Lighter fare, emphasis on books and movies, but also meaty stuff
Trib full of puffery, but some of it is fun, as this from a far-north ‘burb:
Actor Kevin Costner‘s “Field of Dreams” is under construction at a rural intersection in Zion a foul ball away from a nearby pharmacy where workers are scrambling to finish the minor league baseball field in time for next Friday’s home game.
Play ball.
I think all NBA players’ salary should be placed in a trust fund until the player is 40 years old:
A Cook County judge issued an arrest warrant for one-time Chicago Bulls center Eddy Curry, who was a no-show at a hearing this month to pay what’s left in a legal settlement reached after he was sued, according to a source, for allegedly having sex with an underage girl when he was 18.
Says Sun-Times.
With strict administration of it as to size of allowance, etc.
Each should also be subject to curfew while living in college-like dormitories run by strict matrons of advanced age and proven virtue.
More on Mr. Curry, from NY Daily News [whence above pic]:
hush money payment linked to his six-month sexual relationship with an underage girl.
The warrant was issued by the Cook County sheriff after Curry missed the last payment in a sealed personal injury suit, authorities said.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported Thursday that the $197,495 was the final payment in a 2007 civil settlement between Curry and a 14-year-old sex partner.
Another idea would be compulsory completion of a Great Books reading and discussion course led by Joseph Epstein, a humanist of the first water who played baseball as a young man.
Let’s hear it for Stonehenge in our post-Christian age (common era, you know):
“It means a lot to us … being British and following our pagan roots,” said Victoria Campbell, who sported a pair of white angel’s wings and had a mass of multicolored flowers in her hair.
The 29-year-old Londoner, who works in the finance industry, also said that “getting away from the city” was a major draw.
She was celebrating the solstice in an all-night party. With her and others was
Gina Pratt, a 43-year-old housewife and a self-described witch, [who] said being inside the circle as the sun came up gave her “a kind of a grounding feeling (of) being in touch with the earth again, and the air we breathe.”
Is this what Browning meant when he wrote
Oh, to be in England
Now that April’s there,
And whoever wakes in England
Sees, some morning, unaware,
That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf
Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf,
While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough
In England – now!
I doubt it, but probably not
Pratt, who wore a cape of crushed red velvet and wielded an amethyst-tipped wand [and] said the event gave rise to conflicting emotions.
“It makes you feel small and insignificant … but it makes you feel like you’re here for a reason.”
For more of Browning, go here.
For more about Stonehenge, scroll down in this same Christian Science Monitor article.
For more about the summer solstice, look out the window.
The long-legged Mack Daddy in the White House is going to get white people so riled up, they will riot, says Pastor Manning. (HT: News Alert)
Mack Daddy? Yes, Mack Daddy. Look it up.
This is Rev. James David Manning, who has no truck with Obama, as he vigorously demonstrated during the ’08 campaign.
Among his complaints about Obama, it should be added, is that he’s never been in jail, as Martin Luther King and “even Jesse Jackson” were, and hence should not be trusted.
What next from the boy wonder?
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said he had a one-on-one meeting with Obama, in which President Obama told him that he was still a Muslim, the son of a Muslim father, the stepson of Muslim stepfather, that his half brothers in Kenya are Muslims, and that he was sympathetic towards the Muslim agenda.
“Ich bin ein Berliner” was one thing. We got the point. Kennedy was never confused with a German. He could show solidarity with freedom-loving people. But our man O, the simple tool of America Lasters?
He has something up his sleeve all the time.
(HT: News Alert)
The beauty of the Internet and blogging, as opposed to real writing, is you can pluck out of the ether something like this and send it off for others to have the dirty laugh you just had.
It’s a comment on the report in The Hill of Big O. telling his helpers, “Plug the damn hole!” I mean this:
Send BIG SIS down there and let her Fat Ass sit on it till they fix it and send some illegals with her to help!!BY on 05/25/2010 at 12:18
For a loyal coterie of workers at Phillips Family Hospitality in Dorchester, staying employed means staying healthy, active — and alive.
“It’s what keeps me going, you know?’’ said Tony Piccuito, 91, as he unloaded trays of water and other beverages from the trunk of the Ford Taurus he drives to work daily from Weymouth. Piccuito, the energetic owner of a sharp sense of humor and a tendency to ignore doctor’s orders to ease up, pushed stacks of bottles in a cart taller than his stocky frame. “You keep working and you forget about how you feel.’’
I have never said I’m retired. A friend referred to me some years back as semi-retired, and when pushed, that’s what I say. Most ask me, “Are you still writing?” and accept that I will never stop.
Doesn’t mean I don’t get sidetracked. Internet is wonderful, but it can eat up your time too. Just the other day, I realized I have to get to work on one of the many books I have in mind — the one nearest completion.
It’s important to stay busy, but more important to stay focused.
Consider this, that envy lies at the root of all “social justice.” People want what others have.
And this, that the slogan “no peace without justice” is a prescription for endless war.
And this, the venerable folk saying, “Ain’t no justice,” is a not bad description of the world as she is — and will be.
And this, “There oughta be a law,” once a joke line, has become something big-govt. people are dead serious about.
And “There are good and bad of all kinds” is your perfect contribution to a discussion of group hostility.
Another thing: When you get down to it, the bishops and others who condemn enforcement of immigration law want open borders. How else explain their repeated support of amnesty?
Also: Back when the bishops, led by Joseph Bernardin of Chicago, condemned nuclear war and he made the cover of Time Mag, to what extent did they not support belief in Divine Providence?
I’m sitting there, guy comes in all togged out for handball. I think, so? he does the sauna that way. Doesn’t shower, as the sign on the “Y” wall says. I have it wrong. He drops his ball on the grate, comes back, gets it later. I take notice, he says it warms the ball up, makes it livelier.
That was a few days ago. Today another guy comes in naked but with a bulky gym bag. He begins to put his handball clothes on, I get it, say, Headin’ for the courts? Yep, he changes here to get warmed up, he explains.
Makes sense. Sauna warms up ball and player. On with the games!
Not into radicalism here, but I do like to keep up, which this “radical calendar” with do for me, I’m sure. It’s a terrific site, if misguided in its motivation.
Trumba is the maker, FYI, with its “Online Web Calendar Software.” Four starz!
Blithe Spirit 