Anecdotes

Aragorn got invited by a friend to come to a break-dancing class. He had fun, but when he came home he described the various places he was sore. He added, however, remembering that the same friend had broke his thumb in break-dancing, "But I didn't break anything!" To which Martin the Warrior added, "Then it should be called sore-dancing, not break-dancing."

During our Genesis Bible study, the class leader was asking a bunch of the little kids questions about Jacob and Esau and what happened when Jacob stole the blessing. They all knew the story well, as was shown by this answer to the question What kind of blessing did Esau get?: "A stinky one!"

Regrets

I do not usually have these, but it is only seven weeks into our school year, and I am regretting my choice for science.

Why did I choose chemistry? I was told clearly that it involved a lot of math, and I have always known that I detest math. Was I merely entranced by the idealized view of chemistry, combining poisonous substances in test tubes and making them explode? Why did I not choose Human Anatomy? *sigh* Well, what's done is done, and I must set my mind to stoically wade through the mire of algebraic equations and converting Fahrenheit to Kelvin that is chemistry.

Biblical motifs in Tolkien

For our Wednesday Bible study we are reading through Genesis, and the Clan is also rereading The Lord of the Rings by Tolkien. I had not read either in quite some time (for LOTR, years), and this time around I see more similarities. Tolkien is not openly religious in his books, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. It would take a longer post than I have time to write now to catalogue them all, but I noticed one motif especially this time around.

As we are reading through Genesis, I find it interesting that firstborns are almost never special. Seth, Isaac, Jacob, Rachel, Levi, Judah, Joseph, Benjamin, Moses, David, Solomon—these people are remembered with honor. But how easy is it to pay little attention to Esau, Reuben, Leah and Cain? Yes, they may be remembered, but their younger sibling is the one who carries the laurels.

In Tolkien's work, firstborns are often as ill-fated. Think of the two sons of Denethor: Boromir and Faramir. Which one is more often beloved? Less obviously, of the heirs to Rohan, it is Eomer, the younger, who eventually becomes king, not the firstborn Theodred. It may not be obvious, but research shows that Arwen, Galadriel, Theoden, Samwise, and Peregrin Took are also younger siblings.

And if you venture into The Silmarillion, Tolkien's epic history of the beginnings of Middle-earth, this motif, like Tolkien's other Biblical motifs, becomes clearer and stronger. What character is more tragic than Feanor, whose pride eventually overwhelms his genius? And it is his younger brother, Finarfin, who fathers the ancestors of many famous characters from The Lord of the Rings. And of the brothers Hurin and Huor, Huor's son is one of the most renowned of Men, while Hurin's son leads an especially ill-fated life. Of Elendil's sons, Isildur and Anarion, Isildur is infamous because of his pride in not destroying the One Ring, while Anarion is good enough to be forgotten without being so good as to be famous.

Of course, in the Bible and also in The Lord of the Rings, the motif is merely a pattern. Jesus is a famous firstborn, as are John the Baptist and Samuel; and as for Tolkien, there are Frodo and Aragorn.

Tolkien once said that he never actively tried to make The Lord of the Rings religious, but that it was such an essential part of himself, that there was unconsciously an air of religion throughout. And with each new reading, I find this more and more to be true, as I root out with interest the religious motifs of The Lord of the Rings.

How Logical are You?

You Are Pretty Logical

You're a bit of a wizard when it comes to logic While you don't have perfect logic, you logic is pretty darn good Keep at it - you've got a lot of natural talent in this area!

How Logical Are You?

Have you ever...

From here

I have done those that are bolded:

01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink
02. Swam with wild dolphins
03. Climbed a mountain
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid
06. Held a tarantula
07. Taken a candlelit bath
08. Said “I love you’ and meant it
09. Hugged a tree
10. Bungee jumped
11. Visited Paris
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise
14. Seen the Northern Lights
15. Gone to a huge sports game (and survived the crush afterwards)
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables
18. Touched an iceberg
19. Slept under the stars
20. Changed a baby’s diaper (Oh yeah. Many, many times)
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
22. Watched a meteor shower
23. Gotten tipsy on champagne
24. Given more than you can afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment (I don't remember exactly when, but I'm sure it's happened.)
27. Had a food fight
28. Bet on a winning horse
29. Asked out a stranger
30. Had a snowball fight
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
32. Held a lamb
33. Seen a total eclipse
34. Ridden a roller coaster
35. Hit a home run (Probably doesn't count if it was a two-person Calvin game.)
36. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
39. Had two hard drives for your computer
40. Visited all 50 states
41. Taken care of someone who was drunk
42. Had amazing friends
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
44. Watched wild whales
45. Stolen a sign
46. Backpacked in Europe
47. Taken a road-trip
48. Gone rock climbing
49. Midnight walk on the beach
50. Gone sky diving
51. Visited Ireland
52. Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger’s table and had a meal with them
54. Visited Japan
55. Milked a cow (I milked a goat, does that count?)
56. Alphabetized your CDs (and they're still alphabetized!)
57. Pretended to be a superhero
58. Sung karaoke
59. Lounged around in bed all day
61. Gone scuba diving
62. Kissed in the rain
63. Played in the mud
64. Played in the rain (I live in the Pacific Northwest! If I never was out in the rain, I'd be a hermit)
65. Gone to a drive-in theater
66. Visited the Great Wall of China
67. Started a business
68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
69. Toured ancient sites
70. Taken a martial arts class
71. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight
72. Gotten married
73. Been in a movie
74. Crashed a party
75. Gotten divorced
76. Gone without food for 5 days
77. Made cookies from scratch
78. Won first prize in a costume contest
79. Ridden a gondola in Venice
80. Gotten a tattoo
81. Rafted the Snake River
82. Been on television news programs as an “expert”
83. Got flowers for no reason
84. Performed on stage
85. Been to Las Vegas
86. Recorded music
87. Eaten shark (I ate squid and loved it...surely that's close enough)
89. Gone to Thailand
90. Bought a house
91. Been in a combat zone
92. Buried one/both of your parents
93. Been on a cruise ship
94. Spoken more than one language fluently
95. Performed in Rocky Horror
96. Raised children
97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking
103. Had plastic surgery
104. Survived an accident that you shouldn’t have survived
105. Wrote articles for a large publication (if a newspaper in a good-sized city counts)
106. Lost over 100 pounds
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback
108. Piloted an airplane
109. Petted a stingray
110. Broken someone’s heart
111. Helped an animal give birth
112. Won money on a T.V. game show
113. Broken a bone
114. Gone on an African photo safari
115. Had a body part of yours below the neck pierced (not for cosmetic reasons, anyway)
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
118. Ridden a horse
119. Had major surgery
120. Had a snake as a pet
121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours
123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states
124. Visited all 7 continents
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
26. Eaten kangaroo meat
127. Eaten sushi (and made it, too)
128. Had your picture in the newspaper
129. Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about
130. Gone back to school
131. Parasailed
132. Petted a cockroach
133. Eaten fried green tomatoes
134. Read The Iliad
135. Selected one “important” author who you missed in school, and read
136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
137. Skipped all your school reunions
138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language (do men count?)
139. Been elected to public office
140. Written your own computer language
141. Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream
142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
143. Built your own PC from parts
144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn’t know you
145. Had a booth at a street fair
146. Dyed your hair
147. Been a DJ
148. Shaved your head
149. Caused a car accident
150. Saved someone’s life

Stranger than fiction...

Lord Cochrane, by Christopher Lloyd, is one of the best biographies I have ever read. Not so much because the writing is excellent, though it is certainly well written, but because the man whose life fills its pages lived a life that should never be forgotten.

This man, Thomas Lord Cochrane, was a man whom Napoleon feared as much as he did Nelson, but whose genius was not even recognized by his own countrymen. This Scottish sea captain and politician lived a life that was even more engrossing than the many captains of naval fiction who are based off of him.

This is the sort of man that, when he was only twenty-six, and captain of a ship that had only 14 cannons, took on and captured Spanish ship with twice his guns, and, with those same two ships, captured 120 Portuguese ships in one raid.

This is the sort of man that, because of his commanding presence, was able to convince the Portuguese in northern Brazil that they should all evacuate, even though, had they looked more carefully at his claims, they would have seen that it was pure bluff, and that he still only had two ships.

This is the sort of man that, when he was running for parliament, and found that his opponent bribed the electors with £5, offered nothing at all. When he lost the election, he gave all those who had voted for him £10. The next election, when he won, the electors went to him for their £10. He refused, saying that he did not offer bribes, but rewards to those who were disinterested enough to vote for him.

This is the sort of man who, when he protested the unfair decision of an Admiralty court in Jamaica and was arrested, declared that he would starve rather than pay for prison food. The worried jailer contacted the Admiralty, who said that they didn't want to make a fuss, so they granted Cochrane carte blanche of the food at the inn next door. Cochrane, when he realized the situation, took advantage of it by having large parties in prison, knowing that the Admiralty would pay the bill. Eventually, the Admiralty secretly gave him equipment to escape from prison, begging him to leave before he bankrupted them.

This is the sort of man that, when his friend blockaded himself into his home, refusing to pay his bills, Cochrane assisted him by planting mines around his house in case the police should try to break in.

Stubborn, rebellious, idealistic, radical, Thomas Lord Cochrane led a life that should never be forgotten. His biography is, from beginning to end, full of adventure and spirit, and is better summer reading than most fiction. For Anglophiles, for British Navy lovers, for anyone who has ever loved the story of an amazing man...this book is for you.

Indian Spiced Chai

I used to buy this prepared, but since we are studying India, I wanted to try to make my favorite tea at home. It was delicious! Here is the recipe I came up with, adapting it from one I found in Chai: The Spice Tea of India:

Merry's Spiced Chai

5 cups of boiling water
1 teaspoon of ground ginger
2 pinches of allspice
3/4 teaspoon of peppercorns
10 whole cloves
1 1/2 cinnamon sticks
1/8 cardamom seeds
2 tea bags (black tea; I used English Breakfast, but Earl Grey and Darjeeling are recommended)

Mix all ingredients, then simmer and let brew for 5 minutes. Remove the tea bags and brew another 10-20 minutes more, depending on how spiced you like your tea. For a milder tea flavor, replace one of the tea bags with an apple cinnamon herbal tea bag, and use only 1 cinnamon stick.

Tea is best served with milk and sugar. The spice mix can be used for 2x the recipe if longer brewing time is used. Leftover chai can be refridgerated for iced chai, or to be reheated later.

Let trumpets sound forth! for today we have come out of the darkness of dial-up, and into the broad daylight of broadband. And there was much rejoicing.

Framley Parsonage

I have just finished another one of Anthony Trollope's books, the fourth in the Barsetshire series. It is the one that vaulted him to Victorian fame, and I can definitely see why. Most people think his greatest fault is talking to the reader, and he held back for Framley Parsonage. Also, while suspense and plot twists really don't fit his style, Framley Parsonage is the least predictable of the books I have read so far.

Once again, I marvel at his very modern choices, considering how he was a model Victorian in all else. His heroines, far from being the dulcet angels of most other literature of the time, are firm in character and decision, and though fallible, commanding of our respect. He has an obvious respect for women, without being sentimental about them (as Dickens was). His women are always feminine, always within their roles, yet always seem to be in control of events. They are intelligent, some are conniving, and generally more firm in character than the men.

Framley Parsonage is the story of Mark Robarts, a young clergyman who gained a parish because of the beneficence of Lady Lufton. His entanglements with politics, debtors, and worldliness—and the love triangle of Lucy Robarts, Griselda Grantly, and Ludovic Lufton—take up the main body of this engaging book. Trollope also brings back such old friends as Miss Dunstable, Mrs. Proudie, and the Archdeacon, as well as introducing us to the delightful Lady Lufton and Mr. Crawley. For some reason, with all the Trollope books I have read, I have hit a dead spot about halfway through, usually when Trollope is discussing politics, and I stop reading the book for a while. But then, always, when I pick up the book again, I wonder why I had ever put it down, and finish it with relish. This one was no different; the ins and outs of Parliamentary politics show up, but it is only for a few pages, and after finishing it, I wouldn't miss this book for anything!

I am am chronicly impulsive with my reading. There are times when I have to start a new book, even if I haven't finished all the other ones I am reading. But, I decided that it was time to change. After having a huge "books being read currently" pile, I have pared it down to only five! From being as tall as my bed, the pile is now only a foot tall! It consists of: Framley Parsonage by Anthony Trollope, Middlemarch by George Eliot, The Fellowship of the Ring by JRR Tolkien, The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas, and At Home in Mitford by Jan Karon. Of course, this state of brevity will not last long...I have several books ready to start. But, I hope to maintain a steady habit of finishing at least one book before starting another.

Books read in September

Tolkien: Author of the Century (reread) by Tom Shippey
This is by far the best commentary on Tolkien that I have found. He manages to put into words things that I had felt were there, but couldn’t positively identify.

First Impressions by Debra White Smith
My least favorite of her Austen adaptations so far.

The Bride of Anguished English by Richard Lederer
There is something soothing to a philologist about other people’s grammatical mistakes.

Life on the Edge by James Dobson

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
For a book that has been touted as the best twentieth century novel, this was highly disappointing. It was a highly fatalistic story, and though the descriptions were good, the characters felt flat.

Consequence by Elizabeth Newark
Yet another P&P sequel, and like most the others, makes the Darcy and Bingley children just like their parents. Far too predictable.

The Tale of Despereaux (reread) by Kate DiCamillo
I first became enchanted with this right after it first came out, but became reenchanted with it because The Queen got the audiobook for her birthday. It is a children’s book, but, like the Chronicles of Narnia, has more than meets the eye. Also, the reader was excellent!

A Shepherd’s Look at Psalm 23 by Phillip Keller
Rather more than I ever wanted to know about sheep and shepherding, but an enlightening read.

The Eyre Affair (reread) by Jasper Fforde

Eldorado (reread) by Baroness Orczy
Baroness Orczy never re-attained the calibre of The Scarlet Pimpernel in her sequels, and she (a product of her times) has a tendency to be sentimental, and also to repeat descriptive words and phrases. But as far as pleasure reading goes, most modern writers have far to go to surpass her.

Central Park (reread) by Debra White Smith

Hornblower and the Hotspur (reread) by C. S. Forester
I had forgotten how much I like C. S. Forester, and how much I dislike Hornblower personally. He would be so likable...if he would only care for poor Maria.

Cousin Phillis by Elizabeth Gaskell
I had just started this when I read Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch’s recommendation as the third-best of Gaskell’s novels (behind Cranford and Life of Charlotte Bronte). I had read the other two, and found that this one was interesting (which I could not say for Cranford), though tragic. It’s also short, something which I am starting to value among the other Victorian tomes, all of which seem to be more than 400 pages. Wives and Daughters and North and South are my favorites of hers, as they seem to be of most of her fans, though literary critics rarely look at popularity when deciding on “the best”.

Our Mutual Friend (reread) by Charles Dickens
This was my month for rereading books I had not read in a long while; Eldorado, Hornblower and the Hotspur, Tale of Despereaux, Tolkien: Author of the Century, and finally this one. I like this best of the Dickens’ books I have read so far. I used to think that I disliked Dickens because he was depressing, but I have now honed my dislike to: his idiosyncratic minor characters, ungrammatical style of writing, sentimentality, cookie-cutter heroines, overuse of coincedence, and fondness of killing off characters. But I do dearly love the story of John Harmon and Bella Wilfer, especially since Bella is not an angel; and I can even appreciate Bradley Headstone, though he is an eccentric minor character. So...Dickens will never be a favorite of mine, and I still don’t consider him the greatest Victorian author, but I will allow him a certain greatness in getting me to love a story in spite of disliking almost everything about his writing style.

Charles Dickens and Other Victorians by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch
I am glad to have finally meet “Q”, and his style is very engaging, only I’m not sure if what he says is all what he feels, or what he must say as a critic. He obviously likes Dickens and Thackeray a great deal, and probably does not like Trollope or Gaskell, but he seems so full of “they say” that I’m not sure what he says.