I forgot two odd things about Tynan below. Though a noted libertine, he was a student of C. S. Lewis at Oxford, and appreciated him all his life– words from Lewis were read over his grave. And he wrote one of the best books on bullfighting ever written on the practice for the non- aficionado, …
Writhing in Apathy?
I tease Larissa (another attendant of the wedding below) about whether anyone her age has yet earned the right to use a phrase coined in his diaries by the brilliant English theater critic and writer Kenneth Tynan when he was dying of emphysema in his fifties– but no matter. “Writhing” is a brilliantly funny ongoing …
Back to Reality
I’m back from a long and wonderful weekend attending and celebrating the wedding of my stepson, Jackson Frishman, to his sweetheart Nikki Mazzia. The crew was a unique mix of Eastern Orthodox, St. John’s College (Santa Fe campus), river rats, Magdalenians, and… more. Not just a few bloggers either; Odious AND Peculiar, usually separated by …
Seeing Is Believing
My first impression of New Orleans, circa summer of 1986: This is a dirty city. I was sixteen, traveling with my friend Ricky, who was half a generation my senior and my falconry mentor. He warned me about the place. “No good looking women, either.” We were still half an hour’s drive from our destination, …
CommonCensus…
..is proposing an interesting new way to redraw the map, highlighting real regions as opposed to top- down constructions. Check it out here.
Quantum Catfish..
…is a hilarious new illustrated blog, featuring the philosophical dialog of several fishermen in a boat. Think Day by Day, only with fish, and southern. Thanks to Dymphna of Gates of Vienna.
It might not be a good idea…
..to buy Chinese beauty products. They are using executed prisoners and probably aborted fetuses to extract collagen. From The Guardian: “Agents for the firm have told would-be customers it is developing collagen for lip and wrinkle treatments from skin taken from prisoners after they have been shot. The agents say some of the company’s products …
“Bells & Smells”
I don’t post too much about religion or politics here, mostly because they are not my area of expertise and because others so often say it better. But this defense of old fashioned Catholic rituals and customs from Dappled things strikes me as exactly right. “But it’s a false dichotomy to say one must choose …
Pig Follies again
A judge has upheld the ruling to kill exotic opigs on Santa Cruz Island, and Animal Rightists are upset, of course. I think Reid Farmer has the right idea: “It’s a scary thought if one of these suits wins. I mean, in principle, I’m all for pig condoms. But I think the plaintiff and his …
Supernova
An interesting new- ish theory on mammoth extinction can be seen here. A supernova caused what are carefully being called “comet- like” events about 13,000 years ago, may have wiped out most of the mammoths, leaving traces in their tusks. This would be a rather local, that is, North American, event, not resposible (probably) for …