Eric Scheske

Man, I really, really wish I liked bourbon and whiskey: > Southern writer Walker Percy insisted that a good julep should hold at least 5 ounces of bourbon: 5 ounces bourbon/Several sprigs fresh spearmint/4 to 5 tablespoons superfine sugar/Crushed ice . . . Into a silver julep cup, a highball

From the Notebooks A Buddhist tries to answer that age-old question: How to live in the present but also plan prudently for one's future. I'm not sure he gets us there, but I think it's helpful: "Living mindfully in the present does not

Related to posts for the past two days. Also calls into question the whole Pascalian criticism of "busy-ness" and the (supposedly, according to the classical tradition) numb-skull avoidance of ennui through constant activity. From Escriva's Furrow: > Sadness and uneasiness grow in proportion to the time

A few other thoughts related to yesterday's post about the world of total work and whether one ought to love his work. In his classic study, Pieper was not really criticizing the world of total work that I mostly live in right now. He was criticizing the notion

Here's a decent piece by Peter Lawler at The Imaginative Conservative about whether a person should love his work [http://www.theimaginativeconservative.org/2015/06/dont-make-love-and-work.html] . It criticizes the work notions coming out of Silicon Valley these days, so I like it, but I'm not

Miscellaneous Rambling Another whirlwind holiday weekend: Black Wednesday, followed by a (mostly) hangover-free Thanksgiving, then a 40-hour trip to Detroit that entailed a lot more driving once I was there, then over to Portage (a Kalamazoo suburb) to get my son to his high school basketball scrimmage, then to the

H.I.F. The Anglican Church will not be denied: It will lead mainstream Christianity to the pits of the absolute absurd: Church of England Lady Bishop Advocates Nudism [http://www.patheos.com/blogs/standingonmyhead/2015/11/church-of-england-lady-bishop-advocates-nudism.html] .

From Bill Kauffman's Poetry Night at the Ballpark and Other Scenes from an Alternative America: "Joseph Smith ran for president in 1844, at least until a mob killed him in Illinois. He was thus the first U.S. presidential candidate to be assassinated. (Those in the best

H.I.F. Seen at a Reddit thread. Funny stuff, and even though I think the Western policies since the fall of the Ottoman Empire have contributed to this problem, the attempt of the multiculturalists to absolve Islam is ridiculous . . . as outlined in this clever piece. The Jihadists are tired

“Thanksgiving Day originated in New England when the Puritans realized they had succeeded in exterminating their neighbors, the Indians, instead of getting exterminated by their neighbors, the Indians.” Mark Twain “Gratitude is a fruit of great cultivation; you do not find it among gross people.” Samuel Johnson “Beggar that I