Dr. Uyterhoeven Stops By

 Last night I was able to go to the Friday Night Cookout at the Adamant Co-op and not actually cookout and not actually grill, which made for a much more pleasant evening. It's not that grilling isn't fun, which gives Ken (the true grill master) and I an opportunity to talk baseball, but with my leg condition it's pretty brutal to have to stand for that long a time. Instead, it was Janet's turn to grill (she does a lot more work at the cookouts than I ever do), so I just was able to stop by fur a burger and to soak in a lovely summer evening. Here's a picture I snapped, as I lounged under a tree and waited for Janet to finish.

When I retire at Champlain I'll probably leave my cane hanging in the hallway in Wick, sort of Dr. Uyterhoeven's parting gift.

Woeful

 Thanks, ESPN, I could have figured that out on my own. I liked that I predicted Flailing, but the Bot calculated Woeful instead. It didn't allow me to choose my favorite CFL team, so obviously its the most invalid form of clickbait. 

Of course, when you spend decades supporting the Minnesota Vikings and Cincinnati Reds this is what you have to expect.

2025 Readings 76

 Here's another book that I ended up reading because of the never-ending demands of the Epics book. I was looking for one particular passage in Niccolo Machiavelli's The Prince, and, of course, ended up reading the entire book for the first time in around thirty years. As part of the buildup to explaining his famous proposal that it is better to be feared than loved, Machiavelli ended up quoting something that Virgil has Dido say in the Aeneid. So, essentially, I was looking for verification for something that constituted half a paragraph, and this led me to rereading an entire book (and this is why the Epics project has stretched on for years; any writer would nod knowingly). Actually, I'm glad for the reread because The Prince is an extraordinary (and grossly misunderstood) book. The line that really jumped out at me dramatically, although I've paraphrased it so often over the last decade, is: "For this is an infallible rule: a prince who is not himself wise cannot be well advised." It's one of many, many reasons why our current dictator is, has been, and will always be, a terrible ruler. It also helps us understand, in a non-princely fashion, why the rabid followers in his cult can't be made to see their astonishing error. 

Mordecai and Nick

 Here's a great picture of two underappreciated gentlemen: Mordecai "Three Finger" Brown and Nick "Eleven Finger" Myers. Nick is my cousin, and a great guy who I wish lived a lot closer. He, like my brother, is trapped in the ravenous maw that is Indianapolis, and, much like light in a black hole, it's difficult to escape from it. It will take serious dark magic to get either of them to visit when we've moved overseas (although their imminently superior better halves may make them see the error of their ways). One peculiarity (of many) of our relationship is that I send along the names and cemeteries of famous (or not so famous) baseball players who are buried in Indiana, and Nick magically tracks them down very quickly. Here he is at the graveside of Hall of Famer, Mordecai "Three Finger" Brown. Mordecai could throw an almost unhittable pitch, made possible by his hand being destroyed in a farming accident (kids, don't try this at home). I'll celebrate more of Nick's adventures in later posts.

Mordecai's career stats: 239-130. 2.06 ERA. 271 complete games. 55 shutouts. 56.9 WAR. Played for the Cincinnati Reds for one season (an important factor in Nick's adventures). Brown is buried in Terre Haute, Indiana. Oddly, while Nick visited Mordecai's grave he didn't take the opportunity to visit the Eugene V. Debs Museum (he's still a work in progress - Nick, not Eugene).

My Inexplicable 3000th Post

 It wasn't that long ago, it seems to me, that I was lamenting with my friend Cyndi that I had just finished my 1000th blog post but that it was impossible to conceive ever making it to 2000 (sort of a misdirected, "my life is over" sulk). And, yet, here we are at 3000 posts. Part of it relates to my desire to create themed discussions (Proust, Pessoa, faith, 2025 readings, etc.), which inspire posting. Part of it, I guess, is that, despite my protestation s to the contrary, I'm not quite dead yet after all. But most of it is extraordinary self-absorption. Now, how to mark this odd moment? I think for the 2000th post I created a Top Ten places visited post, so that's out of the question (maybe I'll revisit it for my 4000th post). Since I have nothing planned, why don't I just capture this moment in time.

Labels (non-geographic) with the most posts: 1) Proust (740); 2) Faith (381); 3) Personal (269); 4) Reflections (238); 5) Friends (217); 6) Travel (129); 7) Discography (125); 8) Family (93); 9) Readings 2025 (76); 10) Disquiet (74); 11) Champlain (73); 12) Literature (47); 13) Food (42); 14) Marcus Aurelius (40)

Labels (geographic) with most posts: 1) Vermont (132); 2) Jordan (123); 3) United Arab Emirates (117); 4) Portugal (101); 5 tie) India & Zanzibar (97); 7 tie) Iceland & Tanzania (38); 9) Canada (35); 10 tie) Italy & Russia(34); 12) Namibia (30); 13) China (29); 14) Egypt (26); 15) Yemen (23); 16) Spain (20); 17) South Africa (19); 18) Austria (17); 19) Zambia (16); 20 tie) Oman and Croatia (15); 22 tie) Sri Lanka & Czech Republic (14); 24) Hungary (12); 25 tie) Belgium, Kenya & Lebanon (11); 28 tie) Australia & Cincinnati; 30 tie) Morocco & Turkey (8)

This doesn't do justice to this moment, I suppose, but it's an interesting snapshot, nonetheless.      

2025 Readings 75

 For a person who loves the Aeneid, it's sort of amazing that I never managed to read Virgil's Eclogues or Georgics. Happily, I found a lovely Oxford University copy that included both. In this case I suppose I was finally driven to do it by the endless and exhausting demands of the Epics book (a very cruel mistress). There was a great passage in one of the Eclogues that fit in beautifully with my Aeneid chapter; it discussed how much better the world would be under Roman leadership. It served my purpose because I was trying to discuss that what Virgil was celebrating in the Aeneid was not Roman power, but instead the role that Rome would serve in bringing order and light to the world. So, I may have finally read it for selfish reasons, but in the end I loved it for the beauty of Virgil's words. There are many beautiful passages, but let me just include one, right at the end of the Georgics Book I:

   "Surely the time will come when a farmer on these frontiers 

Forcing through earth his curved plough 

Shall find old spears eaten away with flaky rust, 

Or hit upon helmets as he wields the weight of his mattock 

And marvel at the heroic bones he as disinterred. 

O Gods of our fathers . . ."

I think I must have been moved by it so much because it reminded me of what I hope the Epics book accomplishes, waking people to these extraordinary works that are sadly ignored yet existing right beneath the surface.

Oceanario de Lisboa

 On June's trip to Portugal I went out of my way to visit a couple places that I had considered visiting before - and should have visited before. One of them was the Oceanario de Lisboa, Lisbon's wonderful and world-class aquarium. I have no idea why I had never gone there before, and please, if you go to Lisbon, don't follow my foolish example and avoid it. It was especially appreciated on a brutally hot day. If I were actually fit enough to lead a student trip to Portugal I'd certainly include it.

Maybe later I'll actually get into my camera and download some other pictures and include them. Not surprisingly, none of the shots I snapped can begin to do justice to the aquarium. I'm sure this attempt was another of my never-ending - and never-successful - efforts to produce a truly aesthetic shot.