G as in Good H as in Happy

Eloquent Bodies

May 31, 2006

Who doesn't sympathize, and even tremble, at the level of disclosure public figures now undergo?

W/ extreme thankfulness for a private life,

/s/ dilys and the anonymous antediluvian posse

Good Sense and Deep Learning

Tyler Cowan admires the new book by Sandra J. Peart and David M. Levy, The"Vanity of the Philosopher:" from Equality to Hierarchy in Post-Classical Economics.

David Levy combines expertise in Adam Smith, ancient Greek democracy, non-normal distributions, Victorian literature, and advanced Monte Carlo techniques.

The book's ideas catch our attention because of what we noticed while working in barely-post-Soviet Eastern Europe:

...a house where the daily bread is love, pardon and understanding...

May 30, 2006

...and splendor, and merriment, and the bloom of life.

Benedict XVI to the young on happiness, and even real estate. The rules are in service of these good things, so we can be happy, not to placate some dour old guy. :-) Or gal.

Memorial Day Weekend

May 27, 2006

In addition to the serious and ceremonial focus of the holiday, it's the first real long weekend of summer (uh, spring).

Ms. Zoë here, says, "Enjoy!"  She will.

Happy Endings, Sorta, Contd.

May 25, 2006

Romania returns Dracula's castle to owner. No, not Vlad the sharp-thingy-abuser.

Via Vodkapundit

Sailing Past the Horizon

Intrepid sailor and journalist G. Bruce Knecht, the author of Hooked: Pirates, Poaching and the Perfect Fish and The Proving Ground: The Inside Story of the Sydney to Hobart Race, writes in the May 24 Wall Street Journal [subs. only] about the recent valor of a bunch of young sailors in a big race.

Life. Not for sissies. Engaged, with honor, courage, and preparation, exilarating even to hear about. There's intelligence, then there's "safety."  No one gets out in one piece anyway, we can only hope for painless, blameless, and the peace of being in our high-hearted destiny.

Hans Horrevoets - 1974 - 2006

Tom Wolfe, Mental Marzipan with the Lights On

May 19, 2006

Irony so rich, you can taste it. It tastes like marzipan.

Mots as bon as any now being offered. Who knew there is a Jefferson Lecture?

[In the 1960's] communes inevitably turned religious thanks to the hallucinations...some head--short for acid head--would end up in the middle of Broadway, one of San Francisco's main drags, sitting cross-legged in the Lotus position, looking about, wide eyes glistening with beatification, shouting, "I'm in the pudding and I've met the manager! I'm in the pudding and I've met the manager!" Seldom had so many gone so far to feel aloof from the middle class.

But I was wrong....

Mother's Day in Chinese and English

May 14, 2006

Almost too intensely perfect Mother's Day story.

American families with ties to China laid these fears [of the orphanage director bringing the child to the US] to rest. In Chicago, families with children from Gong Lu's orphanage met Xu and Gong Lu at the plane, bringing spicy takeout Chinese food. In Little Rock, the two were greeted at the airport with balloons by their host family, who have three adopted Chinese children. Little Rock's Chinese-American community brought Xu home-cooked Chinese meals every day, bought her a cell phone and gave her a list of numbers she could call night or day.

Beautiful girl, indeed. What can't be accomplished with creativity, good will, good cheer, and good skills? Makes us proud and grateful to be human, and alive. And here, in a state next to Arkansas.

Via Powerline.

Life in Bloom

May 13, 2006

Dust My Broom offers weekend beer and blues, totally reminiscent of John Corbett's radio station in a log cabin on Northern Exposure. Click to listen.

A nice offset to a morning spent touring beautiful and expensive gardens, sponsored by Lady Bird  et al.

Cheers to all, on a sleepy early summer afternoon.

Families and Focus

May 10, 2006

How does one account for a group of people who came from the Third World to the First World with nothing but a suitcase, within three generations, overtook around 99.5 percent of the natives in terms of wealth?

Families and focus. Don't bother with regrets. Courage to sacrifice in the short term.

Asian Subcontinent Indians in the UK: 

• Up to £14.8 billion

His Excellency President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor Idi Amin, VC, DSO, MC, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Sea, and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular (and also, curiously, King of Scotland):

• Zero and headed down

Via Instapundit