In the News (Two Clerihews)

 

Two people in the news lately inspired clerihews, Ozzy Osbourne and Syndey Sweeney..

Ozzy Osbourne
was by water borne
to the Alamo
where he was heard to mumble, "When ya gotta go, ya gotta go."

(Ozzy died July 22. Back in 1982, a drunken Osbourne publicly urinated in Alamo Plaza on the Alamo Cenotaph, a 60-foot monument commemorating the men and women who defended the Alamo in 1836.

He was arrested and paid a fine, and was banned from performing in San Antonio for 10 years. He apologized, and was eventually allowed to perform in that city again.

Then, in 2015, 33 years after the incident, he was finally welcomed back to the Alamo for a segment of the History Channel's series, Ozzy & Jack’s World Detour.

After his death, the Alamo, on its Instagram account, issued a statement:

We at the Alamo are saddened to hear of the passing of legendary musician Ozzy Osbourne. His relationship with the Alamo was marked initially by a deeply disrespectful incident in 1982. This act profoundly and rightfully upset many who hold this site sacred.

However, redemption and reconciliation eventually became part of his history as well. In 1992, Ozzy personally apologized to then-Mayor Nelson Wolff and expressed genuine remorse for his actions. Decades later, in 2015, he revisited the Alamo grounds to learn and appreciate the site's profound history, openly demonstrating humility and understanding.

At the Alamo, we honor history in all its complexities. Today, we acknowledge Ozzy Osbourne's journey from regret to reconciliation at the historic site, and we extend our condolences to his family, friends, and fans around the world. May he rest in peace.)

Sydney Sweeney,

noting that her costume for the next scene seemed especially teeny,

asked the director, "Is this all there is to it?"

Leering, he replied, "You can just leave it off if it doesn't fit."

(Sweeney has been in the news lately because of a fake controversy over her American Eagle Jeans ads. She earlier gained notoriety for her nude scenes in an HBO series.)

Carter vs Scranton Joe (Clerihew)

 

Good Jimmy Carter,
when it comes to presidents was one of the smarter.
Historians rank his presidency pretty low,
but it’s looking better these days thanks to “Scranton Joe.”

Joe Biden and his issues have been in the news lately. So naturally I thought of Jimmy Carter.

For years, Carter has been held out as an unsuccessful President, but as one of the best former Presidents because of all his international and national humanitarian efforts, earning him the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize.

Carter was elected in 1976, the first presidential election in which I was able to vote. I did not vote for him. I had the sense that despite him being a good man, he did not have what it took to be an effective President.  I was right. But he also faced a number of national and international crises that helped to drag down his presidency - the Iranian Revolution and the American hostages, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the oil crisis, and more. 

For years, conservative pundits have been arguing that Joe Biden was an even worse President than Carter. Now even mainstream commentators and historians are beginning to agree. His policies harmed the nation, his obvious mental decline is finally being acknowledged, and his lack of honesty and allegations of corruption are overshadowing his legacy. 

Oh, by the way, I didn't vote for Biden either, because I foresaw his shortcomings! 

Anyway, inspired by all the revelations about Biden coming out, I penned the above clerihew the other day. 

More Housekeeping

Four weeks ago I looked at the Blogs to which this blog linked. I found that many of them are no longer active.

Today I checked the other linked pages. Some of them are still active, but some have ceased to exist. 

All the Wikipedia Pages links still work: 

Muggeridge @ Wikipedia
H.G. Wells @ Wikipedia
Owen Barfield @ Wikipedia
Hilaire Belloc @ Wikipedia
Maurice Baring @ Wikipedia

Of the Chesterton Friendly links, only the American Chesterton Society is still active, though it is now The Society of G. K. Chesterton. If you want Gilbert Magazine,  you need to go there (and join the Society - if you haven't, why not?!). The Chesterton Quote of the Day link also no longer works.

The link to the Malcolm Muggeridge Society is no longer active. Ditto for the Dawson Collection at St. Thomas University, The Vision of Christopher Dawson, James V. Schall @ Ignatius Insight, and Joseph Pearce @ Ignatius Insight.

The Oscar Wilde Homepage still works. The same holds true for the Ronald Knox Society of North America, the Ronald Knox Bio, The Bernard Shaw Society, The Tolkien Society, and the Into the Wardrobe: Lewis Site.

The link to What About Charles Williams? does work, but it's a Touchstone and you need a subscription to gain access to the online content. It's aa great magazine, but I'm only a print subscriber to it, so I can't get to the articles. Sigh.   

Since I'm the most junior member of this blog's team - though apparently I'm the only still-active one - I have hesitated to make changes beyond my weekly posts. But I may do some cleaning up of the links, eliminating the ones where the links no longer work, and perhaps adding some new ones. 

I've started by changing American Chesterton Society to The Society of G. K. Chesterton. 

Peter Maurin, G. K. Chesterton, and Hilaire Belloc

Peter Maurin was a social activist and theologian, and a co-founder (with Dorothy Day) of the Catholic Worker movement. In his thinking he was influenced by Chesterton and Belloc, particularly when it came to economics. He specifically cited the distributism espoused by Chesterton and Belloc as part of the antidote to communism. 

Maurin, who was born in France and moved to the United States, summed up his thinking in poems called "Easy Essays." In those essays he cited Chesterton multiple times, and especially Chesterton's observation, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.” He sometimes quoted this observation directly, but more often paraphrased it. 

Over the years the Easy Essays were printed in the Catholic Worker newspaper. He used many of the essays repeatedly, changing them slightly, or adding or removing portions of them. Here is a version of one known as "Not Practical." 

1. Chesterton says

     "The Christian ideal 

     has not been tried 

     and found wanting. 

2. It has been found difficult 

     and left untried." 

3. Christianity has not been tried 

     because people thought 

     it was impractical. 

4. And men have tried everything 

     except Christianity. 

5. And everything 

     that men have tried 

     has failed.
6. And to fail
     in everything
     that one tries
     is not to be practical
7. Men will be practical
     when they try to practice
     the Christianity
     they profess
     to believe in.

When he recommended books to read he included two by Chesterton: The Outline of Sanity and St. Francis of Assisi.

He cited Belloc less often, but he is there. He also liked his book The Servile State. 

One Easy Essay where Belloc appears is called "The Trouble Has Been."

Hilaire Belloc says:

1. The modern proletarian

     works less hours

     and does far less

     than his father.

2. He is not even

     primarily in revolt

     against insecurity.

3. The trouble has been 

     that the masses

     of our town

     lived under

     unbearable conditions.

4. The contracts

     they were asked to fulfill

     were not contracts

     that were suitable

     to the dignity of man.

5. There was no personal relation

     between the man

     who  was exploited

     and the man

     who exploited him.

6. Wealth has lost

     its sense of responsibility.

Given his appreciation of Chesterton and Belloc, and of distributism, I think it's safe to say Maurin could be counted as a "Friend."

Joining Some Inklings Fan Groups

I was continuing my look at some of the blogs and pages to which this blog is linked when I came across ones about C. S. Lewis and the Inklings (Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, Christopher Tolkien, Owen Barfield, Hugo Dyson, Warren Lewis, etc.). That led me in turn to Lewis and Inkling Facebook groups.

Yes, not only do I blog, I am on Facebook. I guess I am old!

Anyway, being easily distracted, I joined a few of them. One of them required that I list first some of the Inkling books I have read and/or taught.

So I compiled a list of ones I'd read in the five years since I retired.

Tolkien related:

Tolkien’s Faith: A Spiritual Biography by Holly Ordway

The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien

Tolkien: A Biography by Humphrey Carpenter

The Father Christmas Letters by J. R. R. Tolkien

The Return of the King by J. R. R. Tolkien

The Two Towers by J. R. R Tolkien

The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien

C. S. Lewis related:

Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis

The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis

Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis

Perelandra by C. S, Lewis

That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis

The Silver Chair by C. S. Lewis

The Last Battle by C. S. Lewis

The Screwtape Letters (with Screwtape Proposes a Toast) by C. S. Lewis

And one by Charles Williams:

Descent Into Hell by Charles Williams

I have not read the works of some of the other Inklings. To be honest, I looked, but they are hard to find in our local libraries, or even for purchase (plus I'm trying to downsize anyway, so I don't want to buy more books at this time).

I was accepted by the Facebook pages, by the way.

Since this is a Chesterton blog, I also compiled a list of works that are Chesterton-related, or written by his circle of friends, that I've read in the last five years.

The Poet and the Lunatics by G. K. Chesterton
The Surprise by G. K. Chesterton
The Judgement of Dr. Johnson by G. K. Chesterton

Heretics by G. K. Chesterton

The Flying Inn by G. K. Chesterton

The Ball and the Cross by G. K. Chesterton

Saint Thomas Aquinas by G. K. Chesterton

The Secret of Father Brown by G. K. Chesterton

The Incredulity of Father Brown by G. K. Chesterton

The Innocence of Father Brown by G. K, Chesterton

“The Donnington Affair” by G. K. Chesterton

“The Vampire of the Village” by G. K. Chesterton

The Ballad of the White Horse by G.K. Chesterton 

Lepanto: With Explanatory Notes and Commentary by G. K. Chesterton

Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton

Knight of the Holy Ghost by Dale Ahlquist

The Path to Rome by Hilaire Belloc

The Children’s Crusade by Frances Chesterton

Sir Cleges by Frances Chesterton

Piers Plowman’s Pilgrimage by Frances Chesterton

The Golden Key and Other Fairy Tales by George MacDonald

Phantastes by George MacDonald

The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald

Trent’s Last Case by E. C. Bentley

The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy L. Sayers

Have His Carcase by Dorothy L. Sayers

Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers

Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers

Busman’s Honeymoon by Dorothy L. Sayers

The Five Red Herrings by Dorothy Sayers

Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy L. Sayers

The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L. Sayers

Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers

Clouds of Witness by Dorothy L. Sayers

Okay, enough of that. Back to looking at the linked pages.