Maggie's Farm

It's a good time of year to re-link our past piece on Removing Pachysandra, that durable shade ground cover which is ubiquitous in these parts and which can be pleasant in the right place, but vulgar, I think, in others.

Getting it established takes some doing, but once it's happy it sure is tough to get rid of.

I have a patch to remove, maybe this weekend but my wheelbarrow has a flat so I need to fix that first.

Home Burial (1914)

He saw her from the bottom of the stairs
Before she saw him. She was starting down,
Looking back over her shoulder at some fear.
She took a doubtful step and then undid it
To raise herself and look again. He spoke
Advancing toward her: “What is it you see
From up there always?---for I want to know.”
She turned and sank upon her skirts at that,
And her face changed from terrified to dull.
He said to gain time: “What is it you see?”
Mounting until she cowered under him.
“I will find out now---you must tell me, dear.”
She, in her place, refused him any help,
With the least stiffening of her neck and silence.
She let him look, sure that he wouldn’t see,
Blind creature; and a while he didn’t see.
But at last he murmured, “Oh” and again, “Oh.”
“What is it---what?” she said.
                                                 “Just that I see.”
“You don’t,” she challenged. “Tell me what it is.”
“The wonder is I didn’t see at once.
I never noticed it from here before.
I must be wonted to it---that’s the reason.”
The little graveyard where my people are!
So small the window frames the whole of it.
Not so much larger than a bedroom, is it?
There are three stones of slate and one of marble,
Broad-shouldered little slabs there in the sunlight
On the sidehill. We haven’t to mind those.
But I understand: it is not the stones,
But the child’s mound---”
                                           “Don’t, don’t, don’t, don’t,” she cried.
She withdrew, shrinking from beneath his arm
That rested on the banister, and slid downstairs;
And turned on him with such a daunting look,
He said twice over before he knew himself:
“Can’t a man speak of his own child he’s lost?”
“Not you!---Oh, where’s my hat? Oh, I don’t need it!
I must get out of here. I must get air.---
I don’t know rightly whether any man can.”
“Amy! Don’t go to someone else this time.
Listen to me. I won’t come down the stairs.”
He sat and fixed his chin between his fists.
“There’s something I should like to ask you, dear.”
“You don’t know how to ask it.”
                                                       “Help me, then.”

(the rest of the poem is below)

h/t, Dust My Broom

John Masterson Burke (1812-1909) led a long and successful life with many prominent friends and business associates, including Russell Sage and the Vanderbilts.

He never married, had no close relatives, and lived in a spartan manner in Manhattan. He left his $4.5 million estate in the name of his mother "for the establishment of the Winifred Masterson Burke Foundation, which is to be a rest home for convalescents..." The inspiration for his idea is unknown. Today, The Burke Rehabilitation Center in the NYC suburb of White Plains, NY is the premier rehabilitation and rehabilitation research center in the world.

A dear and close relation of mine is there right now, post hip-replacement and, if you have any doubts about American medicine, you will not after you see how this amazing place works.

It's interesting to read Burke's 1909 New York Times obit. Annoyed distant relatives came out of the woodwork after he wrote his final will.

Also wonderful to read the Victorian language (eg "will says he gave money to restore health, not for enjoyment") in this New York Times report on his bequest.

Although a vocal minority continues to attack the Christian faith, for most Americans, faith is a large part of their lives: 86 percent of Americans refer to themselves as religious, and 75 percent of all Americans consider themselves Christians. So how should they respond to these passionate, learned, and persuasive books that promote science and secularism over religion and faith? For years, Tim Keller has compiled a list of the most frequently voiced “doubts” skeptics bring to his Manhattan church. And in The Reason for God, he single-handedly dismantles each of them. Written with atheists, agnostics, and skeptics in mind, Keller also provides an intelligent platform on which true believers can stand their ground when bombarded by the backlash. The Reason for God challenges such ideology at its core and points to the true path and purpose of Christianity.

Why is there suffering in the world? How could a loving God send people to Hell? Why isn’t Christianity more inclusive? Shouldn’t the Christian God be a god of love? How can one religion be “right” and the rest “wrong”? Why have so many wars been fought in the name of God? These are just a few of the questions even ardent believers wrestle with today. In this book, Tim Keller uses literature, philosophy, real-life conversations and reasoning, and even pop culture to explain how faith in a Christian God is a soundly rational belief, held by thoughtful people of intellectual integrity with a deep compassion for those who truly want to know the truth.

Tim is the pastor of New York's booming Redeemer Presbyterian Church, but he is also well-known through his Thursday Men's Breakfast talks at The Harvard Club, which focus on the application of Christianity to daily life and especially to business life. Either or both are worth attending when visiting NYC.

Recordings of these excellent and routinely sold-out talks can be gotten here by subscription, or here on recordings (most are $5.)

h/t, Theo

"... those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."

Friedrich Nietzche (h/t, Neptunus Lex)

The WSJ's Dan Henninger comment, with video. I think he has it about right.

Furthermore, the dominance of these SF Dems - these Vietnam-sentimentalists - in the party and in the primaries is the reason they will lose in November.

Our morning links today reported the growing ogling crisis in the UK. Men are pigs: the government must do something. We hope this sign will contribute something useful to the discussion of the crisis, if not offer a simple solution. Why ogle, after all, if you can just stare?

We like the healthy, wholesome NSFW barmaid on the continuation page.

Sargent's The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit (1882). MFA, Boston.

Thanks, Buddy.

The remarkable Sylvie Guillem with Laurent Hillaire in a short excerpt from Forsythe's In the Middle Somewhat Elevated:

Sheffield, MA, in the southern Berkshires, is one of the loveliest villages in New England. It has well-kept horse farms, a few dairy farms, a bunch of quaint bed-and-breakfasts, wooded hills, a 250 year-old Congregational Church, and a population of around 3000.

It isn't too far from Maggie's Farm, and it isn't too far from where Alice's Restaurant used to be (in Stockbridge).

The only problem with this fine 1880 carriage barn-home is that it comes with only 6 acres. I would need ten or twenty times that to do what I want to do. The only other downside is all of the Subarus with Obama stickers in the area. (Asking price $740,000).

The workshop and office space on the ground level are an appealing feature.

(No, we are not in the real estate business: we just like a break from politics.)

As if to reinforce our post below, we finally learn why she was fired from the Watergate hearings. This is amazing (but not surprising), at Hot Air. Let's see whether the press is brave enough to be all over this or not. She is a sociopath, just like hubbie - but not as slick as he is. "Birds of a feather..."

It's the final nail. She's done. (And I think Obama is done, too, with his Farrakhan story. Unless he tries to explain, once again, that I wouldn't understand because it's "a black thing.")

Dems sure can pick 'em. I bet Chris Dodd and Joe Biden are looking pretty good to them now.

Update: More on the story here.

As readers know, The Friends of Blackwater NWR in Cambridge, MD have two live BirdCams, one on a Bald Eagle nest: Click here: Friends of Blackwater NWR - Bald Eagle Cam (I only see one little eaglet in the nest) and the other on an Osprey nest: Click here: Friends of Blackwater NWR - Osprey Cam.

Photo is an eagle with a fish, perched on a not-yet used Osprey nest platform.

A remarkable short video. Who knew where penguins really spend the winter?

This is a photo of Gunnhilde, a fine example of this family-friendly and versatile sporting breed. Known
best for pointing and ptracking ptarmigan in the far north, the hardy but socialist Norwegian is also useful for ptracking lost reindeer, aquavit, herring, blonds, and boiled potatoes.

I had one of these dogs once, but he ptracked a lovely smoked herring on a truck on its way from Nova Scotia to North Waddlefield, MA, where he picked up the scent and followed it south to Waterbury, CT. I heard that he and the smoked herring got married, settled down, and opened a successful dry-cleaning shop in Torrington, CT.

Tis Issat is the Smoke of the Nile - the falls of the Blue Nile in Ethiopia (map). The Blue Nile, arising in Lake Tana, provides most of the water to the Nile proper.

Here's a better photo of the falls.

You can learn a lot about 19th C. Ethiopia (Abyssinia) in Flashman on the March (he survives a tumble down the falls - and then a tumble with an obese Queen). The subject comes up today because, after church yesterday, friends were discussing their upcoming mission trip to Ethiopia and I regret that I cannot join their group.

On the other hand, maybe Ethiopia ought to be sending some missions to the USA and Europe. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church (previously the Coptic Orthodox Church) has been around since about 300, and has taken its own path. Note the outfits of the Deacons.

I would love to see that country.

Quoted from Roger K:

Let’s see, on our side we have:

- political, economic, and religious liberty
- full citizenship for women
- separation of church and state
- freedom of inquiry
- embrace of the free market as an engine of wealth
Etc.

On their side we have:

- absolute submission to the will of Allah
- religious intolerance
- servitude of women
- barbaric ritual punishments for crime
- recourse to suicide bombers as an instruments of policy
Etc.

Pace Mr. Buruma, I think that part of what makes “our culture” ours are the customs, values, and practices that have defined it. Some of those values are “Enlightenment values,” some long predate and even conflict with Enlightenment values. But we subscribe to it not because of any abstract inventory of merit but, on the contrary, because it is ours.

Michael Yon's book is out. This is the least we can do for that good guy.

You can buy it here.

This is the 28' Alerion Express day sailer, at Cape Yachts. Nice boat.

Yu Tang with Kreisler's soulful Praeludium and Allegro (h/t, Classical Virtuoso). It's a wonder to me how youthful musicians can put so much heart into music. Perhaps the young have hearts too. I can't remember.

"Preach the Gospel at all times - and use words when necessary."

St. Francis of Assisi

"Let your lives preach."

George Fox

I guess I am a bit of a Gilbert Munger (1830-1904) fan, although I cannot say that he had an entirely coherent body of work - but who does?

Others of the Hudson River School achieved much more prominence, and one of Munger's claims to fame was spending a day sketching with Bierstadt, the master of the School. But Connecticut-born Munger did get around a bit, from Yosemite to Venice, his work evolved, and did not have the over-dramatic Victorian quality that Bierstat is sometimes accused of.

But man, would I like to have a Munger over my office fireplace. The image is is Cazenovia Cornfield, but look at his pictures on the link - good stuff.

This is his Lake Marian, Humboldt Range, Nevada, 1871: