Today’s “Fun With Thucydides”

I share a passage that caused a good chuckle, waking major dad up in the process ():

“…Arriving there first themselves [the Spartans], they prepared hauling machines to carry their ships across from Corinth to the sea on the side of Athens, in order to make their attack by land and sea at once. However, the zeal which they displayed was not imitated by the rest of the allies, who came in but slowly, being both engaged in harvesting their grain, and SICK OF MAKING EXPEDITIONS*…”

*my emphasis

Some things don’t change, n’est pas? When you’re over it, you’re OVER IT. And this was only Year 4 – the wars went on for 27 years.

Hmmm.

That kinda sounds familiar, too…but not really funny.

Coalition Book Club

The “disjointed disappointment” was a real slog of an effort called “Independence Lost: Lives on the Edge of the American Revolution.” I REALLY had high hopes for it – and, quite honestly, it was filled to the BRIM with good stuff – but, LORD, was it hard to get through, not to mention had some pretty off-the-wall mistakes in it. (And DON’T call us “Pensacolans.” We are “Pensacolians,” ffs.) (Grrrrr.)

Anyways, always willing to give it another go. I will let you all know what I think in a bit, because I’m not yet halfway through THIS…

…and it’s a brick.

But WHAT a READ.

All Our Todays Have Blue-Checked Fools

and tweets by idiots

Some Days

I had one of those days today. Started out with a couple vague objectives in mind – get the scruffy Scottie to the groomer, look for some ancient replacement Revere Ware at the local junk stores, drop a crying shame load of shoes, etc, off at the Waterfront Mission (check there for the pots, too). Wait for major dad to get home,so we could take a load of not-so-loved hardcovers to the local used bookstore. That kind of day.

Well, drop the shaggy dog off, check. Wandered up to an “antique” mall on Mobile Highway, and found a few treasures, including a cool kitteh for the Japanese Maple. (Doesn’t YOURS have one? What a pity.) Hit the donation drive through at the Mission, AND wandered through the store. What has become of 1950’s Revere Ware? A year ago I could name my pot, and VOILA! $7! Now, I can’t find the damn things! WHO. ARE. YOU. PEOPLE TAKING MY STUFF?!?!?!

Headed home, and unloaded my treasures, with major dad – back from the gym – making all the appropriate noises of approval.

Grabbed the 15 pound sack of hard covers, and off we went.

Now, I’ve sent him and Ebola over the years with boxes and bags full of books, but, sad to say, I’ve never actually even gotten as far as the parking lot, less mind INSIDE the store. Today, however, I was on a mission. I’ve got almost a complete set of Hornblowers, but damn if one volume from one publisher isn’t becoming a massive pain in the derriere getting ahold of. I figured I might just find it.

What a wonderous store. Lo and behold, my sack o’ offerings got me FIFTEEN DOLLARS AND CHANGE in credit! YOWSAHS!

And didn’t the lady-in-the-know drag me straight to the “Sea Stories” section. Well, hello. There WAS Lord Hornblower, but. Wrong publisher. Waah. Waah.

Never one to let a good chunk of change go to waste, I thought I’d check for one book I’d almost bought at another antique store, and check for work from yet another author, since I’d decided it’s time to burnish my “Southern” reading credentials. There she was – a paperback edition of “Cross Creek” by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. Okay, and…here’s a hardcover Eudora Welty! Only one, and that’s okay, because that’s all I need to get reading. I snatch it off the shelf, too. After making sure major dad hadn’t seen anything he simply must have (I AM willing to share my bounty, contrary to SOME opinions.), I trot up front happier than a clam, and am still – after settling accounts – $12.06 to the upside (They found another book for credit in the bottom of my bag as I was checking out – CHA CHING). #score

Get home, clean the dirt off the terra cotta cat…

…wonder why the Scottie wasn’t done at the groomers yet, and start to gently work the price stickers off the books. I don’t care if I paid $2 or $200 for a book, I don’t want ANY sticker, nor any sticker GOO, on my covers. GRRRR.

They cleaned up real good.

Then I opened the Welty.

And about dropped the damn thing.

Picked it up, and about dropped it again.

Then did a little Googling out of curiosity’s sake, to see if…well…yup.

That was her.

So a first edition, with a lovely personal note from the author. For, basically…free.

major dad thinks in terms of dollars and cents on this one, but, spook that I am, I see a sign.

A “You get writing, girl” kinda sign. Wouldn’t you say?

Messages from beyond. That’s pretty Southern, no?

I’m all about the signs.

An Exciting New Clinton Volume About to Be Released

Hillary’s new book is (for REALS) titled:

“What Happened“

An explanation, not a query?

I dunno, what? We’ve heard EVERY FRICKIN’ EXCUSE in the world from her repeatedly, ad nauseum, since two days after Election Night, when her hangover/drug induced stupor finally wore off.
Now we get to buy the print version?

WHY?

Beats me, too.

Think I’ll pass.

What Have The Romans Ever Done For Us?

Stanford students reject Western Civ

An effort by a group of Stanford University students to restore a Western civilization class requirement has been decisively rejected by the student body, with voting results released Monday showing it mustering less than 15 percent support.

We Watched “48 Hours” Last Night

First time I’ve seen that movie in many, many years.

My god, it’s simply terrible.

Why was this such a Big Thing in the 80s?

I mean, it’s really really bad.

Today’s Posts Are Brought To You By

…Poems attributed to Queen Elizabeth I

On Monsieur’s Departure
BY QUEEN ELIZABETH I
I grieve and dare not show my discontent,
I love and yet am forced to seem to hate,
I do, yet dare not say I ever meant,
I seem stark mute but inwardly do prate.
I am and not, I freeze and yet am burned,
Since from myself another self I turned.

My care is like my shadow in the sun,
Follows me flying, flies when I pursue it,
Stands and lies by me, doth what I have done.
His too familiar care doth make me rue it.
No means I find to rid him from my breast,
Till by the end of things it be supprest.

Some gentler passion slide into my mind,
For I am soft and made of melting snow;
Or be more cruel, love, and so be kind.
Let me or float or sink, be high or low.
Or let me live with some more sweet content,
Or die and so forget what love ere meant.

Bill Quick’s New Book

It’s actually quite good and an enjoyable read. It’s called “Lightning Fall” and it concerns an all-too conceivable EMP attack on the US, and how very quickly our tech/electricity-dependent society could fall apart, especially when aided by the misplaced priorities of our political class.

If you have a kindle, get it.

…Can Long Endure

One hundred fifty years ago today, after some music and a two hour oration by the leading speaker of the day, a tall gaunt man stood and delivered in but a few brief remarks words that have and will stand forever

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us-that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion-that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain-that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom-and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

It is in fact very appropriate that Captain Teleprompter is skipping the events there today, as the comparison would shrink him even more.

Catholic Priests Risk Arrest If They Voluntarily Perform Mass on Base During Shutdown

For reals.

Shutdown Impacts Chapel Services

…There is a chronic shortage of active duty Catholic chaplains. While roughly 25% of the military is Catholic, Catholic priests make up only about 8% of the chaplain corps. That means approximately 275,000 men and women in uniform, and their families, are served by only 234 active-duty priests. The temporary solution to this shortage is to provide GS and contract priests. These men are employed by the government to ensure that a priest is available when an active duty Catholic Chaplain is not present. With the government shutdown, many GS and contract priests who minister to Catholics on military bases worldwide are not permitted to work – not even to volunteer.

During the shutdown, it is illegal for them to minister on base and they risk being arrested if they attempt to do so.

Is he Obama or Oliver Cromwell?

ths update: More news types have gotten on this since Ebola let me know about it. Todd Starnes at Fox has more:

The U.S. military has furloughed as many as 50 Catholic chaplains due to the partial suspension of government services, banning them from celebrating weekend Mass. At least one chaplain was told that if he engaged in any ministry activity, he would be subjected to disciplinary action.

“In very practical terms it means Sunday Mass won’t be offered,” Archbishop Timothy Broglio of the Archdiocese for the Military Services told me. “If someone has a baptism scheduled, it won’t be celebrated.”

…the military installations impacted are served by non-active-duty priests who were hired as government contractors.

…“Catholic military personnel should not have their religious liberties held hostage by this funding crisis,” Crews told me. “I find it alarming that these priests cannot even volunteer to provide services without threat of arrest.”

The archbishop said a priest at Joint Base Langley-Eustis was banned from officiating at the wedding of a couple he’d been counseling.

“The wedding could be on the base, but the priest can’t do the wedding,” Broglio told me.

By the Way, I’m Reading This Right Now

It’s VERY good.

Oh Frabjous Day!

The wonderfully named “Amazon Fulfillment Center” (which sounds like, well, oh my) came through for moi

Woo-Hoo!

Hot Off The Presses!

Literally.

Here, Dear Readers, is the ONE book you simply must buy

You can get it on Amazon here.

Now don’t tarry any longer.

Your Swill Moment of Highbrow Culture

Pah Haiku

I also make pah.
A portrait of the last piece.
I ain’t sharing it.

~ ths

“50 Shades of Grey”: A Dramatic Reading

…by…The Washington Nationals.

This is one for the ages.

A Marine Corps Twitter Friend of Mine Has Written a Book and Found a Stud for the Cover Shot

GAH-RRRRrrroowwwwlllll!!!!!!

…Rex stayed behind the signing table on the floor, slobbered on a red Kong and growled whenever Cpl JT Overland, his current and twelfth handler, nudged it with his foot. Most everyone wanted to pet the big furry dog, but Rex is a working dog still. No hugs from anyone other than his handler. No outside food treats such as peanut butter in the Kong– just the red toy and the loyalty to and from the Marine who works, plays and even sleeps with him. Cpl Overland assured the Marines and their families, “He’s never bitten anyone he wasn’t supposed to–yet.” They watchers laughed, and backed up.

Dogs suffer from PTSD, too. So Rex, the oldest military working dog won’t be deploying again. At ten years old, he’s already served three tours and been injured by an IED he alerted his handler Meagan Levy to but they were unable to get away from it before it exploded. Both received Purple Hearts. But Rex serves still with the Camp Pendleton SRT. He patrols with Cpl Overland on drug interdiction, security for VIPs such as at the Tim McGraw concert, and apprehending suspects who run.

Not much of a publicity hound, eh? Good dog, Rex. The best never let it go to their heads.

(Sounds like it’s going to be a great book, Mike!.)

I Started Reading “The Dragonriders” Series When I Was Pregnant With Ebola

And the “The Crystal Singers”. I am so sad to hear of her passing, for she had such wonderous, accessible, engrossing tales to share.

GOD, they are FANTASTIC!

Science fiction author Anne McCaffrey dies at 85

Writer best known for the ‘worlds of her imagination’ in her ‘Dragonriders of Pern’ novels

Prolific science fiction and fantasy author Anne McCaffrey died Monday at her home in Ireland shortly after suffering a stroke. She was 85.

“The Thread” wreaked havoc on Pern. Scorched crops, laid waste to the land, economy ~ decimated the populace. Everyone watched for signs of the recurring menace when the cycle spun through towards its end.

I think it’s come again, but our defensive dragons are gone.

And so few people left with both courage and imagination.

O.M.G !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Girlfriend has a NEW BOOK COMING OUTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!

…And Ice Cream Castles In the Air…

“Nobody tells the truth as much as the Times tries to tell the truth. And without the Times, we might as well be the Soviet Union in the old days.”

–Author Gay Talese, in a Vanity Fair interview about the upcoming documentary Page One about The New York Times.

Well, Bingley always has fondly called it “Pravda”.

A Sentence I Thought I’d Never See Written

The blogs were written by not by a gay girl in Damascus, but a middle-aged American man based in Scotland.

Some things are beyond parody.

Top Ten

Favorite British Words.

Lucky sister Ave won’t have to haul herself out of bed like the rest of us who want to see THE wedding.

Your Daily Dash O’Culture

Via our friends at No Pasaran here’s a high-brow film to elevate the discourse around here

Ah, be the ennui!

Now pardon me whilst I gently sip some chablis with my pinky raised and sample these delicious canapes…

In This Run-Up To Valentine’s Day

I thought you, Dear Readers, would appreciate knowing that the True Love Poetry has not faded from this cruel world.

Someone deserves the Noble Prize for verse, methinks.

I Can’t Wait To See Their “21st Century” Edition Of The Bible

I’m sure they’ll remove all mention of God so as not to offend

What is a word worth? According to Publishers Weekly, NewSouth Books’ upcoming edition of Mark Twain’s seminal novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn will remove all instances of the “n” word—I’ll give you a hint, it’s not nonesuch—present in the text and replace it with slave. The new book will also remove usage of the word Injun. The effort is spearheaded by Twain expert Alan Gribben, who says his PC-ified version is not an attempt to neuter the classic but rather to update it. “Race matters in these books,” Gribben told PW. “It’s a matter of how you express that in the 21st century.”

This may be the only time you will ever here me approvingly quote Pa. Gov. Ed Rendell, but what a freakin’ bunch of wussies we’ve become.