Out of Spite...... Pure Spite !!

 

That City Hall forget to send me my tax bill this year I can live with , that the Maritime Loto not pick my ticket is OK likewise .... I've even managed to get over the Santa Claus scam....However , that my so-called best friend forget my recent birthday.... Well that was the proverbial frosting on the well-known cake !! So therefore , it is with great spite , yeah out of even greater and purer spite .....and mulish stubbornness to boot.....that I wish him publicly today ... the 27th of January , 2010 .... a very Happy 71st Birthday.  Have a wonderful day , Bill .... talk to you later !!

A Tale of Two Almas !!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I find myself truly blessed in having two old family friends still alive and kicking... well , not kicking too high though !! not anything like a couple of young mules !! The older of the two is Alma Scott , my Mom's best childhood friend and bridesmaid at my parents' wedding in 1933. She turned 101 last September 25th and is presently lodged in an old folk's home not far from here. I visit her on and off and am always greeted by her adorable smile and a big " Ah ! Josie's boy , Gerd ! " .....

The second Alma ( in red above ) is Alma Joyce , the last sibling of the Joyce family still alive . This whole family ... parents included ... were among the closest friends my parents had... even tighter than kin. They were part and parcel of my childhood years.. I grew up in their midst. Alma slipped me my first drink when I was 17 years old.. a bit of a confident and a real live wire as she was 22 years older than me. Alma turned 97 last October 16th and is still as sharp as a whip. They are making her take these psychology tests nowadays to make sure she is still apt to make rational decisions about her life.... so I bought her a couple of bags of marbles to put in her purse and shall take them to her tomorrow. The next time one of the so-called psych students shows up with a questionnaire for her she'll simply say , " So you've come to see whether I still have all my marbles , I guess .....well , check my purse over there and I think you'll find my marbles are all there and accounted for ! " This should take the wind out of their sails.

 

P.S. The little man who looks like Doc Halladay is Uncle Mack... Gerry McElwaine , my Dad's best friend and best man et his wedding.. 

My Seminary Days With Redemptorist Fathers

Philosophically Yours

 

What a day for blogging ! A wild noreaster has been swirling and dumping its fair share of snow our way  since early morning..... creating almost white-out conditions, Great moment to curl up with a good book and get that warm and fuzzy feeling back. The book I'm reading is  entitled Caesar and Christ by Will Durant , one of eleven volumes in the collection The Story of Civilization ...... the monumental work I hope to finish sometime before the hearse pulls up at the front door ,  a pleasureful exercise which for me not only entails reading the tomes as such but also delving into every nook and cranny of the footnotes and cross references given within.

A while ago I came upon the following passage on page 385 as I browsed through  a subsection dealing with " games " and punishments for thieves and other common criminels which normally took place in the huge amphitheatres of Rome........ and my warm and fuzzy  feeling went cold ! .... my blood too !!

" Laureolus , a robber , was crucified in the arena for the amusement of the populace; but as he took too long in dying , a bear was brought in and was persuaded to eat him , piece by piece , as he hung upon the cross.Martial describes the spectacle with fascination and approval. Martial , De Spectaculis , VII "

I was struck by Durant's use of the words " fascination and approval " in Martial's treatment of the terrible punishment so I went to the source itself. From my classical Latin days I remembered Marcus Valerius Martialis ( Martial ) as the master of the epigram... a clever quip or short , witty statement.... after so many years away from " things Latin ". He was a satirist and a poet but I could not imagine him as being cruel as such. So here is what he wrote back in the 1st century AD with  scholarly translation by experts. You be the judge ... 

Qualiter in Scythica religatus rupe Prometheus
     adsiduam nimio pectore pauit auem,
nuda Caledonia sic uiscera praebuit urso
     non falsa pendens in cruce Laureolus.
Viuebant laceri membris stillantibus artus               5
     inque omni nusquam corpore corpus erat.
Denique supplicium dignum tulit: ille parentis
     uel domini iugulum foderat ense nocens,
templa uel arcano demens spoliauerat auro,
     subdiderat saeuas uel tibi, Roma, faces.               10
Vicerat antiquae sceleratus crimina famae,
     in quo, quae fuerat fabula, poena fuit.

VII. ON LAUREOLUS.1

As first, bound down upon the Scythian rock, Prometheus with ever-renewed vitals feasted the untiring vulture, so has Laureolus, suspended on no feigned cross, offered his defenceless entrails to a Caledonian bear. His mangled limbs quivered, every part dripping with gore, and in his whole body no shape was to be round. In short, he suffered such punishment as one who had been guilty of parricide, or who had cut his master's throat, or had insanely despoiled the temples of their hidden gold,2 or had applied the incendiary torch to thee, O Rome. This criminal had surpassed the crimes of ancient story, and what had been fabulous, was in his case a real punishment.

Martial compares Laureolus' fate to that of Prometheus whom the Greek god Zeus punished for stealing fire and giving it to humans by tying him to a rock and letting an eagle eat out his liver..... the liver , however , growing back in day after day , etc.  In readng through the Latin text and its excellent translation I personally see nowhere any signs of approval on Martial's part. On the contrary , he even seems to indicate that the punishment far outweighs the gravity of the crime..... one would think Laureolus had slit his boss's gizzard , blown up Fort Knox or torched the White House !! And while Prometheus got off Scot free with only mythical punishment ... poor Laureolus underwent the REAL McCoy !! I do NOT read approval in these lines !

P.S. Sorry about this , folks ... as this was supposed to be a short reflexion on crime and punishment.It simply got out of hand as I went along. One bit of advice I might forward here though is to check the sources before jumping to conclusions .....accepting " whollis - bollis " what you hear or read !! 

 

Mon patelin.... My Stomping Grounds.... Pokiok Fjord

Split Rock & St Martins

Kevin 2009

Nothing But the Very Best For McDuff !!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I was a lad we had toy boats propelled by elastics twisted around a stick that couldn't go one full length of the tub  .... wind up toy cars that barely made it halfway across the kitchen floor. Then along came friction toys and hotwheels when my two sons were young. But nowadays we have the mother lode of all toys with the remote controlled vehicles such as the truck in above pic which I bought for my youngest son , McDuff. I must add that he is having a ball with his new toy... it follows him down corridors and even into the bathroom to his great surprise... and can even bug him lovingly whe he is resting on his carpet or nudge him gently while he is sleeping under the dresser , etc He is simply overjoyed with his new contraption.

Strictly For The Chickadees !!

 

Alcatraz had its birdman and Fort Howe has its birdwoman........ and I live with her !! ..... and obey her every wish and whim..... On New Year's Eve I went to renew my auto plates for 2010 .... and could have paid $70.00 amen.. alouette ...et au revoir.....  thereby keeping my old plates while simply adding a 2010 sticker onto both ......... OR ......... to encourage wildlife conservation...... pay $102.00 and walk away with plates adorned with pics of deer , angler's salmon or the highly endangered species of the cute wee Winter nuissance.. the chickadee .... just kidding about nuissance ! Anyways and to shorten up this blog..... I told the girl at the motor vehicule bureau to fetch out 2 chickadee plates because without them I would be persona non grata in my own home.

In my younger years supporting wildlife meant throwing a party whereas by shelling out the extra $32.00 in my twilight years I guess I'm simply promoting our official provincial bird in its plight and fight for survival.

Did You Say THE Good Book .......or Simply A Good Book ?

 

Nothing beats cuddling up with in bed like a good book !! Well , maybe there is something else..... but I 'll save that for another blog. Anyways the " good book " I am referring to is but one of eleven volumes I hope to read between last September and the hearse's rumble......... This 11-tome series is entitled The Story of Civilization by Will Durant ...... the son of French-Canadian immigrants to the US during the late 19th century. In my humble opinion his wealth of historical knowledge and insight plus his masterful penmanship , humour and scholarly approach catapult him right up there on a pedestal alongside my two other favourite historians , Salvador de Madariaga and Hilaire Belloc.

Back in September I decided to start with Vol. 3 , Caesar and Christ ( History of Roman Empire and beginnings of Christianity ) ...a book of some 700 pages ..... and four months later I am barely half way through...... and here is the reason why !! Durant has injected so many cross-references from Roman authors ( Cicero , Caesar , PlinyElder and Younger , Suetonius , Sallust , Gellius , Horace , Seneca , Virgil , etc into his chef d'oeuvre to back up what he says about people , things and events that I have become bogged down reading all of them .... and then some !! .... and not in the English translations but rather in the original Latin.......... and therein lies the fun for me !! Maybe now my "wasted years " in a Catholic seminary back in the late fifties and early sixties doing my philosophy and theology in Latin will  start paying off in big dividends.

Beached Crustaceans....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have no idea whether my readers are lobster lovers or not. Hereabouts we have oodles of the tasty darlings as most of the local fishermen are into lobsterfishing almost exclusively. As for myself , I can take them or leave them..... my Dad used to bring home a jute sack full of them when I was a kid that he had bought at the wharf for two bits ( $ 00.25 ). Fluff doesn't care to much for the renowned delicacy but every now and then I buy a couple and feast alone... along with some hot melted garlic butter.We are paying about $6 a pound which is dirt heap or even much less if we buy them off the fishermen themselves at the wharf,,,,, where they are trying to eliminate the middle men by selling directly to the public. Anyways on with the story..........

About ten days ago it was "perigee moon " time again when the moon is closest to the earth..... bringing on the absolute highest tides of the year to a corner of the planet blessed with already having the highest tides in the world on a daily basis. In itself the "perigee moon " gives coastal dwellers some worry .... but should it be accompanied by gale - force winds and rough seas the outcome could be disastrous....... and that is just what happened overnight on January 4th to 5th 2010 along the New Brunswick shoreline. Our local newspaper bore these headlines the following morning .... Storm Surge Brings Lobster Feast...... speaking of a small village named Petit Rocher it says "The surging tides that ripped... pummelled New Brunswick's eastern shores this weekend transformed this small coastal community into an all-you-can-eat lobster buffet."

The enraged waters literally ripped the lobster loose from their rocky ledges under the sea and carried them a$$ over kettles to the shore dumping them all along the beach All day long people headed for the coast armed with baskets and five-gallon pails and buckets .... gathering the mana from the sea!

P.S. In the above pic on the right this is normally marshland with streamlets in from the sea but at high tide on the 3rd in was completely flooded.

Crossing US Border ..... A Wedge of Boston Cream Pie !!

 

Between the years 1847 and 1860 some 154 , 000 Irish survivors of An Gorta Mor / Great Famine came ashore here in Saint John. Many stayed on here and became the local work force ( most members of my own family ) , some moved inland or upriver from the sea to farm or work in the woodcutting industry.... whereas the vast majority travelled overland or by coastal steamer to Boston .... and there they sent down roots. In reality ...... and when one looks closely at immigration documents  ...... we find that a great number of families split up with some siblings setting off on their own to Beantown ... a bit late for the Tea Party though.... while the more timid maybe and younger ones stayed on here with their parents. Growing up here back in the late 1930s and all the 1940s it was normal for relatives from Boston to visit ... especially during the Summer months ..... normal to receive Christmas cards from family in Boston !! I had Uncle Bill ( grandfather's brother ) and Aunt Mamie , cousins Annie , Ray , Dennis , etc ..... Nowadays ... with the modern generation of local Irish....... these once ardent ties are all but forgotten except for guys like myself...... and we are getting fewer and farther between ! Were they to do DNA testing with our North End Irish and the Mystic River Irish in Boston there would be continuous popping sounds in the lab signaling " hits"  .... somewhat akin to cries of BINGO during Lightning Bingo Night at Saint Peter's Parish hall.

All this , folks , to tell you that we took a ride today down along a sparkling coastline full of inlets  and a marvelous highway to " them thar good ole US of A " .... about an hour from here. We crossed over the Ste Croix River border post .... just north of Saint Stephen , New Brunswick on our way to nearby Calais , Maine. This is the northeasternmost border crossing in the USA ........ officially opened only last week by our very own lord and Chief Buffalo Chips ,  Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Conservative fame  ........ and I'll back off and let Fluff tell the rest.

The Prodigal Son

 

Today's writ shall be short and sweet...... no apology for past misdemeanours , no excuses for not sending out postcards during my recent trip to Pitcairn Island , no recruiting vendors for slap - chop kitchen marvel , no open-ended invitations hounding friends to come wander the Fundy Trail with us this coming Summer........ no , none of the foregoing ..... simply a statement of intention to blog more often ........ keeping them as interesting as I can ... sprinkled with a few chuckles.... I went over to Facebook for a while and am coming away amazed that so many people seem to be doing so much while understanding and doing so little........ and nobody has yet discovered how it really works !! I must admit though that it is a great place to find old friends you might have lost touch with. Old acquaintances from France  , Haiti , Ecuador , Mexico , Italy and Madagascar dropped in on me out of the blue.... former students rained down abuse upon me.. just kidding !!I'm back , baby ... I'm back !