Maggie's Farm

The Real Man Quiz. (Hint: the correct answer is C)

From a NYT piece on the NEA report on reading that we linked yesterday:

...Mr. Iyengar noted that students who lived in homes with more than 100 books but whose parents only completed high school scored higher on math tests than those students whose parents held college degrees (and were therefore likely to earn higher incomes) but who lived in homes with fewer than 10 books.

and

Among the findings is that although reading scores among elementary school students have been improving, scores are flat among middle school students and slightly declining among high school seniors. These trends are concurrent with a falloff in daily pleasure reading among young people as they progress from elementary to high school, a drop that appears to continue once they enter college. The data also showed that students who read for fun nearly every day performed better on reading tests than those who reported reading never or hardly at all.

I guess this is new news: kids who have parents who like to learn also like to learn, but it's a crisis now. I blame global warming.

As a solution to the Reading Crisis, I suggest a $1 billion Federal education program called "Books Are Fun!," a fun-filled, interactive, fast-moving multi-media curriculum-enhancement module ("MMCEM"), to be designed by leading expert reading consultants from teaching colleges and then introduced into every Middle School "curriculum" by Federal law. Approximately 40,000 new union-certified "Books are Fun!" specialists will be hired to guide schools through the application of this exciting new kid-friendly program through every course of study. 

Crisis solved!

 

I think we linked this piece once, but I can't remember. It's from Munchkin Wrangler (h/t, Right Wing Prof), and begins thus:

Human beings only have two ways to deal with one another: reason and force. If you want me to do something for you, you have a choice of either convincing me via argument, or force me to do your bidding under threat of force. Every human interaction falls into one of those two categories, without exception. Reason or force, that's it.

In a truly moral and civilized society, people exclusively interact through persuasion. Force has no place as a valid method of social interaction, and the only thing that removes force from the menu is the personal firearm, as paradoxical as it may sound to some.

When I carry a gun, you cannot deal with me by force. You have to use reason and try to persuade me, because I have a way to negate your threat or employment of force. The gun is the only personal weapon that puts a 100-pound woman on equal footing with a 220-pound mugger, a 75-year old retiree on equal footing with a 19-year old gangbanger, and a single gay guy on equal footing with a carload of drunk guys with baseball bats. The gun removes the disparity in physical strength, size, or numbers between a potential attacker and a defender.

Read the whole thing. Here's a nice piece on handgun selection for self-defence.

That hootenanny post reminded me of Christopher Guest's spoof of the Folk Movement, the movie A Mighty Wind. The film is good for a few poignant giggles, especially if you have even a vague memory of that innocent, goofy era.

Here's one clip with music, and, below that, another clip from the film.

While the Mrs. took the youngest Bird Dog theater-intoxicated and Shakespeare-intoxicated pup and her theatrical pal to the Vivian Beaumont to see the rarely-performed Cymbeline (the Beaumont is perfect for Shakespeare), my self-assigned chore was to clean up and polish ye olde farmhouse for the Thanksgiving hordes expected soon.

While finding many dust balls as big as alley cats, and some lost mail, magazines, a dried dog poo or two, and some important faxes under sofas, I cranked up my gigantic Legacy speakers for consolation.

They were the top of their line when I splurged on these darn things, delivered by an Airways Freight truck. 175 lbs. each, 5' tall, and they look like beautiful furniture. But what the heck was I thinking when I bought these monsters? (A movie-business friend told me I have the same ones Tom Cruise has in his house. Sheesh. That is not good.)

These speakers are powerful enough to knock down my walls or to blow a cow to the moon, but sensitive enough to capture the most subtle inflection of Dawn Upshaw's voice, like she is singing to you. The Messiah was on the CD player, from Eastertime. I listened to the whole thing while vacuuming, dusting, dog-poo-removing, polishing, and pickng up. How many Bibles do we have in this house? Well, I love that music and know every word, but I realized that I do music now on the computer. This dang computer-internets machine-thingy simultaneously shrinks and expands life.

I realized that I had not turned on that fine sound system, with the mega-ultra ultra amp, since Easter.

Unlike Hell's Kitchen which we posted about two weeks ago, NYC's Chelsea neighborhood has been on the gentrification upswing for over 30 years.

Now, it's as pleasant and cheerful as any neighborhood in the city. While it's known as a heavily gay area, it seems just more youthful than anything else. Tons of young professionals, and cozy 1800s townhouses. A darn civilized place to live in.

A street scene, last weekend:

 

We stumbled into our cousin Theo's new semi-secret soft-porn art photography site. Our refined, sophisticated, intelligent, discreet readers will not want to check out Daily Totty, which appears to be under construction. Do not go there - I checked it out for you. You can click on the photos to biggify them, but I strongly advise you not to do so, because it is not appropriate for stolid, Christian, and morally pure New England Yankees.

We posted on Theodore Dalrymple's new book today. As many know, Dalrymple, whose real name is Anthony Daniels, M.D., is a retired Brit prison psychiatrist.

Here is a list of his books. If anybody can find a photo of him, let me know. I can't.

Thanks Opie - that was quick! A pleasant, benevolent-looking fellow with a pack of smokes in his shirt pocket.

And thanks to Mr. Vanderleun for another photo, and a bio, here.

The Dancing Lady is a fine optical illusion: she moves both clockwise and counterclockwise, depending on how your brain views her.

Blink once or twice, and you can change her direction. However, most people have an innate tendency to see her moving in one or the other.

People's Cube uses this image as the basis for a discussion about the subjectivity of perception.

Unfiltered, unprocessed perception isn't truth, but we already know that.

That is of course, a too-skinny Callas, with her weakened and beaten-up voice at the end of her career - but who wants to judge Callas?

Having seen the rarely-performed 1917 comic opera Gianni Schicchi for the first time yesterday, I can finally put Mio babbino caro into full context. As the Bird Dog daughter said yesterday, "It's not even an aria. It's too short, and there is no refrain. It's just sung lines. Should be longer."

In the plot, Gianni (we call him "Johnny"), the crafty lawyer, manages to create a fake will for a wealthy Florentine family friend giving everything to himself, thus providing his daughter with a sufficent dowry to marry the aristocratic boy she loves. Gianni, in Dante's Inferno, can be found in the 9th circle of hell - yet there was redemption in love: her little song was what persuaded her dad cross the line. What dad could not be similarly moved?

Sippican's Dad. 

From It Takes a Church last year:

God of the ages,
We thank You for all who have served in the armed forces of this country.
We thank You for the freedom their sacrifice has earned and guarded for us. Help us to prize this freedom and use it well.
We ask You to bless all living veterans in a special way today, as well as the families of all veterans.
Comfort those who grieve for those who gave the last full measure of devotion.
Strengthen those who bear physical, emotional, and spiritual wounds.
Stand with those who provide care to them.
Move us to reach out to sisters and brothers who are veterans, or relatives of veterans, or who currently serve in the military.
We pray for the day when no one needs to serve in the military. Help us to live now in anticipation of that day, as people who long for peace, who pray for peace, and who seek to be peacemakers in this world.

A snap of the interior of St. Peter's Church (1837), where we saw Pucchini's one-act Gianni Schicchi yesterday performed by the Chelsea Opera.

Exterior:

 

23rd St. in Chelsea, down from the church:

 

Ringo's hair salon bit is the best: "Would you like a cuppa tea, Madam?"  More good Beatles links at Grow A Brain

From One Laptop Per Child: beginning Nov. 12, for $399 you can give and get an XO laptop. One goes to a third-world kid.