I do not have words to tell you how blown away I am. So I’ll just tell you what happened. We’ll start with Prairie Voles (Microtus ochrogaster). Prairie Voles are one of only 4% of mammalian species which have a monogamous social structure. Males and females pair-bond for life. When one passes, the other frequently
The fellow who does The Ace of Spades Headquarters Sunday Morning Book Thread is on holiday this week. Alas, that means I have no funny or whimsical book-related cartoons to swipe & repost this morning. And so… I offer you this. Originally posted here December, 2018. Enjoy! We live in an amazing time. On my
Ordinary People and Everyday Life: Perspectives on the New Social History (1983) [Link goes to Amazon. Used from$1.98] Review: Ordinary People and Everyday Life: Perspectives on the New Social History presents thoughts by ten prominent scholars in American history and material culture on a new way of doing history in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. During
Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (1939) [Link goes to Amazon. Audible version of this crappy old book is free.] That infallible source which has “multiple issues” (I’ll say!): Let Us Now Praise Famous Men is a book with text by American writer James Agee and photographs by American photographer Walker Evans, first published in 1941 in the United
It is highly unlikely that I have not posted this before. No matter. It can be enjoyed again and again. Ben Franklin’s letter to his daughter Sarah Bache (January 26, 1784) concerning the Eagle and the Turkey. The Turkeys was robbed of their rightful place in American history, I tell ya. For my own part
Originally posted with little commentary December 2015. The obvious question, today, is: Where is this book? If I had to bet, I’d bet it’s on the 4th shelf down on the left hand bookshelf– the tall ones that stand next to each other– in the Bunkhouse. Nope. Second shelf, right hand bookshelf– the short ones
On this day in 1828 Leo Tolstoi was born. If War and Peace is a bit much, here’s your chance to read some Tolstoi. The Prisoner in the Caucasus Here’s the entire entry at that infallible source: “The Prisoner of the Caucasus” (Russian: Кавказский пленник, Kavkazskii plennik) is an 1872 novella written by Leo Tolstoy. The story
Funny you asked. Last evening, after I’d scheduled the Screwtape quote posts and Mr. Big Food had spent the afternoon cooking and puttering around the kitchen, we watched The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. I thought I would be tired of Lewis by then, but I wasn’t so chatted a bit about him. Mr. Big
Just a reminder, if you are curious to know what Toynbee had to say about Roman History, hit the tip jar so we can explore A Study of History together.
I just realized there’s $$ in the Tip Jar!! Thank you! We’re on our way to rectifying this wrong: Usually, if Toynbee is rejected today it is not so much because people do not agree with him as that they do not read him. The Return of Civilization—and ofArnold Toynbee?KRISHAN KUMAR
I found myself sitting on the foyer floor looking at a bookshelf. It’s an odd collection– grouped more for what it looks like than for true content. Except for the art books. All of the crappy old art books that are not those which Daughter C left in the Apartment are on these shelves. Heck–
I spent the better part of an hour combing through H.L. Mencken’s crappy old book, The American Language: An Inquiry into the Development of English in the United States Fourth Edition AND both Supplements searching for an explanation for Z vs. S as in civilization vs. civilisation but could not really find it. Not saying
“History,” Dr. Durant and his wife once remarked, ”is above all else the creation and recording of the intellectual, moral and aesthetic heritage of mankind; progress is the increasing abundance, use, preservation and transmission of that heritage.” “To those of us who study history not merely as a warning reminder of man’s follies and crimes
History, Importance of We need intimate knowledge of the past. Not that the past has any magic about it, but because we cannot study the future, and yet need something to set against the present, to remind us that the basic assumptions have been quite different in different periods and that much which seems certain
Perspective Every age has its own outlook. It is specially good at seeing certain truths and specially liable to make certain mistakes. We all, therefore, need the books that will correct the characteristic mistakes of our own period. And that means the old books. —C.S. Lewis. God in the Dock, “On the Reading of Old
Screen shots at Archive. Check out these few word from this crappy old book. There is a brook near every child’s home. Children play outside, near flowing water. Boxes are made of wood. Children remove nails from boxes of wood. It’s a wonder they survived, isn’t it? FYI. The previous tetanus vaccine, replaced in 1991,
All of today’s reading are by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, author of the historically wildly inaccurate poem, “Paul Revere’s Ride.” But we won’t hold that against him. (Go to the link if you like American history. More fun stuff.) Daily Readings June 20 Hymn to the Night The Light of Stars Daybreak Seaweed The Village Blacksmith
Today in the year 1719 Joseph Addison died. Okay. There are days when The Pocket Univ. Guide to Daily Reading (1925) is more than exasperating. Today is one of those days. He freaking wrote Cato, for crying out loud and you have included a poem? A poem. I mean, even that infallible source goes so
Let’s be clear about something. A black actress played a black woman in a movie. More specifically, in 1939 a black actress played– and note that word, played, pretended to be– a character in a movie set during the Civil War. Presumably, she did this of her own volition. And was paid. After working as
Took a drive to Carrolton the other day. It’s an old town that still has some antebellum churches. Something different. Don’t mind the crooked photos. I was trying to get as much as I could from the truck windows. It’s actually a nice little town. Population 190 ten years ago. We’d been before and walked
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