And just when you think you're all alone in here , Jim .... along comes the IRS !! I know where you hang out !!!!

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 !

Mona 's Dare ...............Rocks of Ages !!

I could spend hours in the presence of the rocks below and above contemplating the power and genius of the Master Sculptor ..... as well as  His fine needlepoint .....and the passing of time. Saint Martin's flowerpot , Fundy Trail Pot and my favourite , Split Rock........ all three within 45 minutes east of here by car along the Fundy Coast. The bottom pic puts Split Rock into perspective as seen from the far end of magnificent Duck Pond Beach   I might add that Split Rock becomes an island at high tide. I might also mention that these Fundy flowerpots are made of sandstone whereas those highlighted in a former blog from the Mingan Archipelago in the Lower Saint Lawrence River estuary are sculpted from limestone. 

 

                                                                                                                                            P.S. Sorry about the uneven staggering of my pics. Blame it on my lack of symetry  I guess. The very top pic I threw in for good measure ..... a big rock known to the Greeks of yore as one of the Pillars of Hercules ! Anybody ?

Readings , Musings and Reflexions !!

This last year I have spent many fun - filled hours delving into family history ..... dusty old documents in crypts , microfilms of old burial and birth certificates ... old newspaper clippings , etc This evening I came across one wee entry in the Daily Telegraph for February 2nd , 1884 and I wish to share it with you here.

Last eve. Mr. and Mrs. John FREDERICKSON celebrated the 50th anniversary of their marriage at their residence, Exmouth St., Saint John. Mr. Frederickson, who is the grandson of a Loyalist, was born in St. John, but at an early age moved to Halifax, N.S. where he lived till the age of 21 when he moved to Boston, Mass. There he met his wife, a native of Nova Scotia, and they were married. Subsequently the young couple returned to St. John where Mr. F. successfully pursued his business of shipbuilding. It was he who designed the "Marco Polo", the fastest of New Brunswick sailing ships. Fifteen years ago he was appointed to a position within the Inland Revenue Dept. in this city, a post which he still fills. Although both he and his wife have lived the allotted three score and ten years, they remain in full possession of their physical and mental faculties. They have living seven children, 19 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Note how the author of these short lines seems to marvel at the fact that ALTHOUGH they have attained the ripe old age of "three score and ten " years.... 70 years old !!! they still are mentally and physically alert !! Having all ones marbles at 70 was a rare occurence  in those days ? Shorter life expectancy back then I guess ? Hell ! I feel better than ever before and I am looking at 70 in the rearview mirror ! Better not get too cocky though... BY the way the Marco Polo was the first clipper ship to sail around the world in under six months and at the present moment shipwrights with volunteers are building a lifesize replica of the Marco Polo and hope to christen her sometime soon.... more than likely in the Spring I hope.    

Friends

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Growing up here in the North End of Saint John was a lot of fun and as we dove , jumped off the wharf and waterfront sheds in Indiantown  ... splashing as we frolicked ....we always seemed to draw a crowd of spectators   ..... not our parents who were too tied up with eking out out meagre existance back then to be doting soccer Moms and Pops so to speak...... but rather onlookers of the aquatic species...... seals and cormorants whom we referred to in a most familiar way as seadogs and hell - divers .....the former so called because of their snouts and barks , the latter because they could dive to extraordinary depths chasing fish. Even though my high diving days are over I still love to go there and watch the great - grandchildren of my friends of yore.  

P.S. Doing some research yesterday evening into the the lifespan of the average seal  I discovered to my great dismay that the life expectancy of males is somewhere between 20 to 25 years while the female seals live much longer .... anywhere from 30 to 35 years. Experts seem to be in full agreement that the male 's shortened longevity is mainly due to extreme exhaustion brought on by overstrenuous sexual activity.. I always thought that Hugh Hefner was all talk anyways ! 

Mona's Dare......... Fall Pics

 

First meeting after four years of chit - chat .... September 25th , 2003 .. in Härnösand - By - The - Sea , Sweden

 

Fall , 2004 in Lac - Beauport

Cuzins By the Duzins !!

 

The other day we went over to Bayshore at the mouth of the harbour. I sat on the bulwark above the beach while Fluff ....... always looking for some action ...... prowled the sands below lining up as many unfortunate gulls and cormorants as possible in the crosshairs of her super - duper camera lens ........ and looking very professional too , I might say ! All of a sudden a fellow my age siddled up to me , hunkered himself down and , pointing to the island a bit offshore , asked me the following question , " Do you know what that is out there ?" ( With Fluff shooting everything in sight down below and me disguised in tourist garb the guy had taken us for out - of - towners ). "Why yes , " I retorted , " some of my distant kinfolk and forebearers have been fertilizing the plant life out there for nigh onto 160 years." He laughed , saying .... " so you're from around here , are you ?" .... to which I answered , " Yeah , I'm a Northender ." 

It turned out that he was a Westsider of Irish origin like myself who had just come back from a three - week tour of the Old Sod and we were on his turf... in fact , he just lived up the hill a wee bit from the beach behind us. We chatted on for some time about Partridge Island there before us ( our own little Ellis Island ) , growing up poor in the 1930s - 1940s , Catholic parish life and how it had changed , etc........ but it was when we exchanged family names that all my geneological bells started tolling loudly. He said his name was Greg Hayes. Now my grandmother on my mother's side was Annie Hayes from the West Side !! .... and back in 1925 when she died her brother , Michael , who lived at Market Place on the West Side  was mentioned in her obituary as well as her sister , Catherine. My Mom often referred to Uncle Mike and we had Aunt Catherine ( Kit ) living on and off at our house in my childhood. I can even remember attending Aunt Kit's burial at Holy Cross Cemetery in 1944 when I was 8 years old.And to boot I still have her old standing rocker she brought from Ireland here with us ..... one of the few pieces of antique family heirloom furniture I have not let go of yet.

For the sake of brevity .... thereby sparing my readers the arduous yet palpitating details of our conversaton and the complexities of kinship terminology ..... it turned out that Michael Hayes was Greg's grandfather ....... so his grandpa and my granny Hayes were brother and sister ! ......... and Greg and I are second cousins !!  

We shall get together soon for coffee and an exchange of old snapshots. I feel blessed and enriched .......

A Hunting We Shall Go !

It's hunting season again here in New Brunswick and yesterday an article appeared in the local newspaper urging the folks in this area to report any acts of illegal or unlawful hunting practices..... even waving a $ 2000 carrot at the end of the line by way of reward. As I said to Fluff , "Snitch and get rich ! " Anyways the bears are on the run as archery hunting began last week..... and moose season gets underway this coming Thursday. It must be real hard on the nerves to fully enjoy mating season when you're being shot at all the time  !! The poor buggers !! Deer hunting with bow and arrow kicks in on October 5th and with firearms on October 26th.  

The spokesperson for the Ministry of Natural Resources was interviewed and enumerated the usual litany of the " don 'ts" of hunting ... no baiting with apples , no salt licks , no night hunting with spotlights , etc .... ending her question and answer period with the following words of wisdom , " We want to ensure the sport of hunting and fishing for future generations. For our children and grandchildren we have to protect our natural resources. A lot of people think these offences ( illegal and unlawful hunting acts ) just happened years ago but it still happens. THE ANIMALS DEPEND ON US TO SPEAK FOR THEM BECAUSE THEY CAN'T SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES " "

What a heap of skunkdung !!.... and poor grammar to boot !! 

Were the animals able to speak I believe they would say something along these lines........ " Those are not at all our wishes ,Madam.  Screw your hunting laws and regulations for tracking us down and killing us ... how about NO SHOOTING US AT ALL !!

Photos by Fluff.... friends we met while out for a drive upriver.

N.B. I am by no means an "anti - hunting " nut , my friends. Reasonable hunting for personal consumption is OK in my books. However , when politicians start speaking on behalf of animals and uttering stupidities I get critical !!