The joys of autodidacticism: Bach

One good thing about being an autodidact is that you sometimes discover something really good only after you're old enough to appreciate it. For example, Bach's chorales! Good solid simple Lutheran hymns perfectly arranged by JS Bach himself.

Small Town's city

Just back from Small Town's fireworks show. On the way there as we passed Small Town's very tall grain elevator the 4yo exclaimed "Wow! A city!" For you city slickers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grain_elevator

It was the completest thing

I was up late last night and happened to catch a series of very short video clips on ESPN2: "Mike Tyson's Greatest Hits" - a compilation of his complete boxing matches. I realized after a couple of matches that the only way to catch everything going on was watch his opponent's head, since that's where all the action took place. I missed a couple of knockouts because I eventually had to blink. Even with the slow-motion replay I still missed one knockout punch - all I saw was Tyson's left hand move a bit, then instantly his opponent was flying backwards through the air to land on the ropes and fall unconscious. Being in the ring with Tyson at the height of his powers was like being locked in a dark closet with a nest of rattlesnakes.

Bubba's Bar-n-Grill is open for business

Get thee there now and read one of the best writers around.

Audubon's pocket-watch

I caught up a bit on work yesterday, then spent a good bit of the afternoon outside in the cool breeze reading John James Audubon's "Writings and Drawings" from the Library of America series. Turns out he made quite a few trips across far southern Illinois between his business interests in St Genevieve, Missouri and his home in Henderson, Kentucky. It was near the crossing of the Big Muddy River where he once met a drunken hag who, with her two drunken sons, tried to kill him for his pocket watch (the story is there in the section titled "The Prairie").

Senior & Nall

I've been reading John Senior the last couple of days - he was a radical Catholic traditionalist, and, curiously, one of the most sensible writers I've read. So it was amusing to find a Senior-like rant on fast food over at Nancy Nall's place today - she is surely the polar opposite of a rad Cath traditionalist, but if she and Senior ever met at a Fuddrucker's (not bloody likely, but still...) they'd get along swimmingly.

Small-town news

From Lüderitz, Namibia: Music Instructor Revealed as Con Artist, and other fascinating small-town headlines. I had to look up Lüderitz after its recent mention at Andrew Cusack's fine blog.

The last peaceful evening

From Book IV, lines 596-607, of Paradise Lost, the last peaceful evening in Eden. Satan has tricked the archangel Uriel into leading him to God's new creation, where he spies on Adam and Eve and conceives a cunning plan...

Now came still Evening on, and Twilight gray
Had in her sober livery all things clad;
Silence accompanied; for beast and bird,
They to their grassy couch, these to their nests
Were slunk, all but the wakeful nightingale;
She all night long her amorous descant sung;
Silence was pleased: Now glowed the firmament
With living sapphires: Hesperus, that led
The starry host, rode brightest, till the moon,
Rising in clouded majesty, at length
Apparent queen unveiled her peerless light,
And o'er the dark her silver mantle threw.

Some of that for us, please

I see that our esteemed House of Representatives in Washington has passed a bill that "[e]xpresses support for all Iranian citizens who embrace the values of freedom, human rights, civil liberties, and rule of law." Now if only we could get one of those passed in support of American citizens who do the same.

Neither a novice, a statistician, nor a Yankee

The mint julep ceremony of Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr. Though I'm of Kentucky Catholic blood, I was born a Yankee. We'll see what happens.

A mint julep is not the product of a FORMULA. It is a CEREMONY and must be performed by a gentleman possessing a true sense of the artistic, a deep reverence for the ingredients and a proper appreciation of the occasion. It is a rite that must not be entrusted to a novice, a statistician, nor a Yankee. It is a heritage of the old South, an emblem of hospitality and a vehicle in which noble minds can travel together upon the flower-strewn paths of happy and congenial thought.

Welcome to our secret book society, John

7yo John has devoured 35 Boxcar Children books in the last few weeks and now he's started on his first "real" book: Lewis's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. He's covered five chapters since an hour before bedtime tonight, and he's taking full advantage of our rule that allows kids to stay up as long as they want as long as they're reading.

Books I want to have read already

but I haven't yet, and they're sitting right there waiting for me:

• Democracy in America - de Tocqueville
  
• The Road to Serfdom - Hayek
  
• The Founders' Constitution
  
• Liberal Fascism - Goldberg
  
• The Greek Myths - Graves
  
• The Captive Mind - Miłosz

Those monks could draw

"Pen and Parchment: Drawing in the Middle Ages", a show currently at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Mew York City. Here's a sample of 9 of the 50 pieces; see especially St Matthew's robe, rendered solely in colored lines. Here's the Met's webpage for the show.

Patrick Kurp is a dangerous man

He makes me buy books.

Bill White: now in Google Books

I'm mentioned twice in Google Books!

Mathematica and insurance research

Seth Chandler of the University of Houston Law Center talks about modeling post-hurricane insurance in Mathematica. Here's the application he demonstrated in the video, and here are the 107 other ones he's written.

Gray on Alpha

Wolfram Research co-founder Theo Gray (a.k.a. Popular Science's Mad Scientist) has a good article in PopSci about Wolfram Alpha.

Mr Illinois

John Cribbet died Saturday, May 23, 2009 in Urbana, IL. He was born in my hometown, Findlay, IL, back in 1918 and he left an impressive legacy at the University of Illinois as a professor of law, dean of the College of Law and Chancellor of the University.

Stop it - you're killing me!

A joke from President Obama's recent commencement address at Arizona State University:

Now, before I begin, I'd like to clear the air about that little controversy everyone was talking about a few weeks back. I have to tell you, I really thought it was much ado about nothing, although I think we all learned an important lesson. I learned to never again pick another team over the Sun Devils in my NCAA bracket. And your university President and Board of Regents will soon learn all about being audited by the IRS.

Once he nationalizes health insurance, he can joke about denying, say, pacemakers or chemotherapy or organ transplants to folks he doesn't like. It'll be a laff riot!

To paraphrase Gandhi

What do you think of limited Constitutional government? I think it would be a good idea! Maybe someone can try it someday and report the results.