It did not last

A streak of blue

Trump supporters from the Cloisters

Curve

Heavy fog drip this morning

A statement from Robert Sandberg in response to my post earlier today on my hopes for the final NN volume of THE WRITINGS OF HERMAN MELVILLE

Hershel, your post is a comprehensive summary of your discoveries in recent years and how many of them went unacknowledged or contradicted in the years following their publication. You also underscore the extreme importance of understanding that the final Northwestern-Newbery volume contains NOT completed, but uncompleted writings that Melville left in manuscript when he passed away on September 28, 1891.

It has taken a very long time (more than 45 years) to process the 1,000 or so manuscript leaves for publication in the final volume of the fifteen-volume Northwestern-Newberry WRITINGS OF HERMAN MELVILLE series. It was just over 35 years ago that I sat daily from June 8 through August 6, 1982, Monday through Saturday, during Houghton Library’s regular library hours, transcribing (I did a fresh literal transcription in the summers of 2013 and 2015) the 335 leaves of the PARTHENOPE (formerly “Burgundy Club”) poems and prose pieces contained in fifteen folders (including the folder containing “Pausilippo” removed by Melville for publication in TIMOLEON). From July 30 to August 2, 1982, I transcribed what I eventually came to realize was the theretofore unknown and untranscribed, “House of the Tragic Poet.” At the time, I thought surely someone had transcribed this piece previously. But as I worked in the following years on my dissertation with my advisor, Harrison Hayford, we finally determined that “House of the Tragic” poet was in fact a new piece.

As announced last month on the Melville Society website and in an earlier post on the Melville Society Facebook page, the final volume of the Northwestern-Newberry series containing reading texts and transcriptions of all the uncompleted writings Melville left in manuscript on his desk when he passed away on September 28, 1891, is at long last being published this fall. As of today, October 29, the paperback edition of “BILLY BUDD, SAILOR” AND OTHER UNCOMPLETED WRITINGS is available on the Northwestern University Press website http://www.nupress.northwestern.edu/.../billy-budd-sailor.... The hardcover is still in production, but should be available by the end of November.

Many funding issues delayed the work needed to complete the final volume of the Northwestern-Newberry WRITINGS OF HERMAN MELVILLE series. Sadly the series General Editor, Harrison Hayford — who began the publishing project in 1965 — passed away in 2001. But happily by 2010 Northwestern University Press could commit the funds needed to print the final volume, and the editors of the final volume — Hershel Parker, Thomas Tanselle, Alma A. MacDougall, and I — found time in our personal schedules, over a five-year period beginning in 2012, to bring to a successful conclusion the project of publishing the final volume. As you have suggested, Hershel, let's think of the publication of the final volume as a birthday present for Harry Hayford on what would have been his 101st birthday, November 1st.

Neighbors

The Rock is Restored

THE NEO-NAZI HORROR IN MURFREESBORO. Contrast the Harmony in 1896 at Cousin Jesse Sparks's Funeral

Headline: "Overwhelming Presence of Tennessee Law Enforcement Ensures Peaceful ‘White Lives Matter’ Rally in Murfreesboro."
Well, that reminds me that a cousin of mine who had been falsely accused of atrocities by Yankee papers in 1863 lived to have a solemn funeral in Murfreesboro.

The Nashville TENNESSEAN on 4 August 1896:
COLORED CITIZENS WILL ACT. Murfreesboro, Aug. 3. --(Special.) -- A large meeting of the colored citizens of Murfreesboro will be held in the courthouse on Wednesday, the 5th inst., at 2 o'clock in honor of the late Hon. J. W. Sparks. Rev. J. Allen Viney, of New Orleans, and William Dickson Greer will be the principal speakers. A cordial invitation is extended to the white citizens to attend.

Hopes for THE WRITINGS OF HERMAN MELVILLE (1965-2017)

LOOKING BACK, 52 and a half years after this all started.

10 YEARS AGO, IN THE JUNE 2007 NINETEENTH-CENTURY LITERATURE I PROTESTED ABOUT THE PRACTICE OF REFERRING TO MOST OF MELVILLE'S UNPUBLISHED POETRY AS "LATE." Maybe about the same time I realized that the first (1965) flyer from Northwestern-University Press gave the title of Volume 13 as "BILLY BUDD AND OTHER LATE MANUSCRIPTS (late unpublished prose and poetry, 1860-1891)." When was it? after 2007 for sure, I realized we were still using the old title or a variant of it and got us all to say UNCOMPLETED instead of LATE. Now it has become clear that much more is at stake than referring to BILLY BUDD as completed and ready for the press (which still happens) or referring to all the unpublished poems as "late." In 1965 we did not have a good sense of the history of Melville's working life. We had been warned in 1960 in the LETTERS that Melville had finished a book in 1853, but even after I found the title and published an article in AMERICAN LITERATURE (1990) about it some critics still denied the existence of THE ISLE OF THE CROSS and POEMS (which Weaver in 1921 had not known about). (I alone in my "black hole" had imagined POEMS, Richard Brodhead said in the N Y Times in 2002). A biographer-to-be, Andrew Delbanco, said I was unreliable throughout both volumes of the biography because I had said there was a book called THE ISLE OF THE CROSS and another called POEMS. Another critic, Elizabeth Schultz, called these "books" merely "putative." This was not the worst, in some ways. Others listed Melville's published works as if "Bartleby" and other stories came right next to Melville's work on PIERRE. Others referred to BATTLE-PIECES as Melville's first volume of poetry, his "inaugural" volume after his "turn" to poetry, not acknowledging that if two or more publishers had not rejected the manuscript in 1860 POEMS would have been Melville's first volume of poetry.
That is, critics have ignored the stretch from the fall of 1852 to May 1853, especially from December 1853 on, when Melville was writing (and absorbed in writing) THE ISLE OF THE CROSS. Such critics ignore the long stretch from late 1857 or early 1858 until May 1860, when Melville was writing 3 lectures and many poems. Now, it helps if you as an academic have written lengthy (and you think important) pieces that did not find a publisher. You then have a sense of your working life as including the months you labored on something that does not show on your vita as published in an academic journal or as a book. Most of us have not looked at Melville's working life in the same way. My great hope for my "Historical Note" in the new volume, the final NN volume, is that it will encourage everyone to rethink what they think they know about the trajectory of Melville's working life. Tanselle's notes to BILLY BUDD, SAILOR and Sandberg's notes to many of the poems he has so astonishingly transcribed (with help from Hayford's working transcriptions) will also enlighten anyone willing to rethink what he or she thinks she knows about Melville's sometimes "late" but undeniably "uncompleted" works. That would be a wondrous outcome, and a reward for all our labors, notably, also, Alma MacDougall's, for she held everything together for so very long. [Ah, Alma! The divine Alma and I worked out changes in the contents page of READING "BILLY BUDD" on the telephone, if you can imagine, not e-mail.] Well, enough of morning maunderings and hopes.

Glorious Morro Rock at 9 this morning

GENI SAYS: Vincent Stephen Dabbs is your third cousin's husband's first cousin thrice removed's wife's grandfather.

Of course. Double cousin Lois knew this already, and it's not even her side of the family.

What punishment is right for George H W Bush?

How does this compare with the revelation to Billy Bush on the bus last year?
I really think imprisonment for a 93 year old man in a wheelchair is extreme. On the other hand, are groping fingers. That last is a private joke about a literary critic writing about a James character with a maimed hand. He used "On the other hand" oblivious to the context. So on the other hand are groping fingers and a really bad joke about David Cop-a-Feel.
How long has he been getting away with this?

Find a Grave: Handy Pernell "Too Tall" Inman--posted by a cousin

I am interested in how very tall some of the Glenns were. My GG Grandfather John B. E. Glenn, for instance, as 6' 5" and his brother George an inch shorter. I must not be the only one who remembers George's tall son Uncle Johnny. Well, Olive Glenn's son Handy Inman was known as "Too Tall." Does anyone know how tall Too Tall was? Some of you know I am working on many hundreds of "glimpses" of kinfolks going back to the 1600s. Well, the Ada OK paper beat me to the idea with the word SEEN: "SEEN: Handy Inman driving through town recently with a large string of nice fish." Now, how is that for a glimpse of cousin Handy? 11 July 1963.

How tall is too tall? How tall was Too Tall? And what about the children of the Kerrville Glenn?

Heatwave--shattering records--90s here instead of 50s

Last night, even a sheet was too much cover.
At 10 this morning on beach, cool wind off ocean. On way back north, half way, no wind. Now the temperature is rising again and the coolest place in the house is my study, above the garage, protected by 2 floors above.

If Heather Lind would just tell the dirty joke George H W Bush told her

we would at least know if he has a sense of humor as well as being a nonagenarian sexual predator. If you are going to accuse someone of sexual assault you need to give all the information.
I am not taking this lightly. You can be a sexual predator in a wheelchair.
Really, with cameras all around, couldn't she have screamed and slapped at his hand and lurched away from him?

How Aunt Margaret Ewart Adams & Wm Adams's son James, a Presbyterian minister, died in 1843

His death was sudden, and, to his family, unexpected. For a few days, he had felt somewhat unwell, but was not confined to his bed. On the day of his death, he mingled with his family as usual. Late in the afternoon, as was his custom, he took his seat in the pew. In a few moments, his family alarmed by a groan, came to him; he was still sitting in his chair, but the spirit had fled -- he breathed not again! Thus did his covenant Redeemer gather him home, "as a shock of corn cometh in, in his season," sparing him in mercy the agonies of a lingering death.

Aunt Margaret's Ride on the Unruly Stallion to King's Mountain after the Battle--something that makes it still braver.

So 2 and a half months Aunt Margaret gave birth to her daughter Margaret.

Sandblasting in gale winds--worst ever--empty beach till the end when Bruce came up from the north

But Bruce is a retired cop so you expect toughness. In this picture you can't see the sheets of sand whipping to the ocean.

And where again and where again was Vicey Alford Henderson born? Don't base firm conclusions on a census or two.

She was enumerated with Abner Newton Henderson Sr on the Morgan County, AL census dated 1840; Levisa was shown at age 32 as a white female.
She was enumerated with Abner Newton Henderson Sr on the Pike County, AR census dated November 13, 1850; Vica was shown at age 42 as a white female born in Virginia.
She was enumerated with Abner Newton Henderson Sr on the Pike County, AR census dated August 9, 1860; Luvisa was shown at age 53 as a white female born in Tennessee.
She was enumerated with Andrew Jackson "Jack" Henderson on the Pike County, AR census dated August 6, 1870; Lavise was shown at age 62 as a white female born in Tennessee. Her occupation was keeping house. She could read but not write.
She was enumerated with Louis Marion Henderson on the Pike County, AR census dated June 22, 1880; Louvisa was shown at age 73 as a widowed white female, mother of L.M., born in Alabama. Her parents were born in Virginia. Levisa "Vicey" Alford died in 1881 at Hot Spring County, AR. She was buried at Oma Cemetery, Hot Spring County, AR.

Maunderings. Winds too ferocious to put trash cans to curb; thinking instead of Candice Bergen

Why when I reach up for the coffee filters do I always think of the fig tree on Avondale near the Brentwood Country Mart?

The New Yorker reviewed THE MEYEROWITZ STORIES (NEW AND SELECTED). I see it is on Netflix and want to watch it for Candice Bergen's "sublime" and substantial speech. No one else around does.

The only thing I remember about one horrible year, some time ago, is Candice Bergan in her khakis in the doorway of Fairfax High School, making a sublime and substantial speech. There never was anything or anybody so beautiful.

But now when I think of her I think of Jay Thomas's being dead already, and so young.

Already the cat has been tolled down here in the cavern, safely away from the deconstructors and constructors who ought to arrive prepared to hang from the roof as I used to do, from a prehensile ear. The wind really is unnerving, and it will pull impossibly high temperatures in.

On Netflix I can find Candice Bergen's sublime and substantial speech and watch just it. I could. Or I could find out about the caravan from Morgan County, Alabama to Pike County, Arkansas that Abner Henderson drove in the early 1840s. How many weeks did it take them, Ab and the Alfords?

Arrogant scoff-law in no-dog area, not even willing to leash the dogs

More wave carving

Waves carved the beach yesterday and last night

The Geni genealogical site--creating fanciful pathways of kinship, e.g. to Senator Glenn and F. Scott Fitzgerald

I noticed recently that one of the DNA cousins, the Renfrewshire Glenns, is the ancestor of the astronaut. I am doubly a Glenn so this pleased me. Geni offers a kinship path, so I clicked on it, and got an elaborate chart showing kinship from my mother and not my father, the Glenn, and getting a ggg grandmother and grandfather wholly wrong. So, although it is bedtime, I checked F. Scott Fitzgerald, and they got that wrong too, through my mother and not my Warfield father, and got the same ggg grandparents of my mother wrong, and so everything after that wrong. You can never be too careful. Maybe Geni is right about the biblical Seth. I intend to live a long time.

Oregon teen nearly loses eye as e-cigarette explodes

headline:

Water all over beach, then strange male couples stealth run, not announced anywhere

On my way back the beach was suddenly populated. Male couples, all healthy looking, not young, none under 30 or so, none older than 55 or so, not in packs, just spaced couples, no race numbers visible but similarity of attire (backpacks required), wearing mainly black or blue. Men from Cayucos taking over Morro Bay from the old folks? No, they did not advance inland. In Marin County I would have thought gay work-out buddies or partners. Who knows?

36 MPH winds. Luke & Daniel could not put window in at top floor, went home early.

I had a Scott Jern t-shirt over my head (on my shoulders) and as I went north the wind kept it up over my nose--no hands needed.

Very high tide

The bedraggled state of the flag in my possession the last time I kissed any part of Mae West's living body

On the private beach met Los Osos Tom, Jan, Dick, and Craig--Regulars

Private beach in early morning sunshine

One of the last private beaches in the United States

Good thing Cousin Campbell Slemp did in 1904--helped widow of Revolutionary soldier

This is Campbell Slemp (Campbell as in Campbell Scott, George C. Scott's son). The bill was to increase the pension of one of the 2 surviving widows of Revolutionary soldiers.


Mrs. Mayo had the “most notable pension granted by the last session of Congress” given to her. The sponsor of this pension was Col Campbell Slemp, who was the only Virginian republican congressman. Mrs. Mayo’s pension increased from $8 per month to $25. Her husband was Stephen Mayo who fought from 1776 to 1781. She lived in Newberne, Pulaski County, Virginia, and was over 90 years old, helpless, paralyzed and almost entirely deaf. She required the constant help given to her by her daughter, also widowed.

I woke up thinking about textual errors and will re-post this about Jim Webb's BORN FIGHTING.

5 out of 5 stars
Jim Webb and the Philosophical Pharisees--not Philosophical Fairies
ByHershel Parkeron May 3, 2017
Format: Hardcover
|
Verified Purchase
James Webb and the Philosophical Fairies

Now, I have special loving feelings toward James Webb. I elected him to the U. S. Senate with my $100, the only time I have sent money out of state to a political candidate for anything but the highest office. I read and re-read BORN FIGHTING in the little room next to my computer room, understanding, sympathizing, and a very few times envying (the times when he hears stories from his older kinfolks). I know how risky he was in describing Reconstruction, and I sympathize, because I have lived through the fierce self-righteousness of fanatical Political Correctness in the academy. But something seemed wrong on 244--apparently the same page in the hardback and the paperback, if Amazon.com is right--seemed nasty, cheap. Something did not seem to jibe with the Jim Webb I admire:
THE OCCUPIERS, THE POLITICAL REEDUCATORS WHO THIS TIME CALLED THEMSELVES RADICAL RECONSTRUCTIONISTS, THE PHILOSOPHICAL FAIRIES, THE CARPETBAGGER BUSINESSPEOPLE WITH THEIR GRAND PLANS AND SPECIAL DEALS . . . .

Now, my James Webb would never have said "the philosophical fairies."

What James Webb must have written or meant to write was "the philosophical Pharisees." I know exactly what he meant, and he did not mean fairies, folks. He meant Pharisees.

Double Scoff scoff Law law--second mastiff in cart

Deconstructing

Out early at high tide--better trudge in mud than be sand-blasted when the east winds come up

What was the house with the blue dome is now the house with the copper pyramid (center top) ...

This is from Highway 1, looking east.

Driven by sand-blasting winds from beach to east side of dunes

You can see how winds like this could cause firestorms.

A South Carolina Mystic 1826 or so--not "corrected." Does anyone have the latter part of the will?

I Elizabeth Boyd on seeing & conversing with a spirit from Heaven at sundry times and sundry places. I went to Salem meeting House in Newberry district--to hear one of our Methodist preachers, the House being crowded very much he preached out-of-doors. I set down and leaned against a tree and there came a spirit from heaven to me and laid off the beautiful city upon our land the size of each lott was half an acre, and the price of it such happiness it shewed to me is past telling, this is the first time it came to me and then fled away; the second time it came to me was at the Salluda Camp meeting in august, of the above year. I went in Mr. Enoch Lakes waggon with his wife to the meeting and there came the same spirit to me again as I believed from Heaven, and laid off this beautifull city upon our land, and gave me Noah for a witness as it was in the days of Noah, so also shall it be in the days of the son of man they were eating and drinking, marrying & given to marriage untill the flood came and swept them away, this was the second time it came to me, in two weeks after Saluda Camp Meeting I was down on our land, and sit down upon a piece of splitwood the spirit of the lord came to me again and laid off the beautifull city upon our land and stayed for the space of five minutes & woe to them that violate the law from the going forth of this paper awake up ye backsliding Isarael I pray & pray more faster that you might gain the love of God in your souls awake up ye sinners that ye might repent and be born of the spirit of God or Else never see his face in peace. fourth time the spirit came to me, one day I went down to the milk House and the angel of the lord set on the spring as I believe such a beautifull sight mine Eyes never beheld and the happiness of my soul I cant express and it said to me did I think that god made all those beautifull springs for the sue of one man and it fled away such happiness I felt in my soul I am not able to express at the appearance of the beautifull sight this is the fourth time it came to me great & terrible will be the day of the lord & who will be able to stand in that day, none but the righteous that [never?] violate his law and woe to those that violate or lets those servants violate his law that is to say the laws of God on these premises. Another day I stepped on the edge of the old field, the same spirit came to me from Heaven it said to me so [to?] cut the stoppage out of the Gully to let the filth of the city out & ministers of the Gospel cry aloud to the people, this is five time it came to me and fled away, another day I was sitting a spin[n]ing on the piazza and named to me what it should be called, and it was to be the city of the new Jerusalem & everything thats for the use of mans body is to the city or in the city & that they shall build their houses out of Brick & they all shall be beautiful buildings so that it should excell all the Citys in the world and I shall meet there and all my neighbours would be blest on the account of this great city and that I should be much persecuted for it, for it will be such a place of happiness that they will come to it. and the spirit came to me another time and laid off the spot of ground where the dead should be buried and what manner and way Hell is gapeing & ready to receive souls in that violate the laws of God this spirit commanded me to give it to the ministers of the Gospel if you believe it was a good spirit, cry aloud to the people the Saturday after the New Hope Camp meeting the same spirit came to me and said to me the reason that the flood come on us was because the Camp meeting was not on our land where the spirit chose for god this is the way that this great city is to be begun my nine sons has each a lot round their Fathers spring, each one of the boys is to have a lott half an acre the price is three hundred dollars a lott now I Charge you in the name of God not to sell your lotts because it is a bless of God to me.—In the name of God Amen. I, Elizabeth Boyd of Newberry destrict & state of south Carolina being deeply Impressed with the truth of the foregoing narrative have thought fit and proper to make and ordain the following to be my last will and Testament.

A model apology for all the liars alive--I can think of a president of Duke University in Durham, a chaired professor at Columbia, . . . .

{ Notice } I, do hereby certify that I Charles C. Mclure, last from Tuscumbia and now in the Town of Columbus
Mississippi, have been guilty of uttering the most infamous, hellishly slanderous falsehood against the character
of a portion of the family of Maj. Jesse Weaver, the aforesaid town of Columbus, and also that I have threatened
the Mr. Thomas Morford, and I hereby acknowledge that I felt thankful that I have even a hope of escaping the
just vengeance of said gentleman, with that merited from every honest and good citizen, only of this town, but
that I do deserve the countenance. I acknowledgement to all which I do fix my hand and seal the presence of the
witnesses and thank them that they even consent to sign their names as witnesses against me. C. C. Mclure,
Witnesses, G. W. Sims, John W. Blundell, James Sims, T. R. Norman, W. W. Humphries, C. H. Abert, Erasmus Potts,
W. B. Patterson.


NO ONE APOLOGIZES ANY MORE AFTER LYING ABOUT SOMEONE.

The Rock at Noon

Hazy to the North, where Smoke is Coming Down from the Fires

Gabrielle Zevin's great bookman's rant in THE STORIED LIFE OF A. J. FIKRY

"Like, he repeats with distaste. "How about I tell you what I don't like? I do not like postmodernism, postapocalyptic settings, postmortem narrators, or magic realism. I rarely respond to supposedly clever formal devices, multiple fonts, pictures where they shouldn't be--basically, gimmicks of any kind. I find literary fiction about the Holocaust or any other major world tragedy to be distasteful--nonfiction only, please. I do not like genre mash-ups a la the literary detective novel or the literary fantasy. Literary should be literary, and genre should be genre, and crossbreeding rarely results in anything satisfying. I do not like children's books, especially ones with orphans, and I prefer not to clutter my shelves with young adult. I do not like anything over four hundred pages or under one hundred fifty pages. I am repulsed by ghostwritten novels by reality television stars, celebrity picture books, sports memoirs, movie tie-in editions, novelty items, and--I imagine this goes without saying--vampires. I rarely stock debuts, chick lit, poetry, or translations. I would prefer not to stock series, but the demands of my pocketbook require me to.

Maunderings on a smoky morning

The smoke from Northern California had not touched the area below Big Sur until the last day or two, when the air has become thick. Our air had been bad from the dust for several days, anyhow, from jack-hammers on the house. I feel no effects of the burning of marijuana farms--it's too far away. Anyhow, marijuana fumes are not as bad as cigarette fumes, as I found out at a San Francisco Bob Dylan concert a few years ago. You think what you would grab if you had time to grab anything and were not 100 years old with a 97 year old wife. A 64GB flash drive, I guess. As Depression Okies we had very little in the way of possessions, and I got in the habit of giving away whenever I moved anything that would not go in my 1952 tin suitcase, or the book satchel I hitchhiked with from Port Arthur to NYC. I gave away my 22 pistol one time, and my short wave radio another time. I got out of that habit, and now hundreds of people up north are stripped, whatever their habits. Who pays to level the rubble? And then what? I think a lot now about what keeps you going when you are young despite illnesses that often kill, TB for example. There really is a kind of blind life force that drives you on when you are young and you don't have any idea how pathetic your struggles look to normal people. How resilient can the older refugees be? I'm thinking a lot now about refugees or pioneers, all the European seekers on this continent, those who wore the Great Wagon Road, those who sold out in western NC and started into the mountains with Daniel Boone in 1773 but were turned back (one daughter on a horse in the river carrying a small brother), those who went down the Elk River in flatboats 400-strong then were burned out (and then burned out again) from what became NW Alabama, or the old half Choctaw woman who in the early 1840s, late, harnessed her ox in Yalabusha County, Mississippi, and set out for western Arkansas, and got there, and the Model Ts and Model As that criss-crossed the south and west in the 1920s and 1930s. A lot of us traveled light for a very long time, but we are out of the habit.

To prove I was here

Go to the coast, says one of the local heroes of Northern California, having sent his family to SF but staying to help others

It's hard to imagine the devastation a few hundred miles north.

Yet another perfect day

The Lonesome Death of Charles Henderson, 23 year old shoemaker, 5 ft 6 in, from Orange Co. NC, near Argulus's family

At Fort Stoddert in New Orleans in 1812 he was given 50 lashes for being drunk, and again 10 days at hard labor with his whiskey allotment stopped, then for being drunk on guard 15 days on bread and water with whiskey allotment stopped, then (after some events I don't understand) on 25 April 1813 he died, there in New Orleans.
Was he one of ours?

60 degrees, 82 years

Early--8:30--another day in paradise

Calm Morning at Morro Rock

After last winter's storms--dozens of new east-west gullies

What happens if you stand too long in one place

Today at 10:30--Chat with Dick on leg strength; with Craig on retirement and macular degeneration; with Stan on MB real estate in 60s; and with Bruce on my progress on GLIMPSES

Can you see the waves of sand--hitting hard

Had to spray legs all the way to the shorts when I got home--sand stuck all over. Pulled cap over left eye going south, over right eye when returning north.

Adventure today--Fierce offshore winds hitting waves

Tide Rushing In at 9:30

Timothy F. Murphy "attended St. Barnabas Catholic School and Walsh Jesuit High School. He received his Bachelor of Science from Wheeling Jesuit University."

And he wanted his mistress to have an abortion? Why did no one tell him life is sacred? Look who taught him!

We hate it when we can't understand why anyone would think Jeeves & Wooster funny

We tried last night, all ready with 2 discs and several episodes, set to enjoy a great British comedy. We found it so vulgar and stupid that we felt demeaned by 15 minutes and shipped the discs back to Netflix. I know there is nothing wrong with our sense of humor. After all, I laughed and laughed just today at Tim Murphy, the Pennsylvania congressman, on the basis of the snippets in Facebook. If I had been a watcher of news on TV I am sure I would have laughed even louder. I have a great sense of humor. But the people in Jeeves and Wooster just reminded me of how Britain did everything possible, before Churchill came in, to make it easy for Hitler. THIS is what the British were doing in the 20s and 30s. I get it now. But I don't get why the British liked the series. Why, there was not even a fat man dressed as a woman in the first fifteen minutes, unless the aunt was a man. Maybe we did miss it all at that.

Can traits like stubbornness be inherited? When one's mother was called "Bullhead Costner" and a grandfather on the other side of the family acts like this . . . .

The remarkable rise in White River in September 1824 was probably the greatest flood in this stream during the l9th century. The torrential rain storms that produced this freshet were so frequent that the hunters were driven from the forest and sought shelter in their cabins. Allin Trimble son of Bill Trimble said that he was 9 years old when this high water swept over the bottoms. At the time of its occurrence he was living with his grandfather Buck Coker. Also two other grand sons were staying with him at the time. These were "Prairie" Bill and Herrod Coker, sons of Joe Coker. Jesse Yocum son in law of Cokers was also there and when the waters began to threaten to reach the top of the bank Coker sent them all to higher ground, but Coker himself refused to go with them. The family thinking he would be willing to vacate the house when the water rose higher rested easy about him until the waters surrounded the cabin. There was no canoe available but Jess Yocum owned a fine horse he called Paddy that was a renowned swimmer. They owned other horses but Paddy was the best swimmer in the bunch. As the raging flood of water spread over the bottom Yocum swam his horse twice to the Coker dwelling and back to try to induce his father in law to leave the house but he declined. The river continued to rise rapidly and was becoming deeper every hour between the house and the hill. The family were alarmed for the safety of him and his son in law made the third trip back to the cabin to make a last effort to persuade Mr. Coker to vacate the dwelling. The raging waters had rose to the level of the floor. Driftwood was riding over the cane and lodging against the trees in the bottom. This last trip for Yocum and his faithful animal was hazardous for the current was growing swifter and deeper. When Yocum reached the house he informed his obstinate father in law that this was his last trip to try to rescue him for the current was getting to be too swift and deep to make an attempt to come back again and if he intended to leave the house at all now was the time and the old man looked at his son in law as he sat on his beautiful but wearied horse as he stood in the water over knee deep. He seemed to admire the man and appreciated his untiring energy in braving the strong and muddy current in an effort to save his life, then he cast his eyes over the great expanse of seething and foaming water that was spreading from hill to hill and then glancing his eyes once more toward his son in law he gave his consent to go and Yocum took him up behind him and reining the horses head around toward camp the horse started with his double weight and was soon in deep water but the true and ever faithful horse carried both men safely to shore. The highest stage of water reached the door head of the cabin before the flood began to subside. The family used graters to make meal for bread and after the great tide of water had spread over the field where there was a small crop of corn Mr. Cokers plucky grandsons "Prairie" Bill and his brother Herrod would ride their horses into the water where the corn was and gather the ears of corn to grate. It was interesting and certainly dangerous work for the boys to swim their horses around over the field and reach down into the water and feel for the corn and pull it off of the stock."

Scoff-laws in No-Dog area

Winter storms cut many new east-west swales into dunes now lacking much of the first row, carved away

Sadistic scoff-laws in no-dog area set their unleashed ferocious dog against elderly walker

Now we know what caused the massacre in Las Vegas. Thank you, noble Pat Robertson.

Pat Robertson Blames Las Vegas Massacre On ‘Disrespect’ For Donald Trump
The TV preacher also blamed protests during the national anthem.

Some of us have every right to be obsessed with dissolution. But Tom Petty just now, at 66?

"An "insignificant" amount of oil spilled

Local News | SanLuisObispo.com & The Tribune
www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/

A small amount of oil washed up on the shore at Morro Rock Beach on Saturday ... Beach on Saturday, September 30, 2017, stemming from the flushing of two decommissioned oil transfer pipelines. ...

How long will it be?

See the next picture to understand this series

Someone had to poke it with a stick to see if it was really dead