She sweeps with many-colored brooms,
And leaves the shreds behind;
Oh, housewife in the evening west,
Come back, and dust the pond!
You dropped a purple ravelling in,
You dropped an amber thread;
And now you’ve littered all the East
With duds of emerald!
And still she plies her spotted brooms,
And still the aprons fly,
Till brooms fade softly into stars -
And then I come away.
I’ve had very little time to keep up this site, lately. Family does that, it seems. But at least I can throw out some links, here and there.
This is a song I love, from my favorite animated film, Spirited Away. The writer and singer is Yumi Kimura.
Next time someone asks me what kind of music I like, I think I shall reply, “Swedish Big-Band Rap”. It’s a more interesting answer than, “lots of stuff”.
In need of a joke, I checked to see what special day it was, today. At this point, every day of the calendar is something-day; while only a few of these are national holidays, and some others Federal Observances, many others are recognized by a state or local government, or simply announced by some organization. Yesterday was Arbor Day in Nebraska, for instance; but one may also find various claims that it was National Jelly Bean Day, as decided by… well, people who sell jelly beans, one presumes. And tomorrow is National Hairball Awareness Day… but of course, you knew that.
Today, however was William Shakespeare’s (roughly) 445th birthday, as well as Talk Like Shakespeare Day, by no less an authority than that of the mayor of Chicago (PDF). The day has its own website, which is certainly the mark of a significant occasion.
Anyway the site lists some simple tips on how to speak like Shakespeare; and while you might quibble with a few of them, this one is simply bad:
Men are Sirrah, ladies are Mistress, and your friends are all called Cousin.
People often take “sirrah” as a quaint form of “sir”… but it isn’t quite. “Sirrah” is used to address one’s inferior, or to insult a man by suggesting that he’s beneath you. Going about calling men “sirrah” all day is rude, in sooth; in good sooth, very rude. This is a surprising misuse, as the site seems to be the work of the Chicago Shakespeare Theater.
Due to the overwhelming response to We Are Seven (and the fact that I wanted to post something today, but didn’t get around to writing it), I am moved to offer another favorite poem of mine, The Skeleton in Armor.
It is interesting to note this poem was inspired by the discovery of a remarkable skeleton in Massachusetts, in 1832. Regrettably, it probably wasn’t that of a Viking… Read more »
The other night, a friend mentioned a desire to write about “the beautiful things in the world”. The first thing which came to my mind, as I thought about it, was this poem, one of my favorites. Read more »
This is my favorite very, very short story. It’s from Parables and Paradoxes.
I ran past the first watchman. Then I was horrified, ran back again and said to the watchman: “I ran through here while you were looking the other way.” The watchman gazed ahead of him and said nothing. “I suppose I really oughtn’t to have done it,” I said. The watchman still said nothing. “Does your silence indicate permission to pass?”
Long books on morality have said less.
I was away from my family on Valentine’s Day. I decided I wanted to send Felabi something nice, so I set to work creating an image for the occasion. After several hours, however, the Gimp crashed, and I lost all my work. I wasn’t up for doing it all over again, so I went to sleep, and didn’t send anything special.
Later, I discovered the existence of South Park character creation sites. After playing for a bit, I used this one and this one to create base characters for my family, tweaked them with the Gimp, and made this little scene as a late valentine “card”.
While this sort of thing doesn’t require much in the way of artistic ability, I’m pleased with it. Felabi, in particular, is easily recognizable, and the whole scene is very reminiscent of my home.
There are a good number of in-jokes, here, by the way. And in case you’re wondering, “Caillou” is a children’s television show. Johannes loves it.
I’m using this as my desktop, right now. I’m not sure why anyone else would want a cartoon of my family on their desktop, but just in case, here it is.
Picking up The Lord of the Rings, or looking up something about it online, is dangerous; I frequently get nothing done the rest of the day. However many times one reads it, however, some things some things remain unclear. It’s very hard to tell how the songs are supposed to go, for instance.
It’s remarkable what you can learn from YouTube, however. Here, the Professor himself gives a stirring reading of the chant of the Ents as they go to make war on Isengard. It’s much better than anything I’d imagined reading it, and what had seemed one of the least remarkable poems in the book is now one of my favorites.
The Saturday before last (that is, January 10th) it snowed heavily. We were staying at my mother’s house, and I naturally felt it my responsibility to make sure the walk, stairs, and driveway were clear and safe. So I sent Johannes out to shovel them.
We discovered that the snow came up easily and packed tightly into the shovel — perfect for snowballs and snowmen.
I decided to do a classic 3-ball snowman, for my son’s amusement. Read more »
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