dual personalities

Tag: reading

February 21, 2022

“Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take”*

by chuckofish

After a period of rain, sleet and snow, we enjoyed a pleasant and sunny weekend. It was in the 60s on Sunday! There is more rain and snow on the horizon this week, but, have no fear, the end of February is in sight. “Can spring be far behind?”

We had a quiet weekend. We managed to install our new tv, which involved more than just plugging it in. I had to leave the house for a bit while the OM hooked it up to the internet.

Later we watched a little speedskating and cross country skiing–our only nod to these Olympics–before switching over to the PGA.

For years I have been reading the blog New York Social Diary–I think I started when daughter #1 lived in Manhattan. I continued, not because I am particularly interested in New York high society, but because the writer David Patrick Columbia is a very interesting guy. He is curious about history and people and he writes about them in a detached manner. He is, moreover, a kind man, a nice guy. Tall, handsome, waspy, gay–he is the kind of man rich women have always loved to have around.

Now someone has produced a documentary about him and it is available to watch in seven chapters (about 10 minutes each) on his blog. I have enjoyed it and you might too. He knows that being rich and powerful does not make you happy. I grew up with rich people and that was my takeaway as well.

Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Philippians 4:11-13

This is an interesting interview with author Min Jin Lee. It is really beyond the comprehension of our liberal elites that an award-winning author would read the bible daily and attend church regularly.

Happy Presidents’ Day! Did you know that Presidents’ Day never falls on the actual birthday of any American president? Four chief executives—George Washington, William Henry Harrison, Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan—were born in February, but their birthdays all come either too early or late to coincide with Presidents’ Day, which is always celebrated on the third Monday of the month.

Oh, don’t forget that the 200th birthday of one of our favorite presidents, cousin Ulysses Simpson Grant, is coming up on April 27!

How do you plan to celebrate?

*William Cowper, 1774 “Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take; the clouds ye so much dread/are big with mercy, and shall break in blessings on your head.”

8 Comments
January 13, 2022

Humble and contrite

by chuckofish

I recently watched The Adventures of Mark Twain (1944) starring Frederic March as Missouri’s favorite son. It gives a sanitized look at the great man’s life but it is really pretty good. It inspired me anyway to take down “Life on the Mississippi” from its place on the shelf and I have been reading it.

Not surprisingly, it is very good and extremely readable. Have you read any Twain lately?

I have also been following the Gospel Coalitions’s daily “Read the Bible” plan and so far so good (12 days in!). I am currently reading a chapter a day of Genesis, Matthew, Nehemiah and Acts. (I am taking notes, because my memory is so bad!) Breaking it up this way is a good idea, since you don’t get bogged down in the Old Testament and you also see how everything in the OT points to the fulfilling of its prophesy, the coming of our savior, Christ Jesus. As Don Carson says, “When you read, remember that God himself has declared, ‘This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word’” (Isa. 66:2).

It is easy to see why 19th century American writers were so good–they were immersed in the Bible, steeped in its vocabulary and vivid visualizations. So many of today’s writers write as if they grew up watching made-for-tv movies and not reading much. This does not make for good literature.

I found this article about C. S. Lewis and Billy Graham on the subject of Angels to be interesting. And here’s what Calvin thought about Angels. “Calvin’s view about angels is indeed not spectacular in the sense that it offers new and unexpected insights into the world of angels or presents an impressive and new, reformed angelology. But on the other hand it can be called spectacular in the sense that for Calvin, angels play a greater role in the life of the believer than could be drawn from the spirituality of the average Reformed believer.”

This is an interesting article. “Put simply, cancel culture is a culture of bullying. What starts with a difference of ideas ends with a willful public destruction of other human beings. Those who claimed to be the ones bullied have now become the bullies themselves, all because of a shift of power…Power is the critical concept, here. Cancel culture is based on the assumption that power—not truth—is the only way to drive cultural change.”

I am leaving tomorrow to visit daughter #2, baby Katie and DN in far-off Maryland, so wish me luck and traveling mercies. I’ll be flying…

…no choo-choo trains for me this time! I can’t wait to see everyone and check out their new house!

Love that red jumper made by her great-grandmother!

7 Comments
January 4, 2022

Many are the plans in the mind of man

by chuckofish

These things have served their purpose: let them be.
So with your own, and pray they be forgiven
By others, as I pray you to forgive
Both bad and good. Last season’s fruit is eaten
And the fullfed beast shall kick the empty pail.
For last year’s words belong to last year’s language
And next year’s words await another voice.

T.S. Eliot, from Little Giddings

Like I said yesterday, I am not going to overdo the making of plans and goal-setting in the new year, but daughter #1 and I did get started on the time-consuming work of putting away Christmas over the weekend.

I still have a lot to do, but the two trees are down and the ornaments packed safely in their designated boxes. It always feels good to get things cleaned up in January, don’t you think?

After packing boxes and toting them to the basement, we watched Howard Hawks’ Rio Bravo (1959) to ring in the new year. It is, of course, an American classic–the brave sheriff (John Wayne), standing alone against the rich and powerful bad guy with his legion of paid gunmen, is aided by his friends, a motley crew consisting of a drunk, a crippled old man, a female card shark, a tiny Hispanic innkeeper, and a reluctant youth. Although he eschews their aid, they will not be dissuaded from helping.

The movie was a huge hit world-wide. Watch this climactic scene dubbed in French! (It’s not quite the same without John Wayne’s distinctive voice and manner…”Burdette! Nathan Burdette!”)

We also watched The Court Jester (1955)–another favorite with Danny Kaye and a stellar supporting cast. Can you say, “The pellet with the poison’s in the vessel with the pestle; the chalice from the palace has the brew that is true!”?

So I am off to a good start of vintage movie viewing in the new year. I cannot remember the last movie I saw that was made recently. If I wrack my brain, all I can come up with is Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2020) or Ford v Ferrari (2020)–good grief. Last year was a total wash-out! I will stick with the classics–In fact, I am in the mood for a Paul Newman retrospective, aren’t you?

In other news, I have begun my Bible reading plan and I am working on one of my new puzzles.

I am also going to endeavor to read some actual books and not just my MacBook.

This sums up very well how I feel about everything. “Popularity makes a poor life preserver.”

Well, onward and upward. “Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand.” (Proverbs 19:21)

5 Comments
October 21, 2021

Living in the land of Nod

by chuckofish

Our internet was out for about 36 hours and, boy, did that throw a monkey wrench into my day! Thankfully, I had already written my post for Tuesday, so daughter #1 was able to schedule it for me. But without the internet I was limited in my activities as you can imagine.

I did buckle down and finish reading The Lincoln Highway, which I really enjoyed. (I thought the ending was fine.) For me, the narrative bogged down in the middle and some of the characters annoyed me a little, but on the whole it is a very good read and a welcome look back at life before television, the internet, iPhones, etc took over everyone’s life. The character of Billy, eight years old and an avid reader, is definitely not someone you would meet today–although I’m sure there are exceptions. In fact, it would be a good book for a lot of eight year olds to read (or to have read to them by a parent). They might learn something about “Heroes, Adventurers, and other Intrepid Travelers” who are not included in the Marvel Comic universe. You know, Achilles, Daniel Boone, Julius Caesar, Edmund Dantes, Thomas Edison…

This book will win no prizes, because its lessons are unpopular and old-fashioned, some are even canceled, but it is worth reading and probably re-reading.

I am of the opinion, Professor, that everything of value in this life must be earned. That it should be earned. Because those who are given anything of value without having to earn it are bound to squander it. I believe that one should earn respect. One should earn trust. One should earn the love of a woman, and the right to call oneself a man. And one should also earn the right to hope. At one time I had a wellspring of hope–a wellspring that I had not earned. And not knowing what it was worth, on the day I left my wife and child, I squandered it. So over the last eight and a half years, I have learned to live without hope, just as surely as Cain lived without it once he entered the land of Nod…That is, said Ulysses, until I met this boy.

There is an abundance of references–classical, literary, biblical–throughout the book. If you are like me, and you enjoy that, this book is for you. If you do not know your elbow from a hot rock, never mind.

Here’s an interview with Amor Towles. The first few paragraphs are off-putting–all the talk of bestsellers and falling in love–but you can just read the parts where AT is talking and ignore the insipid interviewer.

In other news, this is a good article about Ben Johnson. You will recall that he is the only Academy Award winner to have also been a Rodeo National Champion. Our mother was always a fan of Ben. I remember clearly her pointing him out to me the first time I saw Shane (1953). He played a cowboy named Chris who comes through in the end and does the right thing.

Reading this article inspired us to watch Junior Bonner (1972) which stars Steve McQueen along with Ben Johnson and Robert Preston.

I have always liked this movie because Steve seems very “real” in it. He has very few lines, but his character comes across in the same way Ben Johnson always does–as the genuine article.

We were able to watch this, because we could still use our DVD player even though our internet was down. Thanks be to God! I also watched several episodes of Miami Vice from season one (1984). This show is not so great as, say, NYPD Blue, but I still really enjoyed watching it. Such a nostalgic trip back to the 1980s! Those clothes and that hair! And Bruce Willis in a breakthrough role… (those pants!)

…Gina and Trudy, when not dressed as undercover prostitutes, wearing dirndl skirts and polo shirts…I looked just like Gina in 1984!

Yes, back when everyone had a waist. And, of course, there’s Don Johnson, the pride of Flat Creek, Missouri…

Give me an amen.

6 Comments
October 7, 2021

What are you reading and other stuff

by chuckofish

Last week I read the newest Longmire book, Daughter of the Morning Star, by Craig Johnson.

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It is the 17th novel in the series and, as you know, I am a big fan. This one–about Walt and Henry Standing Bear (Walt’s best friend) investigating the disappearance of a Native teenager and the harassment of her sister–did not disappoint. Walt and Henry are always a literary breath of fresh air.

Now I am waiting to receive my copy of the latest novel by Amor Towles, The Lincoln Highway, which was released on Tuesday.

Let it be noted that Tuesday was the birthday of Jonathan Edwards (October 5, 1703 – March 22, 1758).

“And yet some people actually imagine that the revelation in God’s Word is not enough to meet our needs. They think that God from time to time carries on an actual conversation with them, chatting with them, satisfying their doubts, testifying to His love for them, promising them support and blessings. As a result, their emotions soar; they are full of bubbling joy that is mixed with self-confidence and a high opinion of themselves. The foundation for these feelings, however, does not lie within the Bible itself, but instead rests on the sudden creations of their imaginations. These people are clearly deluded. God’s Word is for all of us and each of us; He does not need to give particular messages to particular people.”

Some things never change, right?

I don’t miss being an Episcopalian, but this was kind of funny in a sad way, i.e. this is all Episcopalians have to offer these days. And, newsflash, that is not enough.

This is very special, indeed.

Also, today is the 71st anniversary of our parents’ wedding in 1950. They made it 38 years until our mother died. So I will toast them tonight. Mazel tov, Mary and Newell.

1975

I pray for the day ahead and that I might bring Glory to God, in word, thought and deed. I thank God that his mercies are new to me every morning. I thank God that his grace is sufficient for all situations that I may encounter.

6 Comments
August 26, 2021

What are you reading?

by chuckofish

I have several books going right now. I just can’t get into any of them, but I will keep plugging away.

I am almost finished with The Only Woman in the Room, which hardly does justice to the remarkable Hedy Lamarr. It is as shallow as a movie of the week. It is not enough to say, this was a beautiful woman who was also smart. You need to show it. Good grief, writing 101. The main character has no personality and moves through the book like a face in a movie stilI.

It’s not enough to say she disguised herself and escaped to London and met Louis B. Mayer there and he got her to Hollywood. You can read that on the back of the book jacket. Sigh. Clearly the author was not up to the subject.

The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek has potential, but it is a novel with obvious hooks and gimmicks and I have to just get over that and read. It is better written than the Hedy Lamarr book.

For Old Crime’s Sake is standard Jane and Dagobert Brown fare, which I really enjoy, but I need to read it during the day when I still have some mental energy.

The Patriot was written in 1960 and is about a teenage WWII recruit learning to be a fighter pilot. We’ll see. I think he is not a patriot. Lots of irony.

Maybe I’ll just re-read Busy, Busy Farm (see above).

Anyway, here’s a good post about reading TLOTR for the first time as a 45-year old: “If [Tolkien] had to do it all over again, I bet he would make Mark Zuckerberg into Sauron…” I bet you’re right.

In other news, daughter #1 went back to JC yesterday after a fun few days spent taking it easy and indulging ourselves. We watched a couple of movies. After discussing the End Times while drinking margaritas, we thought it only appropriate to watch Ghostbusters (1984). “Dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria.”

Somehow it resonates today.

We also watched Wonder Man (1945), a truly bizarre Danny Kaye vehicle, also starring Virginia Mayo and Vera-Ellen in her first movie.

BTW, Amazon Prime has a whole bunch of Danny Kaye movies available to watch for free if you are so inclined.

Last night the OM and I went to an event at the Eugene Field House/Museum featuring the Missouri Bicentennial Quilt. It was pretty cool. Each county in the sate had a quilt square. I must say, however, that St Louis had a mighty disappointing block.

It’s the one on the right with the braille inscription, representing the Missouri School for the Blind. All very well and good, but really, what about the Gateway to the West and the Arch and all that? St. Louis County has Grant’s Farm–appropriate. Jefferson County has Mastodon State Park–appropriate.

Jackson County (where my ancestors settled) has that cool covered wagon and the jumping off place for the Santa Fe Trail and the Oregon Trail.

C’est la vie.

Well, today I start my Bible Study at my new church. We are reading Leviticus. I’ll let you know how it goes.

In the meantime, have a fine day! Try to “slander no one…be peaceable and considerate, and always gentle toward everyone. At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us…” (Titus 3:2-5)

3 Comments
August 12, 2021

De choses et d’autres

by chuckofish

One of the nice side effects of having a party, is all the leftover flowers…

(We also have a lot of leftover food!) But we miss seeing our loved ones and that “and then we were all in one place” feeling. Sigh.

Well, moving along, I read Redhead by the Side of the Road, Anne Tyler’s latest novel. NPR said that it “is heartwarming balm for jangled nerves.” Well, maybe. It is an easy read, but there just isn’t much there. Tyler wrote a few masterful books back in the 1980s and some good ones followed, but she is yet another example of someone whose editor keeps goading her to write one more novel because the publisher knows it will make some money. Anne, you’re 79 years old, it’s okay to retire.

Now I am reading The Only Woman in the Room, a fictionalized telling of real life “glamour icon and scientist” Hedy Lamarr’s escape from Nazi Austria and transformation in Hollywood. She was, no doubt, quite a woman, but in the hands of this author, it’s all pretty dull, re-hashed material. The book was a gift, so I will read the whole thing and hope that it picks up.

To celebrate the 200th birthday of the state of Missouri, I watched Across the Wide Missouri (1951).

(This photo must be of lunch break on the set, because look at that cowboy in the background!)

Directed by William Wellman, the film stars Clark Gable as a fur trapper and mountain man in the 1830s. Gable is a bit old for his part (typical for Hollywood) but I enjoyed it. Beautifully shot in Technicolor in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, there is a lot of action and nary a dull moment in this movie. Gable’s stunt double Jack N. Young was particularly impressive. The final action scene where our hero’s baby son, attached as a papoose to a horse that bolts, is quite exciting. The supporting cast is excellent and includes the usually suave Adolphe Menjou playing against type as a French trapper as well as Russell Simpson and James Whittemore.

Although romanticized, the plot and the depiction of the Blackfeet Indians seem fair. There are plenty of “good” Indians to balance Ricardo Montalban’s “bad” Indian. According to Wikipedia, the 31-year old Montalban was seriously injured during the making of this movie and had back problems for the rest of his life. I don’t doubt it. (You can rent it on Amazon Prime.)

Well, I hope everyone is keeping cool. We are experiencing a typical August heat wave.

Things could be worse.

I was happy to see this. You go, Isaac. You were always a favorite of mine.

Prevent us, O Lord, in all our doings with thy most gracious favor, and further us with thy continual help; that in all our works, begun, continued, and ended in thee, we may glorify thy holy name, and finally by thy mercy obtain everlasting life; through Jesus Christ Our Lord.

–BCP, 1662

5 Comments
August 5, 2021

“Grace is the celebration of life, relentlessly hounding all the non-celebrants in the world”*

by chuckofish

This morning I am going to the airport to pick up daughter #2, DN and Katiebelle! They will be here for the weekend and will attend our 200th Birthday of Missouri Statehood party on Saturday. Also on Saturday is my DP’s second son’s re-scheduled wedding. How did this scheduling snafu happen you ask? Long story…but c’est la vie! This weekend is party central for both DPs.

This was an interesting article about raising children by Episcopalian Sam Bush. “God does not aim to quell our anxiety by offering us helpful tips or boosting our self-esteem.” Yes, but I do get tired of articles that go on about how hard everything is, including child-rearing. Everything is an excuse for anxiety. Of course, raising children is hard, especially in this iPhone-addicted age. But your children do not ultimately belong to you; they belong to God. Turn your worry and your cares over to Him. A lot of our modern problems are due to our trying to go it alone, with only “science” to help. Good luck with that. Be sure to watch the Parks and Recreation video–priceless Ron Swanson (who I have no doubt is a Calvinist.)

And I found this article to be quite compelling.

Happy birthday to Wendell Berry, who turns 87 today. It is also the birthday of Guy de Maupassant, the master of the short story. He wrote his own epitaph:  “I have coveted everything and taken pleasure in nothing,” which should be a warning to us all. A toast to them both!

“Grace is the celebration of life, relentlessly hounding all the non-celebrants in the world. It is a floating, cosmic bash shouting its way through the streets of the universe, flinging the sweetness of its cassations to every window, pounding at every door in a hilarity beyond all liking and happening, until the prodigals come out at last and dance, and the elder brothers finally take their fingers out of their ears.”

Robert Farrar Capon, “Between Noon and Three”

3 Comments
July 27, 2021

“I keep an inventory of wonders”*

by chuckofish

We think a lot about the passing of time and this was a shocker:

Yes, the album was released on May 26, 1967–54 years ago. And WWI was only 50 years before that. Western culture had changed a lot in those 50 years, but think about how much it’s changed in the past 54 years.

As usual, I am trying to escape our crumbling culture by reading something uplifting. Currently I am re-reading Hannah Coulter by Wendell Berry. This novel has much to say about the passage of time and people living in community.

As I have told it over, the past visible again in the present, the dead living still in their absence, this dream of time seems to come to rest in eternity. My mind, I think, has started to become, it is close to being, the room of love where the absent are present, the dead are alive, time is eternal, and all the creatures prosperous. The room of love is the love that holds us all, and it is not ours. It goes back before we were born. It goes all the way back. It is Heaven’s. Or it is Heaven, and we are in it only by willingness. By whose love, Andy Catlett, do we love this world and ourselves and one another? Do you think we invented it ourselves? I ask with confidence, for I know you know we didn’t.

Frederick Buechner calls it “the Room called Remember.”

The past and the future. Memory and expectation. Remember and hope. Remember and wait. Wait for him whose face we all of us know because somewhere in the past we have faintly seen it, whose life we all of us thirst for because somewhere in the past we have seen it lived, have maybe even had moments of living it ourselves. Remember him who himself remembers us as he promised to remember the thief who died beside him. To have faith is to remember and wait, and to wait in hope is to have what we hope for already begin to come true in us through our hoping. Praise him.

Anyway, I highly recommend both Wendell Berry and Frederick Buechner.

And, of course, there’s always Jorge Luis Borges…

In the golden afternoon, or in
a serenity the gold of afternoon
might symbolize,
a man arranges books
on waiting shelves
and feels the parchment, the leather, the cloth,
and the pleasure bestowed
by looking forward to a habit
and establishing an order.
Here Stevenson and Andrew Lang, the other Scot,
will magically resume
their slow discussion
which seas and death cut short,
and surely Reyes will not be displeased
by the closeness of Virgil.
(In a modest, silent way,
by ranging books on shelves
we ply the critic’s art.)
The man is blind, and knows
he won’t be able to decode
the handsome volumes he is handling,
and that they will never help him write
the book that will justify his life in others’ eyes;
but in the afternoon that might be gold
he smiles at his curious fate
and feels that peculiar happiness
which comes from loved old things.

June, 1968

*Wendell Berry, Sabbaths 2016

2 Comments
May 11, 2021

Look homeward, angel

by chuckofish

Today is the birthday of American author Stanley Elkin, who taught at my flyover university for many years. He also lived two houses down from us growing up. I babysat for his children Bernie and Molly from time to time when I was in high school. His wife Joan was nice. I remember they had the cover of every book he wrote blown up to poster size and framed, which I thought was a little over the top, but to each his own.

Here’s a little film about Stanley which shows our street (I think) at about 1:01.

And here he is sitting in front of his house (photo by Esquire).

He rode a motorcycle until he was diagnosed with MS, and then he slowed down quite a bit.

Anyway, the English Department at WashU must have been quite the place back then–what with Stanley and William Gass and Howard Nemerov. The Gasses lived in our neighborhood too and Nemerov famously walked down our street on his way to work. But some of my friends didn’t like driving to my neighborhood–too sketchy.

Different perspectives.

7 Comments