Of course I suggested that we set up a Wicker Man.....

But I was overruled.

Let's tie the knot?

Sorry that I have not been around much but I have been kind of busy. We had a wedding this weekend. Actually Lisa did as she officiated at her first ceremony.

Her friend Tara wanted to have a handfasting ceremony which is an ancient pagan festival that Tara and her fiance wanted to have instead of a normal wedding ceremony. So Lisa signed up with a website on the computer so she could become an ordained minister. I think it is the same one that Jim Jones and Pope Francis got their credentials from so it is all legit. 

It was a shit pot full of work.

We went over there on Friday night to prepare for the Saturday wedding. Lisa and another friend put up the arch that they would get married under. They had to put each individual rose into the frame and it was a lot of work. It look like this after it was finished:

Prior to that we had to research the ceremony and create it from scratch. We printed it out in large type and pasted it into a book so Lisa could read it during the ceremony. It all went off without a hitch but it was a lot of work.

Everyone who came enjoyed it immensely. Even very conservative religious types thought it was a wonderful ceremony and did not have a problem with it so it was all worthwhile to help out a friend like that.

The reception afterward was fun as well. The thing was most of the people who were there were bar people as the bride was a bartender and invited several bar patrons and fellow workers so they all knew how to party. We left early because we can't party anymore because we are old and sick. Still it was a great shin dig.

So I hope to get back to posting more soon.

 

Fall's Here

          De ramis cadunt folia,              The leaves fall from the branches,

          nam viror totus periit,              The green world fades to brown. 
          iam calor liquit omnia               The warmth of summer steals away
               et abiit;                                      and goes to ground.
          nam signa coeli ultima              The sun seeks out the farthest signs 
               sol petiit.                                    upon his round.
             --Anon. ca 1200 AD                                    --Transl. Mumpsimus 2020 AD

"farthest signs" = the winter signs of the Zodiac.

This is the first stanza of a poem which is actually about winter; but the lines seem perfect for fall. You can see the whole poem, with Helen Waddell's translation, here.

WLEM AM

 

For the curious, I redirect you here

My new roost will be east of the mighty Mississippi, and so I changed the call letters from KLEM FM to WLEM FM. Deborah originally invented that handle, but she seems to have abandoned them. So I'm going to squat on them. She can have them back if she files a claim with me. 

Whose that girl?

She is a famous homemaker and hostess who never ate a twinkie. A great friend of Snoop Dog she hangs in the Hamptons after getting out of the joint.

Here she is with her friend Joy Behar.

Whose that girl?
 

Andrew Cuomo's New York

Andrew Cuomo announced new rules in response to the failure of the populace to acquiesce to his unconditional dictates.

He is placing a state trooper in front of every house of worship in New York State. These agents of the state will monitor worship services. Count how many people come in. See where they sit. See if they sing or pray loudly without wearing a mask. If they flout any of the states rules the house of worship would be shut down by the state.

He is paying particular attention to religious communities in Borough Park, Williamsburg, Crown Heights and Monsey New York. In order to properly identify the number of people entering said house of worship all who attend will be forced to wear a Star of David. Eventually they will be forced to get tatoos.

WKRLEM: No he can't........he's dead!

Small businesses that didn't quite cut it.

"A flesh colored fanny pack to carry your beer! Now from RONCO for $19.95 includes a six pack of PBR to give you that six pack you always wanted!

Available in many diverse skin tones. Pasty White Guy! Greasy Mexican! Caramel Harry Belafonte!

If you purchase tonight you also get a free Ginzu and a Popeil pocket fisherman! Order now operators are standing by!"

(Small Businesses That Didn't Quite Cut It by Doris Kearns Goodwin)

Lepanto: October 7, 1571

449 years ago tomorrow, the fleet of the Holy League, mostly warships from Venice and the Spanish Empire, met and crushed a large Ottoman fleet off the Western coast of Greece in the Battle of Lepanto. This victory decisively checked the expansion of the Ottoman Empire and, maybe, saved the Christian West and the achievements of the Renaissance.

Americans know of this battle, if at all, mostly from G.K. Chesterton's marvelous poem Lepanto, which was a staple in English Lit textbooks for many decades. It's a great piece of work, full of dazzling and memorable lines, from beginning:

               White founts falling in the courts of the sun,
               And the Soldan of Byzantium is smiling as they run;

to end:

               Thronging of the thousands up that labour under sea
               White for bliss and blind for sun and stunned for liberty.

Among the soldiers who fought at Lepanto was one Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, who suffered three wounds. The envoi of Chesterton's poem reads:

               Cervantes on his galley sets the sword back in the sheath
               (Don John of Austria rides homeward with a wreath.)
               And he sees across a weary land a straggling road in Spain,
               Up which a lean and foolish knight forever rides in vain,
               And he smiles, but not as Sultans smile, and settles back the blade....
               (But Don John of Austria rides home from the Crusade.)

These days, the mere idea of teaching Chesterton's Lepanto to schoolchildren would have entire School Boards cowering under their desks. Just the word "Crusade" would make their teeth chatter.

October Gardens

I expected to see banks upon banks of chrysanthemums, begging to be photographed. But there weren't many this year. I also saw:

Giant Mexican Marigolds

Lantana Camara

I guess they'll be dancing naked in the streets tonight.

 The Wolverines are loose!.

The MI Supreme Court has <a href="https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2020/10/02/michigan-supreme-court-strikes-down-gretchen-whitmers-emergency-powers/5863340002/">overruled the Ubersturmbannfuhrer's lock down</a>

I guess more than a few states will follow suit.

Best part, since it's a state affair, it can't be appealed to the Feds and dragged out indefinitely, although a Federal appeal would close down this nonsense for everybody.

Campaign Logos

This year, both campaigns have decided to go Big, Fat and Sans-Serif. Brutalist, to borrow a buzz-word from architecture.

As for "design," the Biden folks did that cute thing with the cap E, which forces you to stop reading, go back and figure out what it's supposed to be. I guess if you're a Design Firm you have to do something design-y to justify getting paid the big bucks. Me, I just find it irritating. The Trump people didn't attempt anything that could be described, even charitably, as "design.'

The Biden logo's message is "Hey, at least we're trying." The Trump logo's message is "Where's that intern who knows how to use QuarkExpress? We need a logo and we need 
it now."

In my opinion, the two Obama campaigns did much better:

There's that nice red-and-white swoosh-in-a-circle; it's pleasing, doesn't get in the way of the text, and is a useful graphic element to tie all the campaign materials together. Also, the type isn't all Super-Extra-Heavy Bold, and has some serif and slab-serif fonts mixed in, for a friendlier overall look.

What effect does all this have in the real world? My guess is it doesn't shift a single, 
solitary vote.

I'm reminded of when our local NBC affiliate spent, I think it was a quarter-million dollars, on a new logo, and wound up with this:

It looks like a stylized figure of a guy taking a dump.

Trooper York's Word of the Day: Protrusion

PROTRUSION mean an extension beyond the normal line or surface. PROJECTION implies a jutting out especially at a sharp angle.  those projections along the wall are safety hazards  PROTRUSION suggests a thrusting out so that the extension seems a deformity.  the bizarre protrusions of a coral reef  PROTUBERANCE implies a growing or swelling out in rounded form

Pope betrays Chinese Catholics...Spits in the face of the United States

 The evil henchman of the Devil known as Pope Francis has done it again. He has reaffirmed the corrupt deal that allows the Chinese communist government can name the bishops of the Holy Catholic Roman Church.

The Church has turned over the naming of bishops to the Chinese Communist Party. The party names people who will do their bidding not the holy men who opposed the government and did God's work. It is like letting the Nazi's name your rabbi. The evil Pope refuses to meet with an authetnic Chinese Catholic like Chinese Cardinal Joseph Zen Se-kium who was appointed long before the Devil took over the Holy See.

"88-year-old Chinese cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun — who was refused a meeting by Pope Francis after arriving at the Vatican last week — pointed out that the deal had backfired on the Church, leaving important dioceses without a bishop or with the impending appointment of a bishop approved by the atheist Communist Party."

When Secretary of State Mike Pompeo attempted to meet with the Pope he was refused a meeting. The Pope feels he can disregard the United States when he is in the pocket the Chinese Communists. How do we let this happen? How does the American Church support this truly evil man?

The Chinese Communists have changed the actual words of the Bible. The Pope gives them the right to control the Church and name the bishops and priests. 

Jesus wept.