Friday, June 26, 2015

The Wanker's Guide to Confederate Symbols

So...for people who can't seem to understand the boundaries between public and private:

1. Yes, remove Confederate symbols from official government institutions. Because they represent *all* the people, you wankers.
2. No, don't force people not to display Confederate symbols, because the First Amendment, you wankers.
3. You have a right to be a wanker.
4. You have no right to force me to participate in your wankery via taxes and government institutions.
5. I have no right to force you NOT to be a wanker in your own home, on your own time, in your own person. Because then, I would be the wanker.

We clear?
Wank off.

Friday, June 19, 2015

For My Cat-Fancying Friends...

...this translation of an anonymous Ninth Century poem, in Old Irish, from a monk to his pet cat.

The scholar and his cat, Pangur Bán

(from the Irish by Robin Flower)














I and Pangur Ban my cat,
'Tis a like task we are at:
Hunting mice is his delight,
Hunting words I sit all night.
Better far than praise of men
'Tis to sit with book and pen;
Pangur bears me no ill-will,
He too plies his simple skill.
'Tis a merry task to see
At our tasks how glad are we,
When at home we sit and find
Entertainment to our mind.
Oftentimes a mouse will stray
In the hero Pangur's way;
Oftentimes my keen thought set
Takes a meaning in its net.
'Gainst the wall he sets his eye
Full and fierce and sharp and sly;
'Gainst the wall of knowledge I
All my little wisdom try.
When a mouse darts from its den,
O how glad is Pangur then!
O what gladness do I prove
When I solve the doubts I love!
So in peace our task we ply,
Pangur Ban, my cat, and I;
In our arts we find our bliss,
I have mine and he has his.

https://www.ling.upenn.edu/~beatrice/pangur-ban.html

Monday, June 15, 2015

SIGN UP FOR MENDELSSOHN'S FIRST...NEWSLETTER, THAT IS


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