There seems to be some confusion about who won last night’s presidential debate.
In my capacity as Final Arbiter, I shall clarify.
John McCain won. He won strong.
No need to thank me. Just doing my job.
All posts by Lars Walker
Nothing resurrection couldn’t fix
Mickey McLean at World Magazine reports on a Nebraska state senator whose lawsuit against God was recently thrown out of court.
I think I read elsewhere that the senator wasn’t actually in earnest (Gee, you think?), but was merely attempting to make some kind of point.
What kind, I have no idea.
Nor do I care.
Tonight’s the big night. Tonight I get the chance to see the television broadcast I’ve been waiting for, arguably the most important night of TV this year.
I mean, of course, the return of “Pushing Daisies” on ABC.
I wish somebody with Ned’s life-giving touch could give a massage to the McCain campaign.
“The Wish,” by Johann Sigurjonsson
While I was at Dale Nelson’s house on Sunday, he lent me an English translation of an Icelandic play, “The Wish,” by Jóhann Sigurjónsson, and asked for my reaction. Here’s a link to the text, in the same Einar Haugen translation I’ve got.
It’s a strange play, with considerable numinous power, even in this somewhat clumsy translation (Haugen wrote the textbook from which I learned Norwegian, but he’s no English stylist). It’s a sort of Icelandic Faust story, about a young man obsessed with obtaining knowledge—not for the sake of wisdom, but for the sake of power. He believes that if he obtains access to a certain “Red Book,” which a long-dead bishop took with him to his grave, he’ll obtain total power, not only on earth but in the spiritual realm. Continue reading “The Wish,” by Johann Sigurjonsson
The Ugly Duchess
New research indicates that “The Ugly Duchess,” a famous painting in England’s National Gallery, and the inspiration for some of John Tenniell’s illustrations in Alice in Wonderland, is probably an accurate portrait of its subject, according to this report in The Guardian. The unidentified woman in the painting apparently suffered from a rare form of Paget’s Disease.
Hat tip: Mirabilis.
Leif vs. Chris: Grudge match!
First of all, thanks to the folks at the Kråkeelva Lodge of the Sons of Norway, Hutchinson, Minnesota, for their hospitality Saturday evening. They were incautious enough to invite me to speak to them, and to pretend that my PowerPoint presentation on Leif Eriksson and Vínland was interesting.
Speaking of Leif Eriksson, it’s Columbus Day. We Norwegians celebrate Leif Eriksson Day on the 9th, not because we think Leif reached America on that date (he would have sailed as early in spring as possible), but in order to preempt Columbus’ celebration.
Not that anyone notices.
Dr. Gene Edward Veith posts today on an important issue I’ve covered before on this blog—that the old story that says Columbus sailed “to prove the world was round” is complete codswallop. It’s something Washington Irving put into a biography of Columbus (apparently on a day when he didn’t have the energy to walk to the library to verify his information), and school children learned it and believed it for generations.
Here’s a fact—almost every educated person has known the world is round since the times of the ancient Greeks. Continue reading Leif vs. Chris: Grudge match!
Emily Dickinson confidential!
Slate reports there’s strong evidence of an early romance in Emily Dickinson’s life. Not exactly a scandal, I think.
Hat tip: Townhall.
What the market will bear
Just to cheer you up amidst everything you’re hearing about financial collapse and hard times a-comin’, here’s my favorite Great Depression joke:
A guy is standing on a street corner, selling apples. The sign on his cart says, “Apples— $5,000 apiece.”
A passerby stops and looks at the sign. “That seems like a lot of money to ask for an apple,” he says.
“Yeah, it is,” says the vendor. “But all I have to do is sell one.”
For some reason I always think of novel writing when I tell that joke. Because we deal in a commodity that’s worth zero, until we find somebody willing to pay for it. Then suddenly we have a valuable asset.
Include me out
I think I’ll probably have to stop watching the TV show Bones again.
I stopped a while back, but was seduced in again, because there’s nothing on at that time that I’m interested in watching (or there didn’t used to be; I need to check the new schedule). I was lured back because a) I’m fascinated by that whole forensic science business (as long as it’s on TV and I don’t have to smell the evidence), and b) the star, Emily Deschanel, is smoking hot—not in the reconstituted Pam Anderson style, but in the exquisite Ingrid Bergman style.
The thing that bugs me about the show is that it has religious overtones. Not constantly, but one of the running themes is the conflict between Dr. Temperance Brennan’s atheism and FBI Agent Booth’s easygoing Catholicism. Booth generally gets the best of it too, as it’s obvious that he’s happier and better adjusted than she is.
The show even makes efforts, now and then (and this is fairly rare on television), to present practicing Christians as fully-rounded, sympathetic human beings.
And that’s the problem. Because the show has a definite opinion on what a real Christian is. Continue reading Include me out
No swords for Nazis
Here’s another thing I’ve noticed about the magical experience of Høstfest in Minot (a curse is a kind of magic, right?).
I remarked on this while I was there, and a couple different people agreed that they’d had the same experience.
Minot is upwind from everywhere.
When you drive to Minot (at least for Høstfest), you face a headwind.
When you drive home, you have a headwind again.
It’s always like this. Every year.
I’d say that God hates Scandinavians who live east of Minot, except that I half suspect that people who live west of Minot experience the precise same phenomenon.
I suspect that Minot is in fact a vast living creature, an Avoidant one that takes very long breaths. During the days leading up to Høstfest, it expires. And when the festival is over, it sighs (Scandinavians inhale when they sigh).
I had one of the most intriguing conversations in Norwegian I’d ever had, this year at Høstfest. Continue reading No swords for Nazis
Photo essay on Hostfest
Because many of you out there aren’t fortunate enough to share in the riches of Scandinavian culture, I offer the following information out of a profound sense of civic responsibility.
Also because if I didn’t report on my week, I’d have to think of something substantive to write.
On the way out I had the pleasure, once again, of having lunch with Roy Jacobsen of Dispatches From Outland and Writing, Clear and Simple, in Fargo. And on the way home Dale Nelson, who teaches English and Mayville State University, and his wife Dorothea and daughter Lynnea, hosted me for lunch and dinner. Thanks to all of them.
Norsk Høstfest in Minot, North Dakota is the largest Scandinavian festival in the United States. People come from all over the country, and indeed from all over the world. The reason for the location is obvious. It’s a central location. Minot is so far from anywhere that it’s just as remote from Minnesota as it is from Scandinavia. Or at least it seems that way. Continue reading Photo essay on Hostfest