June 17, 2008

I Have A VERY Bad Feeling About This

Presented without commentary:

h/t: HotAir

Posted by: Gary at 06:42 PM | Comments (24) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Sir Walter Scott: Souvenir Vulture

As it happens, the anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo is tomorrow. But Steve-O just sent me this article which is worth putting up in advance:

Flags from the battlefield at Waterloo have been found in a cupboard at the home of Sir Walter Scott.

The four banners, which date from 1815, were discovered by trustees sorting through Abbotsford, Scott's home near Melrose in Roxburghshire.

The novelist brought them from the scene of the battle, which he visited after hearing of Napoleon's defeat.

The Abbotsford Trust, which runs the house, hopes the standards can be restored and put on public display.

Very fragile

Jacquie Wright, executive manager of the trust, said: "We were very excited to find the banners. They are very rare.

"As you can imagine, they have been lying in a cupboard since 1815 rolled up in bits of paper so the material is very fragile.

"He collected other things, which were on show because he put them on show but these things were actually put away in the cupboard.

"We would absolutely love to have them on display one day."

She added: "It may be that one of the family knew that the banners were there but we had no idea of their existence until just recently when we unravelled them."

Scott, author of classics such as Waverley and Ivanhoe, was interested in military history and collected many relics.

Rob Roy's gun and Montrose's sword are among the items on display at Abbotsford.

Scott was allowed on to the battlefield at Waterloo and took three French and one English banner, some of which have bullet holes through them.

Inspired by the battle, he wrote a poem "The Field Of Waterloo".

Neat.

In case you're curious, here's a sample of "TFOW":

Far other harvest-home and feast,

Than claims the boor from scythe released,

On these scorched fields were known!

Death hovered o'er the maddening rout,

And, in the thrilling battle-shout,

Sent for the bloody banquet out

A summons of his own.

Through rolling smoke the Demon's eye

Could well each destined guest espy,

Well could his ear in ecstasy

Distinguish every tone

That filled the chorus of the fray -

From cannon-roar and trumpet-bray,

From charging squadrons' wild hurra,

From the wild clang that marked their way, -

Down to the dying groan,

And the last sob of life's decay,

When breath was all but flown.

You can go here to read the rest if you want, but frankly I'm not much of a fan of Scott's style.

In fact, I much prefer the summation of the battle given by the Iron Dook himself: "It has been a damned serious business - Blücher and I have lost 30,000 men. It has been a damned nice thing - the nearest run thing you ever saw in your life...By God! I don't think it would have done if I had not been there."

More tomorrow, hopefully.

Posted by: Robert at 04:45 PM | Comments (22) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Defender of the Realm

From the Daily Mail coverage of Prince William's induction into the Order of the Garter comes this wonderful photo.

Honi soit qui mal y pence, indeed.

Yips! to His Grace, Archbishop Cranmer.

Posted by: Robert at 12:49 PM | Comments (21) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

A Cuppa, Cuppa, Cuppa, Cuppa, Cup ***

Ha! Bow down and grovel before the great God Java, all you anti-caffeine fussy-pants out there:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Long-term coffee drinking does not appear to increase a person's risk of early death and may cut a person's chances of dying from heart disease, according to a study published on Monday.

Previous studies have given a mixed picture of health effects from coffee, finding a variety of benefits and some drawbacks from the popular drink. The new study looked at people who drank caffeinated or decaffeinated coffee.

Researchers led by Esther Lopez-Garcia of Universidad Autonoma de Madrid in Spain followed 84,214 U.S. women from 1980 to 2004 and 41,736 U.S. men from 1986 to 2004.

They found that regular coffee drinking -- up to six cups a day -- was not associated with increased deaths among the study's middle-aged participants. In fact, the coffee drinkers, particularly the women, experienced a small decline in death rates from heart disease.

The study found no association between coffee consumption and cancer deaths.

"Our study indicates that coffee consumption does not have a detrimental effect," Lopez-Garcia, whose research appears in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, said in a telephone interview. "It seems like long-term coffee consumption may have some beneficial effects."

I'll dope-slap the lot of you as soon as my hands stop shaking and I can see straight.

I believe I started drinking coffee just about the same time I started drinking wine with dinner, which is to say when I was about 14 or so. And the coffee at our house was famous for its tar-like properties of strength and thickness. The Mothe always resisted my pleas to start in on the coffee earlier on the grounds that it would stunt my growth.

Recently, the elder Llama-ettes have begun to take an interest in coffee-drinking themselves. I've told them pretty much the same thing Mom told me. Little did I realize way back when that the real reason Mom didn't want me having an after dinner cuppa was that she wanted to make sure I went to bed and stayed there. (Once I was a teenager, of course, I could sleep through anything.) Now, of course, I see things much more from her perspective.

*** I tried to find a youtube of the old Lena Horne Sanka commercial (Mmmm....Lena Horne....mmmmmmm), but it seems to have been yanked. If anybody has a link, please shoot it along.

Posted by: Robert at 10:52 AM | Comments (25) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Bringing Together The Best Of Druidical Worship And Pork Products

It's.....Baconhenge.

Bobgirll can thank me later.

Yips! to Jonah.

Posted by: Robert at 09:17 AM | Comments (21) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Gratuitous Revolutionary War Geekery Posting

Death of General Warren by John Trumbull

Today is the anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill (actually fought on Breed's Hill) in 1775. Although the Brits eventually won, they paid for it dearly through a combination of arrogance (it was believed that a straightforward infantry advance would buffalo the rebels out of their emplacements), military cock-up (there was no artillery barrage because the wrong caliber ammunition was brought for the cannon), and what I have always thought to be strategic blindness (Bunker Hill sits on a peninsula with a very thin neck. When the rebel army formed up, the Brits need only have landed forces behind them astride their escape route in order to bag the lot.)

Of the battle, in which the King's forces suffered almost 1100 killed and wounded compared to the rebel 440-odd, British General Henry Clinton later remarked: "A few more such victories would have shortly put an end to British dominion in America."

Posted by: Robert at 09:07 AM | Comments (19) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Probably not "M"-class planets

orbiting a star 42 light-years from Earth.

Posted by: LMC at 06:48 AM | Comments (20) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

June 16, 2008

Dems throw in the towel on war funding bill

About time.

Posted by: LMC at 08:45 PM | Comments (20) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Things That Make You Go "Hmmmmm..."

Does the fact that Jason Alexander, aka George Costanza, is starring in an upcoming production of Bernstein's Candide at Wolf Trap count as another example of the workings of the Seinfeld Curse?

I think so. I think so.

Posted by: Robert at 04:35 PM | Comments (20) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Gratuitous Jo Harding Posting

Another wodge of big thunderstorms is on its way into the Dee Cee area this afternoon, prompting the NOAA folks to issue my favorite scary weather warning again:

Remember that lightning is a thunderstorms most underrated killer. Postpone outdoor activities if thunderstorms are imminent. This
is the best way to avoid being caught in a dangerous situation.
Automobiles offer good protection from lightning... although moving
indoors is best. Even inside... lighting can kill by coming through
the phone lines... plumbing and electric lines. Therefore do not
use computers... telephones or other hand held appliances during a
storm.

Yeek! This reminder prompts me think that a pretty good action-adventure could be made out the whole killer-lightning scenario. Call it Flash, starring Samuel L. Jackson and Helen Hunt:

Jackson: Whoa! There are too many mutha-effin volts in that bolt!

Hunt: Yes, but at least there are no cows this time.

Posted by: Robert at 02:40 PM | Comments (20) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Happy Birthday, Phil Mickelson!

Born this day in 1970. Here's his O-fficial website.

Mom is always on about us Llamas posting bits o' cheesecake here, so I figured I'd even things up a bit by tossing her a little beefcake, as she has always found Phil to be, ah, "yummy". Too bad he had such an eh Open this year.

Posted by: Robert at 09:46 AM | Comments (17) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Gratuitous Llama Movie Review

Because our 15th anniversary is this week but because we also have a crazy insane schedule for the foreseeable future, the Missus and I ditched the kids and snuck off to the local Ritz Saturday night. We had a very nice swim followed by drinks and dinner and then decided to settle down and check out a movie together.

The movie we settled on was Dan in Real Life. I thought it looked promising a) because I had read a pretty good review somewhere recently and b) because I like Steve "We Gonna Need More Wax" Carell's humor.

Imagine my surprise and horror, then, when half an hour into the film I suddenly discovered......it's a chick-flik.

It wasn't funny, it was sappy. I could go into it, but I won't waste the pixels. One and a half yips! out of five and that's only because I like John Mahoney, who had a bit part as Carell's old dad.

Posted by: Robert at 08:25 AM | Comments (22) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Random Musickal Observation

Driving in to the metro today, I made an interesting discovery: the Nazi parade musick from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade sounds remarkably like the main theme of the overture from a comic opera called The Crown Diamonds by a fellah named Daniel-Francois-Esprit Auber (1782-1871).

Perhaps this is simply co-incidence. Perhaps it is some kind of inside joke. Perhaps it is outright plagiarism. But I reckon it's good for a solid five minutes on the derivative nature of the works of John Williams at your next brie & Beaujolais party.

Posted by: Robert at 08:11 AM | Comments (21) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

June 15, 2008

Father's Day

Keep in your prayers all the fathers who lost a son or daughter in the service of our country and her allies for the cause of freedom. May they find comfort and peace.

Posted by: LMC at 03:25 PM | Comments (17) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Happy Father's Day!

I pretty much lump Father's Day in teh same category as Mother's Day, i.e., as nothing more than an erzatz holiday dreamed up by the eeeevil marketers of the Hallmark/FTD/Zales cabal and their minions. Nonetheless, I have learned to be sensitive to the genuine good will of the Llama-ettes when they attempt to come up with what they think I would like in order to mark the occasion.

Yesterday afternoon as we were driving home from time trials at the pool (yes, this summer Robbo enters that vast Undiscovered Country known as "Swim Team"), the eight year old said to me, "So, Daddy, what would you like for Father's Day?"

Suddenly I had a down-right inspiration.

"Sweetie," I said, "I can't imagine a greater present than just getting to be the father of you three girls. That's all I could ever want."

There was a small gasp from the passenger seat.

"Oh, Daddy," the gel said, "That's so beautiful."

Yup, Robbo can hit a nifty every now and again.

UPDATE: A nice FD. I spent the afternoon pottering around in the garden, ably assisted by teh Llama-ettes in pulling weeds from the path. Later, after I'd grilled up some steaks for dinner, the gels serenaded me with a couple of High-School-Musical-like songs they had written. After that, I introduced the elder pair to the Dook for the first time as we watched The Sons of Katie Elder together.

Posted by: Robert at 03:18 PM | Comments (22) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Gardening Bleg

It seems that my Dicentra (aka "Bleeding Heart") has packed it in for the summer. The blooms are long-gone and the leaves are turning yellow and wilty in the heat.

What do you think? Cut 'em back now and over-plant with something? I usually wait until the fall but I can't imagine that anything I do to these garden bullies even this early is going to damage them.

"The Question Is Moot" UPDATE: The Missus got at them with her shears last evening and razed them. Guess I'd better find something to fill in.

Posted by: Robert at 03:09 PM | Comments (25) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Gratuitous Trans-Tiber Posting

I've generally kept off the Catholic blogging 'round here out of the rancor that it seems to cause among certain commentors (*ahem*)*** and certain fellow bloggers (*ahem*)***. However, here's a bit of news that I thought interesting enough to post.

The long-time and beloved Pastor of my parish, Fr. McA, suffered a stroke a few weeks back and was sidelined. Today, however, he popped up in order to deliver the announcements. Among them, he said that it was going to take him something between six months and a year to fully recover and that in the interim he was handing over the administrative duties of the parish to a deputy.

Now the main reason I joined my particular church, even though I am technically slightly out of its parish boundaries, is because Fr. McA runs a mighty tight ship. Mass is Mass: a joyful yet solemn worship of God and reception of Jesus through participation in the Eucharistic mystery, not a forum for navel-gazing, swishy feel-good pablum or liturgical stunts. I couldn't imagine that in stepping aside for a much-needed rest, Fr. McA would let somebody else start messing about with the church's course. Nonetheless, for a second, a sudden chill swept through me. What might we get? Liturgical dance? Cumbaya and folk guitars? The dreaded Clown Eucharist?

No fear. It turns out that the helm is being turned over to none other than Fr. Paul Scalia, son of Mr. Justice Antonin ("You lookin' at me?) Scalia. A sample of Fr. S's writings:

Imagine the following scene: You arrive at Mass on Sunday, eager to thank God for His goodness to you. You slide into the pew early, kneel in prayer, and direct your praise and worship to your Lord and God. You stand as the song leader introduces the opening hymn: "Table of Plenty". Suddenly your praise comes to a screeching halt, not because of your own prayers, but because of what you are singing. In fact you are no longer praising God at all, but singing to the others:

Come to the feast of heaven and earth!
Come to the table of plenty!
God will provide for all that we need,
here at the table of plenty.

Now it gets worse: you begin to sing His lines:

O, come and sit at my table
where saints and sinners are friends.
I wait to welcome the lost and lonely
to share the cup of my love.

And so at the very beginning of Mass, your conversation with God is derailed and transformed into a participation in the congregation's introspection.

To appreciate the damage done by such hymns, we must first call to mind two essential aspects of the Mass: presence and dialogue. First of all, what distinguishes the Mass from all other forms of worship is the re-presentation of Christ's sacrifice. The Mass does not merely recall or reenact Christ's redemptive act but in fact makes present the mystery of faith, the passion, death and resurrection of Christ (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1366).

Second, the presence of Christ in the Eucharist and indeed throughout the Mass makes possible a real dialogue between God and man; it creates an active conversation. The remembrance of someone does not lead to dialogue with that person; only to reminiscing. The presence of Christ in the Mass, however, inspires us to speak to Him as only the beloved can speak to the Lover. Thus the Mass is a dialogue between Christ and the Church, between God and man, in which God speaks His lines and we speak ours. He speaks to us through the readings and (we hope) the homily, while we respond to Him through the prayers of the priest, our personal prayers, and the hymns.

Accordingly, active participation at Mass requires the faithful to acknowledge the presence of Christ and enter the dialogue, taking the words of the Bride as their own. They embody the Bride, and their Mass parts -- the Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei ­ express her desire for union with the Bridegroom. Other texts used at Mass should reflect and deepen this sentiment. The dialogue reaches its culmination at the Consecration, when the Bridegroom speaks His definitive words of love and thus becomes really present to His Bride in the Eucharist.

Given the lyrics of much contemporary liturgical music, however, we must ask what has become of this dialogue and our ability to enter it. Many hymns have us sing only about ourselves and to ourselves, even going so far as to usurp God's part. Such words fail to convey the true meaning of the Mass as a dialogue between Christ and the Church. The offending lyrics come in two varieties: in the first, we sing to one another and about one another, but do not include God in the conversation; and in the second, we sing God's parts.

Ah, that's teh stuff. As a matter of fact, Fr. McA was clear that there was going to be no change in the way things were done anyway, but it strikes me that, given our temporary Captain, there's no need to worry about it.

***Don't make me come up there, kids. Play nice.

Posted by: Robert at 03:06 PM | Comments (27) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Happy Birthday to the force which has done more to free the oppressed than any other in the last two centuries.

I write of course, of the United States Army whose birthday was yesterday.

Your Army's song:

As long as we are on the subject of freeing the oppressed:

LMC fav Michelle Malkin sends her greetings.

Posted by: LMC at 03:02 PM | Comments (18) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

June 14, 2008

BSG, yet again-spoiler alert

I had the feeling Earth was not going to be the Utopia they wanted. The last few minutes with Adama throwing away a handful of dirt as a Geiger counter clicked away suggests some global thermonuclear war. At least we did not die of global warming! But, of course, there are are a few lingering questions:
1. If humanity on this planet checked out in big flashes of light, who did it? Did we do it to ourselves or did the Cylons beat them here and give the Earth the mushroom makeover they visited upon the Colonies? (Remember, the Final Five have been to Earth.)
2. Who is our remaining mystery Cylon? Starbuck is looking more and more likely having returned to the Fleet in the showroom-new Viper containing the navigation data needed to get to Earth . . .
3. Will Gabrielle be re-united with Xena? Just wondering.

Posted by: LMC at 10:35 AM | Comments (27) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

June 13, 2008

Tim Russert, R.I.P.

The host of "Meet the Press" passed away suddenly today.

Yips! from Robbo: Yeah, I wasn't going to post on it. Sad when anybody dies young and unexpectedly like that, but the truth is I don't think I ever actually saw the man on tee vee.

Heartfelt yips from Gary: Oh man, I just got the word. This is just awful. Tim Russert was the gold standard of television journalism in my book. No matter what his personal politics he approached every interview with integrity and tenacity. How ironic that just yesterday I posted about a stooge like Keith Olberman - a polar opposite to Russert in every way.

And on top of all that, he was a really, really nice guy. Very, very sad.

Posted by: LMC at 03:54 PM | Comments (20) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

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