caroljane

Even before 9/11, which will ever after dominate any discussion like this somehow or other, the American melting pot ideal always denied the possibility of a multicultural society, I think. The foundation of America itself was a very narrow culture - North American Englishmen who didn't want to be English any more. As is often pointed out, it didn't include the African slaves. The Republic was founded on the noblest of ideals, and the most pragmatic of property rights. America's glorious success allowed immigrants to become successful by becoming American. It has always been a package deal. They shouldn't fear that Muslims will set fire to the White House. The only foreigners that ever did that were, er, us.

He looks like he's wearing a bathrobe!

Welcome to OL. The article is riveting, and sickening. You believe the protests have to do with this article? And not Pastor Jones? I wonder how our MSM decides the reason for a protest, do they have translators reading the signs? I just checked OO and SDC has no posts. I thought I’d sniff out whatever got him banned. Bulwer-Lytton, isn’t that a put down? The contest isn't for "The pen is mightier than the sword", but for "It was a dark and stormy night". Anyway, she posted here for a while, I don’t recall any dustups, but she seems to have found her home over yonder. It is? Yikes. I'm confused today. Most days, actually.Sorry.

I read Oonline because I have become fascinated by the creative writing of "Summer" over there. Her latest has just left me in awe. The moderators should stop hassling the debaters and get her entered in the Bulwer-Lytton contest.

No. I need one more over-the-top, heavy handed, depressing song. This metaphysical monstrosity is from a pretty good 1961 movie with the same name, starring Kirk Douglas. Just think of OL as the town in question. <iframe title="YouTube video player" width="425" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/va5lliDnSj0?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Ghs Say not a word against the glorious glowering Gene. He didn't write the song. Whoever topped the depths or plumbed the heights of the adolescent soul as he did in "Half Heaven, Half Heartbreak"? I would mention Mecca but it might bring the Infidel down on us.

This thread has become altogether too cheery and upbeat. I have become so disoriented that I cannot focus on my writing. It is time to return to reality with some existentialist angst, as performed by the incomparable Peggy Lee: <iframe title="YouTube video player" width="425" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/LCRZZC-DH7M?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Ghs I can't stand Peggy Lee, and that song is boring. Over-informed musical "experts" will probably ruin this forum, she said dolefully. Better now?

Gord, I know I said "complaints" but really there was only the one. There was one Finn who was lactose intolerant and he did complain at the Hot Drinks but we found him a lot of beverages without any mares' milk and he stopped complaining. There has been a lot of talk about the Ladies Auxiliary and if they should be so activist on their own and if it is reflecting on the Order. I know your wife Claudine was an organizer of the Sluts Parade in sympathy with those feminists in Toronto. Did you watch that at the satellite hut? Some of those babes were so hot they were sure making their point whatever it was! And did you get a load of that granny in the weird hat thing and the shawl and not much else? Personally I thought Claudine was very creative in the way she cut up that pemmican dress for everybody to wear. It is not often that our gals get to dress like sluts in this climate and I thought they did it very tastefully. Some people are worrying that the women are getting too rambunctious but they will settle down. Now they are focused on getting Harper to take Laureen to that wedding. They are in contact with 24 Sussex and the original dress is in special storage there and still has a chance of being worn. They are thinking about sending a delegation to Ottawa. That will keep them busy. Griper is late with his dues again and says he is withholding them on principle, the cheap bastard. ISS, Bushy

Jeff, what do you think of Appointment in Samarra? I believe it was OHara's first novel. I think it was the finest, most careful one he wrote.

It's never too late for that! Would want Waugh when weary of worthy wordsmiths & wish wonderful whim-worship wallow.

Well, Waugh was a brilliant satirist, arguably in the Swiftean tradition, and his renditions of upper-class English society between the wars say a lot about his view of the Decline of Western Civilization, honour, morality etc. A Handful of Dust is the one I would pick - there's a poignant and funny Dickens reference in there too. Waugh was a fairly dreadful person but terrific writer.

Yes, and it was also the first line. Ghs Looked again, so it was. Sorry. Still knocked out by video, Carol

Er, George, "fist line"? You always come out swinging!

"You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll criticize..." BOW Awards buzz is already starting!

Phil, re the candlelit 37-hour days, "Was it for this I kicked the stairs And sobbed and cursed and uttered prayers That ,(as) domestic as a plate, I now retire at half-past eight?" -misremembered but will let you make the corrections. JR is right, the list is too gloomy. Why not an Austen instead of Jane Eyre again, not Pride and Prejudice though, too fairy-taley. Persuasion is my favourite and Emma was Austen's favourite, and they're funny. Or black comedy - an Evelyn Waugh unless that is too English and lightweight for your group.

You are right; but two ohs without punctuation would have made it more headlong, like the candle-burner, and less sage like the puctuationist. And if Edna had consulted me I am sure she would have agreed I was right.

"../it will not last the night/but O my foes and O my friends/ it gives a lovely light" (Millay) The choices already made look fine. But I would really push for a Michener, solely on the grounds of understanding America and what has made it what it is today. Or Israel, for that matter ("The Source").

A great movie. Also, King and Country with Tom Courtenay was unforgettable.

Carol: Now there you go again...as Ronald Reagan said to the incompetent boob "Jimma" Carter, I will have stand on my 5th and 14th Amendment rights against self incrimination and preserve your innocence as a proper widow woman. Adam Sir, you are a gentleman and a Constitutional scholar. You understand that post-Freudian slips can never be attributed to ladies who wear petticoats, and that what happens in the parlour (ooh-lala!)- stays in the parlour.

When I “lay off Phil”, this is what it looks like! I’ve observed the full cycle a few times already, stick around and you’ll learn to just have fun with it. http://www.objectivistliving.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=9261&view=findpost&p=108975 http://www.objectivistliving.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=7808&view=findpost&p=82848 Gulp. I guess whether it's lay off Phil or lay on Macduff, there is nothing new under the sun. Reassuring, really.

No Phil, we’re almost convinced! All of us. Just one more extensive explanation is all it will take. So again, cast your spell. Once more, unto the breach… Just fantastic, ND. I felt that my pinup the Blessed Brian was speaking directly to the Toronto Maple Leafs in their current desperate hour. The thanks of a grateful Nation are yours. Now lay off Phil for a while, eh?

Adam, you nailed me. Instinct or conditioned reflex, decades of trying and sometimes succeeding in preventing the boys from "fighting something awful" just kicked in there - but rationally maybe. As I've said Objectivism is insidious and I fear it is starting to have some kind of good influence on me. Phil, do you have any input into the selections for next year's books? You already know I would lobby for a Renault (they're short) - and the historical novel genre is getting an intellectual boost from Mantel and others. There are so many excellent ones (Cecelia Holland for example). For the long novels, at least one Victorian - Eliot or Thackeray, Middlemarch or Vanity Fair for preference. They're just so entertaining, so vivid - you sink into them. Life in the round. And they are in their disparate ways hugely moral, with real heroes emerging from Thackeray's cynicism and Eliot's earnestness. In a sense they are historical novels too in that they give complete portraits of their times - but all novels are historical because they were written yesterday.

The good prospects for the Atlas Shrugged movie are raising the hopes of many that its release will cause noticeable changes in American culture, by causing many more to read the book, think about Ayn Rand's ideas, and move politically to implement them. I am trying to think of a movie, whether based on a book or not, which has had a similar effect. I am not knowledgeable in cinema and its influence except on fads or trends in the general culture which are usually shortlived. I am thinking of America but maybe this has happened in other countries. Have movies led the culture instead of following it? Thoughts please.

Phil, I implore you and beg you, do not respond to Jeff. Just this one time only, think about this: "The Grapes of Wrath has been called a great American novel, and after reading it, I believe it to be great by my own criteria and feel powerfully moved by it. Reading is my own personal experience and while it is interesting to know that many critics agree with my reaction, I do not need to have read every other American novel and construct a hierarchy of greatness, in order to declare that it is great." Please plagiarize me, Phil, for all our sakes.

They're going to exercise, work out and hike together. Wonder what the marching song is.

Ellen, I think you are on to something. I think Phil nurtures a gigantic craving for attention wedded to a martyr complex and I have worked out a template that shows the sequence of events in one of his typical intrusions where he disrupts a conversation and makes it all about Phil. (I will present it before too long on the "To Whom It May Concern" thread started by Dennis.) I'm not doing this to pick on Phil, but he insists on calling attention to himself, so by God he's going to get some attention--and from the best thinking I can muster. Just like with the other parts of my template, your observation is based on Phil's own words (and I have no doubt other examples can be found to illustrate it). In fact, your observation works very nicely with my template and gives it completion. Thank you. Michael You have all known Phil much longer than I but I would like to add a word here (non-satirically). I recently received his cheque (thanks, Phil!) for the dictionary he bought here. (He was not late sending it, it languished in my neighbour's mailbox for a week and our mailman is dyslexic I think). I used to study graphology in an amateur way and so looked at his writing on the envelope, signature etc. as I would a stranger's. I don't know about martyr complex but to me the writing is not that of an attention craver. What stands out are high aspirations and optimism - and yes, perseverance, stubbornness, a certain cussedness I guess. Just my $.02CDN. Carol