Saturday, June 30, 2018

Ah, Summer



In over sixty summers, I've sustained a damaged rotator cuff, torn thumb tendon, strained Achilles tendon, sprained ankle, simple orbit fracture, cracked palate, demolished molar [a surf board hit me in the side of the face; not my board, some teenager's], two black eyes [not at the same time], bloodied noses, a sprained elbow, jellyfish stings, and forty-eight sixty sixty-six stitches in various parts of me. Not to mention sunburn [although not since the early 80's], dehydration, ear infection, various abrasions, contusions, lacerations, a profound sinus irritation, and shredded knee cartilage. Oh, and a barracuda once gave me a dirty look.

Then again, I've seen colleagues literally work themselves to death in the face of their congregations' spiritual lassitude, sneering indifference, and occasional hostility, so it seems that surfing is safer.  It doesn't matter; I'd do it all over again if I could.

From The Dawn Patrol, by Don Winslow:

"The physicists call it a 'energy-transport phenomenon.'

The dictionary says it's 'a disturbance that travels through a medium from one location to another location.'

A disturbance. It's certainly that.

Something gets disturbed. That is, something strikes something else and sets off a vibrations. Clap your hands right now and you'll hear a sound. What you're actually hearing is a sound wave. Something struck something else and it set off a vibration that strikes your eardrum.

The vibration is energy. It's transported through the phenomenon of a wave from one location to the other.

The water itself doesn't actually move. What happens is one particle of water bumps into the next, which bumps into the next, and so on and so forth until it hits something. It's like that idiot wave at a sports event - the people don't move around the stadium, but the wave does. The energy flows from one person to another.

So when you're riding a wave, you're not riding water. The water is the medium, but what you're really riding is energy."


[Above is a photo of a Roman Catholic nun whose religious order hosts an annual charity surfing competition in Stone Harbor, New Jersey.]

Friday, June 29, 2018

Yukio Mishima

[Redux addition:  Although rarely mentioned these days, Mishima was a classic example of a post-WWII Japanese literary artist.  His work, and his manner of life, figured prominently in my master's thesis in literature where I studied the influence of American lit on the rapidly changing Japanese culture of the post-war period, and how that American-influenced Japanese literature in turn influenced the writing of American novelists beginning in the 1950's to the present day.  In order to appreciate Mishima's lyricism, I actually learned to read Japanese, after a fashion.  This was originally posted on July 27, 2012.]


Recently, the youngest was visiting and decided to read my old paperback edition of The Great Gatsby.  Despite her private school and liberal arts college education, she had never read about Jimmy Gatz and his self-transformation into the mysterious millionaire of Long Island.  Remarkable, given what that education cost, eh?  She does, however, know that plastic is "bad" or something.

Anyway, she read the story and, when we were talking about it, she mentioned something that's been noticed by many a reader and critic.  Namely, F. Scott Fitzgerald rarely wrote a bad sentence.  I told her I found that to be true even in his later works, when he was surviving on a hot fudge sundae and two quarts of whiskey a day diet.  I really couldn't think of any other American writer of whom the same could be said.

There was, however, a Japanese writer who had mastered the art of composition; he, too, could not write a bad sentence, although he is not always well-represented by English translators.  He's pictured above in a moment of repose: Yukio Mishima, considered by many to be the greatest Japanese writer of the 20th century. 

He was, as opposed to Fitzgerald, highly disciplined in his physical life.  Instead of fortifying his art with whiskey and ice cream, Mishima was a body-builder and weight-lifter.  He despaired of the relative physical slightness of Japanese men of his generation, especially as compared with the American GI's who occupied post-war Tokyo, and sought to train that away through hard work in gym and dojo.  By 1970, he may have been the most physically fit man of letters the world had ever known.  This discipline is discerned in his artistic craft, as well, as his plays, short stories and novels are clearly the product of much careful labor and thoughtfulness, with no small portion of appreciation for the fractured and fractious beauty of the world.

He was also a little un-hinged.  Did I mention that? 

He died shortly after taking charge of a Japanese army headquarters building.  Yes, that's right.  He did that in 1970, armed only with a sword [and backed by about three or four followers] in order to lecture the assembled soldiers on the need to re-claim the pre-war values of labor, faith, and industry.  Then he committed ritual suicide; the kind known as seppuku.  I'll spare you the details.

While I appreciate a "gonzo" style of life as much as the next person, I chiefly recognize Mishima for his prose, as his novels carry a beauty that is typically Japanese and cannot be produced in the same manner by any other culture.  It is an art that is difficult to master and no one has surpassed Mishima in this regard.  [Ironically, my Japanese students did not care for Mishima; not for literary reasons, but because they felt he was a cultural embarrassment due to the nature of his death.]

It is generally recognized that, had he lived, he would have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, especially based on his final work, the manuscript for which he dropped in a mailbox on his way to his death.  It was a grim surprise for his publisher a few days later.  [For those wondering, the Nobel Prize is never awarded posthumously.]

Also, and as odd as this may sound coming from one of my profession, he turned his self-determined death into a form of art, too.  The 21st century seems to be a time when timid artists and writers compliment one another on their "courage" and "transgressive work".  Somehow, criticizing Republicans, Mid-Westerners, Southerners, Christians, gun-owners, the obese and the poor doesn't seem as courageous and transgressive as storming an army headquarters, urging an indifferent audience to claim values that had long since become alien, and then ritualizing self-slaughter in order to satisfy...well, perhaps that is best expressed in the quotation below.

"All my life I have been acutely aware of a contradiction in the very nature of my existence. For forty-five years I struggled to resolve this dilemma by writing plays and novels. The more I wrote, the more I realized mere words were not enough. So I found another form of expression.  I want to make a poem of my life."

For those interested in further reading, I would direct you to the "Yukio Mishima page" on a popular online book retailer's site.  Although, if you have a local bookstore, please support them.  Not only does it help to keep them in business, but it may educate 21st century bibliophiles on the staff about a neglected artist.  The Temple of the Golden Pavilion is a particular favorite of mine, as it displays to advantage the relationship between beauty and suffering that forms a strong portion of Japanese art, literature, and spirituality.  There is also a handful of biographies that struggle to place his contradictory personality into some reasonable context.

Thursday, June 28, 2018

A Pungent Question

If the retirement of an 81-year-old Supreme Court justice is causing a surprisingly emotional and overwrought reaction on the part of the media, half of the political class, and the usual Hollywood puzzlewits, could we surmise that the power of the Judicial branch has been exaggerated?

Not Archaeological News, but Close Enough

Finnish researchers were poring through a Vatican-owned manuscript written by Emperor Frederick II in the 1240s when they discovered an illustration of the Australasian cockatoo. The presence of such an exotic bird in a European work has caused experts to rethink what they knew of medieval maritime trade routes.
It has long been surmised that we really don't know much about early trade routes.  An increasing amount of evidence indicates that the cultures of the ancient world knew a lot more about one another than we've previously suspected.

Endorsed

Is The Pretentious Snobby Soccer Dude Worse Than The Vocally Anti-Soccer Guy? I Think So.

Wednesday, June 27, 2018

Meanwhile, in the Rest of the World...


The merchant strike is spreading to other cities and has joined that of the university students.  Staggering inflation, a regime that limits common freedoms, and a soccer team that just got chucked out of the World Cup has all added to the discontent.

By the way, we post this as it is of no interest to the American media, but is claiming a sizable amount of attention in the rest of the world.

Tuesday, June 26, 2018

Yeah, Nah

Travel the Holy Land with the Rt. Rev. Frank T. Griswold III

It's not you, Frank; it's me.  Nice country, though.

This has absolutely, positively nothing to do with Frank, but an acquaintance of mine took a tour with a senior cleric who was superior, condescending, and the very definition of "privilege", according to contemporary usage of the term.   The clerical tour host made everyone so miserable that they were reminded as to why The Episcopal Church started to diminish during the cleric's tenure.  A rerun of such a trip isn't particularly compelling.

[This arrived as an "urgent speed message" from my seminary.  They're rather breathless about it, which may explain why their fund-raising is often anemic.]

Transient Lives, Unhinged from Religion or Culture

This thought first struck me during a visit to London’s National Gallery, where I found my gaze shift from the paintings to the people viewing them. They would drift toward a painting, stop, read the placard, lift their smartphone, click, and move on to repeat the process for the next work of art that caught their eye. The whole ritual took about fifteen seconds—twenty, if the work was famous enough to merit a selfie...
My Internet-trained generation stands before the Caravaggio without religious sentiment or aesthetic education, and panics. We know its greatness in theory only; our hearts remain stony. We act upon it with scrutinizing eyes; the painting does not act upon us. The agent does not become the patient; the outside object does not become the source of movement within our soul. We do not feel.
It's as if dystopian fiction wasn't actually fiction, but prediction.

The Post-Christian Society is Really Something, Isn't It?

USA Today: Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Kirstjen Nielsen experiences at restaurants suggest a 'soft' civil war is well underway. It will get worse unless we learn to stop hating each other.

Yes, but the vessel for reconciling human excess is Christianity and other religions, and they have been judged by our elites as fit only for the poorly educated and unsophisticated who are on "the wrong side of history*".
What would make things better? It would be nice if people felt social ties that transcend politics. Americans’ lives used to involve a lot more intermediating institutions — churches, fraternal organizations, neighborhoods — that crossed political lines. Those have shrunk and decayed, and in fact, for many people politics seems to have become a substitute for religion or fraternal organizations. If you find your identity in your politics, you’re not going to identify with people who don’t share them.
I recall directly after the election the #LoveTrumpsHate hashtag was popular.  It appears that #HateTrumpsEverything has replaced it.

[*A moronic expression used almost exclusively by those ignorant of history.]

Hey, Kids. This is What Socialism Really Looks Like.

The Army Took Over the Spigots, Forcing Thirsty Venezuelans to Pay

It's not living in a paradise adjudicated by Bernie Sanders where you pay for nothing.  You wind up paying, sometimes dearly, while the leaders always have provision for their needs.  Also, end stage socialism is historically marked by those with the guns taking over.

Monday, June 25, 2018

Post-Christian Martyr

“Westworld” actress Evan Rachel Wood said Sunday she was participating in a 24-hour hunger strike to raise awareness about the children who were separated from their families upon crossing the U.S. border.
24 hours!  You're like...Gandhi or someone.

This is so "Hollywood" that a professional satirist could not improve upon it.

By the way, Christians of my persuasion do the same thing, for various other reasons, every Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.  In addition, some of us fast one day a month as part of our not-quite-dormant monastic vows and associate it with an intentional day of prayer.

I never thought of turning fasting into a virtue signal, however.

Tonight's News Choices


We watched ABC tonight, mainly to see if there were news of interest for those other than the media, politicians, or the representatives of the sadly ill-educated, but verbose, Hollywood glam set.

Here's the breakdown:

1.  News of the same border and immigration issues that have been with us for at least thirty years.  [See above; it's the front page of the NYT from thirty years ago today.]

2.  The current occupant of the White House made some statements about immigration that got the media all worked up.

3.  Meryl Streep's cousin, who owns a restaurant in some dowdy Virginia suburb, is ethically ethical and wants those who disagree with her ethical ethics to be barred from eating her artisinal cheese plate.  [In business, it's called M.O.D., or "money out the door".]

4.  It's fire season in the western U.S., so there are fires.

5.  Creeps are shooting at firefighters and EMTs, this time killing a hero in Long Beach, California.  This is happening more and more.  [First news story that is of general interest.]

6.  Harley-Davidson is about to cripple its brand with those who actually buy its product.  No one on the news is noting that, because of a decade's worth of questionable business decisions, Harley has been on the edge of failure for some time and is now reaping the whirlwind.  [I owned a BMW and would probably buy a Honda or other Japanese bike if I were in the market for one, so....]

7.  A dad was shot to death while camping in Malibu.  The police know nothing.  Oh, except for the fact that people have been getting shot at for awhile now in Malibu.  Thanks for letting us know, Barney Fife.

8.  A funeral for a kid who ran from the police; a wealthy family crashed their plane; Bill Clinton has his hands all over some guy, which is a refreshing change.

9.  A teenage girl did something decent and, since we live in a time of anger, it is worthy of a news story.  Good for her; it was an act of genuine compassion.  [Another actual story of general interest.]

News from the Ivy Bughouse

“Diversity” and Discrimination at Harvard

Sunday, June 24, 2018

That's Right, Yankees. Not Only Do We Have Astounding Bats and Bullpen, but Our Team are Ninjas, Too

Yes, I Still Miss, Etc....

How Can That Be? It Would Mean the Media was [gasp!] Manipulating Us

I saw reports about the brutal conditions of border detainees, including photos of people sleeping on a floor wrapped in those aluminum foil-like "space blankets", and expressed concern about it to my two senators, Blumenthal and Murphy, and to the Episcopal Church's office of peace and justice.

Blumenthal sent me a rote response, Murphy nothing, my own Episcopal Church less than nothing.

Of course, that was in 2014 when the White House was occupied by those palatable to the senators and the Episcopal Church.  Now a policy that has been in place through the tenure of Bush and Obama is judged to be the most horrible thing ever, with crying professional protestors, rancid Hollywood vulgarians, and simpering clergy all condemning the practice, mainly because their preferred candidate lost and the White House is occupied by the perfect reflection of their own cynicism.

Yeah, I'm going out on a limb here, but I really don't think they care for any of these immigrants beyond their usefulness in political attacks.  This, too, is a symptom of our age's neo-Marxist ideology.

Saturday, June 23, 2018

Some Nostalgia

When I was a young priest, before the rapid and ubiquitous communication made possible by the internet, the clergy would receive a letter from the bishop once a month, except for August.

Each letter was a meditation on our theology, relationship with Jesus, and any number of other portions of our life within the covenant.  It was a reminder that one of the charges of a bishop was to serve as an educator to the clergy and laity.  This practice was a clear descendant from the letters of St. Paul and served the same purpose of keeping us united in perspective and pilgrimage, especially if dioceses were small in number of parishes, but huge in terms of square miles.  The bishops of my first two dioceses were masters at these epistles.

This practice moved into devolution about eight years ago, when The Episcopal Church leadership decided that we would primarily be participants in transient secular ideology rather than a spiritual expression that is far older and more eternal than the politics of the liberal wing of the Democratic Party and the weird mutant that is American Socialism.

These days all I ever receive from bishops are letters addressing the latest concern of the Democratic Party, awkwardly placed in a theological frame.  I never receive a theological reflection that isn't in response to a political concern that is also expressed by the media, half of the politicians, and the entertainment industry.

It's a pity that contemporary bishops deliberately secularize and constrain a role that once could represent a deeply resonating vividity and the power capable of liberating and educating all people, not just those who vote a particular way in American elections.

As the role has diminished, so has the church.

Friday, June 22, 2018

Bob Manry

This is what we think of as the first of the true Friday profiles, originally offered on July 20, 2012.  It is a particular favorite of The Coracle as we first heard Manry in the small undercroft of a parish church, as part of a regular Monday meeting of Troop 163 
of the Euclid, Ohio chapter of the Boy Scouts.  
We have never quite recovered.


Look at that expression above. That about sums it all up, doesn't it?

Robert Manry was an editor for The Plain Dealer, Cleveland's daily newspaper, back in the 1960's.  He had a mid-life crisis of sorts after being diagnosed with a heart irregularity.  Did he start of program of exercise and diet?  Sorta.  Did he boost his spiritual life through meditation?  Sorta.  Did he achieve new purpose and greater health?  Oh, boy, you have no idea.

You see, Manry bought a 15ft. sailboat [well, technically 13 feet, 8 inches] and decided, despite the fact that he was a novice freshwater sailor for whom Lake Erie was the largest body of water he'd ever attempted, to sail from Falmouth, Mass. to Falmouth, UK.  Yep, across the North Atlantic.  By himself.  In a 15ft. boat.  Named Tinkerbelle.

Like all serious American nutcases, he kept this intention mostly to himself.  No wonder, as his friends might have tried an intervention.  Or thrown a net over him.  When he asked for a leave of absence from The Plain Dealer, they said "no".  So, he quit.

In case you're wondering, he did make it.  Also, The Plain Dealer now found that their former employee was the toast of sailors around the world and much in demand by the world media.  Oops.

His story in brief may be found here.  If you want, you can still find copies of Tinkerbelle, his tale of the odyssey,  from used book dealers.

What made him a hero for me was that he spoke dramatically to our Boy Scout troop about his experience and inspired at least one of us to try to live the life of a waterman whenever possible.  In fact, I would eventually buy a later version of his boat myself. 

Thursday, June 21, 2018

Hypocrisy is the Currency of Politics


Endorsed and True

The Older, the Better: People age into happiness

Isn't It Time for That Asteroid to Hit Us?

Smartphone use blamed as water feature is bricked up: The Rill near London Bridge falls victim to health and safety for people on phones
It is not the first time that phone addiction has been blamed for having to adapt the public realm. A 20-ft statue of a pair of clasped hands erected outside Salisbury Cathedral had to be moved in 2016, apparently because people kept bumping their heads on it while looking at their phones. Artist Sophie Ryder wrote on her Facebook page: “We had to move [it] because people were walking through texting and said they bumped their heads!”

Friday, June 15, 2018

Howlin' Wolf

From July 13, 2012: The second Friday profile.  As one may see, it is slightly more expanded from the first, but not quite there, yet.


Sometimes after a performance the adrenaline is so strong that you can't stop. This is especially true when you have creative synergy with the other musicians.

Above is Howlin' Wolf, one of the great bluesmen to come out of the South as part of the migration that made Chicago the Blues Mecca, after hours in some nightclub where he and his band had been performing.  He was flamboyant, highly energetic, ran a very disciplined combo, encouraged young musicians, and served as an inspiration to many of the founders of progressive rock music.  He provided his players with health insurance before it was fashionable or legally required.

He might have been lost to common history had not The Rolling Stones, when they were asked to appear on the TV show "Shindig", demanded of ABC TV that Wolf also perform on that evening's broadcast.  Howlin' Wolf jumped about, stormed around the stage, played painfully sweet blues from the calluses on his fingers, and performed with such energy that people temporarily forgot about the young soul firebrand, James Brown.  Howlin' Wolf was 55 years old at the time.

I guess he was an overnight sensation, after nearly forty years of performance.

[More about Wolf, The Stones, Shindig, and its creator may be read in this profile.]

Thursday, June 14, 2018

More Good, Long Reading

When diversity means uniformity

This Week's Long, Worthwhile Read

Watch What You Say. Someone Else Is.

Actually, We Live for Eternity, but Whatevs

Religious people live four years longer than atheists, study finds: Scientists put it down to being more social, volunteering, and drinking less

Science!  So, it must be right.

Yeah, Midwesterners and Southerners Will Really Respond to That

LOS ANGELES — The Democratic National Committee and members of Congress are turning to Hollywood for help with voter turnout and messaging ahead of the midterm elections and 2020 presidential campaign, quietly consulting with a group of actors, writers and producers here.

You mean the people who regard those of us who are not from the two coasts as a collection of hillbillies, rednecks, pea pickers, boondockers, generic bumpkins and potential Klansmen are going to condescend to "explain" the world to us so that we might be "educated" as to how to vote correctly?

Thank you, elite masters.  How did we work our way through the world without you Hollywood people?  As Homer Simpson has said, "Actors.  They know everything."

Some further reading:

NPR: A Resurgence Of 'Redneck' Pride, Marked By Race, Class And Trump

Chicago Tribune: The great 'hillbilly' scapegoat

Wednesday, June 13, 2018

Yes. Next Question?

American Atheistic Materialism: A Creed of Despair?
Most astoundingly, this materialistic, atheistic philosophy has taken over most of the Christian churches. Mainstream Protestants, a majority of Catholics and an increasing proportion of Evangelical Protestants have endorsed and embraced a religious form of materialistic atheism.
Embarrassed by the supernatural, the Christian teachers and preachers have gradually and gently de-mythologized religion so that it no longer deals with man’s interaction with the supernatural realm, but instead aims to simply save the natural realm. American Christianity is no longer about the salvation of souls, but self help and social justice. The preachers are increasingly silent about the other world, settling for the chance to improve this world.

I Was Missing Australia Today

Shark Head Stuffed With Cigarette Butts Found Impaled On Fence

No Kidding

Higher minimum wages increase poverty in poor neighborhoods, study finds

Having actually run a business that needs to make payroll, I have tried to point out to my colleagues, the ones who self-identify as economic justice ministers, how a government artificially messing with pay structure leads to unemployment.  They tend to disregard this observation as it doesn't feed a narrative that casts them in the heroic role as "liberator of the oppressed*".

[*For those unfamiliar with neo-Marxism, which is the prevailing ideology, society is divided into three groups: The Oppressed, The Oppressors, and The Liberators of the Oppressed.  University professors, Protestant clergy, most of the media and entertainment world, and random screamers on social media see themselves as members of the latter group.  It is a tricky ideology to navigate as the definition of The Oppressed and The Oppressors can change rapidly to suit the needs of The Liberators.  That's why there is this...thing...called "intersectionality".  We'll talk about that one in the future.]

Here's a simple narrative that is actually real:

1.  A guitar business has three minimum-wage trainees.  For each, this is his or her first job.
2.  The state raises the minimum wage.
3.  The business is required to increase the price of product to cover the wage increase.
4.  Sales drop as the prices are no longer competitive.
5.  Adjustments to the bottom line must be made; one employee is laid off and one has his hours reduced by 50%.
6.  End result of "fairness": One and one-half jobs lost.
7.  Secondary result of "fairness": Those who are not wage-earners, but supported the wage increase, get to claim victory on behalf of The Oppressed.  As they tend to be salaried, rather than wage-earning, employees, they are unaffected either way.  Yay, Liberators.

Everything You Know is Really Wrong

The most famous psychology study of all time was a sham. Why can’t we escape the Stanford Prison Experiment?

I wonder how much research, how many doctoral dissertations and prison reform and training programs, have been based on this nonsensical, yet popular, study?

Tuesday, June 12, 2018

I Agree, Mainly Due to #6

Why Millennials Should Rethink Slow Love

Don't Look at the [Men and Women] Behind the Curtain

The Western world is in turmoil largely because of the widening gap between what the people see as true and the “truth” that their governing classes impose on them for the purported greater moral good. The result is a schizophrenia like that seen before the collapse of the Soviet Empire, in which no one believed that the reality they lived had anything to do with the reality delivered by the media and the state. Trumpism and popular movements in Europe are simply symptoms of another problem—that what the ruling elite said was true was often a lie.
As Pilate asks in John 18:38, "What is truth?"

Everything You Know is Wrong

Fracking doesn’t harm drinking water, study finds

Yet I was assured by those who practice "environmental ministry" that we are all doomed, doomed by fracking.

By the way, if you wish to see the benefits of fracking, drive along the New York/Pennsylvania border.  In the north, there is gross poverty and unemployment; in the south there are more jobs than employees.  Care to guess what one state permits and the other doesn't?

Well, It's Just an Arm of the Pharmaceutical Industry, So....

The Mental Health Profession is Failing

As linked in the article:
The escalating suicide rate is a profound indictment of the country’s mental health system. Most people who kill themselves have identifiable psychiatric symptoms, even if they never get an official diagnosis.

The rise in suicide rates has coincided over the past two decades with a vast increase in the number of Americans given a diagnosis of depression or anxiety, and treated with medication.

The number of people taking an open-ended prescription for an antidepressant is at a historic high. More than 15 million Americans have been on the drugs for more than five years, a rate that has more than tripled since 2000.

But if treatment is so helpful, why hasn’t its expansion halted or reversed suicide trends?
And there is this salient observation:
When it comes to America, we must notice, as I have often said, that far too much American therapy is of the touchy feely variety. Patients are induced to get in touch with their feelings and to feel their feelings. Beyond the fact that this approach doubles down on the social disconnection these patients feel, there is very little chance that the average middle-aged male, belonging to a high risk population, is going to consult with a therapist who is going to mother him or is going to tell him to get in touch with his feminine side.

One can question how effective this approach is for women. Most likely, not very. The more therapy becomes a woman’s profession, the more people seem disinclined to consult. Or disinclined to take it seriously. If therapy is just offering professional mothering, why would anyone undergo the process? If therapists can do nothing more than to send you scurrying into your soul to dredge up repressed feelings, why bother? If therapists’ go-to solution is to drown every problem in empathy… what’s the point?

For people who are suicidal, the prospect of receiving empathy from a female therapist is not going to be too appealing. It's going to feel offensive. Especially for men, but likely also for women.

Monday, June 11, 2018

Yet, When He was Running for President, Your Newspaper Mocked Him for His Mormon "Magic Underwear"

If he were ever to run again for the office, I have a feeling that the New York Times would find him once more "problematic*".

[* A word we avoid as it's moronic; just say "a problem".]

So This is What the Party of My Parents Has Become?

Robert De Niro drops the F-bomb on Trump — twice — at Tonys

He could have spoken of the restoration of decency in our society, or the benefits of free speech in artistic creativity, or the profitability of using art to unite rather than divide.  Instead, he was intellectually and morally lazy.  Unnecessarily vulgar, too.

An aside: The "entertainment" community may wish to coordinate their political message as they both desire for evangelical Christians to bake cakes for everyone but forbid to welcome the current occupant of The White House to a Broadway show.  That's illogical and dim.  Either our society is open or it's not.  Also, being barred from current Broadway productions doesn't seem like a punishment.

I'm rather glad I switched to re-runs of "Magnum P.I.".

So? Stop Publishing.

WORLD OCEANS DAY REMINDS US WE’RE ALL PLASTIC ADDICTS

Your magazine promotes it more than most.

Friday, June 8, 2018

Heroes Redux

I thought it would be fun to revisit the Friday profiles, especially the older ones that have never been re-run.  This was the very first one, originally posted in July of 2012.  As you may see, it was very simple in the beginning.

By the way, if we re-run the profiles each Friday, we will have enough for nearly three years.  
Neat, huh?


The extras from the film "Big Wednesday", just hanging out on the set.  They weren't Hollywood stars [well, except for the guy on the right], just the best collection of surfing talent ever concentrated in one decade.

[Redux addition:  Here's a link to an article about the movie and its importance in our culture.]

Thursday, June 7, 2018

A Comprehensive Link List of All of the Friday Profiles

While we will be re-posting the profiles on Fridays for the foreseeable future, with some additional information and updates, not to mention some corrections of grammar, punctuation, and usage, this list is available to for those who wish to proceed directly to a favorite.

Series One:
Howlin' Wolf, blues musician and rock and roll influence
Bob Manry, small boat sailor and adventurer
Yukio Mishima, Japanese novelist, playwright, short story and film writer, and military adventurist
Jacques Cousteau
Duke Kahanamoku, the father of surfing 
William Augustus Muelenberg, unlikely innovator of the 19th century Episcopal Church
Jane Scott, rock and roll's grandmother
Paul Bigsby, guitar innovator and motorcycle mechanic
Max Perkins, mandarin of the 20th century American novel
James Harold Flye, the quintessential Episcopal priest
Samuel Isaac Joseph Schereschewsky, Bible translator
Alan Watts, Episcopal priest and Buddhist educator
Charlie Parker, jazz innovator
Thomas Merton, monk, hermit, and writer
Rell Sunn, The queen Of Makaha 
Raimundo Panikkar, priest, philosopher, and chemist 
Lou Kallie, jazz drummer and saloon keeper
Barbara Crafton, Episcopal priest and homilest
Jim Steranko, comic book artist and innovator
Art Pepper, jazz survivor
Bruce McLaren, racing car driver and builder
Cliff Young, farmer and ultra-marathoner
Sun Ra, space case
Matti Moosa, scholar, translator, deacon, and mentor
Debbie Harry, New Wave chanteuse 
The Hippie Who Sat Next to Me at Tony Mart's
James Magner, poet and mentor
Swein MacDonald, Highland seer
Waldo Peirce, artist and inspiration
John Fitch, racer and innovator
Malcolm Lowery, poet and miserable human being
Max Hardberger, modern-day pirate
Richard Race, landscaper
Hiram Bingham, historian, explorer, discoverer
John Watanabe, failed kamikaze pilot and bishop
Kathleen Kenyon, archaeologist
Captain Sir Richard Burton, fencer, explorer, translator, soldier, diplomat, and madman
James Agee, screenwriter and novelist
Madeleine L'Engle, writer and dinner guest 
Robert Crisp and Tommy MacPherson, unlikely war heroes  
Peter Scott, cat burglar
Wilfred Thesiger, the last of the explorers
Peter Marshall, preacher and chaplain to the U.S. Senate
Dingo, Mexican entrepreneur
Bruce Brown, documentarian and surfer
Joshua Slocum, solo circumnavigator
Mr. A, soul surfer
Thomas Edward Lawrence, archaeologist and adventurer
"Cool Breeze" and the Lyrical Gangster, an islander and his boat 

Series Two:
The Waterman, just some guy
Harvey Pekar, unlikely folk hero
Bernard Moitessier, Zen sailor
"Holy" Grail, old school D.I.
Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, industrial artist
Gerry Lopez, surf pioneer
Ted, Ricardo, and Curtis, three men I knew
Carol Kaye, ubiquitous bassist of pop
Ernie Anderson, Ghoulardi
Patti Smith, she does the rock, herself
Jacques Piccard, explorer of two atmospheres
B. Traven, international man of mystery
Carroll Shelby, Texas cobra
Lucien Aigner, he captured the world
Frank Miller, re-newer of myth
Kiyoshi Aki, he knew how to fall
Bob Simmons, hydrodynamisist
Igumen The Iconographer 
Anita O'Day, jazz singer
Alfred Pierce Reck, the proto-editor
D.A. Levy and the Cleveland Beats, poets
The Voices on the Radio: Freed, Franklin, and Dee
 Eugenie Clark, the shark lady
Dick Dale, king of the surf guitar
Dorothy Fields, Broadway and Hollywood's favorite lyricist
Hart Crane, the voice of new poetics
Rocky Colavito, baseball idol of nine-year-old boys
Bruce Meyers, fiberglass artist and professional dust-eater
Doc Pomus, blues mouth

Series Three:
Eric Hoffer, longshoreman and uncommon philosopher
Tom Blake, innovator and archetype
Dickey Chappelle, an actual feminist icon
Laura Boulton, quester for tones
Kurtis Walker, turntable artist
Tristan Jones, improbable sailor
Christian Lambertsen, re-breather
Wende Wagner, mermaid
Mickey Marcus, maccabee
Henri Nouwen, wounded healer
Archibald McIndoe, restorer of noses and senses of humor 
Gertrude Bell, "Florence" of Arabia and scaler of peaks
James Herriot, friend to animals great and small
Mary Printz, better than voice mail
Jack O'Neill, he made a place of endless summer
Terry Tracy and Kathy Kohner, they made it fun
John Fairfax and Sylvia Cook, they rowed not gently
Harry Crosby, the man who was in love with death
Richard Farina, Dylan's idol
Jack Good, sentinel of the British Invasion
Orangey and Frank Inn, a cat and his pet human
Chester Himes, he brought both humor and more darkness to noir
Zora Arkus-Duntov, of pure, rolling beauty
Eddie Aikau, he would go
Clarice Lispector, with much effort, she created simplicity
Carmine Infantino, rescuer of superheroes
John Wilson Murray, the only law in 400,000 square miles
Verity Lambert, friend of malevolent robots
Heinrich Harrer, the buddy of a god-king
Dawn Fraser, larrikin
Ross MacDonald, he made fiction into literature
Tatiana Proskouriakoff, she spoke for the dead
Rudy Van Gelder, he enabled the soundtrack of the century
Bruce Metzger, the translator of our faith
Maria Tallchief, tribal dancer and a defector's choice
Alfred Bester, Terry Southern, and George Clayton Johnson, they transcended common boundaries
William Francis Gibbs and Sylvia Beach, American originals
Richard Halliburton, he created an industry out of peripatetic-ism
Frederick Law Olmsted, who reversed government power
Vernon Johns, the tocsin of civil change
Harry "Sweets" Edison, "Just let him play, man."
Charles Brush, Philip Hubert Frohman, and Norman Borlaug, three who defined our modern world
Donald E. Westlake, mass producer of compelling fiction

Missed This Yesterday

Remembering the heroic chaplains and priests of Normandy

But They Do Know All 27 Categories of Gender

Troubling US Navy review finds widespread shortfalls in basic seamanship
WASHINGTON — A three-month internal review conducted by senior U.S. surface fleet leaders found some or significant concerns with the ship handling skills of nearly 85 percent of its junior officers, and that many struggled to react decisively to extricate their ship from danger when there was an immediate risk of collision, according to an internal message obtained by Defense News.

The Tocsin Continues to Toll

Turkey Turns On Its Christians

It is Not Useful; It is a Sacrifice to the Secular Gods

Some Inconvenient Truths About Recycling

I recall living in the Berkshires when recycling separation was made mandatory.  I bought a special fixture with color-coded bins and painstakingly ensured that everything was in its proper place.  Very early the next morning the sanitation workers came by and threw the contents of each individual bin, glass, plastic, and paper, along with common household garbage, into one great pile in the garbage truck.  Yeah, I got it then and I get it now.


Always Be Cautious About "Social Activist" Clergy

An armed security guard associated with staunch anti-gun and nationally known social activist, Father Michael Pfleger, was arrested on May 27 outside St. Sabina’s Roman Catholic Church on the South Side where Pfleger is a senior pastor. 
A high profile, camera-loving clergyperson who is a hypocrite?  Well, I never.

Wednesday, June 6, 2018

Just in Time, Too

A New Golden Age for the Tiki Bar

Naturally, with any article produced by the East Coast media, it has to somehow mention the current occupant of the White House, however tangentially.  I'm glad she got that out of the way in the early paragraphs and, as I was alive when Trader Vic's was around [unlike the article's author] and would occasionally have a Mai Tai there, I have to agree with Trump.  It was tacky and in need of replacement.

On This Anniversary, the D-Day Vet Whom I Knew

I've Always Wanted to Try That

Thus It has Always Been

Both our media and popular culture, as well as our cultural elite, value style far more than substance. Adroitly breaking the law is preferable to obeying it in uncivilized fashion. Boorishly bragging nonstop about 3 percent economic growth and below-4-percent unemployment is deemed far worse than contextualizing in professorial tones a stagnant economy that in eight years never achieved 3 percent annual growth.

Credentials empower illegality; their mere absence is seen as almost illegal in itself.

Lawlessly “presidential” is a misdemeanor; lawfully unpresidential, a felony. A bankrupt agenda delivered by experts is sanctified; an effective one packaged by amateurs is heretical...

And yet still, this one constant keeps reverberating throughout the hysteria: Our elite always values the messenger over the message.

This Seems to Be My Pungent Week

Have you noticed how often the members of the media report on themselves these days?  The bulk of current reporting is some sort of staged series of reactions to what the current occupant of The White House is doing or saying and how the members of the media feel about it, are insulted by it, or take umbrage at it.

Meanwhile, in the rest of the world, some rather remarkable things are happening in Iran, Germany, Nicaragua, Sweden, Venezuela, and elsewhere; not to mention in the huge population centers of China and India.  These are events that will have a direct effect on our lives, yet we hear nothing about them through the mainstream keepers of information.

Tuesday, June 5, 2018

Tonight on the Network News

1.  Millionaire football players don't honor an invitation they accepted; the host takes umbrage.
2.  There is a volcano in Guatemala.  It doesn't involve millionaires, so it's a twenty second report.
3.  A millionaire handbag designer has died.
4.  Something tangentially related to Russian collusion happened or whatever.
5.  People violating a law get separated from one another until they can prove their identity.  [This was a policy in practice during the last presidential administration that has recently been judged to be evil.  It has absolutely nothing to do with the change of political parties.  Nothing at all.  Nuh-uh.]
6.  The Department of Education lets the Department of Justice investigate gun crimes.
7.  A corpulent millionaire pleads not guilty.
8.  The millionaire in charge of the Miss America Pageant competition states that the contestants will now wear raincoats when promoting world peace.  [There is still a Miss America contest?]
9.  A hatchet murderer is loose.  Not a millionaire.
10.  A surgeon behaves unprofessionally; perhaps self-prescribes.
11.  It is the anniversary of the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. 
12.  People around the world are doing a really stupid dance.  Millionaires are shown doing it, too.

China news?  号.
Iranian news?  .نه
Indian news?  ਨੰ.
Swedish news?  Nej.
German news?  Nein.

A Worthwhile Perspective

The High Price of Stale Grievances

Monday, June 4, 2018

Pungeosity

Ever notice, especially in Connecticut, that educated people often long for a society that is strictly supervised by government authority?  Especially that of a "progressive" ideology.

It's because they assume it means that they, the elites, will be the ones in charge.  Historically, that isn't usually the case, though.  Authoritarian leadership eventually falls to those willing to indulge their base prejudices and desires.  That indulgence doesn't require education.

Relax, Folks. At Least It Wasn't a Dancing FBI Agent

Staff Member With a Microphone Stand Lead to Report of Gun at Western Connecticut State University

For future reference:

Mike Stand
Gun

Worse Than That, He Picked It Up with His Finger on the Trigger

I mean, that's generally lesson #1 in gun safety classes.  Modern guns don't just go off all by themselves.  They don't "discharge".  You have to pull the trigger, like this goof did when he picked it up.  Since it takes five pounds of pressure to do so, that was a considerable squeeze, too.  Stick to fancy dancing, kid.

[How does a member of the clergy know this?  When he once carried the secondary MOS of 2111.]

Something I See and Hear in Most Pre-Marital Conversations

That’s the biggest joke about “Sex and the City.” For all of their feminist empowerment and loyalty, the show was primarily about finding a man. The friendships were just a stop-gap until then.
For too many contemporary women, the man is a prop.  He serves as the means to provide for procreation, the down payment and mortgage on the dream house, and as the cut-out at the wedding.  Beyond that, [shrug].  Given the current marital rates, with many more men opting not to be married, it seems they're starting to figure it out.  Couple that with inequitable divorce settlements, and the appeal of non-sacramental marriage seems to be evaporating.

"Sex and the City" didn't just wreck women's lives.  Although anyone who would base her life decisions on a cheesy cable show should not hope for much.

Professional Pungent Query

Did Joe Bonamassa make a deal with The Devil at the crossroads?  I think so.  I just watched him play five different blues/rock songs perfectly on five different guitars.  That's not easy, as we get used to our make and model of axe and there's some minor unfamiliarity and clumsiness when one switches, especially in mid-performance.

Outrageously Pungent Opinions

The Beatles were okay, but there would be no classic rock if not for The Rolling Stones.  They synthesized American blues through British Boomer energy and laid the foundation for the seminal music of that era.

More Pungency

Surreality is the new Reality.

Yet Another Pungent Question

Dear Media:

37% of the world's population lives in China and India.  Why do we rarely hear of the news from those countries?

Your fiend,
The Coracle

Sunday, June 3, 2018

Yeah, Nah

America’s Creepiest Motel Can Be Yours. It Comes With Clowns

A Pungent Suggestion

Dear Media, Comedians, Entertainers, Pundits, and all others who need to foist your perspectives, "comedy", opinions, Tweets, and other biliousness on me day and night:

You despair that our culture, especially through common exchanges of vulgarities, has been coarsened.  Here's a suggestion:  Stop joining in it.  "But, but, but,...Trump!" is a poor rationalization.

Didn't you learn this in childhood?

Saturday, June 2, 2018

"Majestic Splendor"

Fire at London’s Hayward Gallery as Rotting Fish Artwork Explodes

I don't know what's funnier.  The name of the piece or the fact it's considered artwork.

Yep

"What is ominous is the ease with which some people go from saying that they don't like something to saying that the government should forbid it. When you go down that road, don't expect freedom to survive very long."— Thomas Sowell

Forget It, Jake. It's Cleveland-Town

American Brazenly Robbed of $58,100 Life Savings by Federal Agents at Cleveland Airport

Friday, June 1, 2018

The End of Something


As we now come to the end of something, we should appreciate its beginning; even if such a beginning became more ambitious that it was intended to be.

Below is the last, regular Friday profile.  The first was offered on July 6th, 2012; nearly six years ago.  There have been three series of fifty personalities.  I would take a break for a year in between the series, but would always come back when I would think of others who inspired me in one way or another.  I also enjoyed the discipline of having to write something each week.

The first profile was little more than a long caption below a photo of some surfers and actors playing surfers from a forgotten film.  I didn't even bother to identify the surfers.  The second was a brief reminiscence about a forgotten blues singer. Again, not much.

The third, however, is where I started thinking about what could be.  Since the first series coincided with the birth of my granddaughter, and I was also musing at the time how my parents' generation was now leaving us, and of the generally poor and absurd state of American education, I thought of it as an extended letter to that newborn generation that bore the unofficial title of "Dear Abigail,..."  These were people I wanted her to know something about.

But, I needed to give myself some rules, as I was working as a full-time parish priest, a part-time independent school chaplain, a part-time luthier, and as close to a full-time beach bum as I could afford to be, and really didn't want to spend too much time writing these, even when I really warmed to the subject.

So, every profile had to be between 500 and 1000 words, each had to be composed and ready to post in 90 minutes, and I had to rely on memory for the first draft.  Moments of research would occur during the fact-checking stage.

It was with Bob Manry's profile that I began to experiment with the new feature, posted on Friday mornings which were, and still can be, the quietest time of my week.  So, save for a couple of breaks required either by work or vacation, fifty profiles were offered in the first series.  I thought I had finished, except a year later I did it again; another fifty for another year.  Then, I thought it was finished, again.  But,...

It really does need to end, now, as I'm busier than ever and have a rather ambitious book to complete.  After a little time, there will be a new Friday morning feature; of what I'm not exactly sure, but it'll be fun and, I hope, informative.

As I stated, below is the final profile; that of the man who planted the seed of this idea that has claimed six years of my life and numerous postings in The Coracle.  Well, until I start to think of other people....

Donald E. Westlake

I make a note, set it aside, and hope it makes sense when the time comes to look at it again. 

It is a very nice restaurant on the border of New York and Massachusetts, in that area where the Berkshire Hills meet near a river valley that introduces the west-bound traveler to the Catskills.  It is so nice that my wife and I could afford to eat there maybe once, sometimes twice, a year.  I was waiting for her, in those days we would spend a lot of time waiting for one another, in a comfortable seating area by the doors.  Another man was there, too, and we began to talk.  His wife was at a garden show, mine was finishing a pre-marital conversation with a young couple.  Since his wife was a gardening writer, and both of our wives were at their work, we acknowledged both would lose track of the time and we should probably go to the bar and get something to drink.  That was a terrific idea.

After we were situated, he asked if we had met somewhere.  To be honest, I was about to ask him the same thing.  I said I didn't think so, but he then remembered that I had officiated at a funeral a week or so before and he had been in attendance.  I was concerned that this would end the conversation, the Berkshires are notoriously Christo-phobic, but instead he started to ask about how sermons were composed.  That's when it got really interesting.

I had long since abandoned the practice of writing sermons word for word and tediously reading them to the congregation.  I had learned, after my first year of ordained ministry, to trust in what I had to say, rely on the experience of being a lecturer and teacher, and depart from the text to actually look at the congregation as I spoke to them.  It made a lot of difference.  About the most I did, after sorting the sermon in my head, was scribble a stray note or two.  Unfortunately, many times the scribble was so obscure that I couldn't remember what it referenced.

He laughed at that, told me that he was a writer and that he, too, would do the same thing.  We then spoke of spontaneity and, after learning that his metier was fiction, I asked how strongly he outlined his stories.

"Oh, not at all.  I know the characters and have a pretty good idea where they're going."

Yes, sermons, too, I thought.

My wife arrived, the three of us spoke for a time, his wife arrived, and I thanked him for the pleasant conversation and we went to our separate tables.  He had told me his name and I spent a portion of our meal trying to place it.  It came to me once we returned home and I noticed one of the paperbacks sitting in a room where I had discarded our beach vacation gear the month before.  Of course I recognized him; his photo was on the back cover of one of the books I had read in a beach chair between wave sets that summer.

Don Westlake.  Better known to readers of thrillers as Donald E. Westlake, although sometimes known as Richard Stark, Rolfe Passer, Alan Marsh, Alan Marshall, James Blue, Don Halliday, and many more.  He was staggeringly prolific and, as he began writing paperbacks in the very early 1960's when publishers were reluctant to release more than one book per author per year, found multiple pseudonyms the best way to release his stories and earn a better living.

There are two characters for which he is best known, with the development of the latter an indication of what he meant when he spoke of spontaneity.  The first, known simply as "Parker", is a career criminal who is amoral and highly professional.  He was never intended to be more than a character in one novel.  However, the reading public found the grittiness of post-Spillane noir fiction to be sufficiently popular that Westlake's publisher urged him to make Parker [he never had a first name] into a series character who robbed, murdered, conned, and outwitted the police and other criminals through 24 novels, from 1962's The Hunter to 2008's Dirty Money.

It was while he was writing a Parker novel entitled The Hot Rock, eventually published in 1970, that Westlake developed a new character.  For whatever reason, Westlake kept finding that in writing a gritty Parker novel, about an elusive jewel that has to be stolen and re-stolen over and over again, he kept veering into comedy.  The novel he was writing, despite his best intentions, was funny and light-hearted and anything other than a typical Parker novel.  So, he changed Parker, the amoral career criminal, into George Dortmunder, the hapless, middle-class professional con man and thief.

Responding, however unconsciously, to the change in the paperback market, Westlake's lighter criminal world of Dortmunder would be featured in 14 novels and prove to be an equally popular character.  To date, Parker has been played on screen by Lee Marvin and Mel Gibson; Dortmunder, a much more malleable character, has been played on screen by Robert Redford, George C. Scott, and Martin Lawrence.  In addition to providing fodder for screen productions, Westlake wrote the screenplay for the movie The Grifters, which was nominated for an Academy Award.

There are other novels and screenplays and other characters, of course.  Westlake may have been the last of the journeyman writers, living in a quiet former farmhouse in upstate New York and enjoying a good living entertaining people through affordable books; stories that, despite their humble binding and price, would be filled with crisp dialogue, surprising plot twists, and memorable circumstances.  One may read any of Westlake's novels under any of his names and not have one's intelligence insulted.

Donald Westlake would die while on vacation in Mexico in 2008 at the age of 75, with a stack of unpublished manuscripts in his home office, even including a novel featuring...James Bond.

He came to mind when I contemplated this, the final Friday profile, as it, too, was a product of that conversation over overpriced drinks nearly twenty years ago.  I must have spoken of progeny and our responsibility to them in the funeral homily I delivered for Westlake's acquaintance, as he brought up our charge to ensure the education of our children and grandchildren.  An education that could not be trusted to professional educators, no matter how well-intentioned.

"We should always tell them stories.  Heck, even ones that are mostly true."

Yes, that may be the sub-title of these 150 profiles offered over the last six years.  Thanks, Don.  It's been fun.