An Unfortunate Conversation at the Mellow Mushroom...

.... when I got there early yesterday for our weekly get together. Usually, week after week, I arrive with young Clovis, all 6' 2" 300 lbs of him. The typical college freshman. This time though he wasn’t around. I sat by myself for awhile, reading the latest issue of Speculum.

One of our usual waitresses arrived to give me my menu. The one with long dark hair, bright eyes, and the pert little... well, you get the idea.

She immediately asked, "Where’s your grandson tonight?"

Arrrgghhh. No! Don’t say that.

I am thinking of going on a Retreat soon....

... probably in January. It's purpose is mainly to draw a line between my life as a teacher and semi-administrator, and my live as an active scholar for the next eight months. It is also a chance for some spiritual exploration (I do not like the expression ‘spiritual growth' for some reason).

I have spoken to my priest at the Episcopal Church, who had some good ideas, and to one of my colleagues, Dom Lorenzo. Lorenzo apparently has been to every monastic retreat in North America, including St John's abbey in Minnesota. He said St John's was the most rewarding because he actually lived with the monks and took part in their daily routines.

I have narrowed it down to two places to go. One is the Abbey of the Holy Cross in Berryville, Virginia, not very far from where I grew up. The other is Mepkin Abbey not far from Charleston in South Carolina.

If anyone out there has any advice or observations about such retreats, please let me know in a comment. It will be a new experience for me... (now if I could just fine a monastery with a scriptorium).

The little lummox does not like thunder storms...

... but is usually pretty brave about it. Last night we had a bad storm. There was suddenly a crash and a flash of lightening. Lummox leapt up, barked once, hopped down from the couch and ran to the glass door where he stood defying the elements. For about three seconds. Then he trotted over to where I sat reading and snuggled down behind my legs. No sense carrying that macho nonsense too far.

A Conversation with Maeréad ....

.... a few weeks ago when I took her to bar to watch pizzas being made went something like this. Remember, she is only four, and didn't want to do something I told her to do.

Maeréad: Why should I do that?

Me: Because I told you and I'm your uncle!

Maeréad: Uncle Oscar! "Uncle Oscar" is your name. All my uncles live in Ireland.

Me: Oh.

As far as I know, there is no known way to win an argument with Maeréad short of picking her up and making her do what you want. Or sending her to bed.

Not the “Pig Pen” photos!

Not the “Pig Pen” photos!

[the following post is from my brother Jesse B, and refers to the pig pen in the woods of the farm I grew up on]

Yes, some of the ever popular little barn in the woods. Since many of you (will at least one) have asked for more of my photo collection, and have failed to give me any direction as to what they would like, I have made my own decision. Since I do have a plethora of photos of this farm landmark, I picked it. (See Oscar someone besides you can use big words and since I now have spell check I am no longer afraid to do so.) My photos of the “pig pen” have always been in great demand. Such as the view from the north, the view from the west, the view from the field, and the very popular view from the south east. Enjoy.







Well, I am not sure why my brother Jesse is fixated on the ancestral sty, but here it is, in all its beauty. Jesse once saw a sow eat one of her piglets and it upset him. That was when we were very young. I myself am fond of the third view from the bottom. Very nostalgic.

'Books, books books books',....

... (sung to the tune of "Spam, spam, spam, spam"*).

Let's see. This month so far I've only read a few books for class, a ton of political blogs, 'Claw of the Conciliator' and my own writings. I have just gotten back from the library, however, and have received a box from Amazon and this is what I have to look forward to reading.

The Trojan War, by Barry Strauss. I'm already half way through this one. It's actually a retelling of the Iliad using up to the date archaeological finds. Not bad. Felt I should read it after plowing through Dan Simmon's Ilium, a sci-fi version of the Iliad and a whole lot more (like "Prospero's Books" and "Forbidden Planet" for starters).

The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-European World by JP Mallory and DQ Adams. A lot of fun if you enjoy racing through the dictionary, but it will probably sit on my shelf as a reference for my chariot warfare project.

Rome's Greatest Defeat: Massacre in the Teutoburg Forest, by Adrian Murdoch.

Thermopylae: The Battle that Changed the World, by Paul Cartledge. Cartledge is one of the best of the new military historians.

Barbarians, by Terry Jones (yes, that Terry Jones, the one partly responsible for 'Spam Spam Spam Spam'). Went along with a TV series (as did the song, now that I think about it). There is a picture of a particularly puckish Jones backed by a squad of samurai which seems to include at least one elf archer from LOTR (no moose though, as far as I can tell).

What Paul Meant, by Garry Wills. I've started it and it looks very good, especially since most Christians seem to act as if they already know what this most difficult and contentious of early Christians was talking about.

Murder in Amersterdam by Ian Buruma. Not a murder mystery, but one Dutchman's attempt to make sense of modern Holland and its Islamic immigrants.

In the Beginning; The Story of the King James Bible and How It Changed a Nation, a Language, and a Culture, by Alister McGrath. Wins the prize for longest title. It's great fun and I am almost finished with it. We are reading it for the Episcopal Book Club.

And, as a special nod to Claw of the Conciliator himself, all by Gene Wolfe:

The Sword of the Lictor
The Citadel of the Autarch
The Urth of the New Sun

So I've got a lot of reading on my hands. It will make lovely procrastination (thy name is Mora) material while I do all my grading. But I've still got Gibbons, vol. III on my hands, and The Historian - the one about Dracula by Elizabeth Kostova- that I'm reading at the office.

* a team of crackerjack medievalists, btw.

Leaves, fate, and other things of importance....

... Today I was setting at the kitchen table drinking my breakfast, looking out the big front window. I could see my neighbor Dean working hard at raking up the leaves in his yard and piling them up for pick-up.

A few hours later I was setting at the same table having my lunch, looking out the same window, when a ferocious wind came up and blew all our unraked leaves across the street and into our neighbors yard.

Life's a funny old dog.

We've been out of town...

.... so no posts on any of my blogs. I know - no one noticed, but I thought I would point it out just the same. I went to Washington D.C. for the Haskins Society Conference. It was in Georgetown as it has for the last three years. It is always fun to be in Georgetown again, since I spent so much time there as a kid. I even remember learning how to canoe on the canal at Georgetown (the first day of the class the instructor fell into the canal). As I get older, though, I enjoy the conference less and less. I am not sure why, perhaps it is only a generational thing. But walking through Georgetown and eating at new restaurants was certainly fun.

Every evening Carmen and I would meet back at our hideously overpriced room, wait until about 9pm and walk down Wisconsin Ave and M St until we were tired or found a place that looked good. One of the best restaurants was the Miss Saigon, which had excellent Vietnamese food. The calamari was the best I've ever had. We also ate one night in a Tex-Mex place that had a couple of Mexican singers, completes with wails, yells and whistles. They were fun, especially when they started singing along as customers had a steady stream of tequila squirted into their mouths for about 5 seconds each. That's a lot of tequila, especially when you do it twice as one guy did. Carmen kept speculating on how they were going to feel in the morning.

Sunday, after hearing a talk about the Gesta consulum Andegavorum and its image of Angevin participation in the Crusades, which I was interested in, we lest the conference early and met my old roommate, Steve and Cindy for lunch. They took us over to the Grasby tavern in Alexandria. The food was good, and the waiters all wore colonial costume. It was a gorgeous day so we walked around Alexandria for awhile. It has certainly changed from the 60s when I knew it best.

We left Washington about 4pm and drove as far as Roanoke and finally got home today to rescue the little lummox from the kennel. They gave him a bath so he is all fluffy and clean. And very glad to be home. The little cats are much less happy to see him back.