Monday, September 3. 2007
Spent the afternoon fishing on Long Island Sound with Maggie's Farm contributor Gwynnie. We managed to boat (and release) just one schoolie Striper - but we were using lures, not bait. There were large schools of Snapper Blues flipping around, but we were looking for dinner. We much admired the master fisherman below (the story of the return of our New England Ospreys is close to a miracle), who was using a nesting platform as a dining room table for his or her sushi: 
Lyrics here. My Godmother, who was from Chattanooga and a transplant up to Yankee-land, used to love to play the piano (banging chords - what they used to call "whorehouse pianny") and sing this one with verve. I can hear her now. She was a piece of work, always with designer clothes and a big hat, and an accent that could melt butter.
Sunday, September 2. 2007
Is Volokh more influential than legal journals? Prof. B.
You can see the details of the restoration of the Menina, a 1963 wooden Robb cruising sloop, here. A big project with a pretty result. She looks like a gull. 
Saturday, September 1. 2007
Friday, August 31. 2007
 "Born at sea in the teeth of a gale,
The sailor was a dog, and Scuppers was his name."
I had a dog named Scuppers ("Scuppie" to close friends), who died young. He was a good boy, and a far better (ie, half-competent - liked to chew birds) retriever than my current goofy but love-intoxicated pup. I am remembering him now because he died at this time of year a few years ago. (His replacement is a nephew.) Margaret Wise Brown wrote Scuppers the Sailor Dog, along with a bunch of family favorites like Good Night, Moon: "A comb and a brush and a bowl full of mush" is how one of the splendid pups described our minivan in its usual get-to-school slovenly condition. Brown had a hard time getting published. Glad she finally got her stuff out, and with the wonderful illos. I don't know how you could raise a kid in this world without her books: the kids just won't "get it" without her.
I see in our comments that I have a fan, or someone who claims to be. This could go to my head. Maybe a Fan Club will be next, with t-shirts and coffee mugs with my mug shot on them. I owe it all to my blessed Mother, to my wife who has always supported my efforts with never one word of criticism, to God, to my agent and, above all, to my fabulous publicist Bernie.
 This came in over the transom:
Find an attractive prisoner of war, bring her home, shave her head, trim her nails, and give her new clothes. Then she's yours.
- Deuteronomy (Deuteronomy 21:11-13)
Find a prostitute and marry her.
- Hosea (Hosea 1:1-3)
Find a man with seven daughters, and impress him by watering his flock.
- Moses (Exodus 2:16-21)
Purchase a piece of property, and get a woman as part of the deal.
- Boaz (Ruth 4:5-10)
Go to a party and hide. When the women come out to dance, grab one and carry her off to be your wife.
- Benjaminites (Judges 21:19-25)
Have God create a wife for you while you sleep. Note: this will cost you a rib.
- Adam (Genesis 2:19-24)
Agree to work seven years in exchange for a woman's hand in marriage. Get tricked into marrying the wrong woman. Then work another seven years for the woman you wanted to marry in the first place. That's right. Fourteen years of toil for a woman.
- Jacob (Genesis 29:15-30)
Cut off 200 foreskins off of your future father-in-law's enemies and get his daughter for a wife.
- David (I Samuel 18:27)
Even if no one is out there, just wander around a bit and you'll definitely find someone. (It's all relative of course.)
- Cain (Genesis 4:16-17)
Become the emperor of a huge nation and hold a beauty contest.
- Xerxes or Ahasuerus (Esther 2:3-4)
When you see someone you like, go home and tell your parents, "I have seen a woman; now get her for me." If your parents question your decision, simply say, "Get her for me. She's the one for me."
- Samson (Judges 14:1-3)
Kill any husband and take his wife. (Prepare to lose four sons though).
- David (2 Samuel 11)
Wait for your brother to die. Take his widow. (It's not just a good idea, it's the law).
- Onan and Boaz (Deuteronomy or Leviticus, example in Ruth)
Don't be so picky. Make up for quality with quantity.
- Solomon (1 Kings 11:1-3) Photo: A potential nice wife for somebody, but she is a bit too skinny. She needs a guy who can cook.
Thursday, August 30. 2007
Driving this weekend? Here's a car game we like: The Homonym Game. This game is mentally addictive. You are "out" when you get stuck. You win more prestige by using polysyllabic words. see - sea
mews-muse
blue- blew
mat-matte
hostile-hostel
sent-scent
holy-wholly
homonym - (ad) hominem There are hundreds of 'em so the game is good for at least an hour or two. Your brain will continue to generate homonyms for an hour after you quit and turn to counting Michigan license plates (assuming you are not in Michigan).
Wednesday, August 29. 2007
Tuesday, August 28. 2007
Thanks, reader, for another photo from Saint-Gaudens' summer home in Cornish, NH. 
Monday, August 27. 2007
A big h/t to Confederate Yank for finding this astonishing video by Hans Rosling about the "developing world." He animates the data in a cool way. I wish it were longer.
If you, like me, are not accustomed to pricing risk or pricing tail risk, then you will find this piece at Just One Minute an entertaining little math puzzle. Tom picks a nit with Michael Lewis, but I find this sort of thing fascinating. I'm sure it's just routine in the biz.
 Born in Dublin, raised in New York City, Saint-Gaudens (1848-1907) epitomizes beaux-arts sculpture.
The subject arises because a friend was banging around the Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site (his summer home) in Cornish, NH last week. This place was news to me, and my knowledge of Saint-Gaudens was minimal. His summer home has hosted artists like Winston Churchill and Maxfield Parrish, and was Woodrow Wilson's Summer White House. Photo is his sculpture of Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, a mean, tough SOB - and it shows (Apologies to our Georgia readers, but don't blame Sherman. Blame Lincoln and Grant. Sherman was following orders when he fought and burned his way through Georgia).
 Morgan Meis reviews 1001 Paintings You Should See Before You Die in a piece entitled A Dilettante's Guide to Art.
"1001 Paintings You Should See Before You Die acknowledges the question "What is Painting?" The answer: "Who cares?""
What I found especially useful about the review is that it puts Modernism in perspective - not as the End of Art, but just as another phase in a long, ongoing story of "what painters do." Here's a quote: A weird thing happened to painting during the 20th century. In the eyes of many painters and critics, the little problems of painting became the big problem of “Painting” itself. People suddenly became motivated to paint by asking themselves, “What Is Painting?” The attitude of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die is to collapse this problem back into the history of little problems, to flatten out 20th century artistic practice and put it back into the ongoing history of “things painters do.” The way our woman in black from Brown looks at it, Malevich is a worthy painter and we want to include his paintings in our book. But in doing so we are also implicitly if not explicitly punching a hole in the metaphysics that motivated him to paint as he painted. We're implicitly denying that there could have been a definitive final act in painting or that painting could ever have achieved its own end. We are rejecting the idea that painting was ever really in crisis at all. We are disproving Malevich even as we laud him.
An excellent essay. Read the whole thing. Image: Kasimir Malevich's Black Circle
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