C I V I L    M A R R I A G E    I S    A    C I V I L    R I G H T.

A N D N O W I T ' S T H E L A W O F T H E L A N D.


Sunday, April 29, 2018

Sunday Drive: Louie Louie

I now have it on very good authority--my spies are everywhere--that the name of His Royal Highness Prince Louis of Cambridge is pronounced Louie.

Therefore, I just can't resist offering, in the spirit of trans-Atlantic friendship, this famous old American tune in celebration of HRH's birth.




Friday, April 27, 2018

Waitin' for the Weekend







Tuesday, April 24, 2018

Cambridge Baby Number Three

Embed from Getty Images

Surely my truckbuddies have already heard the lovely news that yesterday, being by happy auspices St. George's Day, the Duchess of Cambridge was delivered of a prince around lunchtime in London, and before the day was out the Duke was driving mother and baby home, a merry smile on his face, such as you might expect to see on that of any proud papa.  As is the royal custom in such matters, the baby's name will be announced at a later date.




Yes, it is rather a lot of fuss to be made over an anonymous baby, identical in all essential respects to every other baby in the world, who may or may not ever do anything remarkable. And there are those who will question the fairness and rightness of showering so much attention and status upon any baby, or any family, born to wealth and privilege. However, as I am not running a course in political philosophy here, I feel no need to delve for a reply to that inquiry.

I will merely ask, whether things that are not, strictly speaking, needful in the scheme of things may yet be deemed useful and good. One has only to turn one's gaze from this happy scene beyond the sea to the ugly, sordid, vicious, loathsome orgy of political maneuvering and recrimination on our own shores to be reminded that a republic is not necessarily a garden of sober patriotism and civic virtue. And who will assert that the American system - or any system but an imaginary one - is devoid of undeserved fame or entitled wealth and privilege, sometimes nefariously misused and perverted for utterly selfish ends, or damnable purposes? In England, at least, the wealth and privilege of a crown comes only at the heavy price of lifelong duty, diligence, and impartial conduct in every public word and deed.

I ask you, whether monarchist or no, is it not refreshing to look at the simple happiness of a young, wholesome, thoroughly unpolitical couple with their newborn child, the "brilliant edition of a universal fact," as Bagehot put it, and then to feel that perhaps there is yet some hope left for sanity and decency in this rotten old world?

But there, with all good wishes to little No-name and his family, I must leave you to draw your own conclusions.


Monday, April 23, 2018

Today's Quote: Cleverness


Click to enlarge.

From Literary Visions of Homosexuality, edited by Stuart Kellogg, 1983.


Sunday, April 22, 2018

Sunday Drive: Allen Dale, Gospel Medley




The songs Allen plays are "Are You Washed in the Blood?" "I'll Fly Away," "At Calvary," "When We All Get to Heaven," and "When the Saints Go Marching In."


Friday, April 20, 2018

Waitin' for the Weekend







Tuesday, April 17, 2018

Who Can You Trust?




Story at Buzzfeed.


You have been warned.


Sunday, April 15, 2018

Friday, April 13, 2018

Waitin' for the Weekend







Sunday, April 8, 2018

Saturday, April 7, 2018

Waitin' for the Weekend







Thursday, April 5, 2018

To Hear the Past

One of the movies playing at a theater passed by the camera.

Back when talkies were the Big New Thing, Fox Movietone News put a camera and microphone on a truck and drove through the Times Square district on a day of melting snow:  a fascinating glimpse of life just as it was then.




British Movietone News did something similar in London around the same time: this selection begins with the procession of King George V and Queen Mary to the State Opening of Parliament in the Gold State Coach.  Also featured are the wedding of the Duke of Westminster, and Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald and his Cabinet.





Monday, April 2, 2018

Sunday, April 1, 2018

Easter Sunday 2018: Christ the Lord Is Risen Today

Carl Bloch, The Resurrection, 1881.

The Choir of King's College, Cambridge sings the beloved Easter hymn, written by Charles Wesley in 1739:



Note:  the selection begins at the 1:10 mark.

These are the lyrics they sing in Cambridge, which for some curious reason are by John Arnold:

Jesus Christ is risen today, Alleluia!
Our triumphant holy day, Alleluia!
Who did once upon the cross, Alleluia!
Suffer to redeem our loss. Alleluia!

Hymns of praise then let us sing, Alleluia!
Unto Christ, our heavenly King, Alleluia!
Who endured the cross and grave, Alleluia!
Sinners to redeem and save. Alleluia!

But the pains which he endured, Alleluia!
our salvation have procured, Alleluia!
now above the sky he's King, Alleluia!
where the angels ever sing. Alleluia!

But below are the ones I have always heard sung in the U. S. of A., by Wesley, and of course I like them much better.  Why and how the English went lyrically astray you can google up if you care to.  For myself, I just listen to the choir and sing the words I like in my heart.

Christ the Lord is ris’n today, Alleluia!
Sons of men and angels say, Alleluia!
Raise your joys and triumphs high, Alleluia!
Sing, ye heav’ns, and earth, reply, Alleluia!

Lives again our glorious King, Alleluia!
Where, O death, is now thy sting? Alleluia!
Once He died our souls to save, Alleluia!
Where thy victory, O grave? Alleluia!

Love’s redeeming work is done, Alleluia!
Fought the fight, the battle won, Alleluia!
Death in vain forbids Him rise, Alleluia!
Christ hath opened paradise, Alleluia!

Soar we now where Christ hath led, Alleluia!
Foll’wing our exalted Head, Alleluia!
Made like Him, like Him we rise, Alleluia!
Ours the cross, the grave, the skies, Alleluia!

Caravaggio, The Incredulity of Saint Thomas, 1602.


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