I measure my stress level by how much this does or doesn't happen to me: "Work destroys your soul by stealthily invading your brain during the hours not officially spent working." Nassim Taleb Probably why I'm getting so much tail: "Sexual patterns that

Brews You Can Use The Spring Flurry continues. Not much time for blogging this morning. Just a few items: Our President and Pope tweet . . . and gas stations hold wine tastings [http://www.pennlive.com/food/index.ssf/2018/04/rutters_wine_tastings.html]. Nothing is sacred any more, not even

Ramblings Whew, whatta week. Nonstop obligations . . . all of the non-billable sort, which for a lawyer, is like giving money away. I get a reprieve today and tomorrow. Great podcast at Econtalk: Jonah Goldberg on the Suicide of the West [http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2018/04/jonah_goldberg.html]. Lots

More Notes The increased wealth that started to accumulate after 1000 gave us the most famous saint after the apostles: St. Francis (b. 1182). Also: St. Dominic (b. 1170). Twelfth and Thirteenth centuries: other mendicant orders: Augustinians, Trinitarians, Servites, Carmelites. Perhaps ironically, it also gave us the Crusades. With increase

Miscellaneous Rambling I ran a quote by George Scott-Moncrieff. Who's he? He was Russell Kirk's friend, whom Kirk praised in his autobiography, The Sword of Imagination. "Scomo" was "the worst-dressed gentleman in all Scotland, indifferent to circumstance, endowed with the consolations of philosophy.

Miscellaneous Rambling "I woke up Sunday morning with no way to hold my head that didn't hurt." Johnny Cash, Sunday Morning Coming Down. It's one of my favorite Johnny Cash songs, and I was living it yesterday after a fundraiser for Max's

Gardening Rambling I don't know if it's a testament to Salanova lettuce, a trait of lettuce in general, or a gardening miracle, but it looks like all, or almost all, of my 47 lettuce plugs survived last week's high winds, freezing temperatures, snow, hail,

Brews You Can Use I found a trove of drinking news over here [http://brutalhammer.com/]. A few of the better ones: Good to know: "Professor Andrew Jarosz of Mississippi State University and colleagues served vodka-cranberry cocktails to 20 male subjects until their blood alcohol levels neared legal intoxication

Lecture Notes Every historian recognizes that, by 1000, commerce was increasing and with it, wealth. Technology was advancing. The Dark Ages were over, caput, finished. It was onward and upward pretty much non-stop from there, allowing Europe to, almost literally, conquer the world by the 19th century. There was a

Quick Rambling Wow, what brutal weather these past couple of days. I'm guessing my 50 lettuce plugs didn't make it, but I won't get a chance to check them out until tomorrow. If we lost the crop, it'll probably be a $250