The New Dating Game is something I found via The Spearhead, reading something like Modern Game History 101. There's also some pretty handy speculations on the net results of feminism. 12 pages of breezy reading from The Weekly Standard.

1 4 v i d e o p a i n t i n g s by b r i a n e n o
p a r t o n e
m u s i c : " t h u r s d a y a f t e r n o o n "
v i e w f u l l s c r e e n f o r f u l l e f f e c t

Splitting and quartering wood is not something I'm accustomed to here, deep in Dixie where the weather rarely necessitates such activities. But the world is cold these days, even where I live. Of course, living in an old house without updated central heating doesn't help matters...but I don't usually mind the cold until we see the sort of temperatures we have lately. So, I split and sort the wood for a fireplace. I have to say that I enjoyed the work thoroughly, even on a cold night under electric lighting.

This evening I drank a good deal of beer, not the sort of thing one of good sense would do before handling an axe, but I swear on anything and with reliable witnesses I hit and split kindling better than before I drank.

I guess there's something to be said about a man who can handle his alcohol. Happy New Year to all who deserve it.

Real wisdom, being critical and rooted in empiricism, is the antithesis of intellectualism. Intellectualism, more often than not, is mere sophistry.

I am sure the above has been expressed far more eloquently by many others, but I nonetheless felt the need to express something profound in my own words for the new year. Appearances are everything.

Happy new year.

"The world is a hotel
where humanity is guest
They come and they go
They come and they go..."

Avedis Aharonian

An Armenian fellow I met recently referred to the above as his favorite poem, and to Aharonian as his favorite poet. If one does the research on Aheronian, his work, and, as importantly, his times, context is found wherein the words become a personal eulogy of sorts.

He said to me "I know you that you sit and study poetry, I love this. I only know by heart one poem, and maybe you will like it." He wrote the words on a napkin at the dinner table, his tanned and wrinkled hands still far younger than his age. He handed me the napkin and smiled.

As I looked at his large, sad eyes, I remembered the stories his niece heard of 1915. Her grandmother made the long walk, along with a husband and a few children who never made it. One died of starvation, another was taken by the Turks. Years after, word came to her that the daughter grew up to believe she was Turkish. "It was okay, at least she lived."

Some were not so lucky. Stories were told to her by others who walked, of bets made on pregnant women by soldiers. Money on boy, money on girl, open the stomach to find out and settle the bet. This man's mother saw an Armenian baby tossed into the air by one soldier and bayoneted by his companion, in a sort of random game.

"What would I tell my daughter? That the people she grew up to love murdered those she came from? It is better for her to be happy." Years later she gave birth to a daughter who lived. She told this daughter: "Don't have a girl when you grow up, they bring you only sorrow". My friend's mother, like her mother before her, cursed the Turks through her dying day, and I really can't blame her.

We come and we go, indeed.

Pakistan and other countries are concerned over the defilement of Islam, and thus are pushing for a ban on religious blasphemy.

Go back to your history books and repeat after me...
Mohammed was a terrorist
Mohammed was a terrorist
Mohammed was a terrorist
Mohammed was a terrorist
Jesus was a terrorist
Mohammed was a terrorist...

SWINE-FLU SOUP RECIPE

Chances are good that some asshole, or a million assholes have already put out a special recipe for “swine-flu soup”, quite frankly- I don't care. This is my particular recipe, and it's damn good. Simple, too.

James' swine-flu Soup

(Bearing certain occult healing properties)

Ingredients:

32 to 48oz. Chicken broth (any brand)

1 large chicken breast

2 cups saurkraut (I recommend Vlassic)

5 cloves garlic

1 teaspoon finely ground black pepper

1 teaspoon coarsely ground italian seasoning

2 cups cooked brown rice

In a medium sized obsidian cooking vessel (or steel pot, if no obsidian is avail.), add the crushed and chopped garlic, all seasoning, and saurkraut to chicken broth and bring to a slow boil, making sure to include some of the pickling liquid with the saurkraut for flavor.

While the pot is heating, cut chicken breast into approx. one to one-and-a-half inch cubes. Once the soup comes to a slow boil, add the chicken, and cook for about five minutes, or until chicken becomes slightly firm, but not tough. DO NOT OVERCOOK CHICKEN, or it will ruin the freaking soup. There is an art to properly cooking chicken, a fine line between salmonella-risk and rubber bird meat. Tread carefully.

Once soup is properly cooked, add the cooked rice and let soup sit for a few minutes to allow rice to absorb in. You can vary the flavor by substituting a half-teaspoon of Chinese five-spice powder for the Italian seasoning. Enjoy.