I’m off to Norsk Høstfest in Minot, ND. Come see me in the Viking Village if you’re headed that way. I’ll try to keep you updated occasionally, via WiFi, if I’m able. Otherwise, see you in about a week.
(And if you’re thinking of robbing my house while I’m gone, my renter will still be here. And he’s mean.)
Phil and I didn’t collude to leave this blog high and dry next week. We each planned our vacations independently, without consultation, resulting in the Great Abandonment we now face. I apologize on our behalf. Phil has promised to try to put something up from time to time, and I’ll try to do the same, if I can get the WiFi to work in Minot.
Still, the ugly fact is that Brandywine Books will be, for one week, like one of those antique shops with a sign in the window that says “OPEN BY CHANCE OR BY APPOINTMENT.”
Or like one of those cards they used to flash on the TV screen—“WE ARE EXPERIENCING TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES. PLEASE STAND BY.”
A memory flashed into my mind today, and with it a long-ago memorization assignment. The only words of Indonesian I know, and I only know them phonetically (and probably wrong):
“Kame orung deso ini. Senung sekali, maslamat, datankan, Bapak. Samogamoga tuhan, manyulamatkan, Bapak.”
It must have been about 1960. I was in 5th grade, I think, and my elementary school had organized a Christmas pageant (yes, children—public schools used to have Christmas pageants) with the theme, “Christmas around the World.” I was given a role in a scene depicting Christmas in Indonesia. It involved a shadow puppet play about the Nativity of Christ (yes, children, they did talk about the Nativity in public schools back then), narrated by an itinerant wise man. I was to play the village chief, and I had to memorize the speech printed above, which (as best I can recall) was a greeting to the wise man, saying how happy the village was to welcome someone of his eminence and holiness.
We were doing Christmas in Indonesia because we had a teacher who had formerly lived there. He was a Dutchman who’d prudently fled the islands when independence happened, and if he was representative of the colonial Dutch, I can’t fault the Indonesians much for kicking them out. Some people described him as a disciplinarian, but the students knew better. You can tell when somebody likes the punishment for its own sake, and this guy liked it.
But I’ve carried that phonetic speech around in my head ever since. I suspect I could have found better use for the space.
The always brilliant Andrew Klavan is even more brilliant than usual in this hilarious little piece about celebrity liberalism.
Tip: Big Hollywood.
According to Jillian Bandes at Townhall.com, the big Muslim gathering in Washington D.C. was pretty much a bust.
She also notes the presence of Christian protestors, preaching through bullhorns “to disrupt the prayers.”
That’s just embarrassing. I abhor the religion of Islam (as opposed to its adherents, whom I respect as fellow human beings to the degree that they individually deserve it), but this is America, and people have the right to pray in peace. I wouldn’t like it if they disrupted our prayers, and they deserve the same courtesy. Sheesh.
I don’t think I ever linked to Darwin Garrison’s review of West Oversea, over at Darwin’s Evolutions. Thanks for the great notice, Darwin, and I apologize for forgetting to link to it before!
I’ll be offline for a while, enjoying the family and, I hope, local foods. Be seeing you.
I’m rushing tonight, as I’ve got to help the Vikings load a van for Høstfest in Minot next week. So just a couple items.
Maxine at Petrona reports on a new history of the Viking Age which I find intriguing. Looks like somebody is stepping up to argue back against the “peaceful Vikings” meme that’s had so much currency in the last twenty or thirty years. I’ll defend the Vikings in some contexts, but I’m sick of seeing Vikings portrayed as “victims” of those nasty Christians. Victims is the last thing they’d want to be known as.
(Tip: Dave Lull)
And from England, a web site devoted to the Staffordshire Hoard, found in England last July.
The Staffordshire Hoard is an unparalleled treasure find dating from Anglo-Saxon times. Both the quality and quantity of this unique treasure are remarkable. The story of how it came to be left in the Staffordshire soil is likely to be more remarkable still.
Big news for us reenactors.
(Tip: Wulfric Solvarsson)
I picked up The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
I stated in the Comments on Andrew Klavan’s review (he didn’t like it a lot) that I had a bet with myself that the most conservative, religious character in the book would prove to be the murderer.
I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say that I was wrong. I feel morally obligated to post that for the record. Continue reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson
Someone save us from the pseudo-scientists! One U.K. company is fining and rewarded employees based on their carbon output.
Britain’s first employee carbon rationing scheme is about to be extended, after the trial demonstrated the effectiveness of fining people for exceeding their personal emissions target. Unlike the energy-saving schemes adopted by thousands of companies, the rationing scheme monitors employees’ personal emissions, including home energy bills, petrol purchases and holiday flights.
Commenter Chris Bock, whom I assume is British says, “Right now hardly anyone is standing up and fighting for civil liberties in Britain. People want to accept being herded and prodded, their lives micromanged and filmed to the minute, their lives compounded by ever increasing fines and taxes for minor everyday infractions of local and national laws designed to generate such income. Britain will wake up one morning and realize they are a democratic society in name only and anyone crowing about civil liberties and individualism will be deemed Enemies of the State.”
Looks very much like The Village in Patrick Mcgoohan’s show The Prisoner. Perhaps if the once great British would return to their God, preaching the gospel in Canterbury and London, they would stand up for themselves again, defend their families, protect their neighbors, and put away the corruption of the world. But I probably shouldn’t talk like that. It’s undefined, too general, and I just sound like a religious nut. [via Sweetness & Light]
Is there any tension between the goodness of God and the fear of Him?
“Oh, how abundant is your goodness,
which you have stored up for those who fear you
and worked for those who take refuge in you,
in the sight of the children of mankind!” (Psalm 31:19)