dual personalities

September 21, 2022

Too much fun, what’s that mean?

by chuckofish

Well, I’m back from Maryland after a super fun visit. As I mentioned last week, I had a very early flight. But, the benefit of arriving before TSA opens is that you reach your destination by 9 a.m., leaving you the whole day to visit. After dropping my bags at Susie’s house, we hit the road to outer suburbia to visit Glenstone, a DN favorite. According to the website, “Glenstone is a place that seamlessly integrates art, architecture, and nature into a serene and contemplative environment.”

A Koons peaks over the hill.

The website also says, “Guided by the personal vision of its founders, Glenstone assembles post-World War II artworks of the highest quality that trace the greatest historical shifts in the way we experience and understand art of the 20th and 21st centuries. These works are presented in a series of refined indoor and outdoor spaces designed to facilitate meaningful encounters for our visitors.”

It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed the sunshine and walking around. Next, we picked up Katie and headed to the University of Maryland campus for an ice cream treat and to meet up with Nate. Of course, we stopped by the Kermit statue.

The next day, since everyone was taking a day off from work, we ventured out to Annapolis.

We saw the Maryland state house, which is the oldest state capitol in continuous legislative use.

We also saw this old cannon that was brought by early settlers in 1634 and then found in the river in 1822. Naturally, the DAR presented the plaque.

We visited the William Paca house and gardens. Paca was one of Maryland’s four signers of the Declaration of Independence and a former governor. I did not get a good picture of the house, although it was a lovely example of Georgian architecture.

We also visited two playgrounds and had fun on the swings and other playground equipment.

On my last night, we secured a table at Zinnia, a restaurant in an old stage coach stop. It has a lovely garden that was just the right vibe.

I had the best time and was sad to leave on Sunday.

Sadly, we did not take any full group pictures, but this one is pretty cute.

3 Comments
September 20, 2022

A holy rest

by chuckofish

My lunch date was canceled yesterday so I was able to tune into the committal service at St. George’s Chapel at Windsor for Queen Elizabeth on the BBC.

It was remarkably humble and solemn.

As soon as the choir of men and boys began to sing, although I am no royalist, the tears came and I sobbed, surprising myself. Sitting alone, I had a good cry.

And the solitary piper doing the slow walk…

Well, this old (former) Episcopalian was quite moved.

And I have to say that I was mighty impressed to read that David Beckham had stood in line for thirteen hours waiting with his fellow countrymen to pay his respects to his queen. Isn’t it surprising when a celebrity acts well?

As a father shows compassion to his children,
    so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.
14 For he knows our frame;[a]
    he remembers that we are dust.

15 As for man, his days are like grass;
    he flourishes like a flower of the field;
16 for the wind passes over it, and it is gone,
    and its place knows it no more.
17 But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him,
    and his righteousness to children’s children,
18 to those who keep his covenant
    and remember to do his commandments.
19 The Lord has established his throne in the heavens,
    and his kingdom rules over all.

20 Bless the Lord, O you his angels,
    you mighty ones who do his word,
    obeying the voice of his word!
21 Bless the Lord, all his hosts,
    his ministers, who do his will!
22 Bless the Lord, all his works,
    in all places of his dominion.
Bless the Lord, O my soul!

Psalm 103: 13-22

Into your hands, O merciful Savior, we commend your servant Elizabeth. Acknowledge, we humbly beseech you, a sheep of your own fold, a lamb of your own flock, a sinner of your own redeeming. Receive her into the arms of your mercy, into the blessed rest of everlasting peace, and into the glorious company of the saints in light. Amen.

7 Comments
September 19, 2022

We will feast in the house of Zion

by chuckofish

How was your weekend? Ours was quiet and we stayed close to home. The OM and I did venture out to the annual Greentree Parade which was on Saturday. We hiked over to Kirkwood Road to watch from our usual spot.

There were the usual Boy Scouts and the KHS marching band…

… and various veterans…

…as well as some floats…

But on the whole it was rather lackluster. All the kids seemed to care about was scrambling for candy. There were no churches represented and the businesses were mostly random dentists and the like. Well, whatever.

In other news, our neighbors across the street moved out. After seven years of them driving me crazy with their RV and their trampoline and their terrible lawn, I am kind of sad and I know I will miss them. They were really very nice people and I already miss their high school son coming and going in his little white car. God only knows who will move in.

Also I haven’t seen my foxy friend in over a week. For awhile I would see him every day walking across my yard or chillin’ on my driveway.

I hope he is okay.

Well, everything kind of makes me sad these days and I think that is because of the general sorry state of the world and the end of it as we knew it. Maybe I am just getting old and turning into one of those old ladies who likes to talk about the olden days. Change is hard.

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.

2 Corinthians 4:16

I’ll hang in there if you do. Because, as you know, we are bidden to rejoice and always to rejoice.

4 Comments
September 16, 2022

It’s too late to do anything here now except stand in the dark and let them come…

by chuckofish

Another week has zoomed by and I have nothing to report. All is well. Sometime recently I did watch a wonderfully enjoyable movie, Alfred Hitchcock’s Foreign Correspondent (1940) starring Joel McCrea, Laraine Day, George Sanders, Herbert Marshall and Edmund Gwenn. The action takes place in Europe and England on the eve of WWII as John Jones (McCrea) tries to solve the mystery of a pro-peace diplomat’s murder. The murder scene is brilliantly shot. I particularly liked the aerial shot of John Jones chasing the murderer through the crowd.

Love and adventure ensue. The scenes in which Jones woos the daughter (Laraine Day) of another peace-party diplomat (Herbert Marshall) are light and often funny, but parts of the movie are surprisingly tense, as when Jones has to climb across the rooftops at night or when Edmund Gwenn, an affable hired killer (talk about casting against type!), tries to push Jones out a tower window.

Come to think of it, there is quite a lot of casting against type. Imagine George Sanders as a suave but friendly good guy, rather than his usual suave cad. I kept waiting for him to turn out to be a villain but (spoiler alert) he remained suavely supportive throughout the film. (Sorry for repeating ‘suave’ but no one is more suave than George Sanders.) There wasn’t even the usual competition over the girl.

I don’t want to give too much of the plot away. Suffice it to say that although everyone ends up adrift in a choppy sea,

love and good triumph. Foreign Correspondent is the type of movie they don’t make anymore. If you haven’t seen it, watch it. If you have, watch it again. I would also recommend Hitchcock’s The Lady Vanishes (1938) starring Margaret Lockwood and Michael Redgrave, which is equally charming and exciting. The supporting cast are fantastic, the script witty and well written and the direction excellent. Nowadays they don’t bother writing good scripts or pay much attention to direction (or so it seems to me) but as long as we can still watch old movies, we’ll be fine.

Have a great weekend!

4 Comments
September 15, 2022

Come prodigal children

by chuckofish

The other night when I was looking around for something to read I re-read Shirley Jackson’s great short story about Charles. You remember, the one about the disruptive kindergartner in her son Laurie’s class.

The day Laurie started kindergarten he renounced corduroy overalls with bibs and began wearing blue jeans with a belt; I watched him go off the first morning with the older girl next door, seeing clearly that an era of my life was ended, my sweet-voiced nursery-school tot replaced by a long-trousered, swaggering character who forgot to stop at the corner and wave goodbye to me.

He came home the same way, the front door slamming open, his cap on the floor, and the voice suddenly become raucous shouting, “Isn’t anybody here?”

At lunch he spoke insolently to his father, spilled Jannie’s milk, and remarked that his teacher said that we were not to take the name of the Lord in vain.

“How was school today?” his father asked.

“All right,” he said.

“Did you learn anything” his father asked.

Laurie regarded his father coldly. “I didn’t learn nothing,” he said.

“Anything,” I said. “Didn’t learn anything.”

“The teacher spanked a boy, though,” Laurie said, addressing his bread and butter. “For being fresh,” he added with his mouth full.

“What did he do?” I asked. “Who was it?”

Laurie thought. “It was Charles,” he said. “He was fresh. The teacher spanked him and made him stand in a corner. He was awfully fresh.”

I seem to recall that it was a favorite story of the boy and I hope he will read this story to his two kindergartners. I bet they would all get a kick out of it and the wee twins could learn some new words like “spank” and “fresh”…also insolent and renounce and regard. It is an artfully written story, as all Jackson’s stories are. On second thought, maybe he should not. It might give them ideas.

You can read the entire story here.

Today my Bible Study starts up again. We are reading the Epistle to the Hebrews, which is the perfect follow-up to Leviticus.

Now if perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), what further need would there have been for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek, rather than one named after the order of Aaron?

–Hebrews 7: 11

I will be in a different group since our old leader has gone back to school to start work on a degree in Christian Counseling. I will miss our old group, but look forward to getting to know some more women at my church.

If you feel like it, you can toast Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680), the noted French author of maxims and memoirs, who was born on this day in Paris to a noble family. His great-grandfather François III, count de La Rochefoucauld, a Huguenot, was murdered in the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre.

He did not seem to hold a grudge.

The reason why so few persons are agreeable in conversation is that each thinks more of what he desires to say, than of what the others say, and that we make bad listeners when we want to speak. Yet it is necessary to listen to those who talk, we should give them the time they want, and let them say even senseless things; never contradict or interrupt them; on the contrary, we should enter into their mind and taste, illustrate their meaning, praise anything they say that deserves praise, and let them see we praise more from our choice than from agreement with them. To please others we should talk on subjects they like and that interest them, avoid disputes upon indifferent matters, seldom ask questions, and never let them see that we pretend to be better informed than they are.

–Reflections on Various Subjects

Grace and peace to you this fine Thursday in September. Read some de La Rochefoucauld maxims here.

And I like Zach Williams’s new song:

2 Comments
September 14, 2022

“Bring me a Charbonnay!”

by chuckofish

Well, Daughter #1 here, must be Wednesday. Disturbing news reached me last week. No, I’m not talking about a bag of Doritos costing almost $6. And no, I’m not talking about my electric bill. Brooklyn-99 is leaving Hulu and moving to Peacock. I think we’d have more luck finding someone who pays for Paramount+ or whatever the CBS platform is (or possibly this) than Peacock!

Anyway, enough jokes. Looks like someone remembered Aunt Mary is coming to visit tomorrow.

I’ve got my suitcase out…but have a ways to go before I’ll be packed.

Pray for safe travels–my flight tomorrow leaves at 5:40 a.m. Thanks to my mother for driving me to the airport at 3:15 a.m. Good times.

*The title is not a typo. Please watch this extended clip of a great subplot. And join me in mourning as my friends Captain Holt and the squad at the nine-nine are forever banished to a streaming platform paid for by no one.

4 Comments
September 13, 2022

A little venting

by chuckofish

Yesterday afternoon I went over to an old friend’s house to watch a movie on her huge-screen TV. This is something we do now that we are retired. My rude daughter #1 calls them “playdates”. Anyway, we watched the newest Jurassic World movie, Dominion. It was the extended version–two hours and 40 minutes. When I got home I wrote a detailed review of how really bad it was, and then my computer froze and I lost my review when I rebooted.

Well, it is probably just as well. I undoubtedly would have offended someone with my thoughts about emasculated men and genetically altered female clones who can procreate by themselves, and idiots who declare, “Science is truth!” but the minute they get in a tight spot are screaming, “Oh my God! Oh my God!” Irony unintended.

I’m sure Chris Pratt was paid a bezillion dollars for his twenty minutes of screen time, but he should bow out of any further sequels. The scene where he is rounding up dinosaurs on horseback (all CGI) was just embarrassing.

And once you’ve seen one dinosaur chomp someone’s head off, you’ve seen them all. Ho hum.

Anyway, after that I had to cleanse my palate with a good old fashioned John Wayne western–in this case The Comancheros (1961).

Equilibrium adjusted.

I finished the new Longmire book, Hell and Back, by Craig Johnson, and I have to say, I was disappointed. It was okay, but not up to his standard. I guess Johnson, at this point, is just churning them out one-a-year for his publisher. As one Amazon reviewer concluded his negative take, “And Henry says ‘I’m.'”–all aficionados know, Henry never speaks in contractions. A rush job and inadequate editing. Sigh.

Back to Richard Scarry

I liked this post. “My tendency to want to please people urges me to take the sharp edges off the Bible, to bring fog into its clarity. But, such a road only leads to me as lord—and that is the path of destruction.”

5 Comments
September 12, 2022

Lift up your heart, lift up your voice!*

by chuckofish

Well, how was your weekend?

We toasted the queen…

…whom I will miss especially because she always reminded me of my mother and now that connection is gone.

We toasted daughter #1 and celebrated her birthday yesterday…

And we toasted all those brave souls who died on September 11, 2001. Last year I included a video in a blogpost about a fine young man who died in one of the towers helping others and I encourage you to watch it again. Lest we forget.

Yes, there was a lot of toasting, but some events call for that. L’chaim! In the midst of life we are in death (BCP).

This reminder of the Budweiser ad that only aired once in honor of 9/11 is cool.

And I liked this article about taking up your cross daily. “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me,” Jesus says.

For when we cease to worship God, we do not worship nothing, we worship anything.

–G.K. Chesterton

What do you worship? Yourself? Science? Social Justice? It’s an important question.

*Charles Wesley, 1744

4 Comments
September 9, 2022

Pulvis et umbra sumus (We are but dust and shadow)*

by chuckofish

Yesterday’s news about Queen Elizabeth came as something of a shock, although upon reflection one couldn’t really be surprised. After all, she was 96. It’s just that for my entire life Queen Elizabeth ruled. To put that in perspective, someone on a Listserv I belong to wrote, “It is said that that less than ten percent of the world’s living population has known any other British monarch.” She was an anchor, the very pillar of normalcy. The parasitic media will talk about her endlessly, and I don’t want to add to the noise except to say that I feel very saddened by her passing. It feels as if we have been cut off not so much from the queen herself, but from all that she lived through — the Great Depression, WWII, Korea, the Cold War, Vietnam, the Swinging ’60s, the embarrassingly bad ’70s, Glasnost — and now we are stuck, rudderless in this crazy, warped, and weird present. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like feeling as if the 20th century has receded into unreachable history because that means that the greater part of my life has as well.

Whatever you think about monarchy or the royal family, no one can say that the queen did not earn her rest. She served her people unselfishly and with great devotion throughout her entire life. Into paradise may the angels sing thee.

In oddly related news, our very own Chris and Nicole head off today to start their two week honeymoon, starting in England, then moving on to Scotland and Iceland. We hope they travel safely and manage to have fun despite the disruption of national mourning. Make no mistake, most people in the UK loved their queen and will feel lost without her. King Charles will have a hard time taking his mother’s place.

Have a good weekend and keep the faith. The world is a strange, sad place, but there’s plenty of good in it as well. Let’s go find it!

*Horace, Odes (1st cen. BC)

2 Comments
September 8, 2022

Here in the spacious classroom of the world*

by chuckofish

I have been inspired by daughter #1 to read some David McCullough history, but first I have to read #18 in the Walt Longmire series by Craig Johnson. My copy of Hell and Back arrived in the mail on schedule on Tuesday and I dove right in. I’ll let you now how it goes.

I am also reading Dane Ortlund’s Deeper for our women’s book group at church. I am not really one for book clubs since I tend to be too critical and usually am triggered by people and their comments, but I thought I’d give it a whirl. It will be good practice on keeping my mouth shut.

Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few.

Ecclesiastes 5:2

I watched the original To Be or Not to Be (1942) starring Jack Benny and Carol Lombard earlier this week and it really is a terrific movie. It is Ernst Lubitsch at his best. The plot revolves around a troupe of actors in Nazi-occupied Warsaw who use their talents with disguise and acting to fool the occupying troops. It is a very funny, dark comedy about a not-very-funny situation. It is witty and light and never crosses the line into slapstick. Carole Lombard, radiantly beautiful and smart, was never better. (Sadly, she died before the movie was released.) And Jack Benny, who supposedly felt out of his depth, does a fine job as the hack actor who must rise to the occasion several times. Felix Bressart as Greenberg, who dreams of playing Shylock, stands out among the supporting cast, but they are all terrific.

Mel Brooks remade To Be or Not to Be in 1983 and, as I recall, it is a good movie too. But as comedies go, the original is one of the Top 10 best.

Also, I stumbled upon this old blogpost and I think the Oswald Chambers quote bears repeating.

P.S. John Wayne: An American Experience was voted the Best Museum in Fort Worth by the readers of @fwtxmag 🤠 (I voted.)

Have a good Thursday!

*Billy Collins, “The Only Day in Existence”

4 Comments