“The forecast for Sunday’s Super Bowl has improved in the last week. It’s expected to be in the mid-30s with winds of only 6 miles an hour. That’s a good temperature for New Jersey. It’s above freezing but not so warm that you can smell the bodies in the swamp.” Fallon… Read the rest
BYCU
Indiana has a blue [Christmas] law that prohibits alcohol sales on December 25th. An Indiana officer received a tip that an Indiana store had sold alcohol on Christmas, so she started an investigation. They’re now spanking all sorts of small stores throughout the Hoosier state.
They say over 1,000 stores are in the cross-hairs.
I’m glad the great state of Indiana has no serious crime to worry about. … Read the rest
What is mead? Basically, honey wine. A drink made of water, honey, malt, and yeast. It pre-dates beer and grape wine, and it might be the oldest alcoholic drink known to us, with the exception of the alcohol that early hard-core alkies slurped from the bottom of grain storage bins after heavy rains. The Norse Gods drank Mead. So did Zeus. The nectar he drank while expostulating on those poor humans’ condition was a primitive brown mead, at least according to Robert Graves’s The Greek Myths.… Read the rest
From the Bottom Line Personal: Just in case you’re in a good mood: “More than 10% of adults in the US don’t wash their hands after using the toilet.” … Read the rest
Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine, I was responsible for the “Tremendous Trifles” column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full of Chesterton ancedotes. They were idiosyncratic, historical, and Chestertonian. He gave me permission to use them here. I hope y’all find them as interesting as I have over the years. Most of them have never been published.
Chesterton Short(s)
Those looking for less familiar essays by Chesterton should note that he contributed to The Venture, a highbrow literary annual edited by W. Somerset Maugham and Lawrence Houseman. The Venture was an expensive production, and only two issues appeared—the 1903 and 1904 editions, respectively. [Ted Morgan, Maugham, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1980, pp. 93-94] Incidentally, Chesterton’s 1903 contribution, “The Philosophy of Islands,” was reprinted in The Spice of Life (1964). … Read the rest
H.I.F.
I walked by the TV a few minutes ago while Tess (8) was watching The Disney Channel. I saw a reference to two moms. I asked her what she was watching (“Good Luck Charlie”). I Googled it and found this: “Gay Couple Featured on Disney Channel’s ‘Good Luck Charlie’; Lesbian Moms on Kid’s TV Show Sparks Controversy.”
Cripe. I’ve never liked The Disney Channel. The kids are bratty and the humor is awful. And now they’re indoctrinating little kids into the gay lifestyle (“It’s normal, kids”).
But no longer. Disney is now banned in our house.
Banning Disney. Geesh. What a fine state of affairs our culture has devolved to. … Read the rest
I ain’t Samuel Johnson, but I’ve occasionally given it a try:
Onolatry: The worship of donkeys or asses. “Americans engage in onolatry, as evidenced by its attitude toward movie and rock stars.”
Pishachi: A female devil or ghost, especially one that dislikes travelers and pregnant women. “The feminist movement has traditionally been filled with pishachi.”
Vaticanism: A neologism, meaning “Church control of morality through the state, generally accomplished through nefarious means that only rednecks can discern.”
Eiron: A stock character in Greek comedy who pretends to be less intelligent than he really is. The word “irony” derives from the pretence adopted by the eiron (which should give you a clue about its pronunciation). “Is he an eiron or just a moron?”
Crapulous: Relating to drunkenness or the drinking of alcohol. “Give me the crapulous, never the serious.”
Lyssophobia: A fear of rabies so extreme that the sufferer manifests symptoms of the disease. “Let’s hope there’s nothing like lyssophobia for fear of homosexuals.”
Misopedia. Hatred of children, especially one’s own. “As a father of seven small children, misopedia disgusts me. But I understand it.”… Read the rest
H.I.F.
I received this quote in an email this morning. I haven’t verified its authenticity yet, but it’s apparently from C.S. Lewis. The quote rings a bell with me, so I’m guessing it’s CSL in one of his rarer political moods: “Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.” … Read the rest