Religion

Lucy in the morning with candles

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Yesterday was St. Lucy’s Day. Not a big deal for the average American (even, I think, for the average American Catholic). But—oddly enough—for Scandinavian Lutherans “Luciadag” has traditionally been an important part of the Advent observation.

On the morning of December 13, all over Scandinavia (but especially in Sweden), you used to be able to see the eldest daughter of the household (at least back when they had multiple children) rise early, don a crown of lingonberry leaves with seven burning candles in it, and lead a procession of her sisters and brothers, all clad in white and singing. She served the family a ritual breakfast of coffee and special “Lucia buns.” Since the 1920s, the processional song has been this version of the old Sicilian (correction: Neapolitan) favorite:

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Uncategorized

Turner Prize Goes to Beautiful Art

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Is it beautiful or is carefully marketed? James Bowman writes: “To the shock, then, that the work should be unashamedly pretty we may add the shock that it should not be shocking as well as the additional and perhaps greatest shock of all, namely the suspicion that it is a bit of glorified interior decorating.”

Uncategorized

Winter: The official announcement

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Photobucket

(My dad in the snow, sometime in the 1940s.)

Winter has arrived in earnest. The snow, like a snowy quilt, covers the snow-covered landscape like a quilt of snow. And it’s cold as… cold as a quilt is not. I note this for the record; I’m not sure what else to say about it. I knew about winter when I enlisted. Could have stayed in Florida if I’d wanted to take the coward’s way out.

I should spend more time being grateful. Unlike my dad long since, I don’t have to go out twice a day to milk cows, and throw hay down from the loft, and shovel manure out of the barn. If I get really sick, I’ll be able to just call in and tell the folks, “Carry on—somehow—without me.” I won’t have to drag myself out of bed, wrap up in three layers, and do the danged chores anyway, finding something to lean on when I get lightheaded, because you can’t let the animals starve.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Hannukah (or Channukah). Best wishes to our Jewish friends (or friend).



Aitchmark sent me this link to a review from The Wall Street Journal, of the book Last Exit to Utopia, written by, of all things, a Frenchman. Looks excellent.

Have a good weekend. Stay warm. Or cold, if you prefer.

Authors

Author Allegedly Abused by Border Police

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Canadian Author Peter Watts apparently put the wrong foot forward with U.S. border police in Port Huron, Michigan, because while on his way home, he says he was punched, pepper-sprayed, kicked, and jailed for three hours. He is considering a lawsuit, and some are raising money for him.

Author David Nickle says Mr. Watts is “effectively going up against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and he needs the best legal help that he can get.”

Publishing, The Press

Kirkus Reviews Also Folds

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Nielsen Business Media, which is closing down Editor & Publisher magazine, is also stopping production of Kirkus Reviews, which was known for it’s honest, even blunt, book reviews. “There was no sense of any financial distress within the Kirkus brand,” the editor said.

Publishing, The Press

Editor & Publisher Magazine Folds

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Editor & Publisher, a magazine which has covered the newspaper industry for 125 years, is closing down this month. The editor, Greg Mitchell, says it wasn’t a complete surprised, but it kinda was.

Describing E&P, Mitchell states, “I don’t think there are too many trade publications that were as independent and critical as we are, and we made some people angry because of that. We were calling for more Web focus way before it was fashionable; we were critical of many moves the industry was making and not making . . .”

Goofing

“They Oslo serve who only stand and wait”

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Apparently the Norwegians haven’t been bowled over by Pres. Obama’s charm in Oslo, as he stopped off for a half an hour to pick up his award and buy some postcards in the VIP lounge in Gardermoen Airport. He stood up King Haakon, who’d invited him to dinner, skipped the Viking Ships Museum tour, and—and this really stung—failed to pose for the traditional “Edvard Munch’s ‘Scream’” photo.

I don’t suppose today’s speech, in which he stunned the civilized world by suggesting that sometimes it’s actually necessary to wage war, helped him much. The Norwegians are still trying to live down the eternal shame of having carried on a resistance to the German invaders in World War II. Lives lost, infrastructure ruined, the economy smashed, ski holidays missed, and for what? Freedom. Independence. What an embarrassment. If the Nazis were still in charge, think how efficiently they’d be implementing Green policies today!

But in fact, insult has been the Democratic Party’s stance toward Norway for years now. I remember my last visit to family over there, when my relatives were discussing a presidential visit by Bill Clinton. The big thing they remembered was that Clinton had sipped from a water glass while somebody was giving a speech. That’s not done in Norway, apparently. (This bothered me a little, as I’d done the very same thing during a wedding reception I’d attended in Haugesund a few days earlier. But then I don’t have a protocol office to advise me. On the other hand, Pres. Obama doesn’t seem to have one either.)

I recalled an article I’d read some time before in a Norwegian paper, about how (the divine) Sissel Kyrkjebø had sung for a gathering in Washington, and Hillary Clinton and Al Gore had talked loudly all through her song.

Despite all this, Norway loves the Clintons.

Because that’s the way to a Norwegian’s heart. Kick him in the sardines.

The Germans should have tried that.