A Picture is Worth ....

The Rapture and Beyond at American Digest

The sad thing is the sentiments of the two in the background will be held by millions...

Today in History

The Battle of Agincourt

painting by Donato Giancola

Shakespeare's Henry V as directed by Kenneth Branaugh is one of my favourite films.
non nobis
It gave, to me, the most  romantic scene ever written.
Henry & Catherine pt 1
Henry & Catherine pt 2

Musings on the Ridiculous

There is a new war on Coke.  Oh for pete's sake (and who was Pete, by the way), there are plenty "healthy" alternatives to Coke.  Let them make what they want.
the burp commercial

Now this is a new one, at least to me
Racist Halloween costumes
So now only cartoon characters are allowed on Halloween.  I can remember waiting breathlessly for years to be old enough to wear the Japanese kimono - complete with the hair sticks - that my mother bought for us when she lived in Japan.  I also wore the German dirndl.  Hell, my school uniform in
Scotland was a Kilt.  Ok, that was different.  My cousin had a kimono made for me a few years ago.  Am I not allowed to wear it ever because I am not Japanese?  Personally I never wanted to be a "demon" or any other ugly creature on Halloween.  From my own understanding, costumes are simply to disguise who one really is.

There may be more ridiculous musings but this will do for now.

Maybe I will be a brunette for Halloween.  (Ha!)

Happy Columbus Day

Once again (good grief - this has been going on since the 70s) Columbus is being maligned for simply trying to find a shorter route to Asia.    I am quite tired of this re-hashing a tired, and in my opinion, false meme.

We celebrate Columbus Day and the Fourth of July because history is written by the winners. Had the Aztecs, the Mayans or the Iroquois Confederation developed the necessary technology and skills to cross the Atlantic and begin colonizing Europe, the fate of its native inhabitants would have been far uglier. The different perspectives on history often depend on which side you happen to be on.

 We celebrate Columbus Day and the Fourth of July because history is written by the winners. Had the Aztecs, the Mayans or the Iroquois Confederation developed the necessary technology and skills to cross the Atlantic and begin colonizing Europe, the fate of its native inhabitants would have been far uglier. The different perspectives on history often depend on which side you happen to be on.

Sultan Knish has an excellent article.

Grief and Beauty

"When you are happy, so happy you have no sense of needing Him, so happy that you are tempted to feel His claims upon you as an interruption, if you remember yourself and turn to Him with gratitude and praise, you will be — or so it feels— welcomed with open arms. But go to Him when your need is desperate, when all other help is vain, and what do you find? A door slammed in your face, and a sound of bolting and double bolting on the inside. After that, silence.” 
― C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed

“Knock and it shall be opened.' But does knocking mean hammering and kicking the door like a maniac?”
― C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed

An Autumn Path 

My Mother's Life

as written by my Father.

PATRICIA M. THAYER (Age 86) "Memories, light the corners of my mind. Misty water colored memories Of the way we were." (Bergman & Hamlish) Of Washington, DC and Williamsburg, VA died on August 2, 2013. Born in Louisville, KY, she had a particularly close and loving relationship with her grandfather, William Hammond. He influenced and motivated her interest in fine arts, history, traveling, large families and genealogy. During the depression, her father, Paul Martin, moved to Washington, DC. She graduated from Academy of Holy Cross in Kensington, MD and then attended both University of Maryland and Vassar College. Her education was interrupted prematurely by her marriage to then Lt. Raymond Thayer, 1946 graduate of the US Military Academy. It was rumored that the marriage was partially motivated by her desire to travel and get an early start on a large family of children. Both wishes were realized by accompanying her husband to occupation duty in Japan and the birth of her first two daughters while there. She acquired an appreciation for Japanese fine arts, furnishings, and china. With her husband sent to the Korean "police action," she returned to the US. Reunited for several duty stations in the US during the 50s, she gave birth to her daughter number three and twin sons. The long-hoped-for assignment in Germany arrived as did daughter number four, her final child. She focused on raising her children and pursuing her interests in European culture. Service life continued 15+ years with assignments both stateside and overseas and much traveling. She made many friendships in Europe. In the 1960's, she was appointed President of the German-American Wives Club in Wiesbaden/Mainz, Germany, as well as other social appointments of import. This gave her a life-long feeling of pride and pleasure as a result of the friends she acquired and cultural education afforded. A major ambition was to provide the best possible education for her children. Despite being challenged by "nomadic" Army life (33 different places in 30 years) and limited financial resources, she nonetheless secured educational opportunities for all her children to attend private schools abroad and in the US and top university level education for several of them. Upon her husband's retirement from the Army and settlement in the Washington DC-Annapolis area, she realized a long-delayed dream to resume her formal education by her attendance at Mt. Vernon College. Her course work in Renaissance Art History included a lengthy period of study in Venice, Florence, and Rome. Mrs. Thayer's special knowledge, talents, and skills in interior design, the arts, gardening, antiques, literature, English history were recognized by her many friends, children, professors, and fellow students. She is survived by her loving husband of 66 years, Col. Raymond E. Thayer (USA Ret.), five of her six children- Anne Callihan and husband Gary, Susan Thayer, Capt. Richard Thayer (USN Ret.) and wife Laura, Brendan Thayer, and Sarah Love and husband Jim; seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. Funeral will be at Arlington National Cemetery, day and time to be announced. 

We buried my mother a week ago.  My thoughts are still to come ...  I never realised how cathartic this would be 

my favourite picture of her - in Germany

Is It Powerful Or Evil?

From the Paris runways
Laura Wood, from the Thinking Housewife, has posted this bit about a fashion designer's 2014 preview.  Now we can all agree that the fashion design houses around the world usually have, for the most part, strange  and unwearable designs on the fashion show runways.   Ok, some of my male readers may not be bothered and, truth be told, I cannot be either.  I wear what I like and if I cannot find it ready made, I can make it myself.
The ugliness in the attitude of the models is indicative of our society, the review of the show by Robin Givhan is insulting in that she calls it "a powerful rejection of conventional beauty."  While the use of non "conventional" models and tribal warlike choreography is perhaps edgy, do we not have enough violence in this world without celebrating it to sell unimaginative apparel?
I hold a traditional view when it comes to art - that it should celebrate the beauty of God's creations and the imaginative mind He has given the human race.  When we succumb to the mean, violent and ugly, we succumb to Evil.
This is real beauty and creative fashion

  and they are smiling