AN INTERESTING PIECE OF HISTORY FROM DER SPIEGAL

Churchill and Hitler never met - but they almost did a couple of times! If you're interested in History - particularly World War II - this is a very good description of one of the great men of the last century - Churchill! Read it here.

Enjoy!

We All Reach Our Limits!!

H/T: Steve Kelley, a great cartoonist!

Zane Grey

I am starting to read the novels of Zane Grey - one of our great western writers. His best known story - "Riders of the Purple Sage" - was made into a TV movie several years ago and is a quite good book.

He was a very good writer! These paragraphs caught my eye - and mind - this morning. This is from "Under the Tonto Rim", the story of a young lady who has volunteered to teach and bring a set of backwoods people into the modern world. He is describing a summer morning in the woods where she is staying:


"It was midsummer. The mornings were pleasant, the days hot and still, the evenings sultry and purple, with massed clouds in the west.

The July rains had left the ridges and open patches and the edges of the clearings colorful and fragrant with flowers. Corn and cane and beans were green and wavy in the fields. A steady line of bees flew by the cabin porch, to and fro from hives to woods. And a drowsy murmuring hum made music down by the shady stream.

At sunrise the home of the Denmeades seemed to be a rendezvous for the frisky chipmunk and chattering red squirrel, for squalling blue jay and whistling hawk and cawing crow, and for the few wild singing birds of the locality. At noon the woods were locked in hot, drowsy stillness; the pine needles did not quiver; heat veils rose smokily from the glades. At evening a melancholy pervaded the wilderness."


Great writing! I read that and I am in the woods!

MERRY CHRISTMAS...

and a Happy and Prosperous New Year to all!


"How many observe Christ's birth-day! How few, his
precepts! O! 'tis easier to keep Holidays than Commandments."

-- Benjamin Franklin (Poor Richards Almanack, 1743)

HT: Patriot Post "Founders Quotes", December 25, 2007

Maddie and James

Madison carrying James. Aren't grandchildren great!

Sounds logical!

From WSJ Best of the Web Today comments on a Bill Clinton speech at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government:

"An Associated Press dispatch on the same speech begins with this:

"Clinton said Friday that disasters such as worldwide famine and an obesity epidemic could destroy the U.S. health care system unless politicians begin to look ahead and cooperate."

Why don't the obese people just give some of their food to the famished ones?"

James Taranto is obviously a deep thinker!

Hard Work at The Kentucky Derby!

Street Sense, in the middle, had to pass 18 horses to win the Kentucky Derby, which probably explains the mud jacket! To the left is Hard Spun, who must have led most of the way since there is not much mud!

I wonder how he saw where to go with all that mud, but congratulations to the jockey Calvin Borel.

Wish I Had Thought of That!

"Ribbit Pest Control" - sign on a truck I saw on the road yesterday!

"America's Pimp 'n' Ho Culture Gets Real"

Kathleen Parker at the Orlando Sentinel summarizes the situation with Imus and the conclusion of the Duke lacrosse players scandal, putting blame where it belongs and concluding with this penultimate paragraph which gives us some hope:

• "Those who have performed most honorably throughout this disgraceful season of sexual spin and racial one-upmanship are the athletes from both teams. Mature and dignified during their respective news conferences, they've put the grown-ups to shame and offer reason to hope that the rising generation of young Americans will put this corrupt house in order."

Let's hope she is right!

Madison

The other half of our grandchildren (see "James", April 6) with their companion "Buddy"! Any question why we are proud?

Beautiful!

You can read about this here.

James

My 4 month old grandson. His sister Madison and he make my wife and I very proud!

Ruben Naverrette: "The Complicated Job of Being a Father"

Mr. Navarrette is one of my favorite columnists. He writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune and I consider him a center-left columnist (he may disagree with that!) who is thoughtful and logical - traits that I feel are quite often lacking on the left.

"The Complicated Job of Being a Father" reminds me of Peggy Noonan - and that is not a small compliment as I hold her writing a peg above most - taking a personal event and relating it to the society, particularly the political ether of the moment, in a way that is not only insightful, but instructive to the reader. The column talks about Conway Twitty, Rudy Giuliani and Barack Obama, before it reaches the penultimate paragraph and his conclusions on how he will raise his new-born son:

"...Here's the plan: I'll push him to excel, and I'll demand that he give his very best efforts to every task. I'll teach him what it means to honor his responsibilities. I'll teach him to treat everyone with respect and to never look down on anyone. When there is conflict - as there will be - I'll treat him with respect. When the time comes to choose a path in life, I'll try to let him make his own decisions and mistakes, as long he doesn't harm himself or others. And if he fails, I'll try to catch him.

I have to. That's my job."

Speaking as a father who has been through that arduous task: "You have the right plan, Mr. Navarrette, and understanding it that clearly at this early stage will guarantee success!."