Category: Varia

The Differences between Me and You

I'm sensitive, you're touchy.  I'm firm,  you are pigheaded.  Frugality in me is cheapness in you.  I am open-minded, you are empty-headed.  I am careful, you are obsessive.  I am courageous while you are as reckless as a Kennedy.  I am polite but you are obsequious.  My speech is soothing, yours is unctuous.  I am earthy and brimming with vitality while you are crude and bestial.  I'm alive to necessary distinctions; you are a bloody hairsplitter.  I'm conservative, you're reactionary.  I know the human heart, but you are a misanthrope.  I love and honor my wife while you are uxorious.  I am focused; you are monomaniacal.

In me there is commitment, in you fanaticism.  I'm a peacemaker, you're an appeaser.  I'm spontaneous, you're just undisciplined.  I'm neat and clean; you are fastidious.  In me there is wit and style, in you mere preciosity.  I know the value of a dollar while you are just a miser.  I cross the Rubicons of life with resoluteness while you are a fool who burns his bridges behind him.  I do not hide my masculinity, but you flaunt yours.  I save, you hoard.  I am reserved, you are shy.  I invest, you gamble.  I am a lover of solitude, you are a recluse.

I have a hearty appetite; you are a glutton.  A civilized man, I enjoy an occasional drink; you, however, must teetotal to avoid becoming a drunkard.  I'm witty and urbane, you are precious.  I am bucolic, you are rustic.  I'm original, you are idiosyncratic. I am principled, you are doctrinaire.  I am precise, you are pedantic.

And those are just some of the differences between me and you. 

Facebook

I'm on a roll. Daily punch-back against leftist loons on a wide variety of topics. Culture critique in the bowels of the Zuckerbergian beast.  No lefties need apply. I am looking for a few good men and women to join me in the fight for sense and sanity and the defense of the Republic. 

I received 'friend' requests from a couple of hotties the other day who proudly strut their stuff and sport their 'racks' on pages including links to their 'nude pics.'  Sorry girls, you are not MavPhil material.  

Notre Dame de Paris

Dr. Vito B. Caiati, historian, contributes the following:

With regard to Notre Dame, I have several observations. First, the cathedral had not been properly maintained. Its neglect by the French government has been raised by architectural conservationists for several years. Second, the fire alarm systems of Notre Dame appear to have been inadequate, in that the first alarm sounded at 18:20 on the day of the fire, but the technology employed did not indicate the location of the fire to the technicians in the cathedral. Thus, this first alarm was judged to be “false.” A second alarm sounded 23 minutes later, a lapse that allowed the fire to spread to the “forest” of ancient, roof-supporting oak timbers, many of which dated from the time of Charlemagne. The fire was so extensive and intense that the north tower of the cathedral was almost lost to it (15-30 minutes more of flame and it would have collapsed). Only now is the Minister of Culture calling for a review of the security systems in all cathedrals: too late. Fourth, there are “modernist” forces at work to interfere with the historical reconstruction of the cathedral. It is one thing to argue that the structure supporting the roof, which will be invisible, masked by the stone vault below and the copper roof above, need not be made of oak (1200 very old oak trees would be needed) as the original but rather of concrete, as in the reconstructed Cathedral of Reims or metal as the recently restored Collège de Bernardins in Paris, and quite another to impose some modernist horror in the form of a new spire, which is what the bien-pensant rulers of France apparently have in mind, the prime minister Edouard Philippe calling for a competition on its design and Macron (to whom Matteo Salvini hilariously refers as “il signorino”) recommending “un geste architectural contemporain.” These people are drawn from the same smart-set multiculturalists who blocked any reference to Europe’s Christian roots in the European Constitution and who have remained largely silent in face of the wave of church desecrations that have swept France in the last few years (878 cases in 2017 alone). Moreover, they are enthusiastic admirers of the modernist architectural horrors that now beset Paris, from the Pompidou Centre, to the Tour Montparnasse, to the Grande Arche, to the Bibliothèque nationale de France, to the Philarmonie de Paris, and to the proposed monstrosity The Triangle Tower. So the reconstruction may well become a real problem, given the disdain for history, tradition, and Christianity that infects the ruling elites of France. It seems to me that the spire should either be reconstructed according to the 19th century design of Viollet-le-duc or left off the roof entirely as it was before his renovation.

Yes, I Repeat Myself

Leftists constantly repeat their lies in the hope that they will be eventually taken for truths. So we of the Coalition of the Sane need to constantly repeat truths.  Not our truths, for there is  no such thing as 'our' truth or 'my' truth or 'your' truth.'  Truth is not subject to ownership. If you have it, you have it without possessing it.   

So speak the truth and speak it often.  Don't be afraid of repeating yourself. Living well is impossible without repetition. All learning, all teaching, all physical culture, all musicianship require repetition. No mastery of anything, no improvement in anything, is possible without repetition.  Can you play that riff the same way every time? If not, keep practicing. 

By practicing blows, whether verbal or physical, you learn how to land effective ones.

Typo Man Salutes Two Eagle-Eyed Readers

C. P. and J.I.O. warrant my gratitude for catching errors.  Platonizer that I am,  my mind goes directly to the trans-sensible sense and is appropriately inattentive to its mere material embodiment.  I try to catch all my typographical errors but I am regularly surprised at how many I miss.

I probably missed one in the line just written. 

And damned if I didn't find one, after writing the last sentence, a typo now duly corrected.

Prandial and Post-Prandial Pleasures

With Brian B. and Mike V. at Los Locos Gringos, my favorite local Mexican eatery. There is nothing better than a good meal and good conversation with like-minded friends. After Mike sped away on his iron horse, Brian and I spent the rest of the afternoon playing chess at Gecko Espresso. Mike, on the right, is one sharp-dressed man these days. Me? I am still of the '60s sartorially speaking. 

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Of E-Mail and Doing Nothing

Dolce far nienteI do appreciate e-mail, and I consider it rude not to respond; but lack of time and energy in synergy with congenital inefficiency conspire to make it difficult for me to answer everything. I am also temperamentally disinclined to acquiesce in mindless American hyper-kineticism, in accordance with the Italian saying:

Dolce far niente

Sweet to do nothing

which saying, were it not for the inefficiency lately mentioned, would have been by now inscribed above my stoa. My paternal grandfather had it emblazoned on his pergola, and more 'nothing' transpires on my stoa than ever did beneath his pergola.

So time each day must be devoted to 'doing nothing': meditating, traipsing around in the local mountains, contemplating sunrises and moonsets, sunsets and moonrises, and taking naps, naps punctuated on one end by bed-reading and on the other by yet more coffee-drinking.

Without a sizeable admixture of such 'nothing' I cannot see how a life would be worth living.

Happy Thanksgiving

To all Stateside readers, and best wishes of the season to the rest of you.  Let's make it a politics-free day, shall we? I'll do my best, and you do yours.

I am indeed grateful for your readership!

If you care to read my Thanksgiving homilies and such, go here.

Facebook Update

Some of you have messaged me to say that you are unable to send me a FB friend request.  That was my fault. I had the software set to accept friend requests only from friends of friends. I have fixed that. You should be able to get through now.

I apologize if I don't get around to responding to all your kind messages. There is only so much time . . . .