The following sonnet by Gerard Manley Hopkins captures a sense of the hospitality we have known in a few places – most recently at the home of our new friends in Strecno. I hope you find it often in this world. And, as the poet prayed, I ask God to complete me where I fail.
* * *
I REMEMBER a house where all were good
To me, God knows, deserving no such thing:
Comforting smell breathed at very entering,
Fetched fresh, as I suppose, off some sweet wood.
That cordial air made those kind people a hood
All over, as a bevy of eggs the mothering wing
Will, or mild nights the new morsels of spring:
Why, it seemed of course; seemed of right it should.
Lovely the woods, waters, meadows, combes, vales,
All the air things wear that build this world of Wales;
Only the inmate does not correspond:
God, lover of souls, swaying considerate scales,
Complete thy creature dear O where it fails,
Being mighty a master, being a father and fond.
Happy birthday, Kristian! Keep looking up.
I’ve always been interested in printing, type, calligraphy, and illuminated manuscripts. So when I was browsing the itunes documentary films and stumbled across something called Helvetica, it caught my eye. The trailer wasn’t very interesting, but I downloaded the movie anyway. I’m glad I did.
I particularly liked the interviews with the various designers, some who almost worshiped Helvetica, some who despised it. Most of their comments were thought-provoking (though a few were completely inane). So this is the kind of film to watch when you want your brain to be poked and prodded. That is, it’s no chick-flick.
He will leave in a moment, after just one more cuplet of coffee. Europeans know how to make it right! This is the best in the world, better than the specialty brands he experimented with in the delicatessens on Fifth Avenue. Europeans understand that flavor is not about sensory stimulation, it is about evocation. It is art and memory. It is reunion with exalted moments, and such moments are never solitary ones. In short, life without coffee is not really life.
From Michael D. Obrien, Island of the World
He uttered a sound much like a bull dog swallowing a pork chop whose dimensions it has underestimated.
~P. G. Wodehouse
As I was trying to endure Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist to the very end, I began having the odd sensation that the religion of his world came straight out of Star Wars. And then I ran across this scene that made me laugh outloud:
All things are one, the boy thought. And then, as if the desert wanted to demonstrate that the alchemist was right, two horsemen appeared from behind the travelers.
“You can’t go any farther,” one of them said. “You’re in the area where the tribes are at war.”
“I’m not going very far,” the alchemist answered, looking straight into the eyes of the horsemen. They were silent for a moment, and then agreed that the boy and the alchemist could move along.
Do you recognize it? The alchemist is Obi-Wan Kenobi. He’s talking to some suspicious storm troopers, and shooing them away with his “These aren’t the droids you’re looking for.” (more…)