Friday, August 4. 2006
One of my fave grandaughters is hopping on the plane and headed for the FOCUS camp on Martha's Vineyard this morning. It's her third time, and she loves the program as much as she loved Rockbrook, where girls learn to shoot, rock-climb, white-water kayak, and other good stuff in a "traditional" atmosphere (God, the Flag, and shaving-cream wars all welcomed) in the glorious Smoky Mountains. If you are a Christian, consider sending your kids to the FOCUS camps. They only let you do the schooner week once in your life, though. Too bad. That was a truly unique week of God and adventure, climbing the masts to set the sails, swimming a mile to shore even if you think you can't, and obeying the Captain and the Mate - with a jump and without question. I saw the photos and heard the stories. The squall story said it all, and taught the kids something with true authority: Life is Real, and Things Matter, and Life is not a Rehearsal.
Thursday, August 3. 2006
Nicholas Lemann, Dean of the Columbia School of Journalism, takes on the new medium of the internets in The New Yorker. Yes, he does discuss Glenn Reynold's book. While terming blogs "amateur hour," (surely there is truth in that), he also notes the long history of such sorts of publications. A quote: The “new media” of later Stuart Britain were pamphlets and periodicals, made possible not only by the advent of the printing press but by the relaxation of government censorship and licensing regimes, by political unrest, and by urbanization (which created audiences for public debate). Today, the best known of the periodicals is Addison and Steele’s Spectator, but it was one of dozens that proliferated almost explosively in the early seventeen-hundreds, including The Tatler, The Post Boy, The Medley, and The British Apollo. The most famous of the pamphleteers was Daniel Defoe, but there were hundreds of others, including Thomas Sprat, the author of “A True Account and Declaration of the Horrid Conspiracy Against the Late King” (1685), and Charles Leslie, the author of “The Wolf Stript of His Shepherd’s Cloathing” (1704). These voices entered a public conversation that had been narrowly restricted, mainly to holders of official positions in church and state. They were the bloggers and citizen journalists of their day, and their influence was far greater (though their audiences were far smaller) than what anybody on the Internet has yet achieved.
Read the entire interesting piece. My opinion? No blog, or blog cartel, can put out the material of the Sunday NYT. Bloggers are people who like to write and think but who have day jobs, and they are often people who find their views under-represented, or non-represented, in the MSM, and want to spread them around as best they can. If Murdoch bought the NYT, 50% of the blogs would wither on the vine, and Captain Ed might have a new job in New York.
Wednesday, August 2. 2006
 Yes, the UCC is one of the bees that is always in my bonnet.
Before our most recent post on the mainline churches even disappeared from our front page, we get this nonsense (h/t, Israpundit) - a quote from an exchange with UCC Canada: All this to say, Mr. Weiner, that Israel is being so greedy and greedy in such a nasty and murderous way that we find ourselves very sympathetic to the Palestinian complaints about such behaviour. Please read our press statement. We are also working for the survival of Israel in peace and security with internationally recognized borders as much as for the same future for a Palestinian state. Israel, however, seems bent upon a brutal acquisitional policy that offends Palestinians and the whole Arab world. If we do nothing, we can expect the growth of terrorist cells here in Canada and everywhere else. Why should we be immune to this horror when we disregard the horror that Israeli policies visit upon Palestinians every day of their lives. I can witness to that and so can many others. You challenged us, Mr. Weiner, but now it’s your turn. We are sick and tired of the pro-Israeli government lobby in Canada telling us what to understand about the ’security’ issues of Israel. We are fed up with the biased press that focusses on one abducted Israel soldier and not on the numerous unreported assassinations and abductions of Palestinian citizens whose human rights are daily violated. Israel is out of control.
I am not ready to claim that the UCC, and their friends, are anti-Semitic, but they sure don't have any sympathy for Israel. And they have more sympathy for Jihadists and the like than they do for our Christian president who took an oath on the Holy Bible to protect us from their attacks. I just think they stick to the Leftist line of the day. As I have said here before, helping individuals with their relationship with God through Christ ought to be a plenty big enough job for preachers. Understanding world affairs is the opposite of what their job is, and they tend to be a wierd combination of naive and innocent while angry and judgemental. As Laura would say, "Shut up and Sing". The whole exchange of letters is posted at Israpundit here. Our church is SO HAPPY to have broken with the UCC. We are Congregationalists, and we make up our own minds, thank you.
 To a Fat Lady Seen From the Train
O why do you walk through the fields in gloves,
Missing so much and so much?
O fat white woman whom nobody loves,
Why do you walk through the fields in gloves,
When the grass is soft as the breast of doves
And shivering sweet to the touch?
O why do you walk through the fields in gloves,
Missing so much and so much?
Frances Cornford wrote that - the charming form is called a triolet. Our editor asked me to comment on Dr. Helen's piece on fat people. As a doctor, I tend to be a "Do as I say, not as I do" sort of guy. I smoke cigars and I am pleasantly, or some might say prosperously, or some might say, grandfatherly, well-fed. When patients of mine are seriously overweight, I tell them straight out. The word fat does not bother me. I have a model in the waiting room of five pounds of adipose tissue designed to get a reaction. It is disgusting. As someone who did my share of general surgery earlier in my career, I can tell you that fishing through gallons of yellow adiposity, getting your gloves so greasy you cannot hold the scalpel, is no damn fun. If you are fat, and saw what you look like under the skin, you would be horrified. Another complication recently published is that obesity makes it more difficult to make a diagnosis. It's called "study or exam limited by body habitus." However, I also understand that the flesh is weak, and that staying in youthful shape after 45 is no mean feat. It takes work and discipline, and the evidence that it leads to longevity or health is minimal. However, being in good shape adds a lot to quality of life. On the other hand, being obsessed with health is for the crazies. Plus there is the vanity factor: few guys will look at a fat girl, and no gals will look at a fat guy - unless he is rich or powerful. But, at some point, unless we are narcissists, we accept reality and don't care all that much. Final word: If you are too fat, I will say that. And, if you care, I will tell you how to deal with it. But your life choices are not my problem, beyond that: your doctor is not your Momma, nor is he/she responsible for your health. Your health is in your hands, and God's, and nature's. My only responsibility is to give you advice as your friend, and to try to help you when you get sick.
Tuesday, August 1. 2006
 For salt-water flyfishing, everyone says the Seychelles are the best. Miles of flats, and no fishermen.
It's a bit of a trip, but Frontiers can arrange it all for you. (This is a free advt. for our friends at Frontiers.)
Monday, July 31. 2006
We have done a couple of pieces on Pogo, our favorite cartoon strip by our favorite cartoonist, the late Bridgeport boy Walt Kelly. Here's another:  
Re-posted from Aug 29, 2005  Zulu Time, and Weather Bloggers
In the NOAA and other hurricane and weather reports, they commonly notate Greenwich Mean Time with a suffix Z (or sometimes GMT), and spoken as "Zulu". The military, aviation, and commercial shipping commonly operate on Zulu time. Why "Zulu"? The story goes back to the great navigator, mathematician, and Salem, MA sea captain Nathaniel Bowditch (1773-1838), author of The American Practical Navigator - also known as "The Sailor's Bible" - which remains in use today. He divided up the world's time zones, one hour per 15 degrees of longitude, assigning each one a letter of the alphabet. Longitude 0, running through Greenwich, England received the Z. That story is here. Jean Lee Latham wrote the classic Carry On, Mr. Bowditch, which I remember fondly from 6th Grade, and which, along with Richard Henry Dana's Two Years Before the Mast, nurtured my love and respect for the sea and ships. For weather bloggers, we like Weather Underground, and Stormtrack for big storms.
Take more time if you need it. Answers on continuation page, below.
Continue reading "Answers to yesterday's Brain Exercise"
Sunday, July 30. 2006
 Not a joke: There are only two locations on earth where you can walk one mile North, then one mile East, then one mile South, and end up where you started. What are they? Answers tomorrow (I doubt our brainy readers will need them by then, but it might take a bit of thought).
The architectural origin of the steeple lies in the belltower, and the origin of the belltower in the watchtower. Medieval watchtowers, like this one in Umbria,  and this one in San Gimignano, the town of towers, 
used bells, guns, and fire to signal each other in time of trouble. Church belltowers, at first identical to watchtowers, were often separate from church buildings through the early renaissance. You had to place those bells up high to send out the sound. Here's a famous one, which is the belltower of Pisa's Duomo (c. 1100): 
In time, the belltowers were integrated into the architecture of church and cathedral buildings. Without clocks and watches, you couldn't be called to church or prayer - nor would you know what time it was (except for sundials) without the bells sounding across the villages and fields. And they were a regular reminder of Christ's presence during the day. (But how did the bell-ringers know the time? That's another subject.) Canterbury Cathedral (c. 1300) has the Gothic integration of tower. It took 63 men to ring its heavy bells; six men alone to ring the heaviest:  More modest English parish churches had bell towers on the roof (Holy Cross, Greenford Magna, Middlesex - much of the building c. 1500):  Puritan (Congregationalist) Meeting Houses in the US typically had no steeples, as part of their purifying their congregations from papistry, vanity, and other fanciness (no bells, no stained windows, no singing, 6-hour sermons, etc). They didn't even want to call them "churches, " and you went to "meeting", not to church, where the God of Grace played second fiddle to the God of Truth. This is the Rocky Hill Meeting House (c. 1785) in Amesbury, MA:  By the early 1800s, steeple bell towers came back into acceptance in the US, along with singing. I can imagine the debates between the stodgy old-timers and the young folks in their Building Committees. Many old New England churches are meeting houses with steeples (and pillared porticos too) added generations later, leading to steeple engineering problems in later years. Here's an example of an added steeple in Alford, MA (c. 1740): 
Belfries, containing the bells and their mechanisms (and bats), usually have/had louvers to direct the sound up and away from the church itself. Oftentimes a steeple - the tower which supports the belfry, is roofed by an elegant spire, leading to the stereotypical appearance of the 19th Century New England Congregational church - which has since been copied by all sorts of denominations including Catholics - seemingly unaware of the Puritan, anti-Anglican, anti-hierarchical, and anti-Papist theological origin of the architecture: 
We always need to be reminded that a "church" is not a building - it's a congregation of people who seek God through Christ ("whenever two or three of you are gathered together"). The building doesn't really matter, but having a special place never hurts. I think the spires are optional. Here's a nice piece on church bells. YouTube of Dylan doing All Along the Watchtower here. (with JJ Jackson, Winston Watson, and Bucky Baxter)
Saturday, July 29. 2006
 Scots prefer the spelling “whisky”; Americans follow instead the Irish spelling, so Kentucky bourbon is “whiskey.”
From Common Errors in English (h/t to that site - Humbug) Let's all hoist a glass or two of the Highland's best to the IDF tonight.
Video of their She's My Baby. YouTube. Amusing.
Friday, July 28. 2006
The anti-Israel and anti-American trend of the mainline churches continues apace. In a disturbingly lock-step manner support for Hezbollah and the Palestinian terrorists flows out of these churches, as listed here, with their recent statements, in Camera. And let's not forget the loony tendencies of the dying Anglicans. Dr. Bliss wrote about the phenomenon here. The co-opting of the churches (along with all sorts of non-profit orgs) has been going on since the late 60s, but it hasn't run its course yet. (We recently discussed the WCC here.) In the meantime, more people are attending livelier churches with more conservative approaches to life and politics. Why is this a Left-Right issue? Beats me. I've read lots of explanations, but none of them seem to stick. Heck, Israel is basically a socialist country, while the Arab countries are paleo-capitalist and paleo-everything else. The only clue I have is that "the enemy of my enemy is my friend." And America is their enemy, for some reason and, of course, Israel is just an American military outpost. Or it could be that these ministers and priests listened to John Lennon too many times: Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today...
Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one. Maybe we should broadcast this song to the Palis and the Hezzies and Ahmadinejad and Osama 24 hrs/day - it is a good tune, but the lyrics are those of a wealthy, drug-addled infant. I tried to satirize this song once, but it satirizes itself too well.
Thursday, July 27. 2006
The dog days of July and  August are
slow times for bloggers; reader numbers are usually down a tad, and often writers feel less inspired, or are busy outside trying to do real life. Our threat is this: If other bloggers don't blogroll us, and throw us a pity-link once in a while, and if our readers don't forward our blog with a hearty recommendation to all of their friends and colleagues and relatives and enemies, we will go on a Hunger Strike until Labor Day, limiting our diets solely to beer and pizza. That includes breakfast. We do make make such threats lightly - so be forewarned. Maggie's Farm is our name, and passive-aggressive is our game. No negotiating: Do what we demand - or else we will damage our health! Look - I know we aren't the best blog in the world, but we are all proud to be listed in Harmons' World Weblog Review (Copyright 2006) as: "Pretty good, with a varied and appealing front page. Sometimes interesting and informative, but basically intellectually lightweight and unfunny. Politically centrist, and thus dull. Pedantic at times. Occasional surprises. Plenty of links. A bit Jesus-oriented, but not over the top. They like Dylan, too, but offer little insight. Highly reliable output, but quantity does not make up for quality. Minimal T&A; no hunks. Quirkiness and odd interests a strong point. Thinking talent: C-. Research: D. Writing talent: B- to C+. Blog branding quality: B+ (unpredictable and eclectic aspect is good, but lack of focus, and lack of expertise and IQ might be a major flaw)."
If we find this hunger strike to be effective, we just might decide to continue it until war is eliminated from the earth, and all people find happiness. (Hope you enjoyed the Elevator piece - interesting basic info.)
Wednesday, July 26. 2006
 The world is in turmoil. We stand at the brink of a regional war in the mideast. Gas prices have doubled; the stock market gyrates and fluctuates at even a whiff of trouble. Apocalypse looms; contagion and misery rear their ugly heads daily. Seas rise up in anger and consume whole villages; the earth shakes and groans under the weight of its jostling billions.
What can a person do? Why, get dressed up in a metal bikini and pose for pictures, of course; and post them all at: Leia's Metal Bikini dotcom Saving the universe, one Marriott Function Room at a time.
In Kenneth Koch's Modern (1800-present) English Poetry class, the biweekly assignment was to produce a plausible imitation - but not a satire - of the poet in question. It was a good way to try to get into the head and the rhythms and the images of a poet. Some were easy: Whitman, Eliot. Some were very difficult: Stevens, Yeats. I see Auden imagined a world in which poets were so much in demand that they required apprentices to help out: If poetry were in great public demand so that there were overworked professional poets, I can imagine a system under which an established poet would take on a small number of apprentices who would begin by changing his blotting paper, advance to typing his manuscripts, and end up by ghost-writing poems for him which he was too busy to start or finish. The apprentices might really learn something...
Whole piece here.
Tuesday, July 25. 2006
Humbug unveils photos (see photo on 
the right) which confirm what many of us have long suspected: there was no Apollo 9, and no moon landing. It is all as phony as the WTC "attack." Furthermore, Humbug has performed a series of SCIENTIFIC EXPERIMENTS which prove that it is impossible to get to the moon with a rocket. I'm convinced. And, by the way, didn't Coke taste much better in those glass bottles? Coming dripping out of an ice cooler in front of a gas station? Coke from a can is like wine from a paper cup.
The below came in over the transom. I think I have seen it before: After every flight, Qantas pilots fill out a form called a gripe sheet, which conveys to the mechanics, problems encountered with the aircraft during the flight that need repair or correction. The mechanics read and correct the problem, and then respond in writing on the lower half of the form what remedial action was taken, and the pilot reviews the gripe sheets before the next flight. Never let it be said that ground crews and engineers lack a sense of humour. Here are some actual logged maintenance complaints and problems as submitted by Qantas pilots and the solution recorded by maintenance engineers. By the way, Qantas is the only major airline that has never had an accident. (P = the Problem logged by the pilot.)
(S = the Solution and action taken by the mechanics.)
*******************************************
P: Left inside main tyre almost needs replacement.
S: Almost replaced left inside main tyre. ********************************************
P: Test flight OK, except auto-land very rough.
S: Auto-land not installed on this aircraft.
**********************************************
P: Something loose in cockpit.
S: Something tightened in cockpit.
**********************************************
P: Dead bugs on windshield.
S: Live bugs on back-order.
**********************************************
P: Autopilot in altitude-hold mode produces a 200 feet per minute descent.
S: Cannot reproduce problem on ground.
***********************************************
More on continuation page - the last one is the best. BTW, Qantas is the acronym for the Queensland and Northern Territories Air Service.
Continue reading "Qantas Gripe Sheets"
Monday, July 24. 2006
Raven likes to do weights, as do many 
women these day. I think
it is great for women to be strong and fit.
But it can be overdone. On the other hand, we can always use someone on the farm who can lift an engine block out of a car singlehandedly. Or carry a sick cow back to the barn. Maybe Miss Muscles should give The Farm a jingle. I find this look slightly scarey. And, no, that's not Raven.
Saturday, July 22. 2006
He was in DC for a while, then in
CT, then in Nashville, then in LA.
Now he is in Seattle, on the way to Montana. He is putting some miles on his Dyna Wide Glide. Meanwhile, I need to keep up with the dylanology.
One of our favorite movies of all 
time has given its name to a
Hosta. As amateur hosta collectors, we gotta get this one. How cool is that? Almost looks like rhubarb. Wayside has it. Red October.
Friday, July 21. 2006
Our buddy last week, in south Texas, with a 265 lb. tusker shot with a 338 Win Mag at 85 yards. Pig goes to the local church for their summer pit barbecue. Wild pig is always in season, and no-one complains. 
Villa Balze, in Fiesole, last fall. It's Georgetown's Italian campus. The hills of Fiesole overlook Florence. We have concluded that staying in Fiesole, rather than downtown Firenze, is a good idea. Just hop on the bus with the nuns and the schoolkids for a 20 minute ride to town. And, yes, I am proud of this photo. 
Thursday, July 20. 2006
Re-posted from July 26, 2005: Great Connecticut towns, Plus Loot from the annual super-stupendous Pequot Library Book Sale - worth a drive if you and your family like books. Photo is one of the many early 19th Century sea captain's houses in elegant Southport, the loveliest and most exclusive town in CT (with runners-up as Litchfield and Old Lyme, but not to omit the understated, historic, and noteworthy havens for tasteful and genteel Yankee gentlemen and gentleladies - da gentry, ya know - in Roxbury, Washington, Sharon, Kent, Warren, Essex, Norfolk, Salisbury, Sachem's Head, Granby, Harwinton, Farmington, Pomfret, Centerbrook, Avon, Southbury, Woodbury, Southington, Greenfield Hill (in Fairfield), and Lakeville, among a few others that do not jump to mind). The reference is to Southport's Pequot Library's famous annual used-book sale. (Last weekend of July.) Here's my loot - Christmas in July - at the request of The Dylanologist, hardcovers only: Life Magazine Photo History of WW2, The Guns of August by Tuchman, The Lost World by Crichton, The Atlas of Ancient Archeology by Jacquetta Hawkes, A Shropshire Lad by AE Housman, A Countryman's Woods by Hal Borland, Five Seasons by Yehoshua, Days of Awe by Agnon, Blue Highways by Wm Least Heat Moon, Clausewitz on War, Hotels and Country Inns in Italy, The Fatal Shore by Hughes, English Verse: Longfellow to Rupert Brooke, Restoration Poets: Milton to Goldsmith, A Travel Guide to Scotland and the Islands, The Great Gardens of Britain, The Master Sniper by Hunter, An Illustrated History of Firearms by Hogg, The Oxford Annotated Bible, Life in the Castle in Medieval England by Burke, The Encyclopedia of Rock Music (1994), The Atlas of Early Man by Jacquetta Hawkes, English Weapons and Warfare 449-1660, The American Heritage History of the Civil War by Bruce Catton, The Founding Fish by McPhee, The Complete Works of Paul Klee, Atlas of the Epic Land Battles of History, and about ten Robert Parkers. Plus about ten other misc. paperbacks. Could not find an excellent book on the identification of eastern trees, but I know most of them anyway. Total under $100. If I had been around on Saturday instead of late Sunday afternoon, it would have been more. This book sale keeps me safely and harmlessly occupied for months. Remembered when I got home that I had already read the Hughes and the Tuchman - I guess I liked them. The Housman was a replacement for an overly-used and disintegrating paperback. And no need to travel if you can read travel guides - a return to the amazing and hospitable Turkey is next on my list, but maybe after Provence. Then Scotland again for grouse-shooting and scotch-tasting - absolutely no golf - golf is for strivers and the Japanese - then Tuscany again. That's the long-range plan, not including routine hunting trips to Manitoba and New Brunswick or Maine. Photo: One of the many fine 19th Century sea-captain's homes in Southport, CT Editor's note: Hope the Dylanologist is home from Montana this weekend to take a drive to Southport.
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