Happy Birthday Lynne Truss

Happy Birthday to Lynne Truss. Who in the world is Lynne Truss? Entertainment Weekly called her “William Safire crossed with Basil Fawlty.” She’s the woman who made punctuation fun and made us laugh while learning something.

Being known where I used to work as something of a grammar nerd, this is a lady after my own heart. Her most famous book here in the U.S. (she’s a Brit) is Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation (2003).  As someone who groans and shakes my head every time I see a sign where an apostrophe is used incorrectly (plural instead of possessive and vice versa) I knew the first time I saw this book I had to have it. It lives on the shelf with other books of its ilk by William Safire, Edwin Newman, Richard Lederer, and E.B. White. May I also confess without reprisal that I love puns?

Here's the relevant story of the title explaining why punctuation matters: 

“A panda walks into a café. He orders a sandwich, eats, it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air. ‘Why?’ asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder. ‘I’m a panda,’ he says at the door. ‘Look it up.’ The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation. ‘Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves.’”

A radio host, a columnist, a former sports reporter, and author of plays and mystery novels, Lynne Truss goes far beyond telling us how to format language. She uses it to educate and entertain and make us think. Her 2005 book Talk to the Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness of the World Today, or Six Good Reasons to Stay Home and Bolt the Door takes on the state of manners, or the lack thereof. (I wonder what she thinks of the state of incivility in the world now.) She has also published collections of her newspaper columns and radio monologues. Some of her books and CDs are available here and it’s well worth the effort to find them.

Happy Birthday G K Chesterton

Gilbert Keith Chesterton was born on May 29, 1874. A prolific writer, he also gave talks on the radio in the 1930s that were quite popular. The article about him on Wikipedia says, “Chesterton wrote around 80 books, several hundred poems, some 200 short stories, 4,000 essays (mostly newspaper columns), and several plays. He was a literary and social critic, historian, playwright, novelist, Catholic theologian and apologist, debater, and mystery writer. He was a columnist for the Daily News, The Illustrated London News, and his own paper, G.K.’s Weekly; he also wrote articles for the Encyclopedia Britannica, including the entry on Charles Dickens and part of the entry on Humour.”

Whew! I’m exhausted just reading about everything he did. And all these things were not short knock-off pieces with little thought. He was a deep thinker blessed with wit and humor, and the ability to explain complex concepts in terms easy to follow. His most popular character was Father Brown who solved mysteries and was able to impart moral teaching without being preachy. Other famous books were the novel The Man Who Was Thursday and his non-fiction Orthodoxy and The Everlasting Man. He wrote poetry and biographies of St. Francis of Assisi and St. Thomas Aquinas. I can recommend any and all of these, having read them myself.

Although he is best known as a writer, he attended the Slade School of Art to become an illustrator. Many of his sketches show the same humor as his writing. Journalism became his profession and by 1902 he had a weekly column in the Daily News. Chesterton was raised as a Unitarian and became an Anglican in 1901. However, he began writing about and defending the Catholic faith and was received into the Church in 1922. He died in 1936.

Chesterton influenced writers and thinkers from Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen to C. S. Lewis, Jorge Luis Borges, Marshall McLuhan, and Mahatma Gandhi. He inspired Father Ian Boyd to begin the journal The Chesterton Review and Dale Ahlquist to found the American Chesterton Society and help begin the Chesterton Academy in Minneapolis. His legacy lives on as more schools are named for him and contemporary artists – literary and musical – are inspired by him. For more information, check out the Society of Gilbert Keith Chesterton in the list of Helpful Links at the right. I can only scratch the surface here but it’s worth the time to read more about him and by him. 

 

Trinity Sunday

The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity or Trinity Sunday will be on May 30, 2021, this year. It’s the first Sunday after Pentecost, which is fitting because of the descent of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, the concept of the Trinity is now complete.

It is said that Saint Patrick used the shamrock to explain the concept of the Trinity. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are three distinct persons in one being. The shamrock, or clover, is one sprig with three leaves. Whether St. Patrick used it or not, it is a useful teaching visual.

We find the baptismal formula of the triune God in Matthew 28:19. “Go, therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” And when we profess the Nicene Creed at Mass each Sunday we include the Father, the Son, and “the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. With the Father and the Son He is worshipped and glorified.”

You may hear your choir sing this hymn on Sunday. It’s been one of my favorites since I was a kid.

Holy God, We Praise Thy Name

Holy God, we praise thy name;

Lord of all, we bow before thee;

All on earth thy scepter claim;

All in heaven above adore thee.

Infinite thy vast domain;

Everlasting is thy reign.

 

Hark the glad celestial hymn

Angel choirs above are raising;

Cherubim and seraphim,

In unceasing chorus praising,

Fill the heavens with sweet accord:

Holy, holy, holy Lord.

 

Holy Father, Holy Son,

Holy Spirit: three we name thee,

Though in essence only one;

Undivided God we claim thee,

And adoring bend the knee

While we own the mystery.

 

 

 

Come, Holy Ghost

Yesterday was the feast of Pentecost, the birthday of the Church. The Holy Ghost descended upon the Blessed Mother and the disciples and it was the first time since the Tower of Babel separated us from each other in language that we were able to understand one another – each person heard the Galileans speaking in his language and heard about the glories of God.

Here is a favorite hymn “Come Holy Ghost, Creator Blest.” I print the lyrics here and then offer you the choir of St Michael’s in Stillwater, MN with organ and brass. Veni Creator Spiritus.

Come, Holy Ghost, Creator blest,

And in our hearts take up thy rest;

Come with thy grace and heav’nly aid

To fill the hearts which thou hast made,

To fill the hearts which thou hast made.

 

O Comforter, to thee we cry,

Thou heav’nly gift of God most high,

Thou fount of life, and fire of love,

And sweet anointing from above,

And sweet anointing from above.

 

O holy Ghost, through thee alone

Know we the Father and the Son;

Be this our firm unchanging creed,

That thou dost from them both proceed,

That thou dost from them both proceed.

 

Praise we the Lord, Father and Son,

And Holy Spirit with them one;

And may the Son on us bestow

All gifts that from the Spirit flow,

All gifts that from the Spirit flow.

 

Shakespeare's Sonnets: VIII

The harmony within music becomes a lovely metaphor for the harmony of the family. A father, mother, and children become like strings of an instrument, each playing a different note but coming together to produce a beautiful melody. If the music he hears makes him sad, it is because the young man has not experienced family life in his single state. Shakespeare continues encouragement of marriage and family.

Sonnet VIII

 

Music to hear, why hear’st thou music sadly?

Sweets with sweets war not, joy delights in joy:

Why lov’st thou that which thou receiv’st not gladly,

Or else receiv’st with pleasure thine annoy?

If the true concord of well-tuned sounds,

By unions married, do offend thine ear,

They do but sweetly chide thee, who confounds

In singleness the parts that thou shouldst bear.

Mark how one string, sweet husband to another,

Strikes each in each by mutual ordering;

Resembling sire and child and happy mother,

Who, all in one, one pleasing note do sing:

                Whose speechless song being many, seeming one,

                Sings this to thee: ‘Thou single wilt prove none.’

 

Fun with Gilbert & Sullivan

Last week (May 14) was the birthday of Sir Arthur Sullivan. A composer of operas, ballets, choral works, hymns (including “Onward, Christian Soldiers”), songs, chamber music, orchestral pieces, and incidental music to plays, he is probably best known as the collaborator of W.S. Gilbert on 14 comic operas (or operettas as they are sometimes known). Probably the best known today are The Mikado, H.M.S. Pinafore, and The Pirates of Penzance. 

Sullivan studied music from a young age and won several scholarships to study in England and Germany. His collaboration with Gilbert began in 1875 when Richard D’Oyly Carte, an impresario, commissioned them to write a one-act opera (Trial by Jury). It was an instant success and led to them composing eleven other works before their split in 1890. 

D’Oyly Carte also formed the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company and built the Savoy Theatre where the Gilbert and Sullivan operas were performed. The D’Olyly Carte Opera Company is probably still the most famous group to sing these operas. In Minneapolis we are fortunate to have The Gilbert & Sullivan Very Light Opera Company who will again be performing live in the spring of 2022. We have seen many of their performances in years past and enjoyed them greatly.

I love all the Gilbert & Sullivan operas, but forced to choose a favorite, I’d have to pick The Pirates of Penzance. Years – and years and years – ago our Junior High School music class mounted a staging of it and I got to be one of the major general's daughters (otherwise known as the women’s chorus). Incredibly fun. 

For a sample selection, I have chosen “I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major General” from the Pirates. As is sometimes done in G&S operas, a few lyrics might be changed to include satire of the day, hence the reference in this clip to Trivial Pursuit a hundred years before it was conceived. Enjoy!

Ascension and Pentecost with Christina Rossetti

Christina Rossetti, whom we met on this blog back in January, was a devout Christian and used her substantial talent to praise God with her poetry. She wrote poems for almost every church holiday or season. Since last Thursday was Ascension Day and next Sunday is Pentecost (or Whit Sunday as it was called back in the day) we’ll look at her poems for these days.

Ascension Day

“A Cloud received Him out of their sight.”

When Christ went up to Heaven the Apostles stayed
Gazing at Heaven with souls and wills on fire,
Their hearts on flight along the track He made,
Winged by desire.

Their silence spake: “Lord, why not follow Thee?
Home is not home without Thy Blessed Face,
Life is not life. Remember, Lord, and see,
Look back, embrace.

“Earth is one desert waste of banishment,
Life is one long-drawn anguish of decay.
Where Thou wert wont to go we also went:
Why not today?”

Nevertheless a cloud cut off their gaze:
They tarry to build up Jerusalem,
Watching for Him, while thro’ the appointed days
He watches them.

They do His Will, and doing it rejoice,
Patiently glad to spend and to be spent:
Still He speaks to them, still they hear His Voice
And are content.

For as a cloud received Him from their sight,
So with a cloud will He return ere long:
Therefore they stand on guard by day, by night,
Strenuous and strong.

They do, they dare, they beyond seven times seven
Forgive, they cry God’s mighty word aloud:
Yet sometimes haply lift tired eyes to Heaven–
“Is that His cloud?”

Whitsun Day

“When the Day of Pentecost was fully come.”

 

At sound as of rushing wind, and sight as of fire,

Lo! flesh and blood made spirit and fiery flame,

Ambassadors in Christ’s and the Father’s Name,

To woo back a world’s desire.

 

These men chose death for their life and shame for their boast,

For fear courage, for doubt intuition of faith,

Chose love that is strong as death and stronger than death

In the power of the Holy Ghost.

 

American Popular Song 2

In the universe of American Popular Song two of the brightest stars are the brothers Gershwin: George (music) and Ira (lyrics). With a string of musical shows and dozens of hit songs, the Gershwins were the toast of Broadway from their first show in 1924 until George’s untimely death in 1937. Ira went on to write with other composers such as Jerome Kern, Kurt Weill, and Harold Arlen. 

Ira’s poetic talent was among the best. He used clever rhymes such as Pollyannas and bananas and the marriage “knot” that was “not for me.” He easily was able to use an internal rhyming scheme – “who tell you Fate supplies a mate.” His sweet lyrics to “But Not for Me” belie the sadness of lost love, the “clouds of gray” of a “Russian play.” The song is from the 1930 show Girl Crazy and was introduced by Ginger Rogers.

Most of the popular songs begin with a verse and move into one or two choruses. Often singers would begin with the chorus and use the verse before the second (or reprise of the first) chorus. That is the format Frank Sinatra uses in his version of “But Not for Me.”

But Not for Me

(Verse)

Old man sunshine, listen, you

Don’t you tell me dreams come true

Just try it, and I’ll start a riot

 

Beatrice Fairfax, don’t you dare

Ever tell me she will care

I’m certain, it’s the final curtain

 

I never wanna hear

From any cheerful Pollyannas

Who tell you Fate supplies a mate

It’s all bananas

 

(Chorus)

They’re writing songs of love

But not for me

A lucky star’s above

But not for me

 

With love to lead the way

I found more clouds of gray

Than any Russian play

Could guarantee

 

I was a fool to fall

And get that way

Hi-ho, alas! And lack-a-day

 

Although I can’t dismiss

The memory of her kiss

I guess she’s not for me

 

It all began so well

But what an end

This is the time

A fella needs a friend

 

When every happy plot

Ends with a marriage knot

But there’s no knot for me.

O Pioneers!

This year our book club read My Antonia (1918) by Willa Cather (to replace a book we did not want to read) and last year we read The Song of the Lark (1915) So, when I found O Pioneers! (1913) at a Goodwill store a couple of weeks ago, I decided to finish off this trilogy of novels.

The title comes from a Walt Whitman poem “Pioneers, O Pioneers!.” The poem praises the youth and strength and vigor of the people who came to the prairie to settle and work the land, and that’s what Cather’s stories of the hardy European immigrants who made new lives for themselves in Nebraska did. Life was hard in the 1870s mid-West. Settlers built themselves sod huts to live in, worked from sunrise to sunset at manual labor to plow the land, and endured unbearable heat in the summer and cold in the winter. They had to be tougher than whatever the land threw at them just to survive, much less thrive. (Good thing they were stronger than the whiny, entitled, fearful people of today.)

Of the three books, The Song of the Lark is the outlier.  Thea Kronborg leaves her home in Colorado to become an opera singer while Antonia Shimerda and Alexandra Bergson struggle with the land to build lives for themselves and the generations that will follow them. The thing that the three of them have in common is the will to fight for what they want and to do what they need to do to achieve their goals, no matter how hard it is and how much it takes out of them.

My least favorite heroine is Thea Kronborg, not because she left her home, but because she seems to be so self-absorbed that she easily overlooks the family and friends that sacrificed so much to help her realize her dreams. Antonia works hard to support her parents and siblings and then her own large family. After her father dies, Alexandra puts her head for business to work to make the family farm bigger by buying more and more land, providing for her brothers who did the heavy labor but never would have been able to accumulate the wealth that Alexandra did. The land is in the blood and sweat, the makeup, of these two women and they symbolize all the people whose strength and determination built this country. Getting through a mid-West winter is hard enough with all the comforts we have now. I can’t imagine what it was like for these pioneers and I salute them.

Jeremiah

Poor Jeremiah. He had the unenviable task of being the “prophet of doom” trying to get a stiff-necked, hard-hearted people to repent and avoid the consequences of their sins – the destruction of Jerusalem and being hauled off into exile in Babylon. They didn’t much like his prophecy of gloom and treated him poorly for it. Being a God-fearing man from a line of priests, he had no other choice but to do what God told him to do. 

The words of God are harsh, but the people need to hear them. And here is what God told Jeremiah to tell them (16:10-13):

“And when you tell this people all these words, and they say to you ‘Why has the Lord pronounced all this great evil against us? What is our iniquity? What is the sin that we have committed against the Lord our God?’ then you shall say to them: ‘Because your fathers have forsaken me, says the Lord, and have gone after other gods and have served and worshiped them, and have forsaken me and have not kept my law, and because you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, every one of you follows his stubborn evil will, refusing to listen to me; therefore I will hurl you out of this land into a land which neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.’

Whew! Losing God’s favor, how terrible must that be. And it isn’t just the people in general. He has some specific nits to pick with the religious leaders (23:1-4):

“Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” says the Lord. Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning shepherds who care for my people: “You have scattered my flock, and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for your evil doings, says the Lord. Then I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and shall be fruitful and multiply. I will set shepherds over them who will care for them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing, says the Lord.

Historically, we are reading about the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of the people and their enslavement by Nebuchadnezzar. But, as we know, many things that happened in the Old Testament were a foreshadowing of things that happened later. Can we say that we are better than the Israelites, more righteous? Let’s think about some of the evils that are being perpetrated right now. And what about some of the shepherds who are leading us. Are they all leading us in the true paths of righteousness or are some of them leading us astray?

Perhaps now would be a good time to make Jeremiah our friend and heed his advice. 

Happy Birthday Brahms and Tchaikovsky

Today we celebrate the birthday of not one, but two, famous composers: Johannes Brahms and Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Born seven years apart, Brahms in 1833 and Tchaikovsky in 1840, they were responsible for some of the most beautiful and famous music of the Romantic era.

Brahms was born in Heide in Germany but is more closely associated with Vienna where he moved in the early 1860s. His mother died in 1865 and he began composing his tribute to her, Ein deutsches Requiem (A German Requiem), a gorgeous piece of choral music that every choir wants to sing. During this time he also wrote his first set of Hungarian dances, the Liebeslieder Waltzes, and the Alto Rhapsody. In 1876 he published the first of his four symphonies. His output included symphonies, vocal music, concerti for various instruments, especially piano, as well as much chamber music. The conductor Hans von Bulow included Brahms as one of his favorite composers along with Bach and Beethoven, hence, the three Bs. Brahms died in 1897 at age 63.

I’ve chosen a recording of the Hungarian Dance No. 5. You’ll be familiar with this if you’ve ever seen the cartoon “Pigs in a Polka” or are an Allan Sherman fan.

Tchaikovsky was a music prodigy, even though his parents decided to send him to be schooled as a civil servant. At the time there was not really formal education or careers available for professional musicians in Russia. However, by the time he was twenty he was able to attend the newly opened St Petersburg Conservatory fostered by the Russian Musical Society. After graduation he became Professor of Music Theory at the Moscow Conservatory, which would soon open.

His first accepted masterpiece was the overture-fantasy Romeo and Juliet. He also began writing the first of his six symphonies. As the years went by, Tchaikovsky’s music became more and more popular, leaving us with orchestral pieces such as 1812 Overture, The Nutcracker and Swan Lake ballets, and a number of operas, my favorite being Eugene Onegin.

For the musical selection I’ve chosen the last movement of my favorite symphony, the 4th. Should you find that you’ve run out of coffee some morning, try this.

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

It seems as though all the books I’ve been reading lately are about people who have been in dire straits, who have faced wicked and horrible circumstances: Heart of Darkness, The Hiding Place, Robinson Crusoe. And now comes the direst, most horrible of them all: One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

Ivan Denisovich is a prisoner in the Siberian labor camps of the Stalin era. His crime? Being captured by the Germans in WWII and living. Of course, he must be a spy and therefore he must be shot if he doesn’t confess or confess and be sentenced to a Siberian prison at hard labor for ten years. He chooses the latter. To say that the conditions are terrible would be like saying… well, there really isn’t anything to compare it to. How any human being can survive the cold (-40 at night and possibly 0 during the day), the lack of food, the lack of adequate clothing, the lack of proper living quarters, the lack of… everything. 

The story covers literally one day in Ivan Denisovich’s life in the eighth year of his sentence. He doesn’t dare think about having only two years to go. They could easily tack on another ten years for the smallest infraction of the rules. If he does get out, he would probably be exiled and never be able to see his family again. No, it’s best not to think about anything at all except getting through the next hour, the next minute. The prisoners neither hope nor despair. They just survive the best that they can.

Whereas Corrie ten Boom and Robinson Crusoe have God to lean on and have His grace to carry on, the prisoners, or zeks, have nothing but their wits and the alliances they form with people who can provide in some way for them. The prisoner Alyosha is a Christian and professes some of the same views that Betsie ten Boom does about being thankful for any circumstance. He is thankful for being in prison because there he can concentrate on his soul instead of daily cares. He quotes Saint Paul stating that he’d rather be bound or even die for the sake of Jesus Christ. Most of the others don’t see it that way. It is a difficult path but the end of life in this world is death. Isn’t it better to lay up your treasure in Heaven?

Now, I’m not saying that being in prison anywhere is a good thing and what Stalin and the Soviets did to their own people is abominable. But Ivan Denisovich tries to hang on to his humanity by taking pride in the work that he is assigned, in this case, building a concrete wall. He measures and plans, is creative in the way he puts all the materials together, works diligently, and makes sure the others working with him are doing a good job too. At the end of this day in his life he has some satisfaction in his efforts and is grateful that he didn’t end up in the cells today. Tomorrow, who knows? 

In these books there are characters who we can hold up as heroes, as role models. They rely on the strength of God to see them through. In this time we can easily feel that we are in prison, are put upon and deprived of our freedom. In reality it is no where as bad as the trials these characters faced, but it can feel that way. Who do we turn to when we can’t go on, when another step seems impossible? Where is our treasure?

Shakespeare's Sonnets: VII

Diverting somewhat from the theme of having children to carry on, Shakespeare here likens youth and old age to the rising and setting of the sun. The rising sun climbs through the sky (youth) until it reaches the zenith and then begins to fade until it dips below the horizon (old age). At the end, though, the poet reiterates that the sun or the youth will be forgotten if there aren’t progeny. 

Sonnet VII

Lo! in the orient when the gracious light

Lifts up his burning head, each under eye

Doth homage to his new-appearing sight,

Serving with looks his sacred majesty;

And having climbed the steep-up heavenly hill,

Resembling strong youth in his middle age,

Yet mortal looks adore his beauty still,

Attending on his golden pilgrimage:

But when from highmost pitch, with weary car,

Like feeble age, he reeleth from the day,

The eyes, ‘fore duteous, now converted are

From his low tract, and look another way:

                So thou, thyself outgoing in thy noon

                Unlooked on diest unless thou get a son.