We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
The wartime memoir of Siegfried Knappe. Exciting read by a good guy and excellent soldier who was on the wrong side. BTW, most German soldiers were not members of the NAZI Party. After the war, he and his wife had a good life in Iowa.
From Amazon:
Based on Knappe’s wartime diaries, filled with 16 pages of photos he smuggled into the West at war’s end, Soldat delivers a rare opportunity for the reader to understand how a ruthless psychopath motivated an entire generation of ordinary Germans...
A parlor is something like the room in which you welcome smaller groups of guests, without TV, clutter, or junk like that in it. Same idea as a "sitting room" or a "drawing room" (to go back in time). Or to go into the 1950s, what's a "den"?
There's another old-fashioned room: the Library. Pretentious rich people still build them, and let their decorators fill them with books. But any room can contain your most precious books...
What's a "living room," and what's a "family room"? The uses of home spaces has changed over time. In past, when the priest or pastor came to call for tea or a Scotch, you would meet in the parlor. Today, he or she would probably prefer to meet in the kitchen or the "family room". Life, even for the very wealthy, has become more relaxed and informal. Small "d" democratic.
What has changed? Middle class living and relative prosperity, TV (the electronic hearth), and the decline of formality with the decline of aristocracy and the rise of meritocracy.
Anyway, I suppose the question is whether you have a relatively formal (tidy, no TV etc) living space, and, if so, how often is it used?
And maybe, of more general interest, how do you use your home's public spaces?
Time is always on the side of the persuader. If you give me enough time, and I repeat the same message often enough, I can sway 5 percent of any crowd to believe anything.
What limit do you put on the number of your social events per week?
What I mean includes guys' or gals' nites out, dinners out with friends, lunches with groups or friends, meeting friends for drinks, parties, etc. Does not include Bible study or church but does include after-church brunch with church friends.
My limit and preference is three/week. I have no idea what "normal" is, but I would guess 2-3 non-family social outings per week might be average. I always enjoy these things and love seeing my pals and our friends, but I need my own quiet time and wife time too. Life is too short, time is too little for everything.
At Great Books' podcast, an enjoyable discussion of Dante's Inferno. "Dante was a man of tremendous and wide desires, desires for personal, literary, political excellence. And then he lost everything." Of course, Verona is not a bad place to which to be exiled. That's where he wrote The Divine Comedy. In the end, they did make his tomb back in Santa Croce.
He only scratches the surface of the Enlightenment ideas of individualism and individual freedom which, I have been led to believe, are Western Christian and/or Judeo-Christian notions. I don't know.
"A number of phrases from Tennyson's work have become commonplaces of the English language, including "Nature, red in tooth and claw" (In Memoriam A.H.H.), "'Tis better to have loved and lost / Than never to have loved at all", "Theirs not to reason why, / Theirs but to do and die", "My strength is as the strength of ten, / Because my heart is pure", "To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield", "Knowledge comes, but Wisdom lingers", and "The old order changeth, yielding place to new". He is the ninth most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations.
A young Arab boy asks his father “What is that strange hat you are wearing?” The father said: "Why, my son, it is a 'chechia.' In the desert it protects our heads from the intense heat of the sun.” "And what is the long flowing robe you are wearing?” asked the boy. “Oh, my son!” exclaimed the father “It is very simple. This is a 'djbellah.' As I have told you, in the desert it is not only very hot, but the sand is always blowing. My djbellah protects the entire body,” The son then asked: "But Father, what about those ugly shoes you have on yourfeet?” "These are 'babouches' my son,” the father replied. You must understand that although the desert sands are very beautiful, they are also extremely hot. These babouches' keep us from burning our feet.” "So tell me then," added the boy. "Yes, my son…” "Why are you living in Minnesota and still wearing all this shit?
Those all-white canvases pretty much were the dead end. Or maybe Pop Art. However, thousands of people still make compelling and appealing pictures that people want to decorate their homes. Besides that, painting itself remains a highly-popular hobby because it is difficult, semi-relaxing, you have total control for once in your life, and there is always room for improvement.
What about the modernist abstractionists like Pollock? Decorative to some people, definitely investments and status symbols. Could I tell a real Pollock from a Rockwell Pollock? Nope. I think Rockwell did a fine Pollock.
... already in the sixth century, one of the first great writers about hell, Pope Gregory the Great, ruefully acknowledged that the warning (of hell) is not very effective. And the long history of human behavior bears witness to the truth of this acknowledgment. The strictly instrumental use of hell finally boils down to a remark quoted by Voltaire: “My good friend, I no more believe in the eternity of hell than yourself; but recollect that it may be no bad thing, perhaps, for your servant, your tailor, and your lawyer to believe in it.”
It's a crazy subject. Higher ed tests were introduced to foster a meritocracy in admissions. As it happens (with the SAT, for example) the test is essentially an IQ test.
IQ is one measure of a person's intellectual potential, but is it "merit"? Would a college want a very high IQ lazy guy or gal with lousy grades? Yes, they might - and might guess right. And what about people showing great promise in one area, but no interest or energy in others? Elite schools used to want the "well-rounded" kid (academically solid if not brilliant, athletic, good social skills, etc).
Anyway, nowadays there are so many colleges desperate for paying butts on seats that there is opportunity for everybody to show what they bring to the table.
I am continually seeing words which are difficult to define. Merit is one, happiness is another. There are more on my list...
He made a real study of the city. He was impressed by the vitality, appalled by the squalor. But what angered him was the lack of international copyright. It figures. Writing was not a hobby for him. He wrote to get rich.
There are still many of us Dickens fans in the Anglosphere. That he tossed off a novelette about Christmas which captured the meaning of Christmas - the joyful spiritual rebirth - is the least of his achievements. He was just fascinated by human behavior.
We find much of the joy at Christmastime in all of the parties and festive get-togethers. Connecting and re-connecting with people in a festive and cheery atmosphere, from neighborhood pot-lucks to fancy and formal. There is a magic to it all. Dickens got that.
A parlor is something like the room in which you welcome smaller groups of guests, without TV, clutter, or junk like that in it. Same idea as a "sitting room" or a "drawing room" (to go back in time). Or to go into the 1950s, what's a "den"?
In 1846,