C.S.Lewis and Fairy Tales

“Someday you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.” - C.S. Lewis

Belloc on Political and Economic Freedom

 

Progress?

 

“Never perhaps since the beginning of the world has there been an age that had less right to use the word “progress” than we.”  - G. K. Chesterton

We could use a man like Chesterton today ...

 

"One of the most important cultural figures in the last century was G.K. Chesterton; an astonishingly prolific writer, speaker and defender of Christianity. ..."

So begins "The courage, creativity and charm of GK Chesterton" in The Christian Post.

It's not an in-depth op-ed - just a general but positive overview by Canon J. John.

"We could certainly benefit from having men and women like Chesterton today, who can defend the Christian faith with courage, creativity, and charm." 

Indeed.

Worth a read.

An Amateur Blogger

 At the most recent Rochester Chesterton Conference I bought a copy of  Chesterton In Black and White. The book is a collection of early (1903-04) Chesterton essays from the magazines Black and White and The Bystander.

Many of the essays foreshadow topics he would address in his later writings such as humor, fairy tales, and, of course, paradox.

For Black and White he wrote a series of essays on "The Decline of Amateur Professions."

In one of the essays he defines an amateur "as a man who does a thing because he enjoys doing it."

He had individual essays on the following "amateur professions:" Dancer, Critic, Actor, Politician, Educator, and Soldier.

I suggest another profession to include: Blogger.

Blogs were once quite popular - including this blog. In addition to contributing to this blog, I've had personal blogs - on one of which I still post to on a regular basis. Our local newspaper also had community blogs for various town and groups. I was the blogger for my suburban town, and also contributed to a "men's" blog. 

Alas, social media has moved on, and so most blogs became passe. I quit my newspaper blog gig, and a few years later the newspaper shut down all its community blogs.

I joined this blog in 2006. At the time there were a number of other contributors - I was responsible at that point for posting on Thursdays. I liked the idea that I was the man who was Thursday!

Gradually, as blogging faded away, so did the other contributors. (Being talented individuals, they have likely gone on to better things.) Since 2014, I've been the only person to continue to contribute to this blog. and for a long time I was irregular about doing so. Indeed, in 2019 there was just one single post concerning the Rochester Chesterton conference that year. 

I also noted that many of the other blogs listed on this blog as "Chestertonian Blogs" have suffered a similar fate. Most have not had posts in years. some no longer exist. Only one in the list has had a post this year - just one post.

Despite all that, I decided in August that I would try to keep this blog active. This is the 14th post since.

Why?

Because while they are an older form of social media, blogs still exist and still serve a need. Some blogs - ones hosted by well-known individuals, or devoted to a particular niche market, or focused on such topics as fashion or pop culture, and so on - remain popular. Some of those blogs even generate income in various ways.

This blog might be a "niche market" one in that it focuses on particular writers like Chesterton, C.S. Lewis, Hilaire Belloc, and writers with ties to them. Not a big market, to be sure, but still one with a loyal following, and one that deserves greater attention.

In addition, a blog, being an "old-fashioned" kind of social media, fits right in with a Chestertonian embracing of traditional literary - or social media - forms. 

Besides, I enjoy doing it. 

I enjoy writing. I enjoy reading and writing about Chesterton and Lewis and their friends. I enjoy classical literature and education and matters of faith. I enjoy clerihews and paradoxes and fairy tales.

I am an amateur blogger - a noble and honorable profession. 

Books about Distributism

On social media earlier this day, I came across a post asking for advice about books that explained distributism, especially ones that might help to simplify the concept for those who are not economists or are not familiar with what distributism really is. A number of people had suggestions

I had to get off to Mass, so I did not read it in the depth it merited. And, of course, later when I tried going back to find it I could not.

Still, I do remember some of the titles. And naturally, there are some familiar authors cited.

Among the works mentioned:

Rerum Novarum: On The Condition Of Working Classes by Pope Leo XIII

What's Wrong with the World by G.K. Chesterton

The Outline of Sanity by G.K. Chesterton

Utopia of Usurers by G.K. Chesterton

The Servile State by Hilaire Belloc

Economics for Helen by Hilaire Belloc

Small is Still Beautiful: Economics as if Families Mattered by Joseph Pearce

I've read the Chesterton books. I'm currently reading Rerum Novarum. Pearce's book is on my shelf of books to read. 

I'm sure there were other books cited, some by other authors, but I don't recall them. I suspect
The Hound of Distributism by Richard Aleman and Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered by Ernst F. Schumacher got mentioned.

Black and White and Chesterton

 

At the Rochester Chesterton conference I picked up a copy of Chesterton in Black and White. It's a collection of previously uncollected early Chesterton essays from Black and White and The Bystander

In the first essay, "That Black Is, in a General Sense, White," Chesterton discusses the nature of paradox, contending that paradoxes are actually quite common, "built into very foundations of human affairs," as exhibited in "universal and ordinary arrangements, historic institutions," and "daily habits." And he goes on to state, "As a matter of fact, it is the ordinary view and language which is paradoxical."

Chesterton uses the example of the word "white." A person may be described as "white," but that person is not really white. Nor are "white wine" or "white grapes" actually white. 

He continues in that vein. While he is discussing linguistic "paradoxes," however, the essay got me to thinking about language and how we use - or misuse it. Words become vague or distorted in meaning - sometimes unintentionally, sometimes intentionally.

Take the word "love," for example. The word has been so overused that its meaning has been twisted out of shape. Thus I can say I love coffee, or the Buffalo Bills, or clerihews, or my wife. Obviously, there are varied levels of meaning or intensity. Indeed, my love for my wife is far deeper and richer than my love for those other parts of my life.

My examples of love cited above are all innocuous. But there are other uses of "love" that turn the meaning of the word on its head. Love can be taken as just a physical act - to make love - that really has nothing to do with the true meaning of love. When it comes to sexual matters, in fact, love is often used as an excuse rather than a reason. A person might declare he is showing love when he is cruel, violent, or destructive. Just look at some of the actions of terrorists who act out of love of country or of faith. 

There are many other possible ways in which language is manipulated. Take the example of two people going for a walk in the woods. Birds are singing, insects and frogs are chirping, the breeze is rustling the leaves. Suddenly one of the persons unhappily blurts out that it is too quiet. It is certainly not quiet, but that person is unhappy that these sounds he is used to and desires are not there. But because it is not what he wants, he fails to see and appreciate what is there. Thus the word "quiet" has assumed a meaning separate from objective reality. It is now defined subjectively.

Which is one of the problems of our age. Words are more and more viewed through subjective lenses. They are too often set adrift from the "universal and ordinary arrangements, historic institutions," and the "daily habits" that once helped to define them, and to give them solid roots.

Thus words like "choice" or "family" or "racist" are cut of from their traditional, common sense meanings. We can have politicians say our borders are closed because the official ports of entry are closed, even though a mile to the east or west of those closed ports people are freely and in large numbers crossing that border.

We end up with a Humpty Dumpty situation with those in power in some form declaring in a scornful tone, "When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less." Which gives them all the control - as, I suspect, some of them actually want.

In such an unstable verbal world, one might end up as Chesterton notes with an honest official actually speaking the truth, and then being accused of just making a joke, of saying something fantastic, and subsequently subject to reproach. In these less gentle times, that person might lose his job, be hounded on social media, perhaps even suffer a physical attack.

Indeed, we seem to be living in a dystopian time where words are deliberately manipulated to destroy and to control. Motherhood becomes a negative thing, for example, interfering with one's life and career, or becoming a kind of vulgar insult. A time where war is peace, or at least good business. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.

But fortunately there are still some folks who have enough common sense to recognize that nothing is completely black or white.

C. S. Lewis and change

 

“You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” - C. S. LEWIS

The Fr. Leo Hetzler (Rochester Chesterton) Conference

After a two-year covid pause, Rochester hosted its 17th Chesterton Conference - now called the Fr. Leo Hetzler Conference in honor of the late Chesterton scholar.

The conference drew an enthusiastic crowd to St. John the Evangelist Church - St. John Fisher College, which hosted the previous conferences was not available - heard about Poetry: Fruit of Christian Joy.

Lou Horvath provided the opening comments. and continuity

Ted Janiszewski discussed the poetry of the Psalms.

Jonathan Thorndike (introduced by Joseph Pearce) discussed Chaucer and The Canterbury Tales. 

Joseph Pearce talked about poems every Catholic should know. 

And then the conference concluded with a dramatic reading (led by Dale Ahlquist) of selections from Chesterton's The Ballad of the White Horse.

It was a typically delightful Chesterton conference, full of inspiration and laughter and ... Christian joy. 

  

Mystery Clerihews

G. K . Chesterton, with Father Brown and The Detection Club, certainly plays an important tole in the history of mystery stories.

I am a fan of such stories - and not just of the Father Brown tales.

There are many mystery writers I like - like Agatha Christie, Josephine Tey, Ellis Peters, Ralph McInerny, Arthur Conan Doyle, Steven Havill, and Tony Hillerman.

Sayers has Chestetonian ties - and inspired this clerihew:

Lord Peter Wimsey
was never deterred by evidence flimsy,
but his confidence suffered years of strain
when faced with the mystery of Harriet Vane.

Meanwhile, Hillerman's Navajo mysteries inspired the following:

Officer Jim Chee
studied the remains of a flea.
Although respect for nature is part of his Navajo beliefs,
he didn't appreciate this critter getting into his briefs.

I haven't tried my hand at a Sherlock Holmes clerihew. Maybe it's time!

A Chesterton hymn that fits our times

O God of earth and altar

O God of earth and altar,
bow down and hear our cry,
our earthly rulers falter,
our people drift and die;
the walls of gold entomb us,
the swords of scorn divide,
take not thy thunder from us,
but take away our pride.

From all that terror teaches,
from lies of tongue and pen,
from all the easy speeches
that comfort cruel men,
from sale and profanation
of honour and the sword,
from sleep and from damnation,
deliver us, good Lord!

Tie in a living tether
the prince and priest and thrall,
bind all our lives together,
smite us and save us all;
in ire and exultation
aflame with faith, and free,
lift up a living nation,
a single sword to thee.

Live like a Hobbit? Some hobbits approve!

 

'Lord of the Rings' actors voice their support of Italian pastry chef's plan to build a Hobbit-inspired pub and solar-powered shire

That's the headline.

Nicolas Gentile, 37, has lived like a hobbit on two-hectares of land in the Italian countryside for over a year. Giacomo Savini e Luciano Masiello/ Courtesy of Nicolas Gentile

Here's the story about some of the actors from the movies appreciating his effort. 

In the story, Gentile says, "I have always loved fantasy literature and movies, Dungeons and Dragons, and video games," he said. "But at some point in my life, I felt like I was living the adventures of others and not my own. I decided that I, too, would live my life like a character in the movies and books I loved so much."

Hmm. Given reality these days, maybe living in a fictional world for a while might be a reasonable choice.

THE MOST RELUCTANT CONVERT: THE UNTOLD STORY OF C.S. LEWIS | OFFICIAL ...

To be honest, I don't know much about the play - and I've not heard of the movie coming out until now. 

 

Harriet Beecher Stowe

While looking through a book I was thinking of donating to the library book sale (I'm in the process of culling my bookshelves to simplify my life), I came across a piece of paper on which I'd written this clerihew:

Harriet Beecher Stowe

dealt slavery a blow

with a powerful novel that "started a war,"

sadly few read it any more.  

I don't know for sure when I wrote it, but i suspect it was when I taught Uncle Tom's Cabin a few years back.  

He liked us, he really liked us!

"Unlike most eminent English literary travelers in America, whatever their political or ideological views, Chesterton actually liked the U.S.A., both theoretically and emotionally, and his grounds for doing so are worth knowing about."

Read the rest at National Review - Why G. K. Chesterton Liked America

On the Road with C.S. Lewis

 “One road leads home and a thousand roads lead into the wilderness.”- C.S. Lewis

Chesterton and the "superstition" of science

 

Unfortunately science is only splendid when it is science. When science becomes religion it becomes superstition. - G. K. Chesterton

This Blog Still Exists!

 

I just took a survey sent out by The Society of Gilbert Keith Chesterton. One of the questions listed online resources - and blogs were not mentioned.

Now I know blogs are often viewed as outdated. But they still exist - as does this blog. But when I decided to look at this one after completing the survey, I discovered no one had posted in almost a year - and I was the last to do so. Indeed, I had made most of the most recent posts.

When this blog began, there were a number of contributors. Each of them took a day on which he would try to post. I was invited to join, and I became Thursday. I liked that.

But I was not as consistent as I should have been, and in the last few years only popping in a couple of times a year. And the other members of the team basically stopped.

I will try to keep this blog on life support. 

The Problem With Prophets - Crisis Magazine

The Problem With Prophets - Crisis Magazine



Dale speaks!



 Pax et bonum

A Salute to Dale

Dale Ahlquist
peers into the fog and mist.
He is certain that somewhere out there
is an undiscovered Chesterton text awaiting his care.

A few clerihews

A batch of clerihews from early last year -

Genial Elwood P. Dowd
could easily mix with any crowd,
but those crowds would always tend
to quickly disperse when he introduced his "friend."

 

Alexa
seems to have a hidden agenda:
she'll respond to requests from you,
but sometimes also record what you say and do.

 

Ayn Rand
wanted to be a singer with the band.
Alas, her audition went badly,
because all she could sing was "Mi, Mi, Mi."

 

Geoffrey Chaucer
never drank tea from a saucer.
But this wasn't due to courtly manners, you see,
it was just that in his day England didn't have saucers - or tea.

 

Virginia Governor Ralph Northam
has reason to feel pretty glum.
How do you deny something that's come to light
when it's there for all to see in black and white?

 

Chris Cuomo
tweeted Mika from "Morning Joe,"
"Isn't it great we still get our pay
no matter what we say?"

Round up the usual suspects

For the 2019 Rochester Chesterton Conference - "whodunit?" - which focused on Chesterton and the detective story, they did indeed round up the usual suspects.

 

Be there next year!

 

Slugs might have an afinity for cheese

On the Road to Sainthood?

A good read - http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/st.-gilbert-in-coming-weeks-the-fate-of-g.k.-chesterton-will-be-known

Aquinas Clerihew

 

 

St. Thomas Aquinas
was noted for his reticence and shyness.
But crack open a bottle
and he’d expound at length on Aristotle.

Touched By G.K. Chesterton? Here's How You Can Help His Canonization! | ChurchPOP

Touched By G.K. Chesterton? Here's How You Can Help His Canonization! | ChurchPOP: There's still time to help!





Pax et bonum

Bishop Barron on Great Spiritual Classics (including Orthodoxy)

Chesterton made the list!









Pax et bonum

Just wondering ...

Given the climate
would Chesterton have declared,
"White Chalk Matters"?

Ajax clerihew

Ajax
was a stalwart warrior during attacks,
but when it came to Achilles' armor he was completely undone
when Odysseus won.

A Bishop Explains Why You Should Read C.S. Lewis' Masterpiece "The Great Divorce" | ChurchPOP

Advice from Bishop Barron -



A Bishop Explains Why You Should Read C.S. Lewis' Masterpiece "The Great Divorce" | ChurchPOP

Pax et bonum

Moses Toeses Clerihew

If Moses
really supposes his toeses are roses,
then I'd be inclined to think
he's had too much to drink!

(With a nod to Singing in the Rain.)

Happy Birthday E. C. Bentley

Edmund Clerihew Bentley was born July 10, 1875. A schoolmate of Chesterton, he created while still in school the humorous verse form that bears his name, the clerihew. Chesterton wrote some clerihews, too, but his main connection with clerihews consists of his illustrations for some of Bentley's.

 

In honor of Bentley, a clerihew:

E. C. Bentley
evidently
knew just what to do
with a clerihew.

Chesterton sighting!

In a recent opinion piece about sex, The War on Chastity, Russell Shaw cites G. K. Chesterton:

G.K. Chesterton got a lot of things right. Here's one: "The moment sex ceases to be a servant it becomes a tyrant." Evidence for the destructive consequences of tyrannical sex abounds in wrecked relationships, wrecked families, and wrecked lives.

Good piece, well worth reading.

Pax et bonum

Chesterton before God ( a cinquain)

 

G. K.
Chesterton stood
before the throne of God
telling a rollicking tale, and
God laughed.

Chesterton Scholar, Fr. Leo Hetzler, Passes Away

Father Leo Hetzler, C.S.B., a noted Chesterton scholar who helped launch the annual Rochester Chesterton Conference, died May 18, 2017, after a short illness. He was 91.

St. John Fisher College in Rochester, where he taught for many years, has a write up.

The article notes: "Fr. Hetzler then spent several years teaching in Canada in the 1960s, where he began what would become his lifelong interest in the Chesterton Society.  In 2002, he inaugurated the annual Chesterton Conference at Fisher, and in 2007, he became the first recipient of the Life Achievement Award presented by the American Chesterton Society."

I also quoted him in an article I wrote about Chesterton for the newspaper I used to work for.

May he rest in peace

Gilbert in transition; spat over

I just got the latest Gilbert.

In it, Dale Ahlquist announced some changes in the magazine, prompted in part by financial necessity, though I wonder if there some other factors in play.

Whatever the case, there have already been some changes, and there are apparently more in the works.

I wait to find out what Gilbert will become. It's been an important part of my life for a number of years now - one of the few print magazines I still receive, and the only one I read cover to cover.

One change that has occurred (on my part) is the end of a mini feud.

Last fall I noted in a snarky post that for some reason none of my clerihews had been published in more than five years - despite the fact that they had been appearing regularly for several years prior to that. I had submitted a number of them during those black hole years, but none of them surfaced. I wrote to ask what as going on, and even spoke to Dale.

Then, suddenly, after almost six years, one of mine appeared in the last issue. I wondered if it was a fluke. But this new issue contained another one.

Maybe they had all been buried under a slush pile and with all the rains this year the slush finally washed away to reveal them.

Whatever the case, thank you editors.

Why, I may even start submitting some more recent ones!

Chesterton, the poet

Over at Social Matter, there was a brief look at Chesterton as a poet:  "Poets: G. K. Chesterton"

Interesting read - praise for his poetry from a non-Chestertonian.

Peter Maurin - Chesterton and Belloc did not have blinkers!

 

A Few Englishmen

R. H. Tawney said
that the Englishmen wear blinkers.
Because they wear blinkers
the Englishmen
lack vision.
Because they lack vision
the Englishmen
are very strong
for supervision.
And supervision
is not a substitute
for vision.
A few Englishmen
got rid of their blinkers.
Among the Englishmen
who got rid of their blinkers
one can name:
William Cobbett,
John Ruskin,
William Morris,
Arthur Penty,
Hilaire Belloc,
G. K. Chesterton,
Eric Gill.
The best of all
is Eric Gill.

(This is one of  Peter Maurin's Easy Essay printed in the New York Catholic Worker. Maurin, along with Dorothy Day, created the Catholic Worker movement.)

Peter Maurin - Christianity Untried (Chesterton)

Chesterton says:
“The Christian ideal
has not been tried
and found wanting.
It has been found difficult
and left untried.”
Christianity has not been tried
because people thought
it was impractical.
And men have tried everything
except Christianity.
And everything
that men have tried
has failed.

(Peter Maurin, along with Dorothy Day, created the Catholic Worker movement. Maurin, originally from France, wrote "Easy Essays" summarizing his beliefs and those of other thinkers and writers and philosophers.)

They taught us to believe in dragons

"And a few encounters with living legends didn't hurt: I studied at the University of Oxford, and the English syllabus stopped at 1832, because there were two gentlemen named Tolkien and C.S. Lewis who had resisted taking it any further — they were both teaching there and we went to their lectures. So we encountered, thanks to those two, things like Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and above all, Shakespeare. A friend of mine once said, 'They taught us to believe in dragons.'" - The Lost Land of Susan Cooper

Susan Cooper is an award-winning writer of young adult and fantasy fiction, including the The Dark is Rising sequence. She also co-wrote the play Foxfire.

For all the snowflakes (clerihew)

President Donald Trump
blazes away as if still on the stump.
Many a fragile snowflake
finds the heat hard to take.

A St. Jerome clerihew

Irascible St. Jerome
was justly noted for his biblical tome,
but he was upset that no one would look
at his vegetarian cook book.

A Torricelli clerihew

Evangelista Torricelli
was fond of refried beans and jalapeno jelly.
One of his lesser-known achievements was a way to measure
frequent bouts of abdominal pressure.

Tolkien's rediscovered "Noel"

NOEL by J.R.R. Tolkien

Grim was the world and grey last night:
The moon and stars were fled,
The hall was dark without song or light,
The fires were fallen dead.
The wind in the trees was like to the sea,
And over the mountains' teeth
It whistled bitter-cold and free,
As a sword leapt from its sheath.


The lord of the snows upreared his head;
His mantle long and pale
Upon the bitter blast was spread
And hung o'er hill and dale.
The world was blind, the boughs were bent,
All ways and paths were wild:
Then the veil of cl oud apart was rent,
And here was born a Child.


The ancient dome of heaven sheer
Was pricked with distant light;
A star dame shining white and clear
Alone above the night.
In the dale of dark in that hour of birth
One voice on a sudden sang:
Then all the bells in Heaven and Earth
Together at midnight rang.


Mary sang in this world below:
They heard her song arise
O'er mist and over mountain snow
To the walls of Paradise, 
And the tongue of many bells was stirred
in Heaven's towers to ring
When t he voice of mortal maid was heard,
That was mother of Heaven's King.


Glad is the world and fair this night
With stars about its head,
And the hall is filled with laughter and light,
And fires are burning red.
The bells of Paradise now ring
With bells of Christendom,
And Gloria, Gloria we will sing
That God on earth is come.


Originally published in the 1936 Annual of Our Lady's School, Abingdon, Tolkien's "Noel" was unknown and unrecorded until scholars Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull discovered it while searching for another poem in June 2013.  In May 2015, Our Lady's School, Abingdon, discovered their copy of the Annual and in Feb 2016, news of the discovery was widely reported.

- from the Yahoo Group Spareoom

Paladino Clerhiew

Carl Paladino
perhaps had too much vino.
But even intoxication can't
excuse his offensive First Couple rant.

(Context: Buffalo School Board member and former GOP NY gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino, in a survey by Artvoice newspaper in which people were asked what they wished for in 2017, said, "Obama catches mad cow disease after being caught having relations with a Herford. He dies before his trial and is buried in a cow pasture next to [senior White House advisor] Valerie [Jarrett], who died weeks prior, after being convicted of sedition and treason, when a Jihady cell mate mistook her for being a nice person and decapitated her. "
.
And asked what he would most like to see go in 2017, he said, "Michelle Obama. I'd like her to return to being a male and let loose in the outback of Zimbabwe where she lives comfortably in a cave with Maxie, the gorilla."

He refused to apologize. The Trump transition team - Paladino had been one of the honorary chairmen of Trump's NY presidential campaign - condemned Paladino's comments.)

Gilbert clerihew blackballing continues?

Another issue of Gilbert arrived.

None of my clerihews got in.

Again.

It used to be Gilbert regularly published some of my clerihews.

That stopped five and a half years ago.

I've sent a number in over the last few years, but they seemingly disappeared into a black hole.

I resent some in case they got lost.

Still missing in action.

I've even mentioned this to Dale a couple of times at Chesterton gatherings. He said he has seen some of mine floating about, and expressed surprise and doubt that it has been that long since any got published.

But it has been that long.

I'm not sure why they are not getting in. Some are decent enough, and certainly of comparable quality to some that have gotten in from others.

Maybe they just keep getting bumped as newer writers submit? Maybe they just keep getting misplaced? Maybe my occasional on-line sparring with the editor-in-chief has put me on some kind of blacklist?

So it goes.

As I told Dale, I've given up submitting. Seems to be little point. And writing this will likely not help.

Still, maybe some of the old ones will finally break through.

But as for new ones, I'll keep posting them here. At least then Chesterton and clerihew fans might see them.

Chesterton gets Clerihewed

G. K. Chesterton
would sometimes sit in the sun.
His wife appreciated the cool glade
his shadow made.

A prophetic clerihew

Ezekiel
was full of prophetic zeal.
He was only wrong when it came to bets
on the Browns and the Mets.

An alternative this election year - The American Solidarity Party

This is a tough year for us politically when it comes to the Presidential campaign. Many of us find the candidates of the major political parties objectionable, and so I hear a lot of people saying they will likely vote for the lesser of two evils, once they determine which is less evil. (I often rejoin, "Voting for the lesser of two evils means you are still voting for evil!)

The truth is, though, for most of us how we vote really doesn't matter.

You see, the election will be decided by the electoral college vote, not the popular vote, and for most states you can pretty much predict right now which party's candidate will carry the state and get the electoral votes. In New York, for example, the Democratic candidate has won the state every election since 1988, and only once in those 7 elections has the Democratic margin of victory fallen below a million votes. This year is likely to be no different. Unless the Democratic candidate does eventually get indicted!

There are a few (5-7) swing states that really decide the election - that's why the pundits and pollsters obsess about such states as Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

So for voters in New York, and in most states, it's safe to vote third party.

This year, there is an alternative that might be of interest to Chestertonians. The American Solidarity Party's platform is very much based on Catholic Social teachings, with elements of Distributism.

The party has for the first time nominated its own candidates for president and vice president,  Mike Maturen and Juan Munoz. (Chesterton might appreciate that Maturen is also a magician!)

Go to the website to find out more about them and the party's platform.

The party has Facebook and Twitter accounts as well.

Just imagine, voting, and actually feeling good about for whom you're voting!

If you live on one of the states where your vote might not count, or even if you live in one of the states where your vote might count, but you simply can't vote for one of the main party's candidates, consider the Maturen and Munoz ticket.

A Tolkien Clerihew

There was a side of J.R.R. Tolkien
that was seldom seen.
When he was by himself
he'd sometimes dress as an elf.

A Clerihew (Pope Pius)

Pope Pius
is a victim of bias.
Only a closed-minded dope
still thinks of him as "Hitler's pope."

Another political clerihew (Trump)

Donald Trump
on the stump
will almost always spout a platitude
or something rude.

A Ben Carson/Politico Clerihew

Ben Carson
never claimed he committed arson.
That didn't stop Politico
from reporting, "He may have, you know."

Planned Parenthood scandal clerihews

Dr. Mary Gatter
was coy and even joked amid the chatter,
but her haggling over the price of a baby's heart or liver
made me shiver.

Dr. Mary Gatter
treated it as a laughing matter,
but sell enough baby parts, even that teenie,
and you might afford a Lamborghini.

The Atlantic touts Saint Chesterton

There is in the April issue of The Atlantic a wonderful piece ("A Most Unlikely Saint") about the effort to have G. K. Chesterton declared a saint. It begins:

If the Catholic Church makes G. K. Chesterton a saint—as an influential group of Catholics is proposing it should—the story of his enormous coffin may become rather significant. Symbolic, even parabolic. Chesterton’s coffin was too huge, you see, to be carried down the stairs of his house in Beaconsfield, its occupant being legendarily overweight at the time of his death, in 1936. So it went out a second-floor window. Very Chestertonian: gravity, meet levity. Hagiographers might pursue the biblical resonance here, citing the Gospel passages in which a paralyzed man, unable to penetrate the crowds surrounding the house in Capernaum where Jesus was staying, is lowered in through a hole in the roof. Or they might simply declare that Gilbert Keith Chesterton’s was a spirit too large to go out through the conventional narrow door of death—that it had to be received, as it were, directly into the sky.

It's a well-written piece, and a good introduction to Chesterton and the sainthood cause for those who were not aware of him or it. Even for those of us who were familiar, well worth reading if for no other reason than it will make us smile.

Marquis de Sade/50 Shades clerihew

A somber Marquis de Sade
said with a knowing nod,
"The wickedness of all my work fades
before that woman's 50 Shades.

Alice's Restaurant - Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving Thoughts From Chesterton

I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.


There is no such thing on earth as an uninteresting subject; the only thing that can exist is an uninterested person.


The aim of life is appreciation; there is no sense in not appreciating things; and there is no sense in having more of them if you have less appreciation of them.


When it comes to life the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude.


You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in the ink.


When we were children we were grateful to those who filled our stockings at Christmas time. Why are we not grateful to God for filling our stockings with legs?

Scarlet Letter Clerihews

While it's true Hester Prynne
committed a serious sin
the Reverend Dimmesdale
was guilty of the greater fail.

Roger Chillingworth
thought he'd reserved a berth,
then vengefully sought to save face
when someone usurped his place.

The vices of ISIS (clerihew)

One of the aims of ISIS
is eradicating Western sins and vices,
except, of course, for a select few
that they themselves like to do.

Putin-Rasputin - sure as shootin' (clerihew)

There are rumors that Vladimir Putin
somehow has ties to Rasputin.
So it makes sense his followers shiver
when Vlad takes a dip in a river.

A new Chesterton Academy

St. John Bosco Schools in Rochester (East Rochester, actually) NY has announced plans to expand next year, adding a ninth grade and calling the high school program Chesterton Academy.

The school currently offers a traditional curriculum - none of the common core nonsense - in an orthodox Catholic environment. The high school program will be more of the same.

This is an exciting development. It could even inspire me to leave my current job if they need to hire any new teachers.

I already have Chesterton Academy sweatshirt from the Chesterton Society!