Shakespeare and Me

Here is the latest installment of my sporadic series of visits to sites associated with dead authors. Past visits have included the home and grave of Edgar Lee Masters in Petersburg, Illinois, places where Allen Ginsberg lived in Greenwich Village and in San Francisco, Jack London's estate (now a state park) in California, Washington Square Park in San Francisco, where Jack Kerouac drank port, and where a probably equally inebriated Richard Brautigan posed with his wife for the cover of Trout Fishing in America.

Shakespeare's Birthplace, Stratford-on-Avon

Shakespeare's Burial Site, Trinity Church, Stratford-on-Avon

Old Will is planted under the floor in front of the candlestick to my left. The stone at the head of the grave reads:

GOOD FREND FOR IESUS SAKE FORBEARE,
TO DIGG THE DVST ENCLOASED HEARE.
BLESTE BE YE MAN YT SPARES THES STONES,
AND CVRST BE HE YT MOVES MY BONES.

Pictures of England

Mary and I just returned from a trip to England with our friends, the McCreas. Rather than post more traditional holiday snapshots here, I present a few of my favorite pictures of the natural world and man's handiwork taken at various locations around England.

Bridge Over the Llangollen Canal

Dead Tree in the Marbury Churchyard

Closeup of the Other Side

Dead Tree and Blue Sky Along the Llangollen Canal

Butterfly Reading the Brochure

At the Butterfly Farm, Stratford-on-Avon

Owl Butterfly

Butterfly

Common Mormon

Butterfly

Shakespeare Monument

Stratford-on-Avon

Falstaff

Vines at Bibury

Gates at Thornbury Castle

Black Swan, Coln River, Bibury

Morning at Bibury

Arlington Row, Bibury

Arlington Row, Bibury

Spider's Web, Bibury

Shaggy Ink Cap Mushrooms, Copthorne

Lock at Copthorne

Cedar Staircase, Harlaxtan Manor, Grantham

Great Hall, Harlaxtan

All pictures were taken with a Canon PowerShot A560 Camera.

More on Palin and the Witch Hunter

Monday, Mary and I attended a speech and question and answer session, featuring Karl Rove, at the Mendel Center at Lake Michigan College. Among the many stomach-churning things Rove said, he referred to the "Palin-McCain" ticket. Much has been made of Gov. Palin also putting herself at the head of the ticket in one of her speeches. Was it a slip or intentional? In her case, I'm not sure, but I feel confident that this was an intentional piece of Democrat-baiting by Rove, the master manipulator. He wants to take the focus off McCain, and wants Obama and the Democrats to attack Palin, increasing support for the hockey mom. In fact, Rove wrote an article in the Sept. 11, 2008 Wall Street Journal pointing out the folly of Presidential candidates attacking the opponents' running mates--to wit, Michael Dukakis attacking Dan Quayle in 1988, and Adlai Stevenson attacking Richard Nixon in 1952. In case you've forgotten, neither one of those Democratic candidates did very well in the general election.

But what I really want to talk about is a video of Palin's anointing by witch hunter Rev. Thomas Muthee at the Wasilla Assembly of God Church in 2005. While he has his hand on Sarah Palin's shoulder, praying for her, he explicitly refers to "witchcraft" (at 8:38 into the video). OK, Obama may have had a nutty minister in the form of Jeremiah Wright, but I don't believe Obama ever voluntarily stood, palms upturned and head bowed, next to Wright while the pastor spouted his crazy rhetoric. That is what Sarah Palin is doing in the video. This is too much!

Maybe it's because two people named Corey were executed during the Salem witch trials, but I have no interest in having anybody associated with belief in witchcraft in a position of power in this country.

Palin Was an Awesome Sportscaster

Sarah Palin may not have a big fat resume like Barack Obama, but was Obama ever a sportscaster? Add this to the list of qualifications for working in the executive branch of the federal government. Here's the governor, appearing with her maiden name, Heath, in a clip from 1988.

Palin Received Awesome Anointing from African Witch Hunter

In the Across the Pond blog at Times Online, reporter Hannah Strange discusses the connection of Kenyan evangelist Thomas Muthee with the Wasilla Assembly of God Church, where he prayed for Sarah Palin to become governor of Alaska in 2005. Muthee is also known for successfully running an alleged witch, Mama Jane, out of the town of Kiambu, Kenya. Ms. Strange writes:

Pastor Muthee has frequently referred to this witchhunt in his sermons as an example of the power of “spiritual warfare”. In October 2005, he delivered ten sermons at the Wasilla Assembly of God, the audio of which was available on the church’s website until it was removed around the time Mrs Palin’s candidacy was announced. The blog Irregular Times has listings and screen grabs of the sermons.

It was during that these sermons that Mrs Palin, who was then preparing for her gubernatorial run, was anointed by Pastor Muthee. His intercession, she says, was “awesome”.

There is just no end to the awesomeness of Gov. Palin. Welcome back to Salem, ca. 1692!

Lugubrious Drollery Scoops the NYT

In an article entitled "In Office, Palin Hired Friends and Hit Critics," the New York Times reports on the management style of non-community-organizer Sarah Palin. Included in the article is the following:

Another confidante of Ms. Palin’s is Ms. Frye, 27. She worked as a receptionist for State Senator Lyda Green before she joined Ms. Palin’s campaign for governor. Now Ms. Frye earns $68,664 as a special assistant to the governor. Her frequent interactions with Ms. Palin’s children have prompted some lawmakers to refer to her as “the babysitter,” a title that Ms. Frye disavows.

...she is an effusive cheerleader for her boss.

“YOU ARE SO AWESOME!” Ms. Frye typed in an e-mail message to Ms. Palin in March.

You heard it here first, in Lugubrious Drollery's post Sarah Palin is Awesome!

Based on her actions as governor, you can expect to see Miss Wasilla's high school cronies in positions of power in Washington if McCain is elected!

What Exactly Is It That the VP Does Every Day?

Another priceless video.

Sarah Palin is Awesome!

I wanted to start this post with a really cool picture of an outhouse in Wasilla, Alaska, but since the picture is copyrighted, I'm just supplying a link. Wasilla is, according to Karl Rove, the second largest city in Alaska. Being mayor of this booming metropolis, which is said to have some actual indoor plumbing, is obviously preparation for being a heartbeat from becoming President of the USA. Awesome! Actually it's the fifth largest city in Alaska, but it is the second largest city in Alaska with a population between 5 and 10 thousand. So take that, you America-hating liberals! Mr. Rove was almost accurate in his statement.

I never intended to lapse into political discourse on this blog. I don't have an agenda per se. I am embarassed to say that I voted for W in the last two elections--the first time due to a fear of higher taxes, and the last time because John Kerry chose that weasel John Edwards as his running mate.

But. . . I can't sit by quietly as I read about what's going on now. Take for instance, Ms. Palin's flip-flopping on global warming. She previously denied it is caused by human activity, but now that her running mate acknowledges it is, she's changed her tune, sort of. From the AP's coverage of Palin's recent interview on ABC, I present the following:

In the ABC interview, Palin said she believes that "man's activities certainly can be contributing to the issue of global warming, climate change. ... Regardless, though, of the reason for climate change, whether it's entirely, wholly caused by man's activities or is part of the cyclical nature of our planet — the warming and the cooling trends — regardless of that, John McCain and I agree that we gotta do something about it."

So, even though she is still hedging her bets about the cause, she and McCain are going to do something about it. Awesome! And if, as she apparently really believes, global warming is caused by cyclical warming and cooling trends, she and McCain can do something about that. Altering the cyclical nature of our planet! Awesome!

As to her qualifications for dealing with Russia, she had this to say:

Pressed about what insights into recent Russian actions she gained by living in Alaska, Palin told Gibson, "They're our next-door neighbors and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska."

So even though it's not clear that Governor Palin has actually seen Russia from a distance, it appears someone in Alaska has. Awesome!

Naming Sarah Palin's Grandchild

As we all know, whether we wanted to or not, vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin will be a grandmother in few months. I would like to help in choosing a name for Bristol's baby. Let's review the names of Sarah's children:

Track, Bristol, Willow, Piper, and Trig

In the spirit of avoiding ordinary names, I would like to offer up the following possibilities for Bristol's baby:

Trapper, Pistol, Remington, Colt, Winchester, or Calculus

Trapper seems to fit the Alaskan lifestyle and Gov. Palin's love of outdoor activities such as shooting caribou while breastfeeding. Plus, it would resonate with the family names that start with "tr": Track and Trig. Pistol also honors the gun-totin' family tradition, and carries the added bonus of rhyming with Bristol. Remington, Colt, and Winchester are all names to warm the cockles of an NRA member's heart. Even though Sarah chose to name her youngest child Trig because it is a Norse word meaing "true" and "brave victory," trig is also short for trigonometry, so how about borrowing a name from another branch of mathematics, calculus? Not only that, but this word also has other layers of meaning, such as "kidney stone," which can be nearly as irritating as the Palin family.

Other suggestions are welcome.

Janet Malcolm on Burdock

In an earlier post, I referred to an article titled "Burdock" by Janet Malcolm, in which she discussed spending three summers photographing burdock leaves. I made the observation that "it's hard to imagine there's a huge market for pictures of burdock leaves." Well, darned if I haven't just shelled out 40 bucks for a book of pictures of Burdock leaves by Ms. Malcolm. I'm looking forward to its arrival from Amazon any day now.