad idea, not to mention vulgar, tacky, and immodest. Teen girls--post-pubescent girls--being encouraged to act slutty doesn't disturb me the way children being encouraged to act slutty does, of course, but this is something that, once upon a time, the average American parent wouldn't have wanted their daughters doing.
But why should this mean the government must get involved? That's big government intrusion into the public. And it's not even necessary to solve the problem of smutty cheerleading. If people who dislike being exposed to a bump-and-grind show when all they wanted to do was watch a football game started going to their local principals or school boards and say, "Look, I've been paying to come to these football games for a while, but now I'm thinking about not coming anymore because your cheerleaders' behavior is so vulgar." It wouldn't take many complaints like that for your average school to tell the cheerleading coach to tone it down. A few local newspaper editorials or letters to the editor wouldn't hurt either. Local problems, local solutions. We don't have to run to the state (much less the federal) government every time we have a problem.
http://www.abc.net.au/sport/content/200505/s1359862.htm
Apparently one of the most pressing issues in Texas is revealing cheerleader outfits and smutty cheerleader dance routines. I mean, come on.
Look, I'm no fan of the mainstreaming of pornography. I think schoolgirls performing for crowds dance moves that would look more at home in a topless bar is a bad idea, not to mention vulgar, tacky, and immodest. Teen girls--post-pubescent girls--being encouraged to act slutty doesn't disturb me the way children being encouraged to act slutty does, of course, but this is something that, once upon a time, the average American parent wouldn't have wanted their daughters doing.
But why should this mean the government must get involved? That's big government intrusion into the public. And it's not even necessary to solve the problem of smutty cheerleading. If people who dislike being exposed to a bump-and-grind show when all they wanted to do was watch a football game started going to their local principals or school boards and say, "Look, I've been paying to come to these football games for a while, but now I'm thinking about not coming anymore because your cheerleaders' behavior is so vulgar." It wouldn't take many complaints like that for your average school to tell the cheerleading coach to tone it down. A few local newspaper editorials or letters to the editor wouldn't hurt either. Local problems, local solutions. We don't have to run to the state (much less the federal) government every time we have a problem.
Tuesday, May 03, 2005
Reality Brit-TV in Monastery
Here's an article I read this weekend:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/04/30/ntv230.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/04/30/ixhome.html
Five non-Catholic men are sent to live with Benedictine monks for forty days. They work and pray with the monks and have sessions with assigned spiritual mentors. At the end all are positively changed by their stay. I was particularly struck by the account of one man.
Boy, can I sympathize with that! I must have been one of the most reluctant Christians ever.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/04/30/ntv230.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/04/30/ixhome.html
Five non-Catholic men are sent to live with Benedictine monks for forty days. They work and pray with the monks and have sessions with assigned spiritual mentors. At the end all are positively changed by their stay. I was particularly struck by the account of one man.
"By the end, the atheist, Tony Burke, 29, became a believer and
gave up his job producing trailers for a sex chat line after having what he
described as a "religious experience"....Mr Burke, his voicing breaking with
emotion, confessed his feelings in a video-diary entry. "I didn't want this to
happen," he said."
Boy, can I sympathize with that! I must have been one of the most reluctant Christians ever.
Uncle Orson Treads on Dangerous Ground
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-card3may03,0,6007802.story
Hear that sound? It's thousands of Trekkies hissing Orson Scott Card. Let's just hope he can still go to cons without being spit on. Harlan Ellison said the first Star Trek movie was bad--something more than a few fans would agree with--and went home to find his door defaced.
Of course, as a nobody I can say this with impunity: Although I generally enjoyed the shows and liked the even-numbered ST movies, what Card says about ST is pretty accurate.
Hear that sound? It's thousands of Trekkies hissing Orson Scott Card. Let's just hope he can still go to cons without being spit on. Harlan Ellison said the first Star Trek movie was bad--something more than a few fans would agree with--and went home to find his door defaced.
Of course, as a nobody I can say this with impunity: Although I generally enjoyed the shows and liked the even-numbered ST movies, what Card says about ST is pretty accurate.
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