Maggie's FarmWe 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. |
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Sunday, February 21. 2010ToyA serious point and shoot: the Leica D-LUX 4 Camera You can get an old-fashioned leather case for it too. Do any of our readers have this thing?
Posted by Bird Dog
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
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14:39
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William Tyndale (1494-1536) and our BibleWilliam Tyndale was the Oxford-educated polyglot theologian and reformer who produced the first printed Bible in English. His translation was from Erasmus' Greek-Latin Bible, the same one which Luther used to translate his German Bible. Tyndale's Bible was banned in Britain: you can't trust the rabble to read it themselves. He famously said that he wanted a Bible that "every plowman" could read the Scripture for himself. Tyndale was executed by Henry Vlll for his efforts. It is believed that Thomas More was pushing for the execution. It is thought that up to 80% of the King James Bible - the most printed book in the world - is Tyndale's product. For hundreds of years after the first printings, Protestants avoided the Anglican King James Bible, preferring the Geneva Bible (which is very similar). The Pilgrims used the Geneva Bible and, no, Anglicans are not historically Protestants and neither are their American Episcopalian brethren. Excellent summary of the history of the Bible in English here.
Posted by Bird Dog
in History, Our Essays, The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
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11:23
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ChurchSaturday, February 20. 2010Old Jokes du JourFrom some good ones from Neoneo's commenters: - So this baby seal walks into a club... - A dyslexic man walks into a bra... - A fellow goes to a restaurant and asks the waiter for a cup of coffee without cream. A few moments later the waiter returns and says, “Sorry, we’re all out of cream, it will have be without milk.” - An out of work geophysicist goes into a McDonald’s to ask for a job. He fills out an application and as the manager reads it he says, “I know I'm overqualified but I can do the work and I need the job”. And of course, there's always this one:
Posted by Bird Dog
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
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17:05
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Counterfeit CubansCounterfeit Cubans, from JR. Nicaraguan. Mine just arrived today, and I just smoked one. Cheap, legal in the US, and plenty tasty as a medium-strength everyday smoke with a hearty earthy tanginess. I am told that those Sumatran wrappers were grown from Connecticut seed. I can't say they are as good as a good Habanos, but quite enjoyable for the price. Perfect for this Obama economy. Why does the O smoke cigarettes instead of cigars, anyway? Who does he think he is? FDR?
Posted by The Barrister
in Our Essays, The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
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15:19
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Friday, February 19. 2010CorsicaNow Mrs. BD is considering mountainous Corsica for a summer trip. The lad has been there, and recommends it. Popular with Brits, I am told. They speak French and Corsican there. My Corsican is a tad rusty but my French is OK. She found this little villa in Monticello, and says it would hold the whole family:
Posted by Bird Dog
in Our Essays, The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
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15:39
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Tuesday, February 16. 2010The New Britain (CT) Museum of American ArtWe visited the New Britain Museum of American Art this weekend, known as one of America’s most welcoming, distinguished, dynamic, and educationally ambitious art museums. They have a current exhibit (through April 11, 2010) entitled Inspired Innovations: A Celebration of Shaker Ingenuity. The exhibition, organized into 12 Zones of Innovation and with three rooms resembling traditional Shaker quarters, will showcase some 350 objects spanning over 200 years from 1800 to 2000. A testament to the durability, practicality, and simplicity of Shaker ingenuity, with a focus on functionality, each piece is gracefully formed with a genuine devotion to ones craft that reflects the words of Shaker founder, Mother Ann: "labor to make the way of God your own; let it be your inheritance, your treasure, your occupation, your daily calling." Maggie's readers will like this quote from Shaker Martha J. Anderson of Mt. Lebanon, NY: "The lamp of genius burns as it is supplied by the oil of enthusiasm." The New Britain Museum of American Art's founding in 1903 entitles the institution to be designated the first museum of strictly American art in the country. That year, a $20,000 gift of gold bonds to the museum's former parent, the New Britain Institute, from industrialist John Butler Talcott, created funds to purchase "modern oil paintings." Subsequent purchases, with advice from New York museums and galleries, further defined "modern" to mean American works of art, now numbering more than 10,236. With particular strengths in colonial portraiture, the Hudson River School, American Impressionism, and the Ash Can School, not to mention the important mural series The Arts of Life in America by Thomas Hart Benton, the museum relies heavily on its permanent collection for exhibitions and programming, yet also displays a significant number of borrowed shows and work by emerging artists. The singular focus on American art and its panoramic view of American artistic achievement make the New Britain Museum of American Art a significant teaching resource available to the local, regional, and national public. As the Guide Michelin might say, "worth a detour".
Posted by Gwynnie
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
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12:59
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Dick Francis, RIP
Dead at 89. h/t, Jungleman. The guy provided me many hours of delight by the pool and on the beach.
Posted by The Barrister
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
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09:42
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Monday, February 15. 2010Melody GardotShe's my new favorite chanteuse. Here's a snip from the unembeddable My One and Only Thrill TV ad. Here's another song:
Posted by Opie
in Music, The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
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16:45
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America's Cup videosFor those unfamiliar with sailboat racing, it's not just about a faster boat. It's about strategy, tactics, boat-handling, seamanship, fine-tuning, luck, and lots of other details. Here's some dramatic footage from this year's race.
Posted by Opie
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
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09:13
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America's Cup #33Image is Currier and Ives' 1851 portrait of "America," the first boat to win the famous race. The America's Cup (named for the sailboat, not the country) is now sailed with multi-hulls with 17-story masts. 33 knots out of a 10 knot wind speed. Here's winner US-17: h/t, SDA, with links to more details of the race
Posted by Bird Dog
in Our Essays, The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
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08:02
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Sunday, February 14. 2010For my ValentineI am making my usual St. Valentine's Day day steamed mussels and lobster feast, but I did at least one other act of love today - remembering that love is action, not sentiment. Carpet cleaning done! (They have a special spray for dog pee bedroom carpet spots. Isn't it romantic? Carpet sucks, in my opinion.)
Posted by Bird Dog
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
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14:47
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Emily Dickinson: epileptic nymphomaniac?No more eccentric than the rest of her Amherst family. Indeed, her life has been sentimentalized. Well, always interesting to have an epileptic nympho around the place, especially on St. Valentine's Day when the Christian saint seems to give way to the celebration of Eros.
Posted by Bird Dog
in Our Essays, The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
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09:34
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ErosEros (Cupid) - "desire" - is the mischievous prankster son of Venus who, at the same time, is responsible for keeping humanity thriving. He is, indeed, a troublemaker and a pest, isn't he, with his devilish little arrows and bow? As Kesler and I observed the other day, those little arrows can hit you at the oddest, most unsuspecting moments. Like at the supermarket. You can refresh your memory of the folktale of Cupid and Psyche here. This is Caravaggio's c. 1600 Eros Victorious:
Posted by Bird Dog
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
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05:44
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The Valentine of Maggie's Farm: Marianne MatthewsThe Valentine sweetheart of Maggie's Farm is our dearly loved commenter Marianne Matthews. Marianne is a classically trained musician, among many other wonderful things, with a sane, quick, and fun-loving mind. I share Marianne's love of folk music, she broadening my appreciations beyond the labor and protest songs I was raised with to older and other countries' folk classics. Marianne has been deeply involved with many of the greats. Marianne sent me a disc of some of her recaptured recordings from the 1950's, which you have to hear to soar. We're working on a way to put at least one up at Maggie's Farm. Meanwhile, you'll have to be content with this 1972 photo of Marianne and all-together now wishing Marianne a Happy Valentine. FRIENDSHIP Oh, the comfort -- the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person, -Dinah Maria Mulock Craik
Posted by Bruce Kesler
in Music, Our Essays, The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
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00:01
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Saturday, February 13. 2010h/t, Theo
Posted by Bird Dog
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
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13:40
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Let's get America smoking again!Somehow, this post got Farked! Just realized it. Hey, Fark friends - check out our site while visiting. You might enjoy knowing us and our free-thinking Yankee site - It's Valentine's Day weekend, so go out and buy your hubby some really good smokes. Get some for your kids, too. Maybe beloved hubby will get a good one for you, too: a pretty lady looks sexy with a cigar. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. Why our pro-smoking campaign this week? It's a companion-piece to Michelle O's anti-obesity campaign. A good cigar, which lasts at least quadruple the time of a Wendy's burger (450 calories), has zero calories and quadruple the enjoyment. (By the way, I do not know what the fuss is about childhood obesity. I drive past our local high school all the time, and I have yet to see a fat kid. They all look kinda scrawny to me except for the muscular athletes.) I always told my kids "Do not eat vegetables. They are for grown-ups." That was the truth and it worked well. Still having trouble getting them to enjoy the mystic Indian miracle of organic tobacco, though. They are brainwashed. I plan to light up a tasty, sweet, well-aged and fragrant Dominican Bolivar this afternoon. Bolivar builds a heck of a strong, solid cigar, like a piece of wood. They have become my favorites for the moment. It's fun to rustle through ye olde Yankee humidors to see what you have, and what you forgot you bought online a year or three ago. It is sort of like a wine cellar, filled with interesting, anti-obesity suprises.
Posted by The Barrister
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
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12:30
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Friday, February 12. 2010Where do you want to go this year?Photo: Tenerife, Canary Islands Mrs. BD and I have been engaged in a month-long debate about trips this year (in addition to the usual Cape Cod family reunion and, I think, hunting in Manitoba). Cruise or car or trains? Scotland? Provence? Vienna and Prague? Venice and Veneto and the south Tyrol? Canary Islands and Madeira with stops in Morocco and Portugal? Turkey (I love that country)? Sailboat down the Turkish coast? Israel and Egypt? Carpe diem, right? Now, or never. Could get hit by a bus tomorrow. I am more in a Provence mood (or maybe Sicily again), but I always do love to get on a ship or a boat. It gives me a reason (besides tuitions) to work. (My theory of life? We can relax when we are dead.) Put it on the credit card... Where do our readers want to go?
Posted by Bird Dog
in Our Essays, The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
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13:34
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An impressive politicianRemembering Lincoln at Powerline. I hate to correct Scott, but Lincoln was not the unanimous choice of the brand new Republican Party - he was the relatively-unknown compromise choice when a contentious convention could not agree on the front-runners - most of whom he put in his Cabinet. Also interesting: Lincoln v. Obama or Liberty and Justice v. "Fairness" and Power
Posted by The Barrister
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
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12:29
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On Writing Well: The Anglo-Saxon will set you freeWilliam Zinsser at American Scholar. A classic essay. Now he has a new one: Writing English as a Second Language. One quote:
Thursday, February 11. 2010Villa Medici in Poggio a CaianoAs Mrs. BD quips, "Lorenzo was sort of a Renaissance Man, wasn't he?" Lorenzo took an active role in designing the Villa Medici in Poggio a Caiano, 12 miles north of Florence, in 1485. The design of this rural Medici farming villa, which so much impressed and influenced Palladio, was revolutionary in several ways, not the least of which were its orientation outwards rather than towards an inner courtyard and its lack of defensive fortifications. (Lorenzo was famously casual about security.)
Posted by Bird Dog
in History, The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
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12:31
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The value of a lifeFrom the Value of a Life at Ragamuffin Studies:
That friend is a victim of pernicious Utilitarianism - John Dewey's contribution to the totalitarianism of the Left. "The greater good" and all that soul-crushing stuff. There is no greater earthly good than individual freedom.
Posted by Bird Dog
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
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09:59
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Plug uglyI sure hope this is the ugliest building on the Princeton campus:
Posted by Bird Dog
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
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05:01
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Wednesday, February 10. 2010Venetian Restaurants in NYCA friend was thoughtful enough to give us a year's subscription to Zagat's online for Christmas. Zagat's has gone global now. A (free) alternative to Zagat's is Yelp. Pick your city. I have been warned, however, that a 3-star rating on Yelp in NYC is equivalent to a 5-star rating elsewhere. New Yorkers are highly critical and demanding about dining - and about everything else. "If I can make it there..." For example, we were in the city this weekend at the Irish Repertory Theater and were looking for Venetian restaurants in the neighborhood. We tried Le Zie in Chelsea on 7th Ave. Not pricey. Zie had some rough reviews on Yelp (people love to bitch in reviews) but the place was better than any neighborhood trattoria in Italy. The ten "small plate" seafood appetizers were wonderful, and the Venetian calf's liver with onions and vinegar sauce was a fine treat. It was fun checking out Zagat for Venetian restaurants in NYC. Here are a few of them, for your amusement. The menus give a good idea of what Venetian cooking consists of: All good fun. Here's inside Le Zie:
Posted by Bird Dog
in Food and Drink, Our Essays, The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
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11:37
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"Near the Water" with Elissa GoreOur friend Elissa will have a show of her latest at the Noel Gallery in Bronxville. A sample:
Posted by Bird Dog
in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation
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05:02
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