May 06, 2008
What is Chai Reading?
I'm in the throes of reading Blood Meridian on the impeccable advice of Sheila. I haven't even read all of Sheila's post on because I don't want spoilers. But she said enough in her first paragraph to get me hooked into reading this book.
This is my first Cormac McCarthy and I'm finding myself in awe of his writing. Its relentless and worsted and radiant and vermicular and marmoreal. It slows me in reading because it doesn't give itself up easily. This enhances the trance. It's a rich prose that feeds me full with only a chapter a sitting. I'm forever indebted to Sheila for pointing me to this book.
So what are you reading now? Tell me about it.
Posted by: Chai-Rista at 03:03 PM | Comments (35) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
50 Best Cult Books
The London Telegraph lists the 50 Best Cult Books.
As one of his commenter's said "It's funny and frightening how many of these I've read." I've read about 2/3rd of this list. But I don't see one of my all-time favorite cult books at all. Where in tarnation is Snow Crash?
What else is missing? Please send your thoughts via comments!
Posted by: Chai-Rista at 02:11 PM | Comments (32) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
Righteous Bust in San Diego
Almost 100 students of San Diego Sate University were arrested today for drug trafficking. The student drug distribution cells (AKA "seven campus fraternities") routinely sent text messages to customers listing sale prices . . . one supposes on closeout drugs?
Yes - Theta Chi was apparently the Big Lots of cocaine deals. Get this - "According to prosecutors, one of the students arrested was a cocaine dealer on campus who was one month away from obtaining his master's degree in Homeland Security."
The more I hear, the more entertaining this gets. Read for yourself here.
Posted by: Chai-Rista at 01:42 PM | Comments (33) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
May 05, 2008
What will suck down what passes as free time for the next two years . . .
and contribute nothing to what pays the bills? This.
Posted by: LMC at 09:06 PM | Comments (26) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
On The Road Again
I'm heading out to the Heartland in a few minutes, returning to Your Nation's Capital Thursday evening, so no more posties from me until Friday.
I see that Chai is in the shop today. Yay! I would also call on LMC and Gary to come to the aid of the party, and even Steve-O ought to consider coming out of hibernation.
Also, anybody seen the Scottish Dwarf lately?
Bye, y'all, for now. Yip! Yip!
Posted by: Robert at 03:08 PM | Comments (24) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
Gratuitous Domestic Posting (TM)
Our spring project at Orgle Manor this year is to clean up the side yard to the west of the house, which over the years has become a wasteland of mud, exposed roots and scraggly weeds owing to its utter domination by a large but crooked maple.
Step one is to get rid of the tree, after which we are having a landscaper come in to lay some sod and cut a couple new beds against the wall of the house. (I'm also going to have him put an arbor over the gate to the back yard, but shhh!! - don't tell the Missus, as it's a surprise.) Along with the tree in question, we are also having a major limb lopped off a tree in our neighbor's yard. It leans way out over our property, contributing to the cimmerian gloom and also threatening to come crashing down on the garage during the next major ice storm or hurricane.
In fact, the tree guys are out at the house right now. I just got a call from their chief. Our neighbor, of course, knew and approved of our lopping of their limb, but the female member of the duo was out fussing a while ago because nobody had told her how much it was going to cost and she didn't want any cutting done before she saw the bill. (It's a couple hundred bucks.)
Well, either I am the biggest sap in history or else I am properly applying the Golden Rule, but since we're the ones spear-heading this project, I never dreamed of making any kind of demand that the neighbors pony up. I told the chief to tell her we had it covered. Hopefully, this will bring a little sunshine (ha! get it?) into her Monday. If they insist on pressing a check on us, of course, we won't say no. But I'm not going to force the thing.
We're also having the tree guys cut back a pair of thirty foot tall hollies that flank the end of the driveway. The chief reports that they look really nice now, having been lowered and shaped for the first time in years. I can't wait to see them. (Of course, I'll have to wait to see them because I catch a flight straight from the office this afternoon and won't be back in town until @#($*#(&!!! Thursday night.)
Posted by: Robert at 12:36 PM | Comments (27) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
Why Does This Not Surprise Me In The Least?
Co-ed college dorm rooms. And where are they? At my own alma mater, of course:
Erik Youngdahl and Michelle Garcia share a dorm room at Connecticut's Wesleyan University. But they say there's no funny business going on. Really. They mean it. They have set up their beds side-by-side like Lucy and Ricky in "I Love Lucy," and avert their eyes when one of them is changing clothes."People are shocked to hear that it's happening and even that it's possible," said Youngdahl, a 20-year-old sophomore. But "once you actually live in it, it doesn't actually turn into a big deal."
It strikes me that one of the primary problems of this wretched age in which we live is the fact that nothing is a big deal. No propriety. No limits. No sense of the special. Everything is open and familiar. And of course, familiarity breeds contempt. And contempt is pretty durn near the root of an awful lot of our social ills.
Just saying.
Yips! to Ace.
Posted by: Robert at 12:16 PM | Comments (28) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
Nature Photos
My husband - who some of you may know as Pep - has launched a Flickr site for his nature photography.
Posted by: Chai-Rista at 11:58 AM | Comments (28) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
Happy Cinco de Mayo
Got to work this morning and the fountain out in front of the Library is glowing green and orange in the morning sun. Looks like a big rectangular pool of Gatorade or melted margarita, with a green spout in the middle. I think the kids put anti-freeze in it. It's weirdly beautiful, but I think they should have found a way to put big salt rocks around the rim. This is a new trick - they usually put suds in it during finals.
In order to fully celebrate this glorious foreign holiday, I offer a scientific article one of our industrious students pointed out to me. It carries the evocative title:
Amoebas may vomit E. coli on your greens
The connection to Cinco de Mayo?
Um . . . limes kill protozoa, so drink up?
Yips! from Robbo:
Enjoy!
Posted by: Chai-Rista at 07:47 AM | Comments (26) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
May 04, 2008
Gratuitous Historickal Posting (TM)
As I believe I mentioned some time back, I am currently reading Gibbon's The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. This is my third or fourth attempt, each of the prior ones having got bogged down in the first volume. This time, however, I am well and truly away and look to make it right the way through.
The other day, I reached the point at which Alaric the Visigoth sacked Rome in 410 A.D. I mentioned this to Mom when I was chatting with her yesterday and she, in turn, mentioned the curious fact that at some point during the Victorian Period, Alaric became quite a popular name in some of the higher strata of English society. I recalled that indeed P.G. Wodehouse - himself of Edwardian vintage - had christened one of his senior characters - the Duke of Dunstable - as an Alaric. (I believe the Dook makes his first appearance in the Blandings Castle novel Uncle Fred in the Springtime.)
We pondered for a moment what might account for this particular naming convention - given that the original Alaric was, after all, a barbarian - but came away stumped. Anybody have any ideas?
Posted by: Robert at 06:56 PM | Comments (29) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
Gratuitous Ecumenical Musickal Posting (TM)
A good day on the religious musick front.
First, I cannot help but puff just a bit about the middle Llama-ette's triumph this morning. Although at eight years the youngest member of her youth choir, she nonetheless got a solo verse in today's Offeratory Anthem at what from here on out I will refer to as Robbo's Former Episcopal Church, or RFEC. It was a modern, peppy affair in 5/4 time, the verse of which ought to have had the Dave Brubeck Quartet speed-dialing their copyright lawyers had they been aware of it. She had been quite worried about performing all by herself, and we spent a fair bit of time yesterday practicing together, self counseling her to remember her breathing and to sing as loud as she could. I needn't have been concerned: the gel marched forward when the time came, puffed up her cheeks, rolled her eyes, and struck the notes, as a former golf course starter of my acquaintence used to say, "with great vigah". Furthermore, as she was singing into a mic, the plaster was positively falling from the ceiling by the time she was done. (She wasn't alone in her achievement, by the way. The entire chorus of seven girls - ranging in age from eight to about twelve - positively nailed it this morning. Not only that, they knew that they did. This I attribute to the talent and patience of their director.)
After the service was over at RFEC, I scuttled over to my new digs for Mass. And here again I got a treat: not only was I perfectly familiar with all three of the hymns served up (each of which I have sung many times in my Anglican past), I also happened to be surrounded for once with people who were interested in trying to sing them. Given such cover, I did not feel the slightest bit self-conscious indulging in them.
Speaking of my new digs, let me just share a bit of a rant about them. I happen to love almost everything about my new Catholic parish except this: the church itself is hidious - Eisenhower Moderne at its worst. Not only does its circular shape and central altar remind me irresistably of the Jupiter II, but it is supplied with about eight exit doors all around the circuit. This allows people to scuttle off almost literally whilst still mumbling the Host. I was taught that nobody leaves before the Recessional, and that when one does leave, one goes out the front, shaking the Padre's hand and saying "Good Morning" along the way.
Hmph! I've known for a long time that God was gently but irresistably shooing me into the Tiber, but I used to just look at it from the perspective of what Rome would do for me. Is it possible that given my sensibilities about hymnody and Mass etiquette, Himself might also have been thinking of what I might be able to do for Rome?
Posted by: Robert at 06:46 PM | Comments (27) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
May 02, 2008
Where's Robbo? - Update
UPDATE: After further review on the field, this entry has been ruled too incoherent. We'll try the philosophickal stuff again when I've had a bit more sleep.
Posted by: Robert at 10:03 PM | Comments (27) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
April 30, 2008
Because Robbo is away and I feel like rifling through the fridge
and so, even more River Tam:
Posted by: LMC at 08:55 PM | Comments (27) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
The Man for this Season
NRO on the nomination of GEN David H. Petraeus to succed Admiral Fallon as CENTCOM commander.
Bonus Feature: his letter to the troops of MNF-I looking back on 2007. Via BlackFive
Posted by: LMC at 08:49 PM | Comments (24) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
April 29, 2008
Where's Robbo?
Biizzzzy, that's where.
I'm headed out on the road tomorrow morning (6 ack emma flight!) and won't be back in until Friday night, so pretty much no posties from me for the rest of the week.
Posted by: Robert at 02:41 PM | Comments (30) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
April 28, 2008
Just because I felt like it
You guessed it, River is at it again. . .
Posted by: LMC at 08:35 PM | Comments (23) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
WTF were her parents thinking?
Miley Cyrus embarassed by Vanity Fair photo shoot. Via Fox.
Posted by: LMC at 08:33 PM | Comments (31) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
Confession
Like Robbo, I signed up for a CrackBerry. This thing had better not be a Cylon.
Posted by: LMC at 08:29 PM | Comments (27) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
Getting In Touch With Your Inner Moron
Chip and the rest of the Crack Young Staff of the Hatemonger's Quarterly break their recent collective blog-silence in order to announce the return this year for the fifth time of their always entertaining Horrible College-Student Poetry Competition. Nip on over for details about rules, deadlines and the like. Bottom line? "Meter, coherence, assonance, and displays of real talent are to be avoided."
I know that several regular Llama readers have been positively itching to make a run for this much-coveted prize. (Indeed, ol' Robbo may even give it a shot himself this year.) So get your mindless undergrad freak on and get going!
Posted by: Robert at 04:19 PM | Comments (28) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
Gratuitous Domestic Posting (TM) - "Book at Bedtime" Division
Last week the eldest Llama-ette and I finished reading The Hobbit. The gel enjoyed it so much that she insisted we immediately plunge on into The Lord of the Rings.
I was a bit apprehensive about this, thinking that the gel might be just a bit too young for it (she's ten for those of you not scoring at home). And I warned her several times that LOTR was not a children's book like The Hobbit, being a good deal more complicated and more scary. Nonetheless, she finally persuaded me to at least give it a try.
Well, so far, so good. We got through the first chapter of Fellowship of the Ring this weekend. The gel thoroughly enjoyed the account of Bilbo's birthday party. But more importantly, as I dramatically hardened my voice at the point where Bilbo is struggling with Gandalf over giving up the Ring, she suddenly burst out with, "Hey! Maybe that's why Gollum was so rotten - because he had the Ring for so long!"
Smart kid. I begin to think she may be able to handle it after all.
Posted by: Robert at 08:49 AM | Comments (30) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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