Monday, June 09, 2008

Creed of the People of God

Spotted at Vivificat!

Creed of the People of God. A beautiful summary of the truths of the Faith -- a prayer, indeed -- which I had never read before!

Lavender fascism

Canada's lavender fascism

directed against Catholics (info via Some Have Hats) and evangelicals (info via The Curt Jester).

If only those religious-right types would roll over and play dead, the world would be a better place!

Afterthought: Canada is not only criminalizing "anti-gay" speech, they're criminalizing "anti-Islamic" speech. Which leads one to wonder: What will the government do when Muslim clerics become prominent spokesmen against homosexual unions?

Friday, June 06, 2008

Lunacy

You know ...

I've encountered this Mark Morford guy once or twice before, and his writing engenders the suspicion that he's really a right-winger doing parodies of left-wing lunacy, because no one could really be this ... this ... well, see for yourselves.

Via Dyspeptic Mutterings.

Addendum : Then there's this marvellous bit from Jesse Jackson, Jr.; via Sullivan.

Silly List

Silly list

Nicknames we have here at the Dark Speech family for various items around the kitchen:

anglais moo-fan That's an English muffin, as you all may have guessed.

chester plate Any ordinary run-of-the-mill plate. The nickname is inspired by the late '70s series Soap, in which a character named Chester Tate emerges from amnesia upon seeing a plate. Or hearing the word "plate." Or something like that. He gets his name partially right at a first go.

eeffoc Coffee.

ee-chay coo-bay Ice cube. Not pig latin! An application of the Italian rules of pronunciation to these two English words.

canine paper A relative's superb malaprop for "cayenne pepper."

toe-ast Toast. Pronouncing the "oa" like the "oa" in "Croat."


Does anyone else have silly nicknames for things, not necessarily kitchen items or foodstuffs, maybe things around the house, or the workplace? Or are we the only goofballs in the entire Anglosphere?

Reid Buckley

From yesterday's "Morning Joe" on MSNBC

Reid Buckley on his family, esp. his famous brother, the late William F. Buckley, Jr.

I'm with Scarborough. Hard to see the family resemblance. (Ha!)


Umbrella

Please share my umbrella

Raining in these parts for the third straight day. Let joy be unconfined.

Tomorrow, the extremely hot weather that some of you have already seen will finally arrive in New England. Huzzah.

Thursday, June 05, 2008

Dickens' chair

Dickens' chair

Auctioned off for $850K.

The not-so-comfy chair from which I blogged during the years 2002-2003 was left on a curb when I moved from the metropolis. I know that my millions upon millions of readers will be disappointed to hear that.

Ha!

Weird dream

Weird dream

Dreamed I was teaching Whoopi Goldberg how to pray the rosary.

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Iconic

Pet peeve, cont'd

All right, this is just too much. I recently heard someone speak of "the iconic Pringles can."

Sunday, June 01, 2008

Here's a meme

I haven't been tagged, but ...

... here's a meme. Anyone who wants to play, go right ahead!

What time is your alarm clock set to? 7:00 am.

What is the first thing you notice about the opposite sex? The face.

Do you think people talk about you behind your back? Probably. I thank Heaven I don't know what they say!

What movie do you know every line to? None. But I think I come close with The Breakfast Club and Young Frankenstein.

What is your favorite movie? Oh, I don't know. Arthur? Forrest Gump? 84 Charing Cross Road? The two mentioned as a response to the previous question?

Is anyone in love with you? Not that I know of.

Do you sleep on your side, stomach or back? Side.

Who was the last person to make you mad? A doctor.

Are you a lover or a fighter? Certainly not a fighter, but how much of a lover is anyone's guess.

Are you a morning or evening person? I'm a noon person.

Are you a cuddler? Once upon a time, perhaps, I was ...

Are you a perfectionist? Hardly. Well, about minor things, I can be vexingly persnickety.

Have you ever written a poem? :-)

Do you have more guy or girl friends? Used to be girl, now it's about equal.

How many tickets have you gotten? I avoid driving like the plague; so, none.

Piercings? Never!

Do you have a tattoo? No.

Are you patient? Not often.

Do you miss anyone right now? Too busy blogging to think about it.

Tea or coffee? Coffee (until 10 am; after that, chocolate milk).

Regularly burn incense? Not even sporadically.

Ever been in love? Once, and perhaps more than once.

Best room for a fireplace? Not where I live!

What do you do when you’re sad or upset? Mope? Pace?

Afraid of heights? Extremely!

Can you change the oil in your car? Don't have a car.

Favorite flower? Don't have one.

Favorite hangout? Harvard Square.

Middle name? Edward (confirmation name, Anthony).

Most romantic sounding language? (tie) French; Dante's Italian.

Ever been overseas? Nope.


(First spotted here; also found here.)

55 Maxims

55 Maxims for Christian Living

from the Orthodox priest Fr Thomas Hopko.

Spotted at a blog I haven't visited in aeons: Notes From a Hillside Farm.

Icon? Ick.

Pet peeve

This, a recent headline from Yahoo!:

Fire destroys iconic set from 'Back to the Future'

Is it just me or is the word "icon" (here, as an adjective) just a mite debased, overused, misused, etc.?

Reminds me of the time I heard Mariah Carey described as "a supernatural force."

Countee Cullen

To John Keats, Poet, At Spring Time
by Countee Cullen (1903-46)


(For Carl Van Vechten)

I cannot hold my peace, John Keats;
There never was a spring like this;
It is an echo, that repeats
My last year's song and next year's bliss.
I know, in spite of all men say
Of Beauty, you have felt her most.
Yea, even in your grave her way
Is laid. Poor, troubled, lyric ghost,
Spring never was so fair and dear
As Beauty makes her seem this year.

I cannot hold my peace, John Keats,
I am as helpless in the toil
Of Spring as any lamb that bleats
To feel the solid earth recoil
Beneath his puny legs. Spring beats
Her tocsin call to those who love her,
And lo! the dogwood petals cover
Her breast with drifts of snow, and sleek
White gulls fly screaming to her, and hover
About her shoulders, and kiss her cheek,
While white and purple lilacs muster
A strength that bears them to a cluster
Of color and odor; for her sake
All things that slept are now awake.

And you and I, shall we lie still,
John Keats, while Beauty summons us?
Somehow I feel your sensitive will
Is pulsing up some tremulous
Sap road of a maple tree, whose leaves
Grow music as they grow, since your
Wild voice is in them, a harp that grieves
For life that opens death's dark door.
Though dust, your fingers still can push
The Vision Splendid to a birth,
Though now they work as grass in the hush
Of the night on the broad sweet page of the earth.

"John Keats is dead," they say, but I
Who hear your full insistent cry
In bud and blossom, leaf and tree,
Know John Keats still writes poetry.
And while my head is earthward bowed
To read new life sprung from your shroud,
Folks seeing me must think it strange
That merely spring should so derange
My mind. They do not know that you,
John Keats, keep revel with me, too.

Saturday, May 31, 2008

Dylan Thomas

All day yesterday I was working, as hard as a navvy, on six lines of a poem. I finished them, but had, in the labour of them, picked and cleaned them so much that nothing but their barbaric sounds remained. Or if I did write a line, 'My dead upon the orbit of a rose', I saw that 'dead' did not mean 'dead', 'orbit' not 'orbit' and 'rose' most certainly not 'rose'. Even 'upon' was a syllable too many, lengthened for the inhibited reason of rhythm. My lines, all my lines, are of the tenth intensity. They are not the words that express what I want to express; they are the only words I can find that come near to expressing a half. And that's no good. I'm a freak user of words, not a poet. That's really the truth. No self-pity there. A freak user of words, not a poet. That's terribly true.

Dylan Thomas in a letter to Pamela Hansford Johnson quoted in Constantine FitzGibbon's The Life of Dylan Thomas

Friday, May 30, 2008

Ocarina

A sentence you don't hear every day
but which I (over)heard today


"You don't need another ocarina!"

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Fraternity

YES!

(My kind of fraternity.)

Thomas Moore

Thomas Moore (1779-1852)

Believe me, if all those endearing young charms,
Which I gaze on so fondly to-day,
Were to change by to-morrow, and fleet in my arms,
Live fairy-gifts fading away,
Thou wouldst still be adored, as this moment thou art,
Let thy loveliness fade as it will,
And around the dear ruin each wish of my heart
Would entwine itself verdantly still.

It is not while beauty and youth are thine own,
And thy cheeks unprofaned by a tear,
That the fervor and faith of a soul may be known,
To which time will but make thee more dear!
No, the heart that has truly loved never forgets,
But as truly loves on to the close,
As the sunflower turns on her god when he sets
The same look which she turned when he rose!

A Horse with No Name

The early '70s

I couldn't get enough of this song as a toddler. "A Horse with No Name" by America:

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Babelfish fun

Fun with Babelfish

The refrain of the song below, translated into Italian and back into English:

Elenore, Gee task you' the king swelling and you do good really it, you' with reference to my pride and joy, etc.

Monday, May 26, 2008

Elenore

Your lips intoxicate me
Even though your folks hate me ...


More '60s stuff. "Elenore" by the Turtles.

Love that tambourine player:


Wrong!

WRONG! You all had Special K with bananas.

[Another nugget of pop culture. Who can identify the source of the quotation above?]

Lahiri on Lacerda

Jhumpa Lahiri on Alberto de Lacerda

Steven Riddle of Flos Carmeli recently mentioned the author Jhumpa Lahiri, and even more recently, I found this article at the website of the Poetry Foundation. It is Lahiri's reminiscence of her time as a student of the Portuguese-language poet Alberto de Lacerda.

Stylistics

The (early) '70s

OK, so this song is going through my head right now, so I'm compelled to post the video. "Betcha By Golly Wow" by the Stylistics. Someday, blogging about Important Things will resume, but right now enjoy this mellow, pretty tune from back when.

There's a spark of magic in your eyes ...


Summer

I hate summer. Hate it. If I won the lottery, and never had to work a day again in my life, I'd buy us a cottage on the Norwegian seacoast, or some other cool place, and we'd stay there until All Saints Day. I fear and loathe summer. I think air conditioning is mankind's greatest invention. Just so you know.

Rod Dreher, May 24th

Friday, May 23, 2008

Psalm paraphrased

I am looking at the hills

Where the f--- are the reinforcements?

(Being an explanation of some of the archaisms in the old Anglican Prayer Book.)

Video no longer available, drat

Blogger's block continues

so here's yet another video clip, this time from the '60s. "A World Without Love" by Peter and Gordon. Volume's a bit loud on this one:

Thursday, May 22, 2008

The much-beloved Tracy

We're overdue for some Tracy Chapman ...

"Say Hallelujah":

Afterthought?

Untitled jotting

God is not
          an afterthought:

He thinks of me
          before I think of Him!

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Sen. Kennedy

Senator Kennedy

I tried blogging about the sad news yesterday, but deleted all of my several attempts.

However, this blogger's sentiments approximate mine, so I'll direct my few readers to his eloquent, apt words.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Video unavailable, drat

A musical interlude

"Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World" by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole, who would have turned 49 today:

Locust-beans

Locust-beans?

"Obey with a will, and you shall eat the best that earth yields; but, if you refuse and rebel, locust-beans shall be your only food" (Isaiah 1:19-20, NEB).

In a footnote, the translators acknowledge that an alternate rendering is "if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the sword."

Saturday, May 17, 2008

New English Bible

The New English Bible; or, Bishop Sheen nods

The late Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen claimed sometime during the 1970s that the New English Bible (NEB) was the most beautiful of all the modern translations. Now, I've owned my NEB for roughly four days, and have encountered some pretty quirky choices of translation. See the two examples cited in the previous post.

In addition, there's "a mighty wind" for "the Spirit of God" in Genesis 1; "young woman" for "virgin" in Isaiah 7:14; "bitter enemies of thy temple tear me in pieces" in place of "zeal for thy house consumes me" in Psalm 69; "they have hacked off my hands and feet" in Psalm 22 ("pierced" is the usual verb); and, in the Song of Songs, "majestic as the starry heavens" where one would expect "terrible as an army with banners."

On the other hand, there is at least one advantage that the NEB has over its 1989 revision, the REB (Revised English Bible): in the Epistles, it retains "brother" where the REB has "fellow-Christian." "Fellow-Christian" is, of course, a gesture toward inclusivity, but it loses the familial dimension of "brother." One may as well say "co-partisan"!

So, while I continue to admire Archbishop Sheen, I think it's safe to say that he missed a few of the troublesome spots in the NEB translation.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

New English Bible

I am an asphodel in Sharon,
    a lily growing in the valley.


Song of Songs 2:1, New English Bible

[...] he revived me with apricots;
    for I was faint with love.


Song of Songs 2:5, New English Bible

Upcoming

Possibly upcoming ...

Asphodels and apricots. The New English Bible.

Syesha

O factum male!

Oconomowoc

He left out Oconomowoc ...

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Fr Groeschel

The Catholic Church will always include people that you and I would consider disreputable.

Benedict J. Groeschel, CFR, Healing the Original Wound, p. 147

(I consider myself disreputable!)

Monday, May 12, 2008

Muscular boy?

She's a muscular boy must to avoid ...

Cummings

Cummings
the 60th of his 95 poems


dive for dreams
or a slogan may topple you
(trees are their roots
and wind is wind)

trust your heart
if the seas catch fire
(and live by love
though the stars walk backward)

honour the past
and welcome the future
(and dance your death
away at this wedding)

never mind a world
with its villains or heroes
(for god likes girls
and tomorrow and the earth)

Misheard

Misheard '60s song-lyric
from Herman's Hermits


Original: She's a must-to-avoid ...

What I heard: She's a muscular boy ...

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Pentecost

Pentecost

Veni, Sancte Spiritus,
et emitte caelitus
lucis tuae radium.

Veni, pater pauperum,
veni, dator munerum
veni, lumen cordium.

Consolator optime,
dulcis hospes animae,
dulce refrigerium.

In labore requies,
in aestu temperies
in fletu solatium.

O lux beatissima,
reple cordis intima
tuorum fidelium.

Sine tuo numine,
nihil est in homine,
nihil est innoxium.

Lava quod est sordidum,
riga quod est aridum,
sana quod est saucium.

Flecte quod est rigidum,
fove quod est frigidum,
rege quod est devium.

Da tuis fidelibus,
in te confidentibus,
sacrum septenarium.

Da virtutis meritum,
da salutis exitum,
da perenne gaudium.


(Translation here.)