THOUGHT
FOR THE DAY
What
kind of society, after enduring the tragedy of September
11, continues not only to allow the coreligionists of the
September 11 terrorists to flourish within its borders but
to invite even more to cross those borders and take up
residence within? The answer is simple: Only a dying
society would accept the presence of such a fifth column.
And only a society with a death wish would take the
further step of praising that fifth column and encouraging
its members to remain true to their religion of war.
-- Scott
Richert
Kevin
Michael Grace, 11.57 pm, 31 October 2005►
THOUGHT
FOR THE DAY
Adventure
is a sign of incompetence
-- Vilhjalmur
Stefansson
Kevin
Michael Grace, 4.40 pm, 29 October 2005►
GRACE
NOTES
Jeremy
"My Bucket's Got A Hole In It" Lott has asked me
to publicize his plea for research assistance.
Specifically, he wants sourced quotations condemning
hypocrites and hypocrisy and examples of cinematic
hypocrites. Happy to oblige. I've already passed on Elmer
Gantry, the Vicomte de Valmont (in Stephen Frears's
fine
adaptation, not Milos Forman's abortion) and
the Reverend
Harry Powell. But I forgot to mention the
wicked General Georges
Broulard.
There were
about 10 Canadians willing to speak the truth on
immigration. Now there's another, Michael
Monastyrskyj,
who has started a blog called Dispatches From The Hogtown
Front. Essential reading, at least for benighted natives
of "the greatest hotel on Earth."
A week ago
I thought I'd watch a couple of episodes of The Last Place
On Earth, Central TV's outstanding adaptation of Roland
Huntford's magisterial dual biography of
Roald Amundsen
and Robert Falcon
Scott. Should have known better, of
course, as I was unable to resist watching the whole thing
again. Must be my Viking
blood. Now I'm rereading Huntford.
A link from IMDB led me to a most diverting (yet
apparently moribund) website, www.framheim.com.
Framheim means "The Home of the Fram,"
and Fram, which means "Forward," was the
fabled ship of Amundsen, Sverdrup
and Nansen. I particularly enjoyed
Emily Slatten's accounts of her journey to Norway (which
included a pilgrimage to the Frammuseet and a meeting
with Sverre
Anker Ousdal) and Michael Smith's potted bio
of unsung
hero Tom Crean.
Amundsen: 'Last of the Vikings'
Some time
ago I recommended the London
Mail on Sunday as
indispensable to celebrity haters, of which I am one. It's
not so easy to obtain, however, while www.gofugyourself.typepad.com
is as close as your browser. From the FAQ:
1. What is this
"fug"? I've never heard of it.
"Fug" comes from
"fugly," which is a contraction of
"fantastically ugly" (or an f-word more
prurient, if you like, but we are clean and delightful
young ladies who don't engage in that kind of filth,
dammit)...
2. So "fugly" is like
extreme ugliness?
Kind of -- we like to think of
"ugly" as something that refers to an
unchangeable condition, but also a condition above which
people can rise.
Fugly, however, is a
self-inflicted state, and no one seems to excel at
dwelling in the depths of fug quite like pretty people
with money to spare and little sense of how to spend it.
Celebrities are always skipping around in public wearing
things that are phenomenally perplexing; as these
red-carpet dwellers are often considered trendsetters or
bastions of Hip Present and Hip Future, we like to take
them to task for careless choices...
The
"clean and delightful young ladies" style
themselves "Heather" and "Jessica,"
and for
"take them to task," read "insult, mock and
humiliate" the likes of Ashlee, Britney,
Courtney, Haylie, Hilary, Lindsay and others that don't
even rhyme. My word, these fuggers are funny. I
read two years worth of archives the other day, and tears
were streaming down my cheeks.
Ashlee's sis: Insert obligatory shizzle/fizzle joke
here
Kevin
Michael Grace, 4.22 pm, 28 October 2005►
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY (SPECIAL FITZMAS DAY EDITION)
The blood
of man should never be shed but to redeem the blood of
man. It is well shed for our family, for our friends, for
our God, for our country, for our kind. The rest is
vanity; the rest is crime.
-- Edmund Burke, Letters
On A Regicide Peace
Kevin
Michael Grace, 1.04 pm, 28 October 2005►
LE
CRÉPUSCULE DES DIEUX
Eliot
wrote:
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.
Wrong.
Frost
wrote:
Some say
the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire,
I hold with those who favor fire.
Almost
there. Think "The
Road Not Taken";
now think the
opposite. Think Godard.
The world will end in a
stupendous traffic jam.
Katrina
Rita
Wilma
Weekend: Carmageddon
Kevin
Michael Grace, 2.35 am, 28 October 2005►
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
A man who
has gotten altogether beyond what is now called bigotry,
who no longer cares about family, inherited loyalties, or
ties of sex and blood, is no longer a man as men have
always been understood. It is very unlikely that he will
find a principle of cohesion with his fellows capable of
replacing those he has rejected, and a society dominated
by such men is therefore doomed.
-- Jim
Kalb
Kevin
Michael Grace, 11.58 pm, 27 October 2005►
THOUGHT
FOR THE DAY
The reason
why so few marriages are happy is because young ladies
spend their time in making nets, not in making cages.
-- Jonathan Swift, Thoughts
On Various Subjects
Kevin
Michael Grace, 11.32 pm, 26 October 2005►
POETRY
CORNER
Queen
Gertrude: What have I done, that thou darest
wag thy tongue
In noise so rude against me?
Hamlet:
Such an act
That blurs the grace and blush of modesty,
Calls virtue hypocrite, takes off the rose
From the fair forehead of an innocent love
And sets a blister there, makes
marriage-vows
As false as dicers's oaths: O, such a deed
As from the body of contraction plucks
The very soul, and sweet religion makes
A rhapsody of words: heaven's face doth glow:
Yea, this solidity and compound mass,
With tristful visage, as against the doom,
Is thought-sick at the act.
-- Shakespeare, Hamlet
Kevin
Michael Grace, 10.35 pm, 26 October 2005►
