Prithee fill up my glsss
till it laugh in my face
with ale that is potent and mellow.
he that whines for a lass
is an ignorant ass,
for a bumper of wine has not its fellow.
—wm congreve
To drink is a Christian diversion,
Unknown to the Turk or the Persian.
Let Mahometan fools live by heathenish rules,
And be damned over tea-cups and coffee.
But let British lads sing,
Crown a health to the King,
And a fig for your Sultan and sophy.
—wCongreve
“Let us toast to animal pleasures, to escapism, to rain on the roof and instant coffee, to unemployment insurance and library cards, to absinthe and good-hearted landlords, to music and warm bodies and contraceptives … and to the “good life,” whatever it is and wherever it happens to be.” (Hunter S. Thompson)
Pat thanks for the music, and for your work on this blog. I know I’ve been negligent in helping what should be a community effort.
Yesterday was neighborhood cleanup day, As I was by myself, putting everything up and making sure the street around the dumpsters were sweep and cleaned it drove home just how much Sherry and I supported each other. So as I was grousing yesterday about people not staying and believing in a magic cleanup fairy, this morning I have to admit that I have been doing the same to you. I apologize and will try to do better. Don’t know if I will, I am me. And I wouldn’t blame you a bit if you walked away.
After all if this site is truly valuable to me and others we would be carrying more of the burden.
One of Mrs Jacks favorite quotes was from Gandhi. ” Actions express priorities ”
Jack
jack, thank you for the kind thoughts. after this experience, i’m even more grateful to craig for doing this day in day out so many years. guess we should really pass along that praise and promise of support to fearless leader.
the hardest part has been sundays. i miss jace and his impeccable taste in music.
I doubt anyone expects anything out of you, Mr. J, other than a “grin, duck, and run” when you’re mind’s right. Your 10 hrs. east of legal pot, if that helps. Say “hi” to this creepy dude for me on the way:
Oh, nevermind. I’m trying to post a picture of creepy wheat Jesus on I-70, but WordPress is terrible, so just search it, if you care. Or, better yet- road trip!
Ok, i’m quitting all social media, because employers and governments are using it against participants, and this counts as social media, so i’ll see you all in the funny papers!
On an billboard with no words, the head of Jesus sticks up from a wheat field, grasping a sheaf of wheat. Tuffy and Linda Kay Taylor built it and pay the bill to keep it lit at night.
The harsh and deadly effects of climate change are becoming more pronounced, from the fast-melting snowpacks, shrinking glaciers and calamitous wildfires in our national parks, to the epic floods and more frequent tornadoes that are pummeling Midwest farm communities. It may be the biggest national-security challenge facing the nation.
Does the Trump administration care? Apparently, not at all. Not only do the president and his policymakers deny the reality of the global temperature rise driven by human-generated carbon emissions, they are actively undermining government scientists and researchers while loosening restrictions on polluting industries. Of all the outrages and assaults on the American people being perpetrated by President Donald Trump, his attack on climate science may be his most calamitous legacy to humanity.
Rick and I are leaving for Cape Cod shortly. I will have my phone… but right now I’m thinking about taking the vacation as a vacay from politics too. But I reserve the right to change my mind.
patd…. Jack is right… we all should be helping you. I will try to do better when I return. So let me echo the thanks for all you’ve done.
Bink, are you a foreign agent? Are you using social media to break laws? Do we tell you to go away?
Please reevaluate your decision using above questions as being germane.
pogo, in addition to you and Alexandra Petri, Maureen Dowd also waxes Homeric in the NYTimes on barr but really dumps more on mueller:
When I was a political reporter at The Times, I had an editor who told me never to give anyone a Homeric epithet.
Such epithets denote a permanent trait, the editor explained, and people in the caldron of politics were mutable. So if I called that Republican strategist “savvy” this week, the man might do something dumb the following week. (And that is exactly what happened.)
But I might have to make an exception for William Barr. Homer had a couple of epithets that would suit our attorney general: “crooked-counseling” and “devious-devising” come to mind.
In an interview in Alaska for “CBS This Morning,” Jan Crawford asked Barr — who was doing his best Cheneyesque dour-jowly-outdoorsman under the Big Sky routine — if he was worried about his reputation.
Barr came into the job, Crawford said, with a good reputation on the right and the left and now he stands “accused of protecting the president, enabling the president, lying to Congress.”
In Homer’s epic poems, reputation is more exalted than life itself. But in Donald Trump’s epic reign as the hotheaded, ammonia-haired, serpent-tongued destroyer of worlds, political survival is paramount, no matter the venality involved or the cost to your reputation.
Barr responded to Crawford with fatalism, saying “everyone dies” and he doesn’t believe in “the Homeric idea” that immortality comes by “having odes sung about you over the centuries, you know?”
It’s a good thing, too, because no one will be singing odes about this general being lionhearted in the rosy-fingered dawn.
The twisty saga of Robert Mueller and Bill Barr is a case of an imperfect hero and a perfect villain.
Barr is not so much the attorney general as the minister of information. His interview with Crawford was tactically brilliant. Barr once more deftly took advantage of the fact that Mueller, with his impenetrable legalese and double negatives, has handcuffed himself.
Even when the reclusive and mute Mueller finally stepped up to the lectern on Wednesday, he was still hiding.
“If we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so,” said Mueller, sounding like Odysseus struggling to navigate between Scylla and Charybdis. “We did not, however, make a determination as to whether the president did commit a crime.”
Mueller is as elliptical as Barr is diabolical. The special counsel is clearly frustrated that we don’t understand his reasoning. But his reasoning is nonsensical.
[…]
After indicating that Mueller was derelict and misguided, Barr went ahead and belittled him and his dream team as inept.
Dismissively noting he and Rosenstein did not agree with a lot of the legal analysis in the Mueller report, Barr said he applied what he considered to be “the right law,” though he confusingly said he didn’t rely on that when pronouncing Mueller’s evidence “deficient” on the 11 instances of potential obstruction laid out in the report.
When Barr moved on to his investigation of the investigators who worked on the case of possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign, he really bared his claws.
About the F.B.I. team that did the investigating, Barr backed up all of Trump’s deep-state rants, saying: “Republics have fallen because of Praetorian Guard mentality where government officials get very arrogant, they identify the national interest with their own political preferences and they feel that anyone who has a different opinion, you know, is somehow an enemy of the state.” He added, ominously, “Things are just not jiving.”
Just as Barr enables Trump, Mueller enabled Barr.
[…]
But, tangled up in some overweening idea of fairness, the ultimate straight arrow decided to remain agnostic even though his job did not require agnosticism. And that made him weirdly complicit in Barr’s whitewashing of Trump.
Mueller colored inside the lines and Barr seized the narrative. Rectitude was Mueller’s Achilles’ heel.
Sometimes it’s hard to know who is worse: devils or saints.
Jamie – take a look around for the Perry Mason books. They are fun to read. One thing that Earl Stanley Gardner did was to incorporate new technologies of the time into the books. I enjoy Perry Mason so much that my protagonist, Periwinkle Jones (PJ) has this in her biography:
·Mother wanted a flower name
·Father wanted Perry after Perry Mason (he thought Perry might actually be real)
So they compromised on a flower and her nickname is Perry, which she hates, preferring PJ. Periwinkle is an English male name, although little used these days, along with a clam name, flower name and a color.
I should finish a couple of those novels someday.
Perry mason was real but his name was Rogers, way I heared it…….Adela Rogers St. Johns’ dad
if mr bink disappears himself I’ll be worse than sad…. I’ll be disgruntled. That’s right—-disgruntled.
Thanks for the recommendation. I tend more to Dashiell Hammet and the film noir extensions of same. Lately I’ve been thinking about Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town”. While I realize that 1900 US society was far from perfect, I sincerely believe that human beings really weren’t meant to live cheek by jowl and many are suffering not just from the breakdown in personal relationships, jobs, and politics, but actually being driven into a form of psychosis just fromt he pressures of population.
I actually think wheat field Jesus is a nice bit of folk art. It is not trying to drive the point home with a hammer like many Jesus signs along the hiway.
Pat, I’ll cover next Sunday
Jack
Well, sitting in Leonardo da Vinci airport on a 7 hour layover on the way to London. The delay may make (OK, allow) my trip to not coincide with SFB’s – although I’d kinda like to see the blimp – the one flown in protest as opposed to the fat one having tea with the queen. Beautiful new concourse (E), and not very busy. Another couple cups of coffee and I’ll be wired to the gills. Luckily there is free WiFi. Life could be worse.
Musick has Charms to sooth a savage Breast,
To soften Rocks, or bend a knotted Oak.
I’ve read, that things inanimate have mov’d,
And, as with living Souls, have been inform’d,
By Magick Numbers and persuasive Sound.
What then am I? Am I more senseless grown
Than Trees, or Flint? O force of constant Woe!
‘Tis not in Harmony to calm my Griefs.
Anselmo sleeps, and is at Peace; last Night
The silent Tomb receiv’d the good Old King;
He and his Sorrows now are safely lodg’d
Within its cold, but hospitable Bosom.
Why am not I at Peace?
[from the play The Mourning Bride from the year 1697 by William Congreve]
or calming savage beasts as the case may be
Prithee fill up my glsss
till it laugh in my face
with ale that is potent and mellow.
he that whines for a lass
is an ignorant ass,
for a bumper of wine has not its fellow.
—wm congreve
To drink is a Christian diversion,
Unknown to the Turk or the Persian.
Let Mahometan fools live by heathenish rules,
And be damned over tea-cups and coffee.
But let British lads sing,
Crown a health to the King,
And a fig for your Sultan and sophy.
—wCongreve
sturge, shades of ogden nash
chillingly portrays the zeitgeist
Pat thanks for the music, and for your work on this blog. I know I’ve been negligent in helping what should be a community effort.
Yesterday was neighborhood cleanup day, As I was by myself, putting everything up and making sure the street around the dumpsters were sweep and cleaned it drove home just how much Sherry and I supported each other. So as I was grousing yesterday about people not staying and believing in a magic cleanup fairy, this morning I have to admit that I have been doing the same to you. I apologize and will try to do better. Don’t know if I will, I am me. And I wouldn’t blame you a bit if you walked away.
After all if this site is truly valuable to me and others we would be carrying more of the burden.
One of Mrs Jacks favorite quotes was from Gandhi. ” Actions express priorities ”
Jack
Jamie
I’ll drink to that!
Jack
jack, thank you for the kind thoughts. after this experience, i’m even more grateful to craig for doing this day in day out so many years. guess we should really pass along that praise and promise of support to fearless leader.
the hardest part has been sundays. i miss jace and his impeccable taste in music.
I doubt anyone expects anything out of you, Mr. J, other than a “grin, duck, and run” when you’re mind’s right. Your 10 hrs. east of legal pot, if that helps. Say “hi” to this creepy dude for me on the way:
Oh, nevermind. I’m trying to post a picture of creepy wheat Jesus on I-70, but WordPress is terrible, so just search it, if you care. Or, better yet- road trip!
https://youtu.be/yRDivUb5EeA
Ok, i’m quitting all social media, because employers and governments are using it against participants, and this counts as social media, so i’ll see you all in the funny papers!
bink, roadsideamerica found it for you
Address:
I-70, Colby, KSDirections:I-70 Exit 53, south side just west of Rt. 25 and near the Dodge-Jeep dealership. Visible from I-70, both directions.
Colby, Kansas: Wheat Jesus Billboard
On an billboard with no words, the head of Jesus sticks up from a wheat field, grasping a sheaf of wheat. Tuffy and Linda Kay Taylor built it and pay the bill to keep it lit at night.
[lotta comments]
The harsh and deadly effects of climate change are becoming more pronounced, from the fast-melting snowpacks, shrinking glaciers and calamitous wildfires in our national parks, to the epic floods and more frequent tornadoes that are pummeling Midwest farm communities. It may be the biggest national-security challenge facing the nation.
Does the Trump administration care? Apparently, not at all. Not only do the president and his policymakers deny the reality of the global temperature rise driven by human-generated carbon emissions, they are actively undermining government scientists and researchers while loosening restrictions on polluting industries. Of all the outrages and assaults on the American people being perpetrated by President Donald Trump, his attack on climate science may be his most calamitous legacy to humanity.
See more of David Horsey’s cartoons at: st.news/davidhorsey
Rick and I are leaving for Cape Cod shortly. I will have my phone… but right now I’m thinking about taking the vacation as a vacay from politics too. But I reserve the right to change my mind.
patd…. Jack is right… we all should be helping you. I will try to do better when I return. So let me echo the thanks for all you’ve done.
Craig… it really is time for you to return.
Bink… you better not go anywhere.
GO BRUINS! We want the Cup!
deserved a bigger view to catch the captions
Bink, are you a foreign agent? Are you using social media to break laws? Do we tell you to go away?
Please reevaluate your decision using above questions as being germane.
thanks, renee. looking forward to your travelogue report on the Cape.
pogo, in addition to you and Alexandra Petri, Maureen Dowd also waxes Homeric in the NYTimes on barr but really dumps more on mueller:
When I was a political reporter at The Times, I had an editor who told me never to give anyone a Homeric epithet.
Such epithets denote a permanent trait, the editor explained, and people in the caldron of politics were mutable. So if I called that Republican strategist “savvy” this week, the man might do something dumb the following week. (And that is exactly what happened.)
But I might have to make an exception for William Barr. Homer had a couple of epithets that would suit our attorney general: “crooked-counseling” and “devious-devising” come to mind.
In an interview in Alaska for “CBS This Morning,” Jan Crawford asked Barr — who was doing his best Cheneyesque dour-jowly-outdoorsman under the Big Sky routine — if he was worried about his reputation.
Barr came into the job, Crawford said, with a good reputation on the right and the left and now he stands “accused of protecting the president, enabling the president, lying to Congress.”
In Homer’s epic poems, reputation is more exalted than life itself. But in Donald Trump’s epic reign as the hotheaded, ammonia-haired, serpent-tongued destroyer of worlds, political survival is paramount, no matter the venality involved or the cost to your reputation.
Barr responded to Crawford with fatalism, saying “everyone dies” and he doesn’t believe in “the Homeric idea” that immortality comes by “having odes sung about you over the centuries, you know?”
It’s a good thing, too, because no one will be singing odes about this general being lionhearted in the rosy-fingered dawn.
The twisty saga of Robert Mueller and Bill Barr is a case of an imperfect hero and a perfect villain.
Barr is not so much the attorney general as the minister of information. His interview with Crawford was tactically brilliant. Barr once more deftly took advantage of the fact that Mueller, with his impenetrable legalese and double negatives, has handcuffed himself.
Even when the reclusive and mute Mueller finally stepped up to the lectern on Wednesday, he was still hiding.
“If we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so,” said Mueller, sounding like Odysseus struggling to navigate between Scylla and Charybdis. “We did not, however, make a determination as to whether the president did commit a crime.”
Mueller is as elliptical as Barr is diabolical. The special counsel is clearly frustrated that we don’t understand his reasoning. But his reasoning is nonsensical.
[…]
After indicating that Mueller was derelict and misguided, Barr went ahead and belittled him and his dream team as inept.
Dismissively noting he and Rosenstein did not agree with a lot of the legal analysis in the Mueller report, Barr said he applied what he considered to be “the right law,” though he confusingly said he didn’t rely on that when pronouncing Mueller’s evidence “deficient” on the 11 instances of potential obstruction laid out in the report.
When Barr moved on to his investigation of the investigators who worked on the case of possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign, he really bared his claws.
About the F.B.I. team that did the investigating, Barr backed up all of Trump’s deep-state rants, saying: “Republics have fallen because of Praetorian Guard mentality where government officials get very arrogant, they identify the national interest with their own political preferences and they feel that anyone who has a different opinion, you know, is somehow an enemy of the state.” He added, ominously, “Things are just not jiving.”
Just as Barr enables Trump, Mueller enabled Barr.
[…]
But, tangled up in some overweening idea of fairness, the ultimate straight arrow decided to remain agnostic even though his job did not require agnosticism. And that made him weirdly complicit in Barr’s whitewashing of Trump.
Mueller colored inside the lines and Barr seized the narrative. Rectitude was Mueller’s Achilles’ heel.
Sometimes it’s hard to know who is worse: devils or saints.
Bink
I think they mean facebook and those nudie shots on Instagram. I think you are safe here.
We would all be sad if you left.
Currently, 41% supports impeachment — I think impeachers need to drum up some more support
Jamie – take a look around for the Perry Mason books. They are fun to read. One thing that Earl Stanley Gardner did was to incorporate new technologies of the time into the books. I enjoy Perry Mason so much that my protagonist, Periwinkle Jones (PJ) has this in her biography:
·Mother wanted a flower name
·Father wanted Perry after Perry Mason (he thought Perry might actually be real)
So they compromised on a flower and her nickname is Perry, which she hates, preferring PJ. Periwinkle is an English male name, although little used these days, along with a clam name, flower name and a color.
I should finish a couple of those novels someday.
Make the Mueller Report your Book Club selection
Mr Bink,
Don’t.
Thanks Upfront,
X
It’s not over until the fat man stings.
Congratulations to Andy Ruiz. And, thanks for the shot in the arm you gave fat men everywhere.
Perry mason was real but his name was Rogers, way I heared it…….Adela Rogers St. Johns’ dad
if mr bink disappears himself I’ll be worse than sad…. I’ll be disgruntled. That’s right—-disgruntled.
Lawyers, just like people, come in all shapes and sizes. The good the bad and the ugly.
Some people build their Jesus out of straw—I’m more practical in that I like my Jesus out of bricks.
Patd
Thanks for the recommendation. I tend more to Dashiell Hammet and the film noir extensions of same. Lately I’ve been thinking about Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town”. While I realize that 1900 US society was far from perfect, I sincerely believe that human beings really weren’t meant to live cheek by jowl and many are suffering not just from the breakdown in personal relationships, jobs, and politics, but actually being driven into a form of psychosis just fromt he pressures of population.
If anyone would like to watch a great production, this is the 1977 version with Hal Holbrook as the Stage Manager
https://youtu.be/LEoXuXRoOdY
I actually think wheat field Jesus is a nice bit of folk art. It is not trying to drive the point home with a hammer like many Jesus signs along the hiway.
Pat, I’ll cover next Sunday
Jack
If you never hear from me, again, assume the worst.
Otherwise, ttyl.
Well, sitting in Leonardo da Vinci airport on a 7 hour layover on the way to London. The delay may make (OK, allow) my trip to not coincide with SFB’s – although I’d kinda like to see the blimp – the one flown in protest as opposed to the fat one having tea with the queen. Beautiful new concourse (E), and not very busy. Another couple cups of coffee and I’ll be wired to the gills. Luckily there is free WiFi. Life could be worse.
NEW THREAD