Literary pretensions – Page 3

Albert and the Lion

2013-02-16 2017-05-02 Books & Reviews / Literary pretensions / Personal ReminiscencesOne Comment

A recent comment on Facebook – “You just can’t resist poking the bear…”* made me remember a poem by Marriott Edgar that I enjoyed as a child in the 1950s: Albert and the Lion. I actually first heard it orally – we had a collection of old 78s and a wind-up gramophone in the basement. Among the musical treasures were several monologues by Stanley Holloway who read this and several other poems about Young Albert, accompanied by a piano that accented his words. There was a book, too, probably brought from England by my father when he came over in ……… click below for more ↓

Another day on the job in Paradise… chapter one

2013-01-25 2013-01-25 Balderdash & Hoaxes / Humour & Satire / Literary pretensions / My WritingLeave a comment

Mayor Ralph “Bosco” Hearne, whistling softly “Everything’s Up to Date in Kansas City” under his breath, gazed at the wood-and-polished-brass, 19th-century front doors of town hall and nodded slightly in approval. He stopped whistling, paused, and breathed out a gentle sigh of satisfaction. The gleam of the brass was unobstructed; his view extended through the big glass window clear into the atrium and to the back with its veined marble wall without a single thing to distract it. A few short minutes and the doors would open; town hall would be bustling with staff; residents would come and go, doing ……… click below for more ↓

Not the expected blog post, I’m afraid

2013-01-24 2013-01-24 Books & Reviews / Humour & Satire / Literary pretensions / Municipal Politics / Personal Reminiscences5 Comments

Sorry to disappoint those readers who expected this to be a blog post on ukuleles, tequila or our beautiful Mexican Sister City, Zihuatanejo (“Zee-hwa” for those in the know). I refer, of course, to comments in the recent parody video, in which my blog was commented upon (as if blogging was something conspiratorial, but it seems pretty much everything is, these days for some folks…). However, my energies have of late been taken up by several other pressing projects, meetings and local political issues, so those topics have become back-burner projects. Sorry. Speaking of conspiracies, my main research – online and ……… click below for more ↓

The Art of Worldly Wisdom

2013-01-10 2013-01-12 Arts / Books & Reviews / Canadian Politics / Language & Grammar / Literary pretensions / Municipal Politics / Quotes & Mis-quotes2 Comments

Published in 1647, The Art of Worldly Wisdom is a collection of 300 aphorisms about life, behaviour, politics, morality, faith, philosophy and society. One comment, on Amazon.ca called it, somewhat unfairly to Machiavelli, “Machiavelli with a soul.” I have been reading it of late as part of my ongoing study of Machiavelli. It was written by Balthasar Gracian (1601-1658), a Spanish-born Jesuit priest, and titled in its original Spanish, “Oraculo manual y arte de prudencia” which translates to “The Oracle, a Manual of the Art of Discretion.” Today it is known as The Art of Worldly Wisdom. A popular English ……… click below for more ↓

Rereading the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

2013-01-08 2016-12-10 Arts / Books & Reviews / Culture / Language & Grammar / Literary pretensions / What I'm Reading NowOne Comment

There are many books weighing down my bookshelves into soft, drooping curves, but not many of them have the privilege of tenure. Only a handful have travelled with me for more than a couple of decades; a small selection of tomes that are read, perhaps infrequently, but more than once, and still manage to speak to me every time. Most of my books have, over the years, been donated to libraries or sold to bookstores, to make room for the new ones always crowding in and demanding attention. Those that have escaped the culling so long are ones that mean ……… click below for more ↓

Happy New Year!

2012-12-31 2012-12-31 Collingwood / Literary pretensions / Personal Reminiscences2 Comments

Happy New Year. 2012 is almost over. 2013 looms a few hours away. I wish you all the best of times in the upcoming year. What a year it’s been. For council, we flailed around in the tar-baby issues of the new rec facilities and then the gambling facility (aka “casino” or “slot barn”). The rec facilities are going to built soon and will be stunning – that issue is, I hope, behind us and I expect everyone in town will enjoy them. The gambling, well, some folks on council brought it back and I suspect it will be re-opened for ……… click below for more ↓

And on the video scene… bargains!

2012-12-30 2012-12-30 Arts / Film & Reviews / Literary pretensions / Music & ReviewsLeave a comment

December is always a good month for movie buffs, and for anyone who wants to buy TV series on DVD (no commercials!). Lots of places have before- and after-Xmas sales that make DVD shopping more interesting this month. In particular, the bargain bins are filled with all sorts of films that either never got the media attention they needed to be successful, or simply are too old to demand the prices new movies can. Most are $5, some even less. And I happen to like B-flicks, especially movies from the 30s to 70s. I have a nice collection of the ……… click below for more ↓

The Bedside Library

2012-12-28 2012-12-30 Arts / Books & Reviews / Literary pretensions / Personal Reminiscences / What I'm Reading NowOne Comment

When the books stacked beside the bed get tall enough to hold not only a cup of tea at easy reach, but a plate of toast with no threat of falling, then perhaps it’s time to cull the pile and put aside those books not being actively read. That takes some time to sort out the reading-right-now from the reading-now-and-then, and the reading-for-a-purpose from the reading-when-it-pleases-me books. There is at least a shelf of books beside my bedside, perhaps more. I’m not sure how many of my blog readers have a bedside book stack, but it goes without saying that reading at bedtime is ……… click below for more ↓

A Council Christmas Carol – Part 2

2012-12-28 2012-12-28 Arts / Books & Reviews / Collingwood / Humour & Satire / Literary pretensions / Municipal Politics / Personal Reminiscences5 Comments

STAVE TWO (continued from Part 1). THE FIRST OF THE THREE SPIRITS. I awoke in the dark, late Friday night. Winter days are so short that sometimes it seems a mere moment passes between sunrise and sunset. The day had whizzed by, a flurry of phone calls, reading, emails, walking the dog and shovelling the driveway as the snow continued to fall. By the time Susan came home and we had dinner, I was tired and aching from tossing snow. Sleep came quickly that evening, but didn’t last long. Now I was awake, mulling over last night’s events in my head. Looking from ……… click below for more ↓

The Municipal Machiavelli is online

2012-12-26 2012-12-26 Books & Reviews / Collingwood / Literary pretensions / Municipal Politics / Social Order & DisorderLeave a comment

I’ve spent much of the past few days putting online my book in which I assess and rewrite Niccolo Machiavelli’s famous (or infamous) work, The Prince, in a WordPress format. I wrote this book earlier this year, but was unable to find a publisher (I got distracted from my search). Maybe having it online will help. The new site is here: The Municipal Machiavelli The book slightly tops 69,000 words, has more than 400 quotations from The Prince and other works by Machiavelli, as well as from many other authors including Robert Greene, Nietzsche, Cicero, Sun Tzu, Han Fei Tzu, Napoleon and more. The majority of ……… click below for more ↓