If so, adding phrases like this to your vocabulary will help you appear as if you spent too much time in the classroom. “Dic mihi solum facta, domina.” Just the facts, ma’am. (via Amy’s old book blog)
Lifting Jesus Up Among Brethren
One of the things The Most Reverend Henry Luke Orombi, Archbishop of the Church of Uganda, said tonight to a packed sanctuary was “Jesus of Nazareth is the only person who draws people to himself. The church must lift him up so He can draw all men to himself.” I was blessed to sing “We are God’s People,” “Shine, Jesus, Shine,” and “Christ Shall Have Dominion” with Presbyterians and Anglicans. It’s too easy to doubt the faith of those unlike me, especially with news of terrible things in the other denominations. It’s too easy to broadbrush without learning any details about individual congregations. But tonight we celebrated Jesus in unity under the teaching of a man, from halfway around the world, who is just like us.
Marcel Marceau, 1923-2007
Legendary French mime Marcel Marceau is dead.
All over France he will be memorialized today with a moment of talking.
Macbeth–a tragedy, but not his own
It looked like a re-play of last night as I drove home. The sun had been shining, but now clouds were driving in, dusty-looking and gray as the contents of a vacuum cleaner bag.
So I canceled my evening walk. And then the sky cleared up. I should walk now, but I’m washing clothes, and I just ate, and… well, I’m lazy.
Tomorrow we’re going to have live steel combat practice at a Viking Age Society member’s farm down near Mankato. The weather’s predicted to be good.
And it gives me an excuse to put off maintenance chores around here.
I read this via Gaius at Blue Crab Boulevard: Jesse Macbeth, who made himself famous by “confessing” to Iraq war crimes, admitted in court today that he is “a fake and a liar.”
The Left tried this game back during the Vietnam years too and, sadly, the mainstream media didn’t have anybody to check their work back then.
Nice to know that some things have gotten better over the years.
Jesse Macbeth should pay more than spending five months in jail, though. He should be tried for treason.
I was, frankly, a draft avoider back in the Vietnam days (long story—I just didn’t think I’d make a very good soldier). But even I was angry then—and remain angry today—over the way our soldiers in that war were robbed of their honor.
Nobody pays a higher price for service to their country than soldiers. Most of them don’t really want to kill, and none of them want to die, but they do what must be done, in part, because they trust that the people at home will honor their sacrifice.
I don’t care if you think America is the equivalent of Nazi Germany. If some German made up false stories about Wehrmacht atrocities in World War II, I think he should be tried for treason too.
Warriors are special. We owe a debt to our warriors. A society can get along without almost any profession. But warriors will always be necessary, and will always deserve special veneration from those of us who sit safe at home.
Book Giveaway: Cooking for One
Didn’t I say there’s a book about everything? The blog Apartment Therapy is giving away an essay/recipe book on eating alone called Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant. Only one copy will be given away, so act now. Deadline is 5:00 p.m. Friday (Eastern).
D’ya Feel Lucky, Punk? Then Plug Your Book
The NY Times is talking about the Internet’s effect on book promotion. Publishers try to control the release of an attention-grabbing book and are undermined by newspapers or networks who work the system to their own advantage. How can we blame them unless bribery is involved?
Publicizing a book is a tricky game.
Jonathan Burnham, publisher of HarperCollins, said that sometimes “there’s an argument that early leaks fan the flames, and in a sense everybody benefits from it at the end of the day.” But that depends on whether readers want more or feel as if they gleaned everything there is to know without buying the book.
The article does not mention a great source on this topic, that is Plug Your Book: Online Book Marketing for Authors by Steve Weber. I have intended to review this book for weeks. What I have read of it is hard-hitting, honest, and informative. Weber writes about many publicity ideas, both good and bad, helping us understand what we’re getting into, not selling us on a promotion designed more for making him a bit of cash than promoting our book. Read the book online here.
Called on account of rain
Can’t post much of anything tonight. I drove home in snake-floating rain, liberally mixed with hail, and a minute after I got into the house, the power went out, where it stayed until about fifteen minutes ago. This left me unable to do much of anything, except read Andrew Klavan’s Hunting Down Amanda by candlelight. Now I’ve got stuff to catch up on. See you tomorrow.
A Personal Post
Whereas I once was on vacation, I have returned to the office. As you can see from my new webcam, I am hard at work.
Don’t Leave Me
I occasionally think about writing personal posts, but I usually avoid it. You don’t want to hear about me, and if you do, maybe I don’t want you to hear about me. It’s probably just my selfishness, which is why I could never be The Next Food Network Star–along with other, larger reasons. Anyway, I may write something personal later this week.
So, Lars was talking about actors a few days ago (Garage door blues), and coincidentally Delancey Place quotes from one of those odd books which lends support to the notion that there are books about everything. Wait, it’s an article, not a book. Still there are books about everything out there, such as The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America: A Guide to Field Identification and Better Never To Have Been: The Harm of Coming Into Existence. But to the point of this post–Delancey Place quotes Laurence Olivier on his stage fright: “Olivier wrote of his famous performance in ‘Othello,’ ‘I had to beg my Iago, Frank Finlay, not to leave the stage when I had to be left alone for a soliloquy, but to stay in the wings downstage where I could see him, since I feared I might not be able to stay there in front of the audience by myself.'”
Just when you think some guys have it all together.
Why do you hate Canadians?
My burning question for supporters of nationalized health care:
If the U.S. adopts a single-payer health care system, where are the Canadians going to go for surgery, if they don’t want to wait a decade for a bypass?
You hate Canadians, don’t you? Don’t you?