Sailor: Education for Wonder

Quadrivium

2010-12-13T15:14:00.000-08:00

Stratford Caldecott posts here about a great new book out from http://www.woodenbooks.com/: Quadrivium. It compiles some of the best of earlier books this company had published about music, astronomy, etc., or has the book puts it: "Number, Geometry, Music, Heaven."

What's Around Me: Overhead No. 29

2010-12-12T14:56:00.001-08:00

The Geminids are coming!

2010-12-10T19:23:00.000-08:00

I might have missed the Perseids but the Geminids are coming! Here's an article, which taught me that a lunar eclipse is also coming on December 20. This same article had this great photograph left by Wally Pacholka of Astropics.com

Here is the site at Astropics.com where you can find more amazing photographs by Wally Pacholka.

This is Indiana, No. 15

2010-11-28T18:09:00.000-08:00

For the sick days: four cures

2010-11-26T18:08:00.000-08:00

This is not practical at all, except for all you people out there who maybe have a cold and can't stop teaching or mothering or saying Mass, etc., etc.

Four great cures:
1. Gargle 1 T. apple cider vinegar, once or twice a day. Swallow. Feels great and supposedly kills germs in the throat.

2. Juice orange or grapefruit, one daily, and drink. Avoid sweets.

3. Eat one boiled egg for breakfast.

4. Lemon-honey-mint tea-to-go. In one Ball canning jar, place one mint tea bag, a large dollop of honey, and two frozen ice-cubes of lemon juice. Or a 1/4 c. of lemon juice. This can be carried around. When you are ready for tea, fill with very hot water, screw lid tightly, handle with a paper towel or oven mitt, and SHAKE. This will emulsify the honey with the beverage. Honey at the bottom, lemon at the top makes for a healthy but disgusting beverage. Mixed, with the kick of mint, provides something truly comforting. This drink I developed by accident and because I wanted to keep walking to work but also have some lemon-honey-mint tea when I got there. This cured a horrible cold in 8 days and I never missed an hour of work.

This is Indiana, No. 14

2010-11-08T14:54:00.000-08:00

How to Open a Pomegranate

2010-11-07T14:26:00.000-08:00

I recently found a little printed explanation about how to open pomegranates. So here is a photo essay on how to eat these gems.

This is Indiana, No. 13

2010-10-27T20:13:00.001-07:00

This is Indiana, No. 12

2010-10-17T08:59:00.000-07:00

How to Raise Boys That Read

2010-10-16T08:58:00.000-07:00

This great article appeared 24 September 2010 in The Wall Street Journal. When he started quoting Plato and C. S. Lewis about right education (using the same passages that so influenced Christian Integration), I had to ask: who is this guy?

The author is Thomas Spence of Spence Publishing, Inc. in Dallas, TX. Thomas Spence is president and publisher of Spence Publishing and a director of Spence Media. After graduating from Dartmouth College, he earned a law degree from the University of Chicago and a master’s in history from Harvard. He was editor in chief at WRS Publishing before founding Spence Publishing in 1996. He has been featured in Publishers Weekly, the Boston Globe, the Dartmouth Review, Insight, and the Washington Times and has written for the Dallas Morning News and the American Enterprise.

If you were thinking about buying your kids some video games, think again.

This is Indiana, No. 11

2010-10-13T11:20:00.000-07:00

This is Indiana, No. 10

2010-10-06T00:03:00.000-07:00

In Full Freshness

2010-10-05T12:01:00.000-07:00

"Mr Swiveller burst in full freshness as something new and hitherto undreamed of, lighting up the office with scraps of song and merriment, conjuring with inkstands and boxes of wafers, catching three oranges in one hand, balancing stools upon his chin and penknives on his nose, and constantly performing a hundred other feats with equal ingenuity . . ."--The Old Curiosity Shop

Thus does Dickens conjur up a sailor-like character who introduces his soulless and driven employer to a new way of being.

Here is the quotation in full or get the book:

But quite apart from, and independent of, this source of popularity, Mr Swiveller had another, which promised to be equally enduring, and to lighten his position considerably.

He found favour in the eyes of Miss Sally Brass. Let not the light scorners of female fascination erect their ears to listen to a new tale of love which shall serve them for a jest; for Miss Brass, however accurately formed to be beloved, was not of the loving kind. That amiable virgin, having clung to the skirts of the Law from her earliest youth; having sustained herself by their aid, as it were, in her first running alone, and maintained a firm grasp upon them ever since; had passed her life in a kind of legal childhood. She had been remarkable, when a tender prattler for an uncommon talent in counterfeiting the walk and manner of a bailiff: in which character she had learned to tap her little playfellows on the shoulder, and to carry them off to imaginary sponging-houses, with a correctness of imitation which was the surprise and delight of all who witnessed her performances, and which was only to be exceeded by her exquisite manner of putting an execution into her doll's house, and taking an exact inventory of the chairs and tables. These artless sports had naturally soothed and cheered the decline of her widowed father: a most exemplary gentleman (called 'old Foxey' by his friends from his extreme sagacity,) who encouraged them to the utmost, and whose chief regret, on finding that he drew near to Houndsditch churchyard, was, that his daughter could not take out an attorney's certificate and hold a place upon the roll. Filled with this affectionate and touching sorrow, he had solemnly confided her to his son Sampson as an invaluable auxiliary; and from the old gentleman's decease to the period of which we treat, Miss Sally Brass had been the prop and pillar of his business.

It is obvious that, having devoted herself from infancy to this one pursuit and study, Miss Brass could know but little of the world, otherwise than in connection with the law; and that from a lady gifted with such high tastes, proficiency in those gentler and softer arts in which women usually excel, was scarcely to be looked for. Miss Sally's accomplishments were all of a masculine and strictly legal kind. They began with the practice of an attorney and they ended with it. She was in a state of lawful innocence, so to speak. The law had been her nurse. And, as bandy-legs or such physical deformities in children are held to be the consequence of bad nursing, so, if in a mind so beautiful any moral twist or handiness could be found, Miss Sally Brass's nurse was alone to blame.

It was on this lady, then, that Mr Swiveller burst in full freshness as something new and hitherto undreamed of, lighting up the office with scraps of song and merriment, conjuring with inkstands and boxes of wafers, catching three oranges in one hand, balancing stools upon his chin and penknives on his nose, and constantly performing a hundred other feats with equal ingenuity; for with such unbendings did Richard, in Mr Brass's absence, relieve the tedium of his confinement. These social qualities, which Miss Sally first discovered by accident, gradually made such an impression upon her, that she would entreat Mr Swiveller to relax as though she were not by, which Mr Swiveller, nothing loth, would readily consent to do. By these means a friendship sprung up between them. Mr Swiveller gradually came to look upon her as her brother Sampson did, and as he would have looked upon any other clerk. He imparted to her the mystery of going the odd man or plain Newmarket for fruit, ginger-beer, baked potatoes, or even a modest quencher, of which Miss Brass did not scruple to partake. He would often persuade her to undertake his share of writing in addition to her own; nay, he would sometimes reward her with a hearty slap on the back, and protest that she was a devilish good fellow, a jolly dog, and so forth; all of which compliments Miss Sally would receive in entire good part and with perfect satisfaction.
--Charles Dickens, The Old Curiosity Shop, Ch. 36

What's Around Me: Just Before Me No. 59

2010-09-28T11:43:00.000-07:00

This is Indiana, No. 9

2010-09-26T15:42:00.000-07:00

This is Indiana, No. 8

2010-09-25T12:45:00.000-07:00

This is Indiana, No. 7

2010-09-23T15:40:00.000-07:00

An Education in the Sense of Smell: the Top 101 Smells

2010-09-22T15:44:00.000-07:00

Are young people growing up in a frangrence-free environment? I think they are. At least, in the past few years, I've found youth resistant to experiences that include strong smells. These include such diverse activities as cooking, walking through foreign markets, cleaning homes, or studying herbs. Or is it right that young people be so strongly sensitive to smell? Are their senses more sensitive, more strongly impacted by something adults smell as "just right"? At any rate, include strong smell and--I predict--lots of kids will be down and out, exclaiming, distracted, even faint, totally unable to focus on whatever you were about to do. What do you think?

It seems to me that a culture full of strong smells--good and bad--couldn't help but be good preparation. It would toughen you for hard work, care for the land, service to the poor. It would make novels and poetry all the more evocative. It will highly improve your cooking. And when those smells come back, they can be touchstones for memories (hopefully some good ones), not the first unpleasant time you've encountered them.

I, for one, would advocate an education in the sense of smell, by exposure to the following.

Top 101 Smells to experience (divided into "food" and "life"):

Almond
Anise
Apple
Bacon
Banana
Basil
Bay laurel
Beer
Bourbon
Bread baking
Cherries
Chicken soup
Chocolate
Cilantro
Cinnamon
Cloves
Coconut
Coffee
Cumin
Curry
Dill
Fried chicken
Garlic
Ginger
Grapefruit
Green pepper
Ham
Honey
Horseradish
Lemon
Licorice
Lime
Maple syrup
Melon
Mint
Molasses
Mustard
Olives
Onion
Orange
Oregano
Parmesan
Parsley
Peach
Potato
Rosemary
Root beer / Sarsparilla
Sage
Sauteed mushrooms
Soy sauce
Tea
Thyme
Toast
Tomato
Vanilla
Wine

Other . . . smells for a fully human life

Aloe
Beeswax
Bleach
Burning leaves
Cattle
Cedar
Chickens
Chrysanthemum
Compost
Cut grass
Dung
Erasers
Hay
Heather
Horses
Incense
Ink
Jasmine
Juniper
Lavender
Leather
Lilac
Lily-of-the-Valley
Nasturtium
Old books
Old stone
Orange blossom
Paint
Paper
Pencils
Pigs
Pine
Pipe Tobacco
Rose
Salt sea
Sheep
Shoe polish
Soap
Starch
Stargazer Lily
Struck matches, sulpher
Sweat
Wet earth
Wood shavings
Vinegar

This is Indiana, No. 6

2010-09-21T15:38:00.000-07:00

Life Amongst Eleven Children

2010-09-19T15:36:00.000-07:00

Enjoy this wonderful passage from Fr. Vincent McNabb about the best present parents can give.

"Having been the last of seven sons, and the last but one of eleven children, I bear solemn testimony that the best Christmas toy parents can present to their darling son or daughter is not a teddy bear or a railway train, but another little brother or sister. . . .

"When I look back on my home life, I find I had few toys, and those for the most part very costless. Nowhere in the home were there many toys. But six brothers and four sisters make toys an inconsequence. Indeed, we were inclined to look down on toys. The mere toy-loving boy had a name amongst us that was the Gaelic of something forcible rather than polite. We clearly distinguished between toys and other means of joy-production, such as story-books, games like chess, draughts, etc., and playthings such as footballs and cricket gear. Yet I need hardly say that life amongst eleven children can hardly be painted grey. My experience of it, expressed in colour, would demand a hot scarlet. I still bear in my flesh the proud records of some of our most blood-curdling, and even blood-shedding experiences. Almost my only remembered toy was a large sailor-made yacht for pond-sailing. I got a good deal of excitement out of it, not by sailing it, but by rescuing it from my brothers, who all claimed right of primogeniture in it. Another most beloved toy was my next eldest brother, dear L------, still, God love him, in the flesh. He shared my sorrows, nay, sometimes caused them. He was the better part of all my joys. He was my hero in the playing fields. He was my man-at-arms to protect me. Together we roamed the meadows, or went a holidaying by the docks, or swam out to sea, or undertook boating in narrow and perilous creeks."

--Fr. Vincent McNabb, O.P., “On Playthings,” in The Chesterton Review, Volume 22, No.1 & 2, February and May, 1996, 21-22.

What's Around Me: Just Before Me No. 58

2010-09-14T11:24:00.000-07:00

This is Indiana, No. 5

2010-09-13T09:45:00.000-07:00

Poetry Experiences

2010-09-12T11:40:00.000-07:00

As I review the poetry I'm teaching this upcoming school year, I see many poems referring to experiences my students have not enjoyed. For example, Spencer's lovely Sonnet 26 "Sweet is the rose . . ." refers to eglantine, fir bloom, cypress, broome-flower, and moly--none of which my students recognize. Or Seamus Heaney's "A Kite for Michael and Christopher" uses that wonderful kite imagery, which (pardon the pun) falls so flat for students who have not flown kites.

Yes, there are many young people who have not flown kites, seen the sea, know the Pleaides, have a chimney, viewed a cow . . .

So what to do? I went through all my poems, listed the things and experiences foreign to my students, and am now waging an active campaign to introduce a few of these things before the poems come up. We will definitely be making and flying kites.

However, I do think poetry can create a taste for some of the things described in the poetry, so all is not lost if the kids don't know a cow from a horse, sea from mountain.

This is Indiana, No. 4

2010-09-08T05:28:00.000-07:00

A Wise Man

2010-09-06T13:00:00.000-07:00

This is Indiana, No. 3

2010-09-05T18:13:00.000-07:00

This is Indiana, No. 2

2010-09-04T18:10:00.000-07:00

This is Indiana, No. 1

2010-09-03T18:10:00.000-07:00

Dover Fascimiles

2010-08-18T19:53:00.000-07:00

Ever walk by someone's desk and see some amazing book (snowflake photographs, medieval illustrations, the human skeleton coloring book) . . . and, yes, it turns out to be another one of those inexpensive books from Dover Publishing? Well, peruse the catalogue for yourself: you name it, they've got it.

Try the Pictorial Archive for Nautical Illustrations, Boydell's Shakespeare Prints, Medicinal Foods and Plants, Silhouettes, A Dictionary of Costume and Fashion, Wrought Iron Architecture, Antique Playing Cards, The American Revolution: A Picture Sourcebook, Weapons and Armor, 1001 Scrolls, Ornaments, and Borders . . .

Or try the Fine Art category for Gustave Dore's engravings, Rilke's Auguste Rodin, the Arthur Rackham Treasury, Walter Crane's Illustrations for the Faerie Queen, Edmund Dulac's Illustrations for Andersen's Fairy-tales, and other collections by William Blake, Childe Hassam, N. C. Wyeth, Aubrey Beardsley, Howard Pyle, Maxfield Parrish, Charles Dana Gibson, Rembrant, Cezanne, Holbein, Durer, da Vinci.

Such wonderful prints for so little.

Cymbeline (400th anniversary)

2010-08-17T06:32:00.000-07:00

The University of Notre Dame's Shakespeare Festival presents Cymbeline August 17-August 29. More information can be found here, like this synopsis:

Come celebrate the 400th anniversary of an enchanting masterpiece that will surely capture your heart. The virtuous princess Imogen—heir to Cymbeline’s kingdom—struggles against the ambitious schemes of her wicked stepmother, flees to the forest in disguise, and finally finds happily-ever-after as she reunites with her family and the man she loves. Follow one of the world’s most remarkable heroines on her journey in Cymbeline, Shakespeare’s original fairy tale.

The image left is Hannah Tompkin's, who painted numerous watercolor illustrations of Shakespeare plays and founded the Shakespeare Art Museum.

Perseid Meteor Shower: It's not too late

2010-08-13T15:06:00.000-07:00

I forgot all about the meteor shower, and according to this news story, it was pretty great. But it's not too late to catch a fine show tonight, if you don't have light pollution. This site gives a little background to understand the meteor shower.

Check out National Geographic's "How to See the Perseids"; that's where I found Wally Pacholka's marvelous photograph.

Best Illustrators II

2010-08-05T19:23:00.000-07:00

Ben Hatke's Zita the Space Girl is coming out. Like Margaret Perry says over at Little Lamb Books, "I've read it. It is grand."

It's funny, intriguing, surprising, and wonderfully illustrated.

It has a grim shady character who's hard to figure out.

You can pre-order here or read this great interview with Ben. Check out his blog which has my mother and me in stitches trying to figure out whether his comics are historically accurate . . . or not!

What's Around Me: Overhead No. 28

2010-07-30T19:47:00.000-07:00

What's Around Me: On My Left No. 49

2010-07-29T19:45:00.000-07:00

What's Around Me: Just Before Me No. 57

2010-07-28T19:45:00.001-07:00

What's Around Me: Overhead No. 27

2010-06-29T20:56:00.000-07:00

Identifying Wildflowers

2010-06-28T20:53:00.000-07:00

I found the most wonderful wildflower guide online. You can quickly scroll through photographs sorted by color and figure out what it was that you saw. It is geared to New Hampshire weeds and wildflowers, but it is applicable to many parts of the country. Enjoy! I found many things I'd been wondering about, such as Blue Toadflax and Bladder Campion.

What's Around Me: On My Right No. 45

2010-06-23T06:08:00.001-07:00

French Sodas and New York Egg Cream

2010-06-21T10:20:00.000-07:00

New York Egg Cream is the drink that Harriet orders in Harriet the Spy, and it reminds me of "French Sodas."

An egg cream is a combination of whole milk, chocolate syrup, and seltzer water with a nice foamy head.

A French soda (I've never seen anywhere but White Rock Coffee in St. Paul) is an Italian soda with a splash of Half & Half: seltzer water, ice, a splash of cream, and a flavored syrup--not something fruity, but something that goes well with cream or coffee--something like amaretto, almond, coconut, caramel, vanilla, Irish cream . . . these are wonderful children's treats during the summer.

Another treat I'm looking for is cold press coffee, which I can't find outside of White Rock Coffee. Take 3 lbs. coarsely ground coffee, put it in a container with hole plugged with a sponge at the bottom, and let distilled water run through it (just enough water to saturate the grounds to the top). 24 hours later, the distillation will be uncooked, pure, cold coffee, suitable to be poured over ice with some whole milk. Wow.

Thus their brightness is eclipsed

2010-06-21T08:37:00.000-07:00

"The thoughts of worldly men are for ever regulated by a moral law of gravitation, which, like the physical one, holds them down to earth. The bright glory of day, and the silent wonders of a starlit night, appeal to their minds in vain. There are no signs in the sun, or in the moon, or in the stars, for their reading. They are like some wise men, who, learning to know each planet by its Latin name, have quite forgotten such small heavenly constellations as Charity, Forbearance, Universal Love, and Mercy, although they shine by night and day so brightly that the blind may see them; and who, looking upward at the spangled sky, see nothing there but the reflection of their own great wisdom and book-learning.

It is curious to imagine these people of the world, busy in thought, turning their eyes towards the countless spheres that shine above us, and making them reflect the only images their minds contain. The man who lives but in the breath of princes, has nothing his sight but stars for courtiers' breasts. The envious man beholds his neighbours' honours even in the sky; to the money-hoarder, and the mass of worldly folk, the whole great universe above glitters with sterling coin--fresh from the mint--stamped with the sovereign's head--coming always between them and heaven, turn where they may. So do the shadows of our own desires stand between us and our better angels, and thus their brightness is eclipsed.

Everything was fresh and gay, as though the world were but that morning made, when Mr Chester rode at a tranquil pace along the Forest road. Though early in the season, it was warm and genial weather; the trees were budding into leaf, the hedges and the grass were green, the air was musical with songs of birds, and high above them all the lark poured out her richest melody. In shady spots, the morning dew sparkled on each young leaf and blade of grass; and where the sun was shining, some diamond drops yet glistened brightly, as in unwillingness to leave so fair a world, and have such brief existence. Even the light wind, whose rustling was as gentle to the ear as softly-falling water, had its hope and promise; and, leaving a pleasant fragrance in its track as it went fluttering by, whispered of its intercourse with Summer, and of his happy coming.

The solitary rider went glancing on among the trees, from sunlight into shade and back again, at the same even pace--looking about him, certainly, from time to time, but with no greater thought of the day or the scene through which he moved, than that he was fortunate (being choicely dressed) to have such favourable weather."
--Charles Dickens, Ch. 22, Barnaby Rudge

What's Around Me: Underfoot No. 20

2010-06-21T08:31:00.000-07:00

What's Around Me: Overhead No. 26

2010-06-16T19:42:00.000-07:00

What's Around Me: On My Right No. 44

2010-06-14T19:38:00.000-07:00

What's Around Me: On My Left No. 48

2010-06-12T19:38:00.000-07:00

A Taste for the Beautiful

2010-06-12T18:28:00.000-07:00

No one needs another cooking website, but good food is part of a culture conducive to good formation. So I've long debated how to include food in this blog. There is nothing like taking the summer and working your way through some tried-and-true cookbooks. Of course, Grizzlebeard over at the other blog thinks a person ought first to learn the recipes of his forefathers, local community, and intellectual/artistic tradition. Fine, fine, says the Sailor--and you can visit posts on that here and here. Meanwhile, why not explore the world of cooking for yourself, says Sailor. Here are my top six guides:

For the most basic introduction to cooking, to learn techniques that you can transfer to almost any kind of dish, I recommend The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan.
For another no-fail set of recipes, try The Silver Palate Cookbook by Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins. Medieval Apple Tart was good, as was Tarte Saint-Germaine and Pasta with Brie and Tomatoes.
For the next level, try Julia Child's The French Chef Cookbook. I haven't tried Mastering the Art of French Cooking, so I can't compare. Cliche, I know, but she's a great cook.
For hot bread every day, that artisian bread sweeping the nation.
For cooking with herbs, Jill Norman's Herbs and Spices: The Cook's Reference.
For something different, the master website with extremely helpful reviews Epicurious.com.

What do these recommendations have in common?

Fresh ingredients, real food
Natural flavoring and combinations that make for striking complexity
Exciting and sophisticated techniques and the directions to show you how to use them

All of which render cooking the art that it can be, and bestow upon eating the sacramental conviviality proper to it. We are not Epicureans, but humans!

What's Around Me: Overhead No. 25

2010-06-10T18:26:00.000-07:00

What's Around Me: Underfoot No. 18

2010-06-08T18:22:00.000-07:00

What's Around Me: On My Left No. 47

2010-06-06T18:21:00.003-07:00

What's Around Me: On My Left No. 46

2010-05-26T16:50:00.000-07:00

What's Around Me: On My Right No. 43

2010-05-21T17:40:00.000-07:00

Making Bows and Arrows

2010-05-21T17:37:00.000-07:00

Well . . . not the arrows, just the bow. (I found someone to donate arrows; homemade arrows are no good.) After much research on the Internet, trial and error, and the final product of seven bows, I give you: directions for making your own make-shift bow from PVC pipe. In 2010, this costs less than $6.00 per bow. If you have never done archery, this is good for practice. I made these for my students, so they could be like the stout yeoman of merry England, Henry V, Robin Hood and Maid Marion, Susan Pevensie, Artemis, Camilla, and the like.

"Ingredients":

One 5' long PVC pipe, 3/4" in diameter
Woven (not twisted) 3/16" nylon cord, about 6' long
Two washers, 3/16" in diameter
Black electric tape
Foam insulation, 3/4" in diameter or slightly larger, about 4" long.

Also:

Saw
Electric drill with a 3/8" bit
Pencil
Sand paper

Directions:

Measure and mark a line 3/4" on each end of the PVC pipe. Make sure these lines are in line with each other.
Drill a 3/8" hole at the base of each line.
Saw notches along the 3/4" lines from the end of the PVC pipe to the hole, on each side. You will have to whittle away at these new notches to make them each 3/16" wide.
Sandpaper the edges of the new notches.
Reinforce the pipe just below the hole with black electric tape.

Mark the center of the PVC pipe. Just below this center line make a grip with 4" of foam insulation. Tighten and fix the grip with four bands of black electric tape. The top of the grip should line up with the center line: when you aim the arrow, the tip should rest at the very center of the bow, atop the grip, just above your hand.
String the bow: thread two washers onto the nylon string. Make a tight knot in one end of the string. Pull this through one notch on the PVC bow. Inside the PVC pipe there should be a knot, the washer, then the hole.
Then, using your foot to bend the bow, determine where to make your final knot on the other end of the string. There should be 6-7" from string to bow's center. Determine where to knot the string on the other end to achieve this. Then, making sure the 2nd washer is below your knot, knot the string tightly.
Keep the string long with a 3rd knot at the end, so you can unstring the bow when you are not using it. It makes the string last longer.

That's it! Get a haybale and have fun. Don't shoot your eye out.

They don't make Inns like they used to

2010-05-09T20:26:00.000-07:00

"Old John would have it that they must sit in the bar, and nobody objecting, into the bar they went. All bars are snug places, but the Maypole's was the very snuggest, cosiest, and completest bar, that ever the wit of man devised. Such amazing bottles in old oaken pigeon-holes; such gleaming tankards dangling from pegs at about the same inclination as thirsty men would hold them to their lips; such sturdy little Dutch kegs ranged in rows on shelves; so many lemons hanging in separate nets, and forming the fragrant grove already mentioned in this chronicle, suggestive, with goodly loaves of snowy sugar stowed away hard by, of punch, idealised beyond all mortal knowledge; such closets, such presses, such drawers full of pipes, such places for putting things away in hollow window-seats, all crammed to the throat with eatables, drinkables, or savoury condiments; lastly, and to crown all, as typical of the immense resources of the establishment, and its defiances to all visitors to cut and come again, such a stupendous cheese!

It is a poor heart that never rejoices—it must have been the poorest, weakest, and most watery heart that ever beat, which would not have warmed towards the Maypole bar. Mrs Varden's did directly. She could no more have reproached John Willet among those household gods, the kegs and bottles, lemons, pipes, and cheese, than she could have stabbed him with his own bright carving-knife. The order for dinner too—it might have soothed a savage. 'A bit of fish,' said John to the cook, 'and some lamb chops (breaded, with plenty of ketchup), and a good salad, and a roast spring chicken, with a dish of sausages and mashed potatoes, or something of that sort.' Something of that sort! The resources of these inns! To talk carelessly about dishes, which in themselves were a first-rate holiday kind of dinner, suitable to one's wedding-day, as something of that sort: meaning, if you can't get a spring chicken, any other trifle in the way of poultry will do—such as a peacock, perhaps! The kitchen too, with its great broad cavernous chimney; the kitchen, where nothing in the way of cookery seemed impossible; where you could believe in anything to eat, they chose to tell you of. Mrs Varden returned from the contemplation of these wonders to the bar again, with a head quite dizzy and bewildered. Her housekeeping capacity was not large enough to comprehend them. She was obliged to go to sleep. Waking was pain, in the midst of such immensity."
--Charles Dickens, Ch. 19, Barnaby Rudge

What's Around Me: Just Before Me No. 56

2010-05-07T21:24:00.000-07:00

Best Directors

2010-05-07T21:02:00.000-07:00

Joe Gleason makes great shorts--I'd give him a biography, but you can read more about him at The Anchoress' Blog, or watch a Joe Gleason "film festival" at Fausta's blog or even Maggie's Farm. He won a grant from the Nanovic Institute for European Studies to produce one of his short films (Almost Evening). He is currently working on these documentary interviews for Trinity Schools, Inc.

I didn't think you could write poetry with film, but you can.

Here's one:

What's Around Me: Overhead No. 24

2010-04-30T20:16:00.000-07:00

What's Around Me: Underfoot No. 19

2010-04-23T20:28:00.000-07:00

What's Around Me: On My Left No. 45

2010-04-16T19:36:00.000-07:00

What's Around Me: Overhead No. 23

2010-03-26T23:49:00.000-07:00

Spring Project: Stilts

2010-03-26T21:45:00.000-07:00

Easy to build, these stilts make a great project. I'd give dimensions and directions, but you can make them so easily from scrap and fiddle with them . . . But here you go . . .

two 2"x2"x6' for the poles
two 2"x4"x5-6" for the steps
two 3"x1"x6-7" for the outside part that keeps your foot on the step
4 1/2"-inch bolts about 8" long with washers and nuts.

Look at the picture. Measure. Sand the edges.

Free Time

2010-03-26T21:44:00.000-07:00

David Elkind, retired professor from TUFTS keeps a blog here within JustaskBaby where he still dishes out some sane advice about raising kids with lots of free, unstructured play time. "Too Many Toys" is a good article, as is "The Young Athlete" and "The Best Toys for Tots."

Why read him? He's got a lot of experience to back up the position that scheduling children's playtime (when and where and how much and what they play) and plying them with expensive toys and electronics is not helpful at all. He advocates sports for fun and fitness, daily unplanned free time, and few toys--just a couple that get a kid's imagination going--like clay. Author of The Power of Play: Learning What Comes Naturally and The Hurried Child, here's his biography from the same site:

David Elkind is currently Professor Emeritus of Child Development at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts. He was formerly Professor of Psychology, Psychiatry and Education at the University of Rochester. Professor Elkind obtained his doctorate at U.C.L.A. and then spent a year as David Rapaport's research assistant at the Austen Riggs Center in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. He was a National Science Foundation Senior Postdoctoral Fellow at Piaget's Institut d' Epistemologie Genetique in Geneva. His research has been in the areas of perceptual, cognitive and social development where he has built upon the research and theory of Jean Piaget.

Professor Elkind has published research, theoretical articles, book chapters and 18 books. He has also written children’s stories for Jack and Jill, and been published in the New York Times Magazine, Good Housekeeping, Parade and Psychology Today. Recent articles include Computers and Young Children, The Authority of the Brain, The Cosmopolitan School, On Becoming a Grandfather, and Thanks for the Memory: The Lasting Value of True Play.

Well known for his writings, he is probably best known for his popular books, including The Hurried Child, a 25th anniversary edition of which was released in 2007, along with Professor Elkind’s newest book, The Power of Play: Learning What Comes Naturally.

A member of many professional organizations, Professor Elkind is also on the Editorial Board of numerous scientific journals, and a consultant to state education departments, government agencies and private foundations. He lectures in the United States, Canada and abroad. He’s also appeared on The Today Show, The CBS Morning News, Twenty/Twenty, Nightline, Donahue and the Oprah Winfrey Show, has been profiled in People and Boston Magazine and co-hosted the Lifetime Television Show, Kids These Days.
At university Professor Elkind fell in love with psychology. His doctorate was in clinical psychology, where he was trained as a Freudian. He took his postdoc with David Rapaport, a noted Freudian scholar who introduced Professor Elkind to Jean Piaget.

Professor Elkind has three sons and four granddaughters. He enjoys gardening, sailing and has recently taken up pottery.

Kite Competition

2010-03-26T21:35:00.000-07:00

To celebrate Easter, in the tradition of Florence, Italy, I am running a kite competition. Florence has a kite festival. I found this picture of a box kite at gutenberg.org in an old magazine called The Great Round World. It promises a box kite to anyone who adds a new subscriber. Too bad it's out of print.

I found an outstanding video about another kite festival in Italy. Who knew they made kites like these?!

And here's another video.

Tallis Scholars Live

2010-03-26T20:45:00.000-07:00

I forgot how much better live music is than "canned." At least, I've never owned a pair of speakers that could handle the sopranos of the Tallis Scholars. But when I saw them sing the other night, live in the Basilica of St. Mary--I heard what the music sounds like at full power, and why that handful of singers really are the top Renaissance choir in the world.

Spem in Alium, one of my favorites

Stellarium Update

2010-03-26T13:34:00.000-07:00

Stellarium, the online, downloadable, free planetarium just released a new updated version. Get it here.

No Current Events for the Young

2010-03-23T20:18:00.000-07:00

Why? I appeal to authority:

C. S. Lewis in Surprised by Joy, 159.
"I think those are very wrong who say that school-boys should be encouraged to read the newspapers. Nearly all that a boy reads there in his teens will be known before he is twenty to have been false in emphasis and interpretation, if not in fact as well, and most of it will have lost all importance. Most of what he remembers he will therefore have to unlearn; and he will probably have acquired an incurable taste for vulgarity and sensationalism and the fatal habit of fluttering from paragraph to paragraph to learn how an actress has been divorced in California, a train derailed in France, and quadruplets born in New Zealand."

And why does it tend this way?

Aristotle weighs in:
"A young man is not a proper hearer of lectures on political science; for he is inexperienced in the actions that occur in life, but its discussions start from these and are about these; and, further, since he tends to follow his passions, his study will be vain and unprofitable, because the end aimed at is not knowledge but action. And it makes no difference whether he is young in years or youthful in character; the defect does not depend on time, but on his living, and pursuing each successive object, as passion directs. For to such persons, as to the incontinent, knowledge brings no profit" (Nichomachean Ethics, Book I, Ch. 3, 1094b29-1095a12).

So throw out that class, and put something perrenial near your kids!

What's Around Me: On My Left No. 45 (Dilly Beans!)

2010-03-19T20:48:00.000-07:00

What's Around Me: On My Right No. 42

2010-03-11T12:02:00.000-08:00

We haven't courage

2010-03-11T11:56:00.000-08:00

'But we go on, said her visitor, rubbing his forehead, in an absent manner, with his hand, and then drumming thoughtfully on the table, 'we go on in our clockwork routine, from day to day, and can't make out, or follow, these changes. They--they're a metaphysical sort of thing. We--we haven't leisure for it. We--we haven't courage. They're not taught at schools or colleges, and we don't know how to set about it. In short, we are so d-------d business-like,' said the gentleman, walking to the window, and back, and sitting down again, in a state of extreme dissatisfaction and vexation.

'I am sure,' said the gentleman, rubbing his forehead again; and drumming on the table as before, 'I have good reason to believe that a jog-trot life, the same from day to day, would reconcile one to anything. One don't see anything, one don't hear anything, one don't know anything; that's the fact. We go on taking everything for granted, and so we go on, until whatever we do, good, bad, or indifferent, we do from habit. Habit is all I shall have to report, when I am called upon to plead to my conscience, on my death-bed. "Habit," says I; "I was deaf, dumb, blind, and paralytic, to a million things, from habit." ''Very business-like indeed, Mr What's-your-name,' says Conscience, ''but it won't do here!"'
--Charles Dickens, Dombey and Son, Ch. 33

What's Around Me: Just Before Me No. 66

2010-03-04T11:51:00.001-08:00

Science and Senses

2010-03-04T11:49:00.000-08:00

Spring is coming! Kite weather not far behind!

These days I've sent students outside to their regular "spot" (by the pond, beneath the trees, etc.) to observe everything they can observe about this area--changes, animals coming in and out, tracks & traces, sounds, smells, feels, weather, a guess at wind speed & direction, a guess at humidity and temperature, etc.

I've also had them go out each day and find the following:

5 things you heard.
2 things you smelled.
5 things you saw that you might easily have missed. This was the best exercise--this had them moving slowly and intently.
5 adjectives to describe five different "feels"--pliable twigs, crusty snow, brittle mushrooms, dusty lichen, etc.

House and School

2010-02-28T19:20:00.000-08:00

What's Around Me: Just Before Me No. 55

2010-02-19T14:06:00.001-08:00

Introduction to Poetry

2010-02-19T14:03:00.000-08:00

A wonderful poem by Billy Collins (to use maybe when you are introducing poetry!)

"Introduction to Poetry"

I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem's room
and feel the walls for a light switch.

I want then to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author's name on the shore.

But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with a rope
and torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.
--Billy Collins

What's Around Me: Overhead No. 22

2010-02-12T17:57:00.001-08:00

Last Child in the Woods

2010-02-12T16:59:00.000-08:00

I just read this interesting review / line-up of three books about why kids should be outside more. Did we need convincing? The books are:

Last Child in the Woods
Let's Go Outside
The Green Hour.

Investigate!

Moomin Valley

2010-02-11T18:05:00.000-08:00

I made a strange trade the other day. A dangerous character came up to me: "Read this," he said. I stared. He was holding Tove Jansson's Finn Family Moomintroll. I was in the middle of two other books. "Only if you read this," I said, handing him Booth Tarkington's Penrod. "Two chapters?" I added, "And I'll read two chapters of yours." What was I apprehensive about? The funny hippo-like cartoons? It didn't take long to become a fan of these wonderful, quirkly, profound, adventurous books. Snufkin, the wanderer-vagabond who fishes, smokes a pipe, plays harmonica, is what did it, of course. Try the official website to see all Jansson's books, her characters, her cartoons, and a host of related sites. Even if you hadn't read the books, the website would charm you with its interesting graphics. Buy these sweet Moomin Valley character mugs here. How happy would I be if someone bought me a Snufkin mug!

What's Around Me: Underfoot No. 18

2010-02-04T22:45:00.000-08:00

Snowflakes

2010-02-03T18:23:00.000-08:00

More beautiful photographs like this one and great explanations of how snowflakes form, as well as crystals in general are available here at SnowCrystals.com or here. Or buy W. A. Bentley's photographs, collected in a great book from Dover Publications.

Learn more about Bentley here.

Humor

2010-02-03T12:16:00.000-08:00

A friend sent me the wonderful quote below on humor by Hans Urs von Balthasar. It remind me of how Aristotle talks about the virtue of mirth here and here (Nichomachean Ethics II.7 and IV.8) and Aquinas does too (ST II-II, Q.168, Art.4) and Christopher Dawson waxes eloquent about magnanimity in "Catholocism and the Bourgeois Spirit." Mirth a virtue? Yes!

Hans Urs von Balthasar writes:
But the saints are never the kind of killjoy spinster aunts who go in for faultfinding and lack all sense of humor. (Nor should the Karl Barth who so loved and understood Mozart be regarded as such.) For humor is a mysterious but unmistakable charism inseparable from Catholic faith, and neither the "progressives" nor the "integralists" seem to possess it - the latter even less than the former.

Both of these tend to be faultfinders, malicious satirists, grumblers, carping critics, full of bitter scorn, know-it-alls who think they have the monopoly on infallible judgment; they are self-legitimizing prophets--in short, fanatics. (The word comes from fanum, "holy place", i.e., it denotes guardians of the temple threshold, transported into frenzy by the Divinity. They are ill-humored, as was Jansenism in toto, which spread like a blight, for centuries, over the spiritual life of France. Perhaps Claudel and Bernanos were the first to be completely free from it.) And naturally they are critics before all else.

Having thoroughly criticized the pure, the practical and the judging reason, there is nothing left of reason but criticism itself, the real "thing-in-itself" that grinds up everything that comes between its millstones—all thinking about God, the language in which it is expressed, every form of proclaiming the message (Fichte began his career with an attempt at a critique of all revelation), and every recognizable feature of the Church itself, is a contradiction in terms. Whatever is, should not be or it should be otherwise; "changing the world"—that is the secret password of these humorless hard-liners.

They are rigid, while the Catholic is pliable, flexible, yielding, because the latter's firmness is not based on himself and his own opinion but on God, who is the "ever-greater."

They are either fanatically "come of age" (the Progressives) or fanatically immature (the integralists who clamor for the tangible exercise of papal authority and elevate to the status of dogma things that are not, such as Communion on the tongue and all kinds of apparitions of the Mother of God, etc.). Just as the fanatics who insisted on the soli of the Reformation were condemned, by an iron law of the philosophy of history, to bring about the very opposite of what they intended and thus fall prey to the schizophrenia of dialectics, so today the elements on the fringe of Catholicism, progressivism and integralism, are forever metamorphosing into each other, dialectically provoking each other into existence.

True enough, not everyone in the Catholic Church is what he should be: holy. And not all possess the balance that we have indicated by the reference to humor.

Somehow it bespeaks a sense of humor when the Catholic Church, which, since the time of the Church Fathers, through High Scholasticism and modern humanism, was always inclined to absorb and integrate the heritage of antiquity and even of all non-Christian religions, responds to the Reformation with the putti of the Bavarian Baroque. And decidedly humorous is the way Chesterton, the defender of "nonsense, humility, penny dreadfuls and other despised things", answers the bestial seriousness and despairing optimism of modern world views—which are united in their opposition to Rome—saying that only the Catholic form guarantees the miraculous quality of being, the freedom, the sense of being a child, of adventure, the resilient, energizing paradox of existence:

"A bird is active, because a bird is soft. A stone is helpless, because a stone is hard. A stone must by its own nature go downwards, because hardness is weakness. The bird can of its nature go upwards, because fragility is force. In perfect force there is a kind of frivolity, an airiness that can maintain itself in the air.... Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly. This has always been the instinct of Christendom. . . . Pride is the downward drag of all things into an easy solemnity. One "settles down" into a sort of selfish seriousness; but one has to rise to a gay self-forgetfulness. A man "falls" into a brown study; he reaches up at a blue sky. Seriousness is not a virtue. . . . It is really a natural trend or lapse into taking one's self gravely, because it is the easiest thing to do. It is much easier to write a good Times leading article than a good joke in Punch, for solemnity flows out of men naturally; but laughter is a leap. It is easy to be heavy: hard to be light. Satan fell by the force of gravity."

"Looking down on things [from Zarathustra's mountains] may be a delightful experience, but there is nothing, from a mountain to a cabbage, that is really seen when it is seen from a balloon....at the moment when we attempt to appreciate things as they should be appreciated.... We do actually go through a process of mental asceticism, a castration of the entire being, when we wish to feel the abounding good in all things."

The book on the humor of the saints has yet to be written. Goethe has given us a short excerpt of it in his Philipp Neri, der humoristische Heilige (the humorous saint), particularly in the latter's far from reverential exchange of notes with Clement VIII. But what merriment do we find as early as Irenaeus, when he pricks the shimmering bubbles of the gnostic world systems! And in Clement of Alexandria, too, when he juggles with these systems like a circus artist.

What a boyish spirit of adventure in Bonaventure's "Chart for the soul's journey to God"! What flashes of humor (for which one seeks in vain in the solemn Reformers) in Ignatius Loyola and Teresa of Avila! And, nearer to us in time, what charming mischief in little Therese, to say nothing of Claudel's homely laughter (through tears of passion).

What a lighthearted grandezza in Peguy as he opens his Christian soul to all Jewish and Gentile values, only to lay down all these treasures, smilingly, at the crib (in Eve); what a loving forbearance did Madeleine Deibrel have for the shortcomings of Christians (whom she wished were burning torches).

And I take the liberty, with a good conscience, of appropriating for the Catholica the humor of C. S. Lewis (whose tales are more beautiful than Brentano's) and Ljeskov, for whom life with all its terrors remained a single paradoxical miracle. Then there is Kierkegaard, who looks wistfully beyond the limits of his melancholy religion toward the Catholic paradise where, in spite of all its seriousness, one may be "a little mischievous," where "all that is childlike recurs in one may a heightened form, as a mature naivete, simplicity, wonder, humor."

Peguy's final categories (in the Note Conjointe) are the "morale souple" and the "morale raide" - the pliant, flexible attitude to life versus the rigid attitude that we also find among Christians. For him, flexibility has nothing to do with laxity: on the contrary, it places greater demands on man and on his love than any comfortable rigidity.

It would be useful if at this point we could make a survey of the papacy in a world context: papacy and diplomacy, papacy and humanism (from Damasus through Gregory I to Gregory XVI, up to the writings of Paul VI), a papacy that is easygoing in nonessentials but unyielding concerning the slightest deviation, the merest jot (homoousios instead of homoiousios) that represents the tip of a hidden iceberg on which the bark of the whole Church would smash to pieces.

Most of the time all that is needed is the occasional light touch of the helmsman's hand. Even if not all popes have lived up to this ethos that is inherent in their calling - particularly when the office of Peter was overshadowed by state power - one may still say that it belongs to the very concept and the particular ethos of their mission.

Hans Urs von Balthasar, from The Office of Peter and the Structure of the Church (San Francisco: Ignatius Press)

What's Around Me: On My Right No. 41

2010-02-01T20:37:00.000-08:00

The Perfect Sunday

2010-01-31T18:41:00.000-08:00

Below is a photograph essay of the perfect Sunday. But what is that? Get an idea below and read more here in John Paul II's Dies Domini. Take Sunday back! Glean ideas and understanding with Josef Pieper's marvelous In Tune with Reality: A Theory of Festivity. Buy it here.

This is the Day the Lord hath made. “Do not be afraid to give your time to Christ!’’writes John Paul II. It celebrates the creation of the world and the great love God has for us--so much so that He sent His only Son!

Exploration of the Perfect Sunday

2010-01-30T19:37:00.000-08:00

What's Around Me: On My Left No. 44

2010-01-22T19:12:00.000-08:00

Cave of Crystals

2010-01-22T19:00:00.000-08:00

As part of the BBC production How Earth Made Us, Iain Stewart visits an amazing cave in Mexico. You can learn more about the cave he re or watch the beautiful footage.

Below is a shorter if clearer clip of the same footage.

What's Around Me: On My Left No. 43

2010-01-15T22:00:00.000-08:00

Dombey and Son

2010-01-15T20:43:00.000-08:00

. . . the Doctor, leaning back in his chair, with his hand in his breast as usual, held a book from him at arm's length, and read. There was something very awful in this manner of reading. It was such a determined, unimpassioned, inflexible, cold-blooded way of going to work. . . .

What a great line from Charles Dicken's Dombey and Son available free here.

In his Iris Exiled: A Synoptic History of Wonder, Dennis Quinn recommends Dombey and Son as a book about an education in wonder. So now I'm reading it, via the excellent audio version by Mil Nicholson who does a fantastic job for Librivox.org reading all the voices impeccably. Dennis Quinn was one of a triumverate, running the Integrated Humanities Program at the University of Kansas, a program so sadly short-lived but so influential and so wonderful. Here is a great article on this program.

And here is another line from Dombey and Son. . .
Whenever a young gentleman was taken in hand by Doctor Blimber, he might consider himself sure of a pretty tight squeeze. The Doctor only undertook the charge of ten young gentlemen, but he had, always ready, a supply of learning for a hundred, on the lowest estimate; and it was at once the business and delight of his life to gorge the unhappy ten with it.

In fact, Doctor Blimber's establishment was a great hot-house, in which there was a forcing apparatus incessantly at work. All the boys blew before their time. Mental green-peas were produced at Christmas, and intellectual asparagus all the year round. Mathematical gooseberries (very sour ones too) were common at untimely seasons, and from mere sprouts of bushes, under Doctor Blimber's cultivation. Every description of Greek and Latin vegetable was got off the driest twigs of boys, under the frostiest circumstances. Nature was of no consequence at all. No matter what a young gentleman was intended to bear, Doctor Blimber made him bear to pattern, somehow or other.

Fox and Beaver Pelt: the Huron Christmas Carol

2010-01-15T20:08:00.000-08:00

I just ran across this beautiful carol by Jean de Brebeuf, Jesuit priest and martyr, written for the Hurons, using their language and favorite images.

Here is one verse as given in the Adoremus Bulletin
Aloki ekwatatennonten shekwachiendaen
Iontonk ontatiande ndio sen tsatonnharonnion
Ouarie onnawakueton ndio sen tsatonnharonnion
Iesous ahatonnia!

Here is the carol in full--in which hunters hunting by the winter moon hear a sound and bring pelts of fox and beaver to the new born babe.

Twas in the moon of wintertime
When all the birds had fled,
That mighty Gitchi Manitou
Sent angel choirs instead;

Before their light the stars grew dim,
And wond'ring hunters heard the hymn:
Jesus, your King is born,
Jesus is born,
In excelsis gloria.

O, harken to the angels' word,
Do not decline
To heed the message which you heard:
The Child Divine,
As they proclaim, has come this morn
Of Mary pure. Let us adore.
Jesus is born,
In excelsis gloria.

Within a lodge of broken bark
The tender Babe was found,
A ragged robe of rabbit skin
Enwrapp'd His beauty 'round;
But as the hunter braves drew nigh,
The angel song rang loud and high:
Jesus, your King is born,
Jesus is born,
In excelsis gloria.

The earliest moon of wintertime
Is not so round and fair
As was the ring of glory on
The helpless infant there.
The chiefs from far before Him knelt
With gifts of fox and beaver pelt.
Jesus, your King is born,
Jesus is born,
In excelsis gloria.

O children of the forest free,
O sons of Manitou,
The Holy Child of earth and heav'n
Is born today for you.
Come kneel before the radiant boy;
Who brings you beauty, peace and joy.
Jesus, your King is born,
Jesus is born,
In excelsis gloria.

What's Around Me: On My Right No. 40

2010-01-09T20:25:00.001-08:00

Best Sculptors

2010-01-09T20:19:00.000-08:00

Here's the website and biography for Andrew Wilson Smith. What striking work!--and the portfolio is outstanding. His works seem to combine something ancient and medieval: the classical beauty of form and body with the kinetic particular personality of a medieval saint guarding Chartres. He captures people both as they are and as they ought to be. The American School in Switzerland commissioned him to do the fountain above. What a good idea!

What's Around Me: Just Before Me No. 54 (Christmas Dinner is Roast Beast, Yorkshire Pudding, Champignons Bordelaise, and Green Beans. Huzzah!)

2009-12-28T19:36:00.000-08:00

Survival Websites

2009-12-28T15:35:00.000-08:00

Two websites have become invaluable resources. However, I agree with Kathy Harrison, the author of Just In Case: How to be Self-Sufficient When the Unexpected Happens: when the unexpected happens, you usually don't have access to the Internet. Experience is all-important, but if you don't have that, some written notes might help.

Here's a PDF of the Army Survival Handbook, FM 21-76-1, from June 1999.

Here's the ultimate backpacker's guide: Survival Topics. The fire-starter section is amazing.

Here's Harrison's blog and her book.

What's Around Me: Just Before Me No. 52

2009-12-19T20:13:00.000-08:00

Camps

2009-12-18T20:16:00.000-08:00

Though I can't post much about it now, I'll be throwing out some good ideas as I put together the Winter Adventure Camp I'm running this January or collegiate programs I'm helping to run this summer.

The Winter Adventure Camp is for kids 5th-7th grade. Read more here. Survival skills, fire-building, Russian folk-tales, story-telling . . . bring extra socks and get ready to engage COLD WEATHER!

The latter two programs (The Beauty of Truth Collegiate program & Catholic Leadership program) are for juniors and seniors in high-school and take place out at the Thomas More College of Liberal Arts. Read more here. As I was reviewing the website, I realized that I forgot to remember that an amazing art atelier will be going on simultaneously and offering Iconography and naturalistic drawing in the Baroque tradition.

On a personal note, having spent no time in New England, I am looking forward to swimming off the coast of Maine( Edna St. Vincent Millay country.) And of course, I'll enjoy putting my own course together with Tolkien's exquisite "Leaf by Niggle" story, some star-gazing perhaps, and maybe this poem:

I know I might have lived in such a way
As to have suffered only pain:
Loving not man nor dog;
Not money, even; feeling
Toothache perhaps, but never more than an hour away
From skill and novocaine;
Making no contacts, dealing with life through agents, drinking
one cocktail, betting two dollars, wearing raincoats in the
rain.
Betrayed at length by no one but the fog
Whispering to the wing of the plane. . . (from Millay's "Fontaine, Je Ne Boirai Pas De Ton Eau!")

What's Around Me: On My Right No. 37 (St. Nicholas came!)

2009-12-11T21:35:00.000-08:00

Welcome to "One of Those Dreary Old Blogs Where They Talk about Birth Control and Communism"

2009-12-11T20:32:00.000-08:00

Reading over the FAQ in The Manhattan Declaration, I was reminded of the enormous hubbub that followed Pope Benedict's comment that condoms were NOT the solution to HIV in Africa.

How people argued! Here is a summary of the friends (Edward C. Green, director of Harvard AIDS Prevention Research Project and Giuseppe Caramazza) and foes (Christopher Brauchli and James Carrol), from The Atlantic Wire. Here is Green's interview where he concurred with Pope Benedict XVI.

Here is Humanae Vitae and here is Malcolm Muggeridge on Humanae Vitae (from A Fireside Chat with Malcolm Muggeridge). After I read the very expensive out-of-print Dietrich Von Hildebrand's Encyclical Humanae Vitae: a Sign of Contradiction this Christmas, there might be more to post.

I was just talking to some people the other day about the Fall of the Berlin Wall and what it felt like to watch it happening. How good would it be to see this wall of contraception topple as well and let the fresh AIR IN!

Anyway, here's Muggeridge:
"That encyclical is an interesting indication of the way that the Catholic Church is supernaturally guided... the majority of a commission (to advise the pope) wanted him to go along with the way society was going and allow contraception, but a minority of the theologians who advised him said that one shouldn’t. And they pointed out that once the Church accepted that the sexual act could be legitimately separated from the transmission of life, there would be no logical objection to any form of perversion whatsoever. It was Humanae Vitae more than anything else which made me feel that I must belong to that Church that could have the extraordinary insight and courage to produce that as an encyclical, knowing that it would be absolutely torn to pieces, that it was almost a kind of blasphemy in the idiotic society we live in. This was one of the things that made me feel that I must be counted up with them" (49-50).

What's Around Me: Just Before Me No. 51

2009-12-04T21:08:00.000-08:00

Making Limoncello

2009-12-04T20:08:00.000-08:00

I gave it away, but I am making limoncello for Christmas presents, inspired by artist-adventurers Ben & Anna Hatke, who made it from scratch a few years ago. I had to go adventuring to Wisconsin to get Everclear. This video was the best recipe I found out of thousands on the Internet--easy and funny. Come Christmas, we'll see how it tastes.

Clever Presents

2009-12-04T19:18:00.000-08:00

Everybody wants to give gifts and do gift exchanges--which can be fine, but doesn't it seem that so often, we get commercial and disappointed and stressed about finding "good" presents? And some of us are too broke to view gift-giving as anything but a burden. But what if it wasn't? Are there cheap, interesting, useful or fun things you can give?

Yes! If a girl's group or class or a family wanted to do Secret Santas / Advent Angels / Kris Kringels (what have you), I'd recommend the following. They would all have to agree to do these kinds of things, however, or we'd be back to the drawing board.

Here are 60 Wonderful Inexpensive Gifts.

A note of encouragement
A quarter to light a candle for a special intention
Beautiful pictures cut from magazines
Stickers
Shells, with guide
Rocks, with guide
Beautiful leaves
Nuts
Buckeyes
Pen
Pencil
Eraser
Markers
Glue-stick
High-lighter
Spool of thread
Sewing needle
Barrette
Hair-Tie
A dried rose
Pressed flowers
Holy Card
Book-mark
Really good cookie recipe or other family recipes
Piece of wrapped candy
Maze you made yourself
Connect-the-dots you made yourself
Crossword puzzle
Word-search
A funny comic from the “funnies”
A small bag of bird-seed
On-sale cake mix
Something nice from your parents’ garden (with your parent’s permission, of course
Walking stick from a hike.
A stamp for a letter.
Sacred Heart Badge
Holy Medal
A good poem
A good story
Beads
Sheet music to a beautiful song
Can of pop
Ribbon
Rosary
Silly putty
A drawing you did
An orange full of cloves
Cinnamon stick
A tea-light candle
Yo-yo
Marbles
Rubber ball
Tiny Squirt gun
Good quote about holiness, friendship, beauty, etc. from something you read that they can write down in their spiritual diary.
Interesting piece of fabric
Tape measure
Whistle
Origami creatures
A sling
A Dover book

What's Around Me: Just Before Me No. 50

2009-11-27T21:26:00.001-08:00

Farm Internships

2009-11-27T21:10:00.000-08:00

Anybody interested in learning a little farming in return for labor (as opposed to spending $14,000 at a farm school that shall remain nameless), anybody who just wants to get their feet wet--so they can keep bees or have an orchard or some chickens . . . Now is the time to look for a farm internship for this coming spring and summer!

Internship listings are here at the National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service.

Sailor: Education for Wonder

Quadrivium

What's Around Me: Overhead No. 29

The Geminids are coming!

This is Indiana, No. 15

For the sick days: four cures

This is Indiana, No. 14

How to Open a Pomegranate

This is Indiana, No. 13

This is Indiana, No. 12

How to Raise Boys That Read

This is Indiana, No. 11

This is Indiana, No. 10

In Full Freshness

What's Around Me: Just Before Me No. 59

This is Indiana, No. 9

This is Indiana, No. 8

This is Indiana, No. 7

An Education in the Sense of Smell: the Top 101 Smells

This is Indiana, No. 6

Life Amongst Eleven Children

What's Around Me: Just Before Me No. 58

This is Indiana, No. 5

Poetry Experiences

This is Indiana, No. 4

A Wise Man

This is Indiana, No. 3

This is Indiana, No. 2

This is Indiana, No. 1

Dover Fascimiles

Cymbeline (400th anniversary)

Perseid Meteor Shower: It's not too late

Best Illustrators II

What's Around Me: Overhead No. 28

What's Around Me: On My Left No. 49

What's Around Me: Just Before Me No. 57

What's Around Me: Overhead No. 27

Identifying Wildflowers

What's Around Me: On My Right No. 45

French Sodas and New York Egg Cream

Thus their brightness is eclipsed

What's Around Me: Underfoot No. 20

What's Around Me: Overhead No. 26

What's Around Me: On My Right No. 44

What's Around Me: On My Left No. 48

A Taste for the Beautiful

What's Around Me: Overhead No. 25

What's Around Me: Underfoot No. 18

What's Around Me: On My Left No. 47

What's Around Me: On My Left No. 46

What's Around Me: On My Right No. 43

Making Bows and Arrows

They don't make Inns like they used to

What's Around Me: Just Before Me No. 56

Best Directors

What's Around Me: Overhead No. 24

What's Around Me: Underfoot No. 19

What's Around Me: On My Left No. 45

What's Around Me: Overhead No. 23

Spring Project: Stilts

Free Time

Kite Competition

Tallis Scholars Live

Read more Fairy-Tales

Stellarium Update

No Current Events for the Young

What's Around Me: On My Left No. 45 (Dilly Beans!)

What's Around Me: On My Right No. 42

We haven't courage

What's Around Me: Just Before Me No. 66

Science and Senses

House and School

What's Around Me: Just Before Me No. 55

Introduction to Poetry

What's Around Me: Overhead No. 22

Last Child in the Woods

Moomin Valley

What's Around Me: Underfoot No. 18

Snowflakes

Humor