I don't think I've ever seen the town so busy. On Saturday afternoon a mixture of Labor Day golfers arriving from Edinburgh airport in their rental cars meet parents dropping off their teenagers at their dorms. Add in the European tourists in their motor homes and a traffic jam of Biblical proportions ensues. We're supposed to go to hear a former Prime Minister read excerpts from his new book but finding a parking place proves difficult. We head home and enjoy a glass of 2019 Chateau L'Evangile in the garden as the sun sets. This is probably the last night for six months a while that it will still be warm enough to do so. The day ends with South Africa beating New Zealand in a edge of seat rugby match.
Wendell Berry :https://writingteacher.substack.com/p/what-wendell-berry-taught-me-about
Morningside Heights. Who knew it was so important or had such a history ? :https://api.pageplace.de/preview/DT0400.9780231534819_A34803096/preview-9780231534819_A34803096.pdf
Spotting celebrities . Very LA :https://thebrokenelbow.substack.com/p/living-in-la-and-spotting-celebrities
There is a certain sort of man who thrives on this sort of social media :https://operationalartofwar.substack.com/p/a-us-invasion-of-canada
Our local professor strikes a worried tone :https://phillipspobrien.substack.com/p/weekend-update-201-it-will-be-a-brutal
7 comments:
Hari OM
Love all the mis-spellings on the map... The North Sea has actually been a name around for quite some time: Middle English North-se, from Old English norþ sæ, norðsæ, usually meaning "the Bristol Channel". The application to the body of water now so called, east of England (late 13c.) is from Dutch (Noordzee, Middle Dutch Noortzee); it lies to the north of Holland, where it was contrasted with the inland Zuider Zee, literally "Southern Sea"). To the Danes, it sometimes was Vesterhavet "West Sea." In English, this had been typically called the "German Sea" or "German Ocean," which follows the Roman name for it, Oceanus Germanicus. "German" persisted on some British maps at least into the 1830s. North Sea in Middle English also could mean "the northern portion of the ocean believed to surround the earth" (late 14c.) [from etymonline]. But your point is taken... and the article from Obrien made sober reading. The sense of a full-scale stramash hangs over us, I feel... YAM xx
Give us a couple of years and we will fix this mistake, it is and always will be the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Ontario. To have good neighbors, we need to be good neighbors.
Thank you for the excellent Wendell Berry link, the finest tribute I've yet read about this good man.
I have been travelling the last few days, driving past Montauban on the Autoroute yesterday. I waved for you.
Today has been a battle with the rural interweb. Tomorrow… second circle of hell?
I guessed what the wedding hymn would be! V. English
The traditions live on….lovely! Thank you, Yamini, for a brief history of European names.
I had no idea there had been a German Sea. I learn something here every day. I enjoyed the piece on celebrity spotting in LA, which really is fun. Mike Tyson in the pet shop, Linda Hunt at the next table in a cafe, Alex Trebek waiting at a red light. I once took my parents to Spago and was thrilled to realize that Anthony Andrews was at the next table. Unfortunately, my mother had not seen Brideshead Revisited and had no idea who he was.
My favorite personal experience of celebrity spotting was when I lived in Manhattan's Hotel Chelsea in early 1972 (I was 18). I and two of the hotel's maids were the only occupants of an elevator when an "older" gentleman boarded. My recognition was confirmed when the maids said, in unison and with great respect, "Good morning, Mr. Miller" and he cordially replied. The great playwright Arthur Miller was a frequent resident of the Chelsea in those days.
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