Maggie's Farm

This in from Doc Higgins, who swears he had nothing to do with any of these surgeries, which is probably true. His senile tremor is so bad, they haven't allowed him near the OR in ten years. If you are bored and really have nothing that you should be doing, take a peek:  Click here: Awful Plastic Surgery

"Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer, but wish we didn't."

Erica Jong

Maggie's Farm is pleased to be included in this week's New Blog Showcase, hosted by Celebrity Cola. I think we are witnessing the Big Bang of the expanding Blogosphere.  We are called "idiosyncratic and eccentric"  - Who, us?

We may soon have more blogs than blog-readers in this world. Competition is good: http://celebritycola.blogspot.com/2005/02/new-blog-carnival-showcase.html

Let's pretend to take Euristan seriously:  Click here: Telegraph | Opinion | What's US policy on Europe? No giggling
An oldie but goodie from VDH: Click here: VDH's Private Papers::Gimme, gimme, gimme
More Aussies to Iraq: Click here: Chrenkoff
Burkett considers suing CBS ?!?! : Click here: RatherBiased.com | News | Bill Burkett Returns, Says He Was Maligned By CBS
Teeny tiny Nanotechnology:  Click here: The New York Times > Science > Tiny Is Beautiful: Translating 'Nano' Into Practical

A word from Gwynnie, on the recent Environmental piece:

Gwynnie read the Celebrity Cola article “The Apocalyptic Battle Between . . ..” and even though she’s only a corgi she perceptively notes that the only thing dumber than politicians talking about the environment is environmentalists talking about Christianity!  She even remembered the blog which said Christian fundamentalists didn’t care about the environment because the earth would be destroyed anyway in the “end days”.  She asks us to remember that Christians have waited 2000 years for the second coming of Jesus, and have no reason to believe it won’t be another 2000 years, and that their faith requires them to be faithful stewards of what God has given them.

"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro."

Hunter S. Thompson (who died yesterday in Woody Creek, Colorado)

"Shadows are fallin, and I've been here all day.
It's too hard to sleep, the time is runnin away.
Seems like my soul has turned into steel,
I've still got the scars that the sun let me heal.
There's not even room enough to be anywhere.
It's not dark yet, but it's getting there."

Dylan, from Not Dark Yet

Looks like about a foot of snow arrived overnite here in Yankeeland, and this morning there is a needling email from the in-laws with their weather report in Cabo. Why do so many of us Yankees love what others call "bad" weather? Is is because it demands more from us, or because it reminds us of the grandeur of God's Nature and God's Cosmos? Or is it sour grapes?

Speaking of Cosmos, old Mr. Hubble took some nice snapshots:

"Art is a collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does, the better."

Andre Gide

It is tough for me to say anything about The Gates that isn't corny, so I won't say much. New Yorkers are just too hip. They do not dare to be positive about anything (except left-wing politics, which they still think is cool even tho it's antique, but they don't know it yet - they are smart, lively, book-reading people who love ideas, but stuck in the political Stone-Age), so they predictably bitch about this thing. Will post some photos as soon as I can get them to size properly, but photos of course can't capture it. What I will say is that, the minute you step off the sidewalk into the Park, into the 23 miles of saffron-curtained gates, everyone - and there were tons of people of every description and every language on the planet yesterday - slows down. It is remarkable to see New Yorkers walking so slowly and taking pictures, despite the frigid wind. Whatever it is, I suppose I think it is quite wonderful. ("I don't know much about art, but I know what I like.")

Also had time to check out Frederick Church's Parthenon again (a sentimental favorite of mine, despite having been to the Real Thing), plus Washington Crossing the Delaware - forgot how huge this cornball, wonderful work is. And to check out the Washington exhibit - not very interesting.

Our favorite "Gates" photo:

"My words fly up, my thoughts remain below.
Words without thoughts never to heaven go."

WS, Hamlet

This just in from Old Doc Higgins in Rhode Island:

Everyone has ADD, and all boys have ADHD. Just a matter of degree. Heck, I remember back in med school, during the lecture on the use of ether for anesthesia, spending the whole time undressing (mentally) a gal in the front row (only gal in the class - this was 19 and 41 - and she was a bow-wow, too, but eventually she let me...(edited for family reading...), and I didn't remember a thing about the class. See, I have a bad case of ADD too. But it didn't matter - back then, I'd just have the patient chaw on a lead bullet and rip out their appendix, or their whatever. Ether-shmeether. We'd re-use those bullets until they were chawed to bits - didn't wash 'em either. There was a war on - needed those bullets to kill Krauts and Japs. So, to save bullets, they came up with this new-fangled novocaine stuff for the whining wussies. I'd have nothing of it - No Sir. Nowadays, it's more complicated, but I like to stick to the old, tried-and-true ways when I can. When I can remember them.

"Napoleon - if yer hungry, just make yerself a dang kay-sa-dilla."

Grandma, in Napoleon Dynamite

Well, I asked for something to eat
I'm hungry as a hog
So I get brown rice, seaweed,
and a dirty hot-dog.
I've got a hole
where my stomach disappeared.
Then you ask why I don't live here
Honey, I gotta think you're really weird.

Dylan, from On The Road Again

It is called out-to-lunch. The age-old theme is the human reluctance to self-criticize, but the minor theme is "why are there schools of journalism anyway?"  Name me someone in the press who writes better and is more devoted to truth than John Hinderaker of Powerline, and he didn't go, and neither did the sublime wordsmith Bird Dog...well, you can't teach writing....some folks can just turn a phrase around a concept like a boa around a rat - I love that, but cannot do it. Anyway,  a review of Lehmann's piece in the New Yorker begins thus:

Nicholas Lemann was named dean of the Columbia School of Journalism in 2003. It's too soon to tell whether he is making Columbia a stronger school. It's not too soon to say that Lemann, the author of two good books and many compelling articles, has made himself a weaker writer. Evidence of this decline comes in the current New Yorker, where Lemann devotes 5,000 words to asking, "Why is everyone mad at the mainstream media?" without saying anything clear or consequential in response.Nicholas Lemann was named dean of the Columbia School of Journalism in 2003. It's too soon to tell whether he is making Columbia a stronger school. It's not too soon to say that Lemann, the author of two good books and many compelling articles, has made himself a weaker writer. Evidence of this decline comes in the current New Yorker, where Lemann devotes 5,000 words to asking, "Why is everyone mad at the mainstream media?" without saying anything clear or consequential in response.

The Bird Dog would like to plug The Teaching Company. He is neither paid by them nor does he own any shares in their company, but he does wish he had started the business. They collect the best college teachers - not the most famous, just the most engaging. Look at their website - on left column, under Other Swell Places. I have done about 8 of their courses and each has been wonderful. The music stuff by Greenberg is a pure delight. It is excellent for the car or for workouts. You can fill in all of the gaps in your education, and no exams!

Like Brooks Brothers, they have regular sales, and that is the time to stock up.

The only thing nuttier than Australia banning gun ownership - so that the Army has to be called in to shoot infestations of rabbits - is the banning of fox-hunting, otherwise known as "hunting," in the UK.  Thank God for our revolution, or we might have become as nutty as England, Australia and Canada. This has got to be one of the saddest days for the time-honored Brit sporting traditions. What will be the next target of the self-righteous weenies?  Soccer, because it leads to fighting? Pathetic.

But maybe we can offer psychological counseling for those ex-hunters? Teach them knitting and TV-watching? And maybe those beautiful horses can be re-trained to be therapy-horses....hey - that would be a better world, right?

Read Norman Geras' piece in Dissent. A well-known Brit socialist, a retired professor, Norm is notable for not only being open-minded but for being a nice guy. And an articulate blogger. Got in hot water with the Brit Left for violating the Party Line on Iraq - how shocking ! Can you imagine such a thing ?!  Bad form. Almost as distressing as a lady forgetting to wear a hat at Ascot, or sipping her tea before the hostess sits down.  Who knows - it could lengthen the time 'til the Revolution, when we all will get free apple pie (or, more likely, guillotined).  Click here: Dissent Magazine - Winter 2005

Another delectable dog bone. Speaking of guillotines, the Bird Dog is on the trail of The Enlightenment these days, with a fine Himmelfarb piece coming up tomorrow maybe. But this piece sets the stage. Whatever The Enlightenment was, it wasn't perfect, and even though we may live in it, like fish in water, we have to think about it. That is what Dog thinks is so cool and great about Western Civilization -  not only can we think, but we don't get shot for doing it. Click here: OpinionJournal - Leisure & Arts