Samain Moon of the Winter Solstice Much as I enjoyed the travel, the close time with Kate, the ocean, new cultures and places, I find this computer and my own keyboard, my reference shelf and my library, mementos from past trips, family, collected art like slipping into a pair of comfortable bedroom slippers. At its […]
Read the rest of this entry »Archive for November, 2011
Peace? Prize? Putin?
Samain Moon of the Winter Solstice Apparently, I was not the only one taken aback by the Confucian Peace Prize. Here’s a quote from the NYT about the prize and the award givers rationale behind it: “It praised his decision to go to war in Chechnya in 1999. “His iron hand and toughness revealed in […]
Read the rest of this entry »Oh. Yeah.
Samain Moon of the Winter Solstice We have entered my favorite season of the year, the slow slide toward the Winter Solstice, the longest night of the year. Cue Robert Frost. (Dandelions at Lapatia Bay, Kate) In Ushuaia the sun did not set until 9:30 pm. Here it sets at 4:30. As we traveled south […]
Read the rest of this entry »Quotables
Samain Moon of the Winter Solstice Quotables Bumper sticker today: Think about honking if you love conceptual art. Bumper sticker in Stanley, capitol of the Falkland islands (2,500 people): For such a small town there sure are a lot of assholes. Heard on the cruise: Hope you have a good day. Reply: It already is […]
Read the rest of this entry »20,000 Miles Over the Sea (and some in the air)
Samain Moon of the Winter Solstice According to the cruise log provided by the ship, we traveled 12, 800 statute miles by sea. Counting the six thousand plus from Rio to Atlanta and another thousand to New York to get started, we covered over 19,000, close to 20,000 miles in 40 days. That’s a long […]
Read the rest of this entry »Socialized Medicine, Here I Come
Samain Moon of the Winter Solstice The end of the day. Sunday. Used to go to sleep on Sunday night with Monday whirring away, chattering and buzzing, cutting a channel through my attempts to sleep. Now I go to sleep on Sunday night. That’s all. Granddaughter Ruth has the makings of a cook. Maybe. Her […]
Read the rest of this entry »Yeah, You Betcha
Samain Moon of the Winter Solstice Went out on an errand this afternoon as the sun began to set. At 4:00 pm. When I hit Round Lake, I saw a car in the rear view. It had something on top. A Christmas tree. We have one of the metro’s favorite cut your own tree places […]
Read the rest of this entry »Climate Shock
Samain Moon of the Winter Solstice Brother Mark wrote from Ha’il, Saudi Arabia and asked about culture shock for us as we returned to the US. I said no, not much, since the Veendam is a floating exemplar of North American Western culture. After heading to the grocery store this morning, I might modify that […]
Read the rest of this entry »No longer under the Southern Cross
Fall Moon of Thanksgiving No longer under the Southern Cross. The Veendam sailed at 6pm on November 22nd with someone else in the lanai state room 351. Ipanema Plaza hotel room 601 picked up new guests after 2 pm on November 24th. Seats 31 g & h got new occupants soon after 5:30 am on […]
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Orthodoxy become Orthopraxy: A Political Sinkhole
Samain Moon of the Winter Solstice An interesting article in this morning’s Star-Tribune about the conflation of economics and religion, in particular laissez-faire economics (individualism) and Christianity as defined in William Buckley’s God and Man at Yale. The author of a biography of Buckley, Carl T. Bogus, also the writer of this column, identifies this […]
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