Baking the Bread

Baking the Bread, Anders Zorn, 1889

See this? That's me today.

Ok, not literally. Thank goodness I've got an enclosed oven for one thing. But I'm cook, cook, cookin' the day away preparing the Thanksgiving feast. Pies, side dishes, rolls. So much cooking, with something new this year. My son-in-law is going to deep fry the turkey. I am extremely interested to see how it turns out.

Rose and I have done this together enough times that it is like a ballet as we skirt each other cooking, remembering timing and tips to each other, and listen to very American music — per Rose, this means bluegrass. I like bluegrass fine but I also like to put some jazz in there. And Aaron Copeland, George Gershwin, and (most lately) William Grant Still whose first symphony (titled "Afro American Symphony") combines the feel of both Copeland and Gershwin to be very all-American.

Talk about a fun way to get Thanksgiving dinner ready.

Turkey - the Word of the Week

 I've mentioned Word & Song before — here's my review. I'm sharing this because I was so surprised by what Anthony Esolen said last year about turkeys being in a Shakespeare play 20 years before the pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. Read it all here.

... there’s our Word of the Week, turkey, in a play [Twelfth Night] that was written almost twenty years before the Pilgrim Fathers landed at Plymouth, and before they celebrated a late-autumn Thanksgiving with great roasted turkeys! Is it the same bird? Where did it come from? Why is it called a turkey?

As best we can figure, it was the same bird or close to it, brought into Europe and Asia by Spanish traders. It quickly became a favorite — after all, you’d much prefer a big fat turkey to a skinny goose or stork. But it got to England by a circuitous route: from India, where the Spanish took it, and Madagascar, and thence to the country called Turkey, after the people, the Turks, who ruled there. The Turks themselves called the bird hindi, meaning that it came from India, and that’s also why in French it was called poulet d’Inde, Indian chicken — giving us modern French dindon. In Italy, they call it tacchino, probably imitating a tak-tak-tak gobble. If you think that’s odd, in Persia you may call it either korus e-hendi, Indian chicken, or booghalamoon — again, for the gobble. In any case, if you were living in London in Shakespeare’s time, you might well have the popular turkey as your Christmas feast.

So when the Pilgrims came to Massachusetts, imagine their surprise when they saw wild turkeys galumphing about, fattened on local walnuts and beech nuts and hazels and apples! They’d have known from experience what to do with those birds. We’ve got flocks of them where we live now, in New Hampshire, and one winter’s day they gathered, about two dozen, around a crabapple tree in the neighbor’s yard, craning their necks and hopping from the ground to snatch the fruits, yes, hopping, because they were too heavy for the branches, especially the toms.

Marlene Dietrich in Glass Bugle Beads

Marlene Dietrich, dress by Irene
via Silver Screen Modes

No skin is showing but that hardly matters in this dramatic dress. Silver Screen Modes has fascinating commentary and wonderful photos. Here's a taste.

Indeed, the main advantage of a dress made of glass bugle beads is that their weight presses against the skin. You either see the skin left exposed, or you clearly see the contours of the wearer since the beads hug the figure with from the gravity of their weight. And the beads not only reflect light, but are themselves translucent, and sewn onto the sheerest of silk chiffons. They are made of cut glass, an can be colored or lined in silver or gold. Marlene Dietrich below knew how to pose in a gown made of bugle beads. This one was designed for her by the costume and fashion designer Irene. Little skin actually shows, yet you feel that all of her is showing.

My Life in France by Julia Child and Alex Prud'Homme

This book is the charming and fascinatingly told story of Julia Child and her husband living in France. What elevates this beyond the usual food/life memoir is Child's telling of the whole picture, not just the food oriented moments. Yes, the food is there. After all, we are in France, n'est-ce pas? And this is Julia Child's story. However, just as in life, the food memories wind their way through the rest of her stories which make us understand just why she adores France. A snippet to whet your appetite.

... I had come to the conclusion that I must really be French, only no one had ever informed me of this fact. I loved the people, the food, the lay of the land, the civilized atmosphere, and the generous pace of life.

August in Paris was known as la morte-saison, "the dead season," because everybody who could possibly vacate did so as quickly as possible. A great emptying out of the city took place, as hordes migrated toward the mountains and coasts, with attendant traffic jams and accidents. Our favorite restaurants, the creamery, the meat man, the flower lady, the newspaper lady, and the cleaners all disappeared for three weeks. One afternoon I went into Nicolas, the wine shop, to buy some wine and discovered that everyone but the deliveryman had left town. He was minding the store, and in the meantime was studying voice in the hope of landing a role at the opera. Sitting next to him was an old concierge who, twenty-five years earlier, had been a seamstress for one of the great couturiers on la Place Vendome. She and the deliveryman reminisced about the golden days of Racine and Moliere and the Opera Comique. I was delighted to stumble in on these two. It seemed that in Paris you could discuss classic literature or architecture or great music with everyone from the garbage collector to the mayor.

Baby (Almost) on Board!

 Our second grandchild — Gemma Rose — should be arriving tomorrow. We've got the fun of taking care of 4-year-old big brother during the weekend. And then I will be helping out with the baby household.

Until I return, I've got years and years of back-posts including movies and books. This is your chance to peruse the archives!

Please pray that all goes well before, during, and after arrival of little Gemma.

"Happy" versus what makes us most beautifully human

This is long but do read it all.

“Presume competence,” said the disability advocates, and so I did. I learned to discard “normal” and embrace “possible.” It wasn’t easy. My daughter needed 10 times the support of a typical kid. It also felt like the truest, most human work I could do: to love someone into whomever they would become.

I was learning. Meanwhile, the evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins tweeted that it was immoral for a pregnant woman to knowingly carry to term a child with Down syndrome because, according to him, disabilities decrease happiness and increase suffering. I was appalled.

When Fiona reached kindergarten in 2016, I fretted: Would her teachers think the same? That her life wasn’t “worth it”? At a standard public school, among kids twice her size, would she be dismissed as incapable, rejected as less-than?

I couldn’t know that in one year, her gross motor confidence would climb. ... I couldn’t know that in the company of typical, talking peers, my daughter’s verbal language would explode.

On her first day of kindergarten, I couldn’t know any of this—just as I couldn’t know that, on the day I learned of my daughter’s diagnosis, I was being handed a gift: the knowledge that the point of life isn’t to achieve things. It also isn’t, as Richard Dawkins implies, to avoid suffering. It isn’t even to “be happy.” ... This belief in the virtue of the “happy” and suffering-free life sterilizes and shrinks us, minimizing what makes us most beautifully human.

The point of this human life, I believe, is love. And the ridiculous and brave and risky act of love turns my heart into taffy, stretches it across the broad spectrum of human feeling. I hurt, I long, I exalt, I rejoice. And yes, my chest sometimes aches from the work of raising a rare girl. But the ache in my chest is a cousin of joy.

Heather Lanier

The Real Work of Parenting a Rare Girl

Wall Street Journal, July 25, 2020

I was so touched, especially looking at Richard Dawkins' eugenics stance (carefully couched as kindness) versus Heather Lanier's hard earned joy which reaffirms the point of life and power of love.  It is also a good reminder that there is so much we can't know when we try to see into the future. Sometimes what we find there is great beyond our ability to imagine it.

Shichi - Go -San ( seven - five - three )

Shichi-Go-San, via Calligraphy in the View

Do click through to see more photos of these adorable children in traditional dress. 

Shichi-Go-San is a traditional rite of passage and festival day in Far east.

For three and seven year-old girls and three and five year-old boys, held annually on November 15.

Shichi-Go-San is said to have originated in the Heian Period (794-1185) amongst court nobles, who would celebrate the passage of their children into middle childhood.

Hello Kitty Shinkansen (Bullet Train)

Hello Kitty Shinkansen, Calligraphy in the View

I think we can agree this is the best of all bullet trains, especially if you happen to have any little girls around when you're on it.

Green Book

Based on a real story. When Tony Lip (Mortensen), a bouncer from an Italian-American neighborhood in the Bronx, is hired to drive Dr. Don Shirley (Ali), a world-class African-American pianist, on a concert tour from Manhattan to the Deep South, they must rely on “The Green Book” to guide them to the few establishments that were then safe for African-Americans.

Confronted with racism and danger—as well as unexpected humanity and humor—they are forced to set aside differences to survive and thrive on the journey of a lifetime. Winner of Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor (Ali).

I rewatched this recently before an upcoming discussion at A Good Story is Hard to Find. I found myself falling in love with it all over again. More than anything it is a buddy road movie. They aren't buddies at the beginning but we recognize all the famiiar beats. The joy of the movie is in seeing the way those beats are hit in order to reveal the two men.

The strength of the two main performances buttressed by a strong supporting cast, were wonderful. And the main story, spotlighting the power of personal connection, was highly enjoyable. It deserved the Oscar - this is the sort of movie Hollywood seems to have forgotten to make anymore.

If you haven't seen it the you're in for a treat. 

A Gorgeous Bouquet

Anna Stanchi, Still Life with Flowers, c. 1643

Notes on Mark: A Parable About Seeds

Jesus scattering seeds of faith, Peter Pöppelmann
Dresden-Strehlen, Christ Church

MARK 4:26-29
This parable about the seeds is so familiar that I never realized it is only found in Mark. Of course we have all heard interpretations of the many meanings within it but I haven't ever heard this one by St. Gregory the Great.

An agricultural parable found only in Mark. Jesus compares the mystery of natural, organic growth to the expansion of the kingdom of God. The kingdom will visibly mature like grain, but the spiritual forces behind it will remain invisible. The parable of the Leaven in MT 13:33 elucidates the same mystery.

Morally (St. Gregory the Great, Hom. in Ezek 2, 3), the maturing grain signifies our increase in virtue. First, the seeds of good intentions are sown; these gradually bring forth the blade of repentance and ultimately the mature ear of charitable works. When established in virtue, we are made ripe for God's harvest.

The Gospel of Mark
(The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible)

A note for reflection adds what we already know about this parable's larger meaning, but what is good for me to remember.

Despite the many seeds apparently sown in vain, God is at work to produce what will finally be revealed as a stupendous harvest. The parable illustrates the "mystery of the kingdom" that Jesus mentioned in 4:11. The reign of God will not come about through unmitigated success and uninterrupted growth. An unexpected but necessary part of the plan is the setbacks and failures that give Jesus' disciples a share in the mystery of his own suffering.

The Gospel of Mark: Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture

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Sources and Notes Index  

Julie and Scott take a road trip through the South. They both like fried chicken but Scott won't let Julie play her Indian movie music.

In episode 344 of A Good Story is Hard to Find, we discuss Green Book, starring Mahershala Ali and Viggo Mortensen.

Pug Dog in an Armchair

Alfred Dedreux, Pug Dog in an Armchair, 1857

Yes, I also like that painting of dogs playing poker. So sue me. It tickles me that this was painted in 1857.

Just Plain Fun Reading — Dragon Heist by Alexander C. Kane

Birdie Binkowitz is just a little bitter. As a young actress, she was the toast of Hollywood, definitely destined for greatness. Then the dragons had to rise up from their thousand-year slumber, take over Earth and ruin everything. Twenty years later, Birdie is living her worst life in her hometown of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, working at her father's Seed and Feed (and Bagels).

Then, the world's smallest dragon mysteriously appears in front of the store seeking her help. He’s got a bone to pick with his fellow dragons–and he wants to hit them where it hurts.

This book was mildly entertaining during the first few chapters of set up. But I definitely cracked up when Jim (the Dragon) announced that in order to accomplish their goal, they were going to have to get a fighter, a thief, a giant, and a mage. Hey, that's dungeons and dragons quest stuff! All in modern-day Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Then it started to get fun and imaginative. My favorite character was the thief, Dottie Three Hands.

As the story went on, I became more curious about the goal of looting a dragon's lair. There seemed to be more at stake than simply getting treasure. As it turns out, that was correct and the twist was predictable but not disappointing for all that. I thoroughly enjoyed the team getting through the puzzles at the gates. I also really enjoyed Birdie's talent being that of annoying people beyond their ability to keep their minds on what they were doing.

All in all, this was a perfect summer read and I'd love it if there is a sequel.

Do not free a camel

Do not free a camel from the burden of his hump; you may be freeing him from being a camel.

G.K. Chesterton

The Shocking Behavior of a Speedy Star

The Shocking Behavior of a Speedy Star, NASA on the Commons

 I didn't know there really are such things as rogue stars. The red arc is what happens when it runs into things as it speeds through the Milky Way. More from NASA:

Roguish runaway stars can have a big impact on their surroundings as they plunge through the Milky Way galaxy. Their high-speed encounters shock the galaxy, creating arcs, as seen in this newly released image from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope.

In this case, the speedster star is known as Kappa Cassiopeiae, or HD 2905 to astronomers. It is a massive, hot supergiant. But what really makes the star stand out in this image is the surrounding, streaky red glow of material in its path. Such structures are called bow shocks, and they can often be seen in front of the fastest, most massive stars in the galaxy.

Bow shocks form where the magnetic fields and wind of particles flowing off a star collide with the diffuse, and usually invisible, gas and dust that fill the space between stars. How these shocks light up tells astronomers about the conditions around the star and in space. Slow-moving stars like our sun have bow shocks that are nearly invisible at all wavelengths of light, but fast stars like Kappa Cassiopeiae create shocks that can be seen by Spitzer’s infrared detectors.

Incredibly, this shock is created about 4 light-years ahead of Kappa Cassiopeiae, showing what a sizable impact this star has on its surroundings. (This is about the same distance that we are from Proxima Centauri, the nearest star beyond the sun.)

The Kappa Cassiopeiae bow shock shows up as a vividly red color. The faint green features in this image result from carbon molecules, called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, in dust clouds along the line of sight that are illuminated by starlight.

Delicate red filaments run through this infrared nebula, crossing the bow shock. Some astronomers have suggested these filaments may be tracing out features of the magnetic field that runs throughout our galaxy. Since magnetic fields are completely invisible themselves, we rely on chance encounters like this to reveal a little of their structure as they interact with the surrounding dust and gas.

Kappa Cassiopeiae is visible to the naked eye in the Cassiopeia constellation (but its bow shock only shows up in infrared light.)

White Lilies

Anders Zorn, White Lilies
via Wikipedia

Just gorgeous. And that's enough reason to put it here to look at.

What We Deserve

It is always a terrible thing to come back to Mott Street. To come back in a driving rain, to men crouched on the stairs, huddled in doorways, without overcoats because they sold them perhaps the week before when it was warm, to satisfy hunger or thirst — who knows? Those without love would say, "It serves them right, drinking up their clothes." God help us if we got just what we deserved!

Dorothy Day, On Pilgrimage

"God help us if we got just what we deserved!"

Yes. That would indeed be a terrible fate.

Can I visit it upon another? There is justice, to be sure, and it is much needed in this world. But justice must be served up with mercy. That is the delicate balance with which we all struggle.

Portrait of Mlle Brissac

Portrait of Mlle Brissac (1863). William-Adolphe Bouguereau (French, 1825-1905)
via Books and Art

I love Bouguereau anyway but this really stands out for me. It's as good as photograph. Better, in fact! Look at it close up (click the portrait) to see just how realistic everything is.

And the Winner Is — 1934

 Our family is working our way through Oscar winners and whichever nominees take our fancy. Also as they are available, since these early films continued to be hard to find.

Also the Academy was still sorting out what years the movies had to be made in order to qualify. So there are some from 1932-33 in here.

WINNER

A cavalcade of English life from New Year’s Eve 1899 until 1933 is seen through the eyes of well-to-do Londoners Jane and Robert Marryot. Amongst events touching their family are the Boer War, the death of Queen Victoria, the sinking of the Titanic, and the Great War.

Our least favorite of the Best Picture winners so far. (Oh wait, now we've seen The Life of Emile Zola from 1938. Turns out Cavalcade isn't as bad as we thought at the time.) It isn't terrible but it also isn't great. It just kept going and going. I did enjoy Diana Wynyard and Clive Brook's performances a lot.

 NOMINEES

A World War I veteran’s dreams of becoming a master architect evaporate in the cold light of economic realities. Things get even worse when he’s falsely convicted of a crime and sent to work on a chain gang.

How do you not get excited about a movie with this title? And it paid off. Paul Muni was really effective in the role and, amazingly, the over-the-top story was very close to the autobiography that inspired it.

The book and film were both influences in publicizing the horrors of what life was like on the chain gangs and getting them abolished. So it was both a gripping story and social change maker. We're glad we watched it.

This was our favorite of the three movies we could find for viewing, beating She Done Him Wrong and Cavalcade in our personal awards.

New York singer and nightclub owner Lady Lou has more men friends than you can imagine. One of them is a vicious criminal who’s escaped and is on the way to see “his” girl, not realising she hasn’t exactly been faithful in his absence. Help is at hand in the form of young Captain Cummings, a local temperance league leader.

This is part of our cultural history almost 100 years later as evidenced by the fact that "Come up and see me sometime" is still a known line. Also, of course Mae West's image lives on in the cliches that she herself exploited to great effect.

We liked it well enough as an iconic film and for the funny double entendres as the plot zipped along with a seemingly endless stream of men entering and leaving West's bedroom.

=======

All the Oscar viewing is here.

Millie Finch

Milly Finch, James McNeill Whistler, c.1884

I don't love lots of Whistler's art, but I do love this.

Notes on Mark: Plowing the Soil

Tomb wall painting in Thebes of plowing the land

MARK 4:1-20
I have always heard this talked about as if the type of soil cannot be changed. However, this commentary gave me much food for thought just by looking at Palestinian farming customs.

In first-century Palestine, it was common for farmers to sow their seed first, and then go back and plow the soil. In this way, the seed could be mixed in with different types of soil, and some hard or rocky patches of soil could be broken up and softened, helping the seed to bear greater fruit. While some of the soil may not be the most fertile at the beginning of the process, by the end, it has a far greater chance of supporting the life and fruitfulness of the seed it has received.

In a similar way, none of us should think that because we see hardness or difficulties in our lives now, that we are beyond hope of change, or that it's too late for us. God can "plow" us up at any time, making us more receptive to the work he has sown in us and more able to bear the abundant fruit that his seed is capable of producing. We should always keep our eyes and ears open, looking for ways that God may be trying to work a greater softening in our hearts, a greater receptivity to his word.

Mark: A Devotional Commentary (The Word Among Us)

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Sources and Notes Index 

Involuntary versus voluntary penance

St. Angela of Foligno said that penances voluntarily undertaken are not half so meritorious as those imposed on us by the circumstances of our lives and cheerfully borne. ...

Most of us have not the courage to set out on this path wholeheartedly, so God arranges it for us.

Dorothy Day, On Pilgrimage

You know, that never would have occurred to me. It provides food for thought about how I live my life. For one thing I am terrible about taking up voluntary penances for the improvement of my soul. It is a comfort to think that God provides anyway.

Not that I love inconvenience or hardship, but we can't escape it so this is just one more way to orient myself toward the good that can come (and is intended) from it.

Francisco Goya

Vicente López y Portaña, Portrait of Francisco de Goya, 1826
via Wikipedia

I was looking for pieces of Goya's art. Funnily enough, the painting I liked best was by someone else of Goya. He's unexpectedly stern looking considering the surreal feeling of some of his paintings. Apropos of nothing, I love his neckcloth.

How the Church Has Changed the World by Anthony Esolen

I've become a big fan of Anthony Esolen's essays from his daily posts at Word & Song. In particular the Word of the Week essay every Monday is always an engaging, wide-ranging reflection on the word from personal experience, far-flung sources, scientific or historical links, and, finally, etymology - the origin of the word itself.

When I came across this series collecting monthly essays he'd originally written for Magnificat I was excited to see that the same captivating, wide-ranging style was used. Quite often I'd find myself thinking, "Oh this is definitely about this well known saint" only to find that I was reading about someone I'd never heard of. Although that "well known saint" might have been best friends with the subject of the piece.

Esolen ranges across time and around the world to show us the many ways that the love of Christ has been expressed by the Church through history — in art, song, customs, and people. Each book has 24 essays and they make wonderful daily reading — if you can hold yourself down to one a day. I couldn't!

Empress Maria Feodorovna

Ivan N. Kramskoi, Portrait of Empress Maria Feodorovna, 1880s

I found the painting via Through an Artist's Eyes along with this:

According to Robert K. Massie, author of Nicholas and Alexandra:

Russia loved this small, gay woman who became their Empress, and Marie gloried in the life of the Russian court. She delighted in parties and balls…..Seated at dinner, she was an intelligent, witty conversationalist and, with her dark eyes flashing, her husky voice filled with warmth and humor, she dominated as much by charm as by rank.

I am sharing this because I love the look on the Empress's face. I want to be friends with her.

On the Commemoration of All Souls' Day: "OH WOW. OH WOW. OH WOW.

This had to be done. Even now, he had a stern, still handsome profile, the profile of an absolutist, a romantic. His breath indicated an arduous journey, some steep path, altitude.

He seemed to be climbing.

But with that will, that work ethic, that strength, there was also sweet Steve’s capacity for wonderment, the artist’s belief in the ideal, the still more beautiful later.

Steve’s final words, hours earlier, were monosyllables, repeated three times.

Before embarking, he’d looked at his sister Patty, then for a long time at his children, then at his life’s partner, Laurene, and then over their shoulders past them.

Steve’s final words were:

OH WOW. OH WOW. OH WOW.

From Steve Job's sister's eulogy for him.

I simply love this and can't read it enough. The whole piece is a tender, loving image that adds wonderful depth to the public persona. Her absolute honesty about his last words made me cry (but you knew that already, didn't you?).

It certainly seems like a fitting memory for today, when we pray for all souls.

A Movie You Might Have Missed #98 — Freaks (1932)

I'd always avoided this movie, worried that it would be too creepy and disturbing. We recently saw the episode of Malcolm in the Middle where the kids are saved at the carnival by a group of friendly sideshow performers. My daughter mentioned that it is amazing how Freaks still resonates through popular culture. She'd seen and liked the movie long ago. With Halloween just around the corner, it was time for me to face my fears.

I'm so glad I did because this was a really amazing movie. The plot is basic. A beautiful and conniving trapeze artist named Cleopatra seduces a carnival sideshow midget after learning of his large inheritance. His friends aren't going to let him be taken advantage of. The acting skills also can be rather basic also because the sideshow freaks are all portrayed by actual carnival performers. 

However, it was the sympathetic depiction of the true humanity and community that the freaks share behind the scenes that wowed my husband and me. Todd Browning's film feels as if it was way ahead of its time in overlooking the physical disabilities and recognizing each as a person. 

Also, just seeing them performing basic skills like eating dinner was often awe-inspiring. They were just living their lives and managing remarkably well in a way that we moderns wouldn't think possible. I wasn't surprised to see that Browning had worked in a carnival before he turned to directing. Looking up the accomplishments of these performers in real life was often revelatory about their abilities and the way they were able to enjoy life.

Freaks is billed as a horror movie, and I'm sure it felt that way when it came out. However, the only time it felt like a real horror movie to us was at the end where the community banded together to protect one of their own. Now that bit was riveting and terrifying.

Scott tries to avoid noticing Julie's shock of red wolf hair as he eats his freshly picked rowan-berries.

 Alexandre Dumas's Faustian tale of a poor shoe maker and his deal with the devil. Episode 343 of A Good Story is Hard to Find podcast. Join us!

Carving the Pumpkin

Carving the Pumpkin by Franck Antoine Bail, 1910
via J.R.'s Art Place

The Autumn People

For some, autumn comes early, stays late through life where October follows September and November touches October and then instead of December and Christ's birth, there is no Bethlehem star, no rejoicing, but September comes again and old October and so on down the years, with no winter, spring, or revivifying summer. For these beings, fall is the ever normal season, the only weather, there be no choice beyond. Where do they come from? The dust. Where do they go? The grave. Does blood stir their veins? No: the night wind. What ticks in their head? The worm. What speaks from their mouth? The toad. What sees from their eye? The snake. What hears with their ear? The abyss between the stars. They sift the human storm for souls, eat flesh of reason, fill tombs with sinners. They frenzy forth. In gusts they beetle-scurry, creep, thread, filter, motion, make all moons sullen, and surely cloud all clear-run waters. The spider-web hears them, trembles -- breaks. Such are the autumn people. Beware of them.

Ray Bradbury, Something Wicked This Way Comes

Proof that horror fantasy can also be poetic.

All Decorated

Decorated House, Weatherby, Pennsylvania

Is there such a thing as being too decorated for Halloween? The answer is no, definitely not.

The Ghosts' High Noon

From Ruddigore by Gilbert and Sullivan.

When the night wind howls in the chimney cowls, and the bat in the moonlight flies,
And inky clouds, like funeral shrouds, sail over the midnight skies –
When the footpads quail at the night-bird's wail, and black dogs bay at the moon,
Then is the spectres' holiday – then is the ghosts' high-noon!

Ha! ha!
For then is the ghosts' high-noon!

As the sob of the breeze sweeps over the trees, and the mists lie low on the fen,
From grey tomb-stones are gathered the bones that once were women and men,
And away they go, with a mop and a mow, to the revel that ends too soon,
For cockcrow limits our holiday – the dead of the night's high-noon!

Ha! ha!
For then is the ghosts' high-noon!

And then each ghost with his ladye-toast to their churchyard beds takes flight,
With a kiss, perhaps, on her lantern chaps, and a grisly grim "good-night";
Till the welcome knell of the midnight bell rings forth its jolliest tune,
And ushers in our next high holiday – the dead of the night's high-noon!

Ha! ha!
For then is the ghosts' high-noon!

Pirates

Illustration from page 141 of Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates

 Terrifying, am I right?

Just Plain Fun Reading: Galaxy Outlaws by J.S. Morin

I've been rereading this light, fun series which I first reviewed below in 2019 as I was listening to the audiobooks. Now, I've got the series of four-packs on my Kindle. They're just what you want for brainless reading fun.

Meet the galaxy's unluckiest outlaws.

Carl Ramsey is an ex-Earth Navy fighter pilot turned con man. His ship, the Mobius, is home to a ragtag crew of misfits and refugees looking to score a big payday but more often just scratching to pay for fuel. 

Along the way, the Mobius crew crosses paths with the Black Ocean's vilest scum, from pirate fleets to criminal syndicates, and most law-abiding scum, including Earth Interstellar Enhanced Investigative Organization, ARGO high command, and the Convocation of Wizards.

Time and again, riches lie just out of reach, because for all the talents Carl Ramsey and his crew possess, they've also got an outlaw's greatest weakness: a conscience.

Galaxy Outlaws is a collection of all 16 Black Ocean missions chronicling the adventures of the starship Mobius and her crew, along with six short stories. This series is the perfect cure for the Firefly Season 2 blues.

This was $5 on an Audible sale and the reviews were mostly so glowing that I didn't let the 85 hour length intimidate me, especially since it is a 16 book series inspired by Firefly. (How much did we love that show? Our dogs are named Zoe, Wash, and Kaylee - which gives any fellow fans the clue.)

It definitely has that vibe and is just plain fun - space opera in the old style. The narrator is really great, perfect for voicing these scalawags. I like the idea of having these stories in the background always ready to pick up.

I'm halfway into the fourth book and I'm enjoying the heck out of these stories so far.

I, Cthulu

This is too good to sit in my archives from way back in 2010 when I first posted it.

Brilliance from Neil Gaiman for Lovecraft afficianados. Here's the beginning ...

Cthulhu, they call me. Great Cthulhu.

Nobody can pronounce it right.

Are you writing this down? Every word? Good. Where shall I start -- mm?

Very well, then. The beginning. Write this down, Whateley.

I was spawned uncounted aeons ago, in the dark mists of Khhaa'yngnaiih (no, of course I don't know how to spell it. Write it as it sounds), of nameless nightmare parents, under a gibbous moon. It wasn't the moon of this planet, of course, it was a real moon. On some nights it filled over half the sky and as it rose you could watch the crimson blood drip and trickle down its bloated face, staining it red, until at its height it bathed the swamps and towers in a gory dead red light.

Those were the days.

Read it all here. Via Redecorating Middle-Earth in Early Lovecraft.

2025 Schedule for A Good Story is Hard to Find podcast

 We've had fun coming up with this schedule. I think it's going to be a great year of viewing and reading ... and TALKING! 

• Jan. 14 — Guest Father Stephen Gregg, book TBD
• Jan. 28 — All Flesh is Grass by Clifford D. Simak
• Feb. 11 — Parenthood
• Feb. 25 — Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim
• March 11 — Chariots of Fire
• March 25 — Ad Limina by Cy Kellett
• April 8 — Oppenheimer
• April 22 — Death of a Red Heroine by Qiu Xiaolong
• May 6 — Vikram Vedha
• May 20 — The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
• June 3 — Star Trek: First Contact
• June 17 — The Scum of the Earth by Alexander C. Kane
• July 1 — Lage Raho Munna Bhai
• July 15 — The Twelve by C. Bernard Ruffin
• July 29 — Much Ado About Nothing (dir. Joss Whedon)
• August 12 — The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene
• August 26 — Warrior
• Sept. 9 — Burial Rites by Hannah Kent
• Sept. 23 — The Wrong Man
• Oct. 7 — Monstrous Gods by Rosamund Hodge
• Oct. 21 — Godzilla Minus One
• Nov. 4 — 1 & 2 Peter
• Nov. 18 — The Truman Show
• Dec. 2 — Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens
• Dec. 16 — Freaks (1932)

If you haven't tried the podcast, we're finishing up our 13th year and there is a lot to explore. The blog is here and the podcast is in the usual places.

A Movie You Might Have Missed #97 — Warrior

Warrior relies on many of the clichés that critics of the genre love to mock -- and it transcends them with gripping action, powerful acting, and heart. — Critics' Consensus, Rotten Tomatoes

Let's face it. The poster above would never get me to watch this film. Family conflict would put it even further down the list. Yet here we are.

I'd never even heard of it until Dave VanVickle from the Every Knee Shall Bow podcast said this was his favorite film, even if he was embarrassed to admit it. Rose heard that and felt vindicated in her fondness for it. She said it's hard to believe this movie is as good as it is.

And now, here I am to say that they're both right. This definitely is a movie most everyone has missed. 

Instead of a tale of two cities, we have a tale of two brothers. With Moby Dick generously woven through the story. Each is struggling with a burden from the past. Each looks to a future where winning a mixed martial arts contest gives them what they need to get their lives back on track. It does too. Though not in the way they imagined.

Warrior has excellent acting and direction, with a story that tells you just enough but doesn't talk you to death.

Bust of Louis XIV

Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598–1680), Bust of Louis XIV of France

Doesn't that clothing look as if it is flying in the wind? Sculpting is truly a mysterious and amazing art. Bernini was a true genius and this bust seems to encompass so much of what made him great.

Psalm 44 — Prayer for Victory

If you wish to call to mind constantly the benefits of God to the patriarchs, the exodus out of Egypt, the passage through the desert, and how, while God is so good, human beings are ungrateful, you have Paslm 44.

Athanasius, On the Interpretation of the Psalms

We've seen a lot of lamentations in the psalms but what strikes me about this one is that it begins with thinking over the past and realizing the God's people didn't succeed by their merits but by God's grace, given in utter kindness. 

It's a truth that I would do well to reflect upon more often because it's definitely true in my own life.

Vassily Maximov, Grandmother's Tales

Family stories are how we first learn who we are, what the world is like, how to live, and what our culture is. Each civilization has those stories too. It is how we know who we are in a larger way. St. John Chrysostom has two wonderful reflections on this psalm that touch on that point.

I also love the question he asks in the second quote we read here — which triumps is the psalmist recalling? I thought of exodus, but Chrysostom gives us an example which happened later in history. Through imaginative reflection, the retelling puts us in the story becomes truly inspirational.

44:1 We Have Heard

Divine Stories. Chrysostom: Listen to this, all you who are heedless of your children, who ignore their singing diabolical songs, while you pay no attention to the divine stories. Those people were not like that; on the contrary, they passed their life without interruption in stories of God's great deeds and achieved a double advantage. On the one hand, it was a good experience for them to keep in mind the divine favors, and they were the better for it; on the other, their offspring gained no little grounding in the knowledge of God from these stories, and were moved to imitation of virtue. For them, you see, books were the mouths of their forebears, and these stories were a feature of every study and every employment, nothing being more agreeable or more profitable. 

44:2 With God's Own Hand

A Marvelous and Extraordinary Sight. Chrysostom: So which triumps is he recalling? Which successes? Some in Egypt, some in the desert, some in the land of promise, but especially those in the promised land. ... They had no need of weapons; instead, they captured citires by a mere shout, and crossing the Jordan they overran the first city that stood in their way, Jericho, as though by dancing ratner than fighting. I mean, they went out fitted with weapons not as if for battles but for a festival and dance, bearing arms for appearance's sake rather than security; wearing sacred robes and having the Levites preceding the army, they encircled the wall. It was a marvelous and extraordinary sight to see, so many thousands of soldiers marching in step and order, in silence and utter regularity, as though no one was about, with tht daunting harmony of trumpets keeping everything in time.

Both quotes from Chrysostom's Commentary on the Psalms 44
Psalms 1-50 (Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture)

An index of psalm posts is here.

Julie and Scott hide all the knives. Hannah gets ready to take all the vampires with her.

 A Good Story is Hard to Find - Episode 342: conclusion of Midnight Mass, written and directed by Mike Flanagan.

Architecture

Figure representing "Architecture" from Hunt Memorial
drawn by Melissa B. Tubbs

Halloween Lagniappe: H.P. Lovecraft

Through all this horror my cat stalked unperturbed. Once I saw him monstrously perched atop a mountain of bones, and wondered at the secrets that might lie behind his yellow eyes.

H.P. Lovecraft, The Rats in the Walls

Another of my favorite horror authors chimes in for Halloween from one of my favorite of his stories. A lesser tale, but still a good 'un.

Notes on Mark: They See But Do Not Perceive

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Parable of the Sower, 1557
That's the one that made the disciples ask what the heck the story meant.

MARK 4:10-12
I like what Wikipedia tells us about a parable:

The word parable comes from the Greek παραβολή (parabolē), literally "throwing" (bolē) "alongside" (para-), by extension meaning "comparison, illustration, analogy." It was the name given by Greek rhetoricians to an illustration in the form of a brief fictional narrative.

Jesus' parables often are illustrations that need extra explanation!

I always thought it was unfair the way that Jesus would explain the parables to the disciples and then say, "But to those outside everything comes in parables, so that 'they may look and see but not perceive, and hear and listen but not understand, in order that they may not be converted and be forgiven.'" 

The comment below puts the proper spin on that passage by explaining the context of Jesus' quotation, which surely faithful Jews would have understood.

But what about those outside? Jesus describes their predicament with a quotation from Isaiah (Isa 6:9-10). In the context of the passage, God forewarns Isaiah that he would be called to preach judgment ot Israel at a time when the people were mired in sin and injustice, and so his message would meet with stubborn resistance. The forceful language does not mean that God himself will block the people's eyes and ears. Rather, the prophet's message will cause the people to blind and deafen themselves to avoid hearing it, in order to persist in their rebellion. Jesus, likewise, is addressing a wayward generation, many of whom will harden themselves to avoid grasping the implications of his words. His parables, by their hidden depths veiled in simplicity, will cause a separation by the response they evoke in listeners hearts. For those who ponder the parables with sincere openness, the mystery of the kingdom will be gradually unveiled. But for those who prefer to resist in their own rebellious ways, the parables will remain opaque ...

The Gospel of Mark: Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture

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Sources and Notes Index 

What is the question?

I don't think the question is, "Is the customer always right?" but rather, "Do you want to make your customer happy?"

Chef Thomas Keller

This seems to be in line with "love your neighbor as yourself." The question then becomes willing their good (which was Thomas Aquinas's definition of love) because what will make someone happy is not always the thing that the person thinks will make them happy.

Cast Shadows

Emile Friant, Cast Shadows, 1891

A Movie You Might Have Missed #99 — Cabrini

Italian immigrant Francesca Cabrini arrives in 1889 New York City and is greeted by disease, crime, and impoverished children. Cabrini sets off on a daring mission to convince the hostile mayor to secure housing and healthcare for society’s most vulnerable. With broken English and poor health, Cabrini uses her entrepreneurial mind to build an empire of hope unlike anything the world had ever seen.

This is a great bio-pic of the sort that Hollywood used to make so well. It is gorgeously shot, well framed, and compellingly told. The real payoff is in the last of the flashbacks of her near-drowning as a child which puts a new layer of perspective on the story. 

It received positive reviews from secular and religious film critics and you can see why. My book club watched it and our discussion afterwards went in a lot of tangents because Cabrini doesn't shy away from difficult topics. It's definitely a good movie worth watching.

Death of a Red Heroine by Qiu Xiaolong

A young “national model worker,” renowned for her adherence to the principles of the Communist Party, turns up dead in a Shanghai canal. As Inspector Chen Cao of the Shanghai Special Cases Bureau struggles to trace the hidden threads of her past, he finds himself challenging the very political forces that have guided his life since birth. Chen must tiptoe around his superiors if he wants to get to the bottom of this crime, and risk his career—perhaps even his life—to see justice done.

I really loved this book and couldn't put it down. China and the Chinese people are almost as much characters as the police detectives in the book - Inspector Chen and his assistant, Detective Yu. It is a great mystery but so much more as we are immersed in the culture of 1990s China.

Like his protagonist, Qiu Xiaolong is a is a poet, translator, and academic. He was born in Shanghai and came to the US in 1988 to write a book about T. S. Eliot. After the 1989 protests and massacre in Tiananmen Square, Qiu stayed in the U.S. Ten years later he wrote this book, set around the time of the Tiananmen massacre, which looks at the changing political culture as experienced by Inspector Chen in his investigation.

The mystery was good, as I mentioned, but I also loved the way the tension was ratcheted up partway through when Chen comes under political pressure to save face for the party.

I'm waiting for the second book from the library!

WARNING NOTE: There are some descriptions of sex and of photos thereof. It is easy to skip, which I did, but I wanted to mention it.

Moulin de la Galette

Vincent van Gogh, Moulin de la Galette, 1886

This has a fall-ish vibe to me. We've still got green trees and sunny weather in the 90s. So I'm going for the autumnal feeling.

And the Winner Is — 1932/1933

Our family is working our way through Oscar winners and whichever nominees take our fancy. Also as they are available, since the early films can be hard to find. For 1932 we were excited to see so many nominees available. 

This was an unusual year because they hadn't regularized when the awards would take place. This meant that standards about which year something came out were still rather loose.

BEST PICTURE

Grand Hotel remains a classic masterpiece as the first all-star Hollywood epic with many high-powered stars of the early 1930s. The episodic film is set at Berlin's ritzy, opulent art-deco Grand Hotel, and tells of the criss-crossing of the lives of five major guests whose fates intertwined for a two-day period at the hotel. Its ensemble cast of stars were occupants of a between-wars German hotel, all struggling with either their finances, scandals, health, emotional loneliness, or social standing in multiple storylines.

Filmsite

This is the movie where Greta Garbo's famous "I want to be alone" line originated. An all-star cast acts their hearts out in this mother of all melodramas. We thoroughly enjoyed this very good movie which can hold its own against stories of today. I especially enjoyed it as a look at life, from waiting for a new baby to someone preparing to leave this mortal coil. And lots of things in-between!

I will add that we were all quite concerned about the fate of Adolphus the dachshund. Our rating - 5 stars out of five. Definitely watch this one.

NOMINEES

Searching for headlines at any cost, an unscrupulous newspaper owner forces his editor to print a serial based on a past murder, tormenting a woman involved.

If I hadn't already seen Ace in the Hole I'd have been blown away by this scathing indictment of yellow journalism. Once you got past the first set ups of the hard bitten reporters and managers, the story was riveting.

An amorous lieutenant is forced to marry a socially awkward princess, though he tries to keep his violin-playing girlfriend on the side. My heart was wrung by the story of the woman whose 20-year-old scandal was raked up to provide higher circulation. The daughter's final speech was tremendous, as was Edgar G. Robinson's final speech.

Grand Hotel deserved to win but this was our favorite of the other nominees. Our rating - 3-1/2 stars.

When Colette introduces her husband Andre to her flirtatious best friend, Mitzi, he does his best to resist her advances. But she is persistent, and very cute, and he succumbs. Mitzi’s husband wants to divorce her, and has been having her tailed. Andre gets caught, and must confess to his wife. But Colette has had problems resisting the attentions of another man herself, and they forgive each other.

This is very French and also before Hollywood's self-imposed code that monitored sexuality and immorality onscreen. As you can tell from the fact that the husband is happily playing around with another woman in a popular screwball comedy from Ernst Lubitsch, who was on his way to becoming the king of clever, romantic comedies. Before there was Cary Grant, there was Maurice Chevalier but even he couldn't save this.

We were mystified at how this got nominated. There's precious little of Ernst Lubistch showing and it seemed tedious. Our rating 2 stars.

An amorous lieutenant is forced to marry a socially awkward princess, though he tries to keep his violin-playing girlfriend on the side.

We enjoyed this a lot more than One Hour with You, although both films starred Maurice Chevalier and were written/directed by Ernst Lubitsch. This was also our first movie starring Claudette Colbert who was a huge star in this era. It was early in her career but she lit up the screen.

Light, frothy fun and you can tell it was pre-Code which is also interesting.

A beautiful temptress re-kindles an old romance while trying to escape her past during a tension-packed train journey when they are held hostage by a warlord during the Chinese civil war.

A visual treat beginning with Marlene Dietrich and her wonderful acting and costumes. This was a real period piece in more ways than one, set during the Chinese revolution and featuring several actors we know from watching other Oscar nominees. As the final film of our 1932 nominees review it was a great way to end those movies. Grand Hotel definitely was the correct winner but this was a notable contender.

Our rating 3-1/2 stars.

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All the Oscar viewing is here.

Sit a Bit

Sit a Bit
by Karin Jurick

Artist Karin Jurick says this is "From the Sculpture Gallery in the Art Institute of Chicago." As soon as I read that, I knew how those feet felt. Tired, a bit aching, and ready to be surprisingly tender when an upright position is assumed again.

But what a place to wear 'em out. Love that museum!

Just Plain Fun Reading — Andrea Vernon series

The Andrea Vernon books are perfect light, fun reading. These are what you get when you mix the workplace, romance, and superheroes. Andrea sees all the action from behind-the-scenes at a corporation which manages their contracts and assignments. Which is very funny indeed.

The audiobooks are read by Bahni Turpin who is as good as you can get for expressive reading.

Andrea Vernon's drowning in debt and has no prospects. Then, one morning, she is kidnapped, interviewed, and hired as an administrative assistant by the Corporation for UltraHuman Protection. Superheroes for hire, using their powers for good.

Her coworkers may be able to shoot lightning out of their hands or have skin made of diamonds, but they refuse to learn how to use the company's database. And there's the small matter of a giant alien space egg hovering over Yankee Stadium, threatening civilization as we know it.

Alexander C. Kane has an inventive mind when it comes to superheroes and villains. The range of abilities and the uses to which they are put are both believable (in a superhero universe) and funny. Combining this with an office atmosphere full of sales meetings, government restrictions, and contracts is surprisingly effective and ... of course ... funny. My favorite hero is Inspector Well Actually. He's the most brilliant man on earth but can't analyze a situation unless someone makes a flatly wrong statement that he can contradict. Hence the name "Well Actually."

Andrea's adventures wrap all these elements together into a surprisingly tense tale of saving the world from aliens. It's like a comic book but without the pictures. And that works because Bahni Turpin's narration is spot on.

More than a year after she helped save the world, Andrea Vernon is in a good place. Her boss is giving her greater responsibility and she’s getting to travel a lot. And she has a really fun new BFF, Never More.

One small issue, though — Never More is a supervillain bent on world domination, and it looks as if nothing can stop her. Especially since Congress is determined to bring the Corporation for UltraHuman Protection and all of “Big Supe” under government control.

Even with mankind’s greatest heroes fighting back, will it fall on Andrea to save the day — again?

This book is even better than the first. Alexander Kane has a positive genius for combining superheroes with the mundane activities of business and life. Corporate takeovers, inappropriate best friends, and adapting to new business techniques are melded hilariously with some of the most inventive superheroes yet. As always, I love Andrea's personality, Ms. O, and Inspector Well Actually. Now I can add Andrea's frenemy Never More to the list.

The supervillains of DESTRON have conquered the country, The Big Axe has been imprisoned, and the heroes of the Corporation for UltraHuman Protection have been reduced to hiding behind a force field surrounding New York City.

And if that's not enough, Andrea Vernon is pregnant. With a Little Axe.

But Andrea’s not one to sit on the sidelines. She has to make a plan to save the country, rescue her boyfriend, and figure out what exactly people do with babies. And a whole new slate of enemies is coming for CUP, led by the newly installed dictator of America, Dr. Robotfury, and his ingenious mecha-administrative assistant who bears a rather frightening resemblance to Andrea.

It’s a lot to wrap up before you go on maternity leave.

This was a good addition to the series. I thought the Executive Committee subplot was very, very dumb. However, the rest was great fun. I especially liked the new super C'Mon.  Recommended to anyone who likes Andrea Vernon.