Welcome to Marlinspike Hall, ancestral home of the Haddock Clan, the creation of Belgian cartoonist Hergé.
Some Manor-keeping notes:
Navigation is on the right, with an explanation of the blog's fictional basis. HINT: Please read the column labelled "ABOUT THIS BLOG." Enjoy the most recent posts or browse posts by posting date in the Archives. Search the blog for scintillating, obscure topics.
Enjoy your stay! There are some fuzzy slippers over there somewhere, too.
if my contracted fingers hold out, you've a magnificent, soul-rending passage from jean anouilh to look forward to on these erudite pages later today. also, fred may look forward to some sort of baked christmas treat -- or early birthday temptation, as he shares the 25th with christ as a birthing day. and, i'm sure, as you contemplate the horror of a second sandy hook anniversary without real change to gun control attitudes, much less legislation, you're looking forward to the sunday "news" shows explaining, as dr. phil so cutely named it, the "black and blue"disconnect.
oppression. [i just flashed on allen ludden, or his announcer, stage-whispering: "the password is... 'oppression.'"]
a nod to provenance requires a hat tip to stephen fry, on whose twitter page i found this clip of the marvelous panti bliss:
First off, just to get it in, as it will make my more dedicated readers fall off their chairs -- I LOVE the LOVE of country that prevails among all the Russians interviewed. I LOVE the answer given by the four or five gay men to the idiotic question, "Why don't you just come to America?"
Now, the important thing:
I want "in" on that hug... You know there's a good God, vibes of grace, and unfathomable heart in this world when you catch a glimpse of people like this Russian woman quoting "Angel"!
Angel: Well, I guess I kinda worked it out. If there's no great glorious end to all this, if nothing we do matters... , then all that matters is what we do. 'Cause that's all there is. What we do. Now. Today. I fought for so long, for redemption, for a reward, and finally just to beat the other guy, but I never got it. Kate Lockley: And now you do? Angel: Not all of it. All I wanna do is help. I wanna help because, I don't think people should suffer as they do. Because, if there's no bigger meaning, then the smallest act of kindness is the greatest thing in the world. Kate Lockley: Yikes. It sounds like you've had an epiphany. Angel: I keep saying that, but nobody's listening.
