Archive | June 2004

American Library Association Associates with Michael Moore

Jun20

I got this little piece of information from Norma Bruce’s blog, Collecting My Thoughts:

Fahrenheit 9/11 will be shown at ALA in the Auditorium at the Convention Center, Sunday night, June 27, at 10 pm, two days after it opens nationwide. There will be a $10 donation that will go to ALA’s efforts in the areas of the First Amendment, Intellectual Freedom, and the struggle against the USA PATRIOT Act.

And now you know why I never joined the American Library Association when I was a librarian (in another life). Also it was too expensive.

Juneteenth

Jun18

Those of you who aren’t Texians may be unfamiliar with this holiday, celebrated tomorrow on June 19th, but I’ve heard about it all my life.

Juneteenth is the oldest known celebration commemorating the ending of slavery in the United States. Dating back to 1865, it was on June 19th that the Union soldiers, led by Major General Gordon Granger, landed at Galveston, Texas with news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free.

Juneteenth is an official state holiday in Texas and it will be celebrated tomorrow, mostly by those of African American descent, with picnics, prayer services, carnivals, parades, and other festivities. Oh, yes, a typical Juneteenth celebration usually involves barbecue, watermelon, and red soda pop. Happy Juneteenth!

Love your Wives

Jun18

I’ve been re-reading Profiles in Courage, and I found this inspiring story about Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri:

“But his family life was clouded by , , , the long physical and mental illness of the wife to whom he was at all times tender and devoted. On one occasion, which revealed the depth of warm devotion which lay beneath that rough conceit, Benton was entertaining a French priest and other distinguished guests when his wife, not fully dressed, rambled into the room and stared adoringly at her husband. Interrupting the embarrassed silence that followed, Senator Benton with dignity and majesty introduced his wife to the prince and others, seated her by his side, and resumed conversation.”

This story reminds me of President McKinley whose wife, Ida, had epilepsy. She attended state dinners in spite of her infirmity, and if she had a seizure, her husband would very calmly place a napkin over her face to conceal the effects of the seizure. He was said to be always solicitous of his wife’s health and concerned on his deathbed that she be taken care of.

My husband could live up to the standard set by these men, I think, but I wonder how many men could. I wonder if George W. Bush (or John Kerry) could even be elected in this day and time if his wife were mentally ill. Of course, there is the example of Nancy taking care of Ronnie. The American people do admire such faithfulness in adversity. However, most of us do prefer that public figures keep their eccentricities or mental illness or even some physical illnesses, private. Presidents and senators and their families are supposed to be picture perfect, and if not, they are to be at least discreet.

Age of Innocence

Jun17

We watched Age of Innocence tonight, and I realized that one theme of the book and the movie is the same as this post I wrote a few days ago. Isn’t there something to be said for living in a society guarded by rules and conventions? How many people might be saved from a life of regret and misery if, at the moment when they were about to make a really stupid decision. they were reminded that society or their family or someone would not approve? Now there are no rules. Society accepts any and everything. Does this “freedom” make it possible for people to live happier, more abundant lives? I think not. We need boundaries. Biblical boundaries are best; however, if we are determined to discard those, then some sort of societal norms are better than nothing. I agree that the rules that a given society imposes may be stifling, but life without any rules and expectations is likely to hurt the weakest and those least able to protect themselves. In Age of Innocence, the characters all seem to give up passion for the sake of safety. I would argue that within the boundaries of Biblical law it is possible to live a romantic and passionate life. It truly is possible “to delight in the law of the Lord.” In fact, discarding that law brings despair, not delight.

Dorothy Sayers Quotations

Jun15

I always have a quotation for everything – it saves original thinking.
— Dorothy L. Sayers (Have his Carcase, 1932)

I found this on an unfamiliar website. looks like the website for a Lutheran church.. I don’t know if Dorothy really wrote it or not, but it’s wonderful satire:

Creed of St. Euthanasia
(Commonly called the Atheneum Creed)

I believe in man, maker of himself and inventor of all science. And in myself, his manifestation, and captain of my psyche; and that I should not suffer anything painful or unpleasant.

And in a vague, evolving deity, the future-begotten child of man; conceived by the spirit of progress, born of emergent variants; who shall kick down the ladder by which he rose and tell history to go to hell.

Who shall some day take off from earth and be jet-propelled into the heavens; and sit exalted above all worlds, man the master almighty.

And I believe in the spirit of progress, who spake by Shaw and the Fabians; and in a modern, administrative, ethical, and social organization; in the isolation of saints, the treatment of complexes, joy through health, and destruction of the body by cremation (with music while it burns), and then I’ve had it.

I especially like the part where the spirit of progress spake by Shaw and the Fabians.

This last one is a favorite of Eldest Daughter. Lord Peter says to Harriet Vane:

“I know you don’t want either to give or to take. You’ve tried being the giver, and you’ve found that the giver is always fooled. And you won’t be the taker, because that’s very difficult, and because you know that the taker always ends by hating the giver. You don’t want ever again to have to depend for happiness on another person.”
Dorothy Sayers, Have His Carcase

Dorothy Sayers and Latin

Jun15

I was looking up Dorothy Sayers, and I found this article:

In a speech to the Association for the Reform of Latin teaching, Dorothy Sayers relates her own experience learning Latin and explains why Medieval Christian, rather than classical Latin, should be the focus of a Christian education.

I found the article to be especially interesting because two of my children are planning to take a Latin class next year. Unfortunately, I don’t know a word of Latin.

Fear of hell?

Jun14

One of the “bad guys” in the novel I’m reading, Jamaica Inn by Daphne DuMaurier, begins to have qualms about his part in the smuggling ring that is central to the book’s plot. He says:

“I’ve risked swinging before, and I’m not afraid of my neck. No, I’m thinking of my conscience and of Almighty God, and though I’ll face any man in a fair fight, and take punishment if need be, when it comes to the killing of innocent folk, and maybe women and children amongst them, that’s going straight to hell, Joss Merlyn, and you know it as well as I do.”

I began to wonder as I read this rather remarkable statement if anyone nowadays is deterred from doing anything by the fear of hell. I hear preachers quote polls that indicate that maybe about half of all Americans believe in a literal hell, and a small minority of those believe that they have any chance of going there. So does anyone in modern America stop in mid-sin in order to avoid the fires of hell? Did any of the guards at that prison in Iraq stop to think that what they were doing could send them to hell? Do Muslims have a well-developed doctrine of hell? Is it only we infidels who are destined for hell in the the Islamic worldview? Does Saddam Hussein ever fear hell? What would it have been like to live in a culture where most people were in agreement that bad guys were headed for hell? Wouldn’t it be good, not a step backwards, if we evil people had at least some fear of the wrath of a holy God? Yes, we need to preach the grace and mercy of God, but how do we do that to a people who feel no need of grace or mercy?

Britishisms

Jun9

I found a copy of Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss here at my mom’s house, and after Eldest Duaghter finished with it, I read it. I thought it was delightful, witty, and useful. I discovered a name for the comma I always put before the last item in a series–even though I’ve been told repeatedly that it’s unnecessary nowadays. It’s called an “Oxford comma” or a “serial comma.” I like the term Oxford comma; it makes me believe I have something in common with all those British literary types. I also found out that although Americans always put the ending punctuation mark inside the quotation marks (as I did two sentences ago), the English put the full stop or question mark or whatever inside the quotation marks only if it punctuates what’s inside the quotation marks. For example:

British style: It’s called an “Oxford comma” or a “serial comma”.
Also British style: Sherry said, “How very British!”

Anyway, I thought the book was lots of fun. I’m an Anglophile from way back. And I really enjoy learning about the quaint customs and language quirks of our allies from across the ocean. I was somewhat disappointed when I learned (about when I was in high school or maybe even college) that an “electric torch” was simply a flashlight. I had been picturing Peter and Edmund carrying around something that looked as if it belonged in the opening ceremony for the Olympics.
I’m also something of a stickler, which Ms. Truss defines as “unattractive, know-all obsessives who get things out of proportion and are in continual peril of being disowned by our exasperated families.” I sympathize with her desire to “perpetuate an act of criminal mischief with the aid of a permanent marker” when I see a sign that says something like
“PEACH’S, BANANA’S, AND STRAWBERRY’S FOR SALE.”
Actually, I made that sign up, and as you can see, I couldn’t resist the Oxford comma.

Travelling and collecting enigmatic signs

Jun7

We’re on vacation this week, and I’m collecting signs that don’t exactly make sense to me.
I saw this first one in Seabrook at a Hooter’s Restaurant before we left:
Kids eat free from 11:00 to 7:00 Do real parents bring their children to eat at Hooter’s?

The next one I saw on a high rise building in Austin:
IMAGINE YOUR NAME HERE 486-5570 I did imagine “Sherry” in large letters on a banner at the top of a building in Austin, but I’m not sure what the purpose would be.

Here in San Angelo, I spotted this bit of wisdom on the front of a garage:
Know Jesus, but does He know you?

Washing pretzels

Jun2

Last night Z-baby, the two year old, spilled half a bag of pretzels on the living room floor. She and I picked them all up, and then she wanted to eat them. However, I told her they were dirty, and I put them in the trash. This morning while I was gone to the store, Z’s sister found her in the bathrooom. She had the bathroom sink full of water, and she was washing the pretzels that she had retrieved from the trash. Unfortunately, after being washed, they were a little too soft to be palatable. So Z learned that you can’t wash a pretzel–her homeschool lesson for the day.