The children and Aunt Enid

I am sorry that the first thing you should hear about the children should be that they did not care about their Aunt Enid, but this was unfortunately the case. And if you think this was not nice of them I can only remind you that you do not know their Aunt Enid.

E. Nesbit, Wet Magic

E. Nesbit is so funny and this sense of humor is strewn through all her children's stories.

The Golden Temple, Amritsar

The Golden Temple, Amritsar by Charles W. Bartlett

Taj Majal, Sunset

Taj Mahal, Sunset, woodblock by Charles W. Bartlett

More exotic beauty from Charles Bartlett!

An affectionate letter from a bishop must surely be the most disagreeable missive which a parish clergyman can receive.

His state became still worse when he received an affectionate but solemn letter from the Bishop warning him of his danger. An affectionate letter from a bishop must surely be the most disagreeable missive which a parish clergyman can receive. Affection from one man to another is not natural in letters. A bishop never writes affectionately unless he means to reprove severely. When he calls a clergyman his "dear brother in Christ," he is sure to go on to show that the man so called is altogether unworthy of the name.

Anthony Trollope, Dr. Wortle's School

Trollope is just so funny. He understands human nature and exploits for his humorous storytelling.

Hanalei Fishermen, Hawaii

Hanalei Fishermen, Hawaii , hand colored etching by Charles W. Bartlett

Charles Bartlett had so many works featuring Hawaiian and Indian scenes that I wound up looking him up. Wikipedia says:

In 1913, with financial backing from his wife's well-to-do family, the Bartletts traveled to India, Ceylon, Indonesia, China, and Japan. He arrived in Japan in 1915, where he met woodblock print publisher Watanabe Shōzaburō (1885–1962), who was a major force in early 20th-century Japanese art (shin-hanga). In 1916 Watanabe published 21 woodblocks from Bartlett's designs, including six prints of Japanese landscapes. In 1917, Bartlett and his second wife left Japan for England; however, they stopped off in Hawaii, where they remained—never returning to England. He did visit Japan in 1919, where he created sixteen shin-hanga prints for Watanabe.

We'll have his art for the rest of the week.

To meddle in the government of society [is], so to speak, the only pleasure that an American knows

Citizens assemble with the sole goal of declaring that they disapprove of the course of government. To meddle in the government of society and to speak about it is the greatest business and, so to speak, the only pleasure that an American knows. . . . An American does not know how to converse, but he discusses; he does not discourse, but he holds forth. He always speaks to you as to an assembly.

Alexis de Toqueville

It's so interesting to see that we began as we meant to go on. And we're still obsessed with holding forth about politics to this day.

Well Said: What do you want me to do for you?

Jesus said to him in reply, "What do you want me to do for you?"

The blind man said to him, "Master, I want to see."

Mark 10:51

We all relate to the blind man. It's the common condition. Where am I blind? I want to see.

But take a second and look at Jesus' question. That is considerate and gracious. It is the question God asks us, even though we don't stop to think of it. He met us more than halfway by becoming human and dying for us. And here he is, "What do you want me to do for you?"

It's a question I ponder when I begin my morning prayer. Considering the asker makes me both shed the small stuff and yet also bring the small stuff to him. He's asking. He wants to know. What will we say?

Hawaiian Fisherman

Hawaiian Fisherman by Charles William Bartlett,
color woodblock print, 1916. 

I don't usually like wood prints. However, this is in the style of several book covers that my grandparets had. They were my father's old childhood books and when I was a kid I didn't really read them — but I liked the covers. It takes me back to those days.

Lagniappe: I saw no one.

Source

 Holmes: I followed you.

Sterndale: I saw no one.

Holmes: That is what you may expect to see when I follow you.

Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Devil's Foot

I tend to forget that the Sherlock Holmes stories can have these little bits of humor inserted.

A richness for a people without riches

Soul Food

There is a reason why many black Southerners — and some white ones, like my mother — still call this kind of cooking soul food, because it transcends the pain and struggle of the everyday, a richness for a people without riches.

Rick Bragg, The Best Cook in the World

The End of Reading is Here? Not So Fast.

“In 1958,” Rose Horowitch informs us in a lengthy and grim prognosis of reading habits published in the Atlantic, “the English translation of Boris Pasternak’s Doctor Zhivago was the best-selling novel of the year.” Meanwhile, she says, “last year’s top-selling novel was Sunrise on the Reaping, the latest in the Hunger Games young-adult series.”

The point of the comparison? As a society, we once engaged with serious literature! We read the lofty and the literary, the rigorous and demanding. Today, we settle for the puerile and simplistic.

[...]

We’re talking civilizational disaster here, folks.

Still, resist the impulse to leap into traffic. I’ve written about the reading crisis several times and share many of Horowitch’s concerns. Who wouldn’t? But there are a few things in this piece that rankle, starting with Doctor Zhivago

We used to be so literary and now we're just a bunch of reading schlubs says The Atlantic. I've heard this a thousand times — we used to eat so much better, we used to read so much better, etc. When it's looked at more closely, that turns out not to be the case.

As the subtitle to this great piece says, "It’s Easy to Fear the Future When We Romanticize the Past." Definitely worth reading, as are all the pieces from Miller's Book Review.

Notes on Mark: Only One Loaf

Mark 8:14-21
I have never noticed the discrepancies in this bit of scripture. I guess, like the disciples, I wasn't paying enough attention, especially to this very interesting point about "one loaf" being in the boat.

Mark begins by noting the seemingly irrelevant detail that the disciples had forgotten to bring bread and had only one loaf with them. On one level, this simply means that they have failed to replenish their food supplies. But the two miraculous feedings and the ensuing discussions have prepared us to understand: What is the real "one loaf" (literally, "one bread") with them in the boat? It is Jesus! Mark clarifies in verse 16 that actually they have "no bread"--no earthly bread, that is. Bread will not be mentioned again in the Gospel until Jesus announces that the bread is his own body, to be given up for us on the cross (14:22).

Mary Healy, Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture: The Gospel of Mark

 ===== 

Sources and Notes Index  

Le Dejeuner

Le Dejeuner, Henri Le Sidaner

I want to go to there.