For St. Patrick’s Day, here is a photo from my trip to Ireland last year: it’s Maureen O’Hara’s house on Bantry Bay! (She doesn’t live there now, obviously, as she is dead.) FYI, The Quiet Man is on TCM tonight – you are a fool if you don’t watch it (or at least tape it to watch it later). And if you don’t get TCM and/or haven’t seen The Quiet Man, purchase/rent the film, pronto.
Category Archives: Blog
Another for Nat King Cole: 100
Nat King Cole: 100
I Shall But Love Thee Better After Death
And when thou hast learned to spell my name correctly! This is a photograph I took in Florence, Italy, recently, and it is an “Elizabeth Barrett Browning lived here” plaque, with some poetic writing about her-heart-of-a-woman, et cetera. That said, it spells her second name incorrectly – without a double T. Doppia T, Italians!
What I love about it, as a student of the Italian language, is the use of the passato remoto and the imperfect. I took a translation course in Italy in February and it was really hard to get the hang of when to use those two together.
More on Ilhan Omar
It’s really not hard to get to the bottom of this: When you say that Jews have magical hypnotic powers to control other people, you’re an anti-Semite. When you say Jews control other people through money, you’re an anti-Semite. When you say Jews have conspired to force you to apologize for saying anti-Semitic things, you’re an anti-Semite. Ilhan Omar is an anti-Semite.
Yeah, she is. As I have written before on this site, I am related to anti-Semites and watching the Democrats twist and turn to avoid calling a bigot a bigot reminds me so much of all of the apologists in my family. Very sad. Yet another area where I miss my oldest brother, who was always clear and true on these matters.
George Harrison
George Harrison’s birthday – what would have been his 76th – was last week (February 25th). I am of the view, perhaps an unpopular one, that he was the best Beatle. (Another of my unpopular views is that the Monkees were better than the Beatles – and, of course, dear Peter Tork passed in February, bless him.) At the very least, I would say that “All Things Must Pass” is better than everything John Lennon and Paul McCartney did as solo acts combined. In tribute, here is a video of “What is Life,” one of my go-to songs when I’m blue.
As Harrison never made a video for this song, his widow and son held a contest (after George’s death) for one to be made. This is what they selected and I find it wonderful. It is joyful with tinges of melancholy and confusion, as is the song. Hats off to the dancers!
Night Witches
How has this not been made into a movie yet? And if it has, please send me a note and let me know.
Disgrace
Ilhan Omar’s behaviour in this clip (as with her many anti-Semitic tweets) is a disgrace. She is nasty, bullying and stupid, and displays an extraordinary lack of knowledge about history and American foreign affairs. And she is happily oblivious to her ignorance! In fact, she seems rather confident. (What is really sad about her sophomoric world view is how many relatives of mine share it, along with the same confidence – one reason I avoid numerous family events.) I think it is fair to ask of people who hate the West and Western values — like Omar and like said relatives of mine — “why on earth do you live here?”
Elliott Abrams here shows far more grace than Omar deserves.
The Anti-Semitism of the Left
And these days, so much of it is from the left. Bret Stephens, as usual, completely correct.
A few facts ought at least to stir the thinking of those who subscribe to the progressive narrative. Israel’s enemies were committed to its destruction long before it occupied a single inch of Gaza or the West Bank. In proportion to its size, Israel has voluntarily relinquished more territory taken in war than any state in the world. Israeli prime ministers offered a Palestinian state in 2000 and 2008; they were refused both times. The government of Ariel Sharon removed every Israeli settlement and soldier from the Gaza Strip in 2005. The result of Israel’s withdrawal allowed Hamas to seize power two years later and spark three wars, causing ordinary Israelis to think twice about the wisdom of duplicating the experience in the West Bank. Nearly 1,300 Israeli civilians have been killed in Palestinian terrorist attacks in this century: That’s the proportional equivalent of about 16 Sept. 11’s in the United States.
Also: If the Jewish state is really so villainous, why doesn’t it behave more like Syria’s Bashar al-Assad or Russia’s Vladimir Putin — both of whom, curiously, continue to have prominent sympathizers and apologists on the anti-Israel left?
Michel Legrand, RIP
Such a gift Michel Legrand had – hard to choose a favourite from his repertoire, but this song never fails to make me cry (although I do remember it being mocked on The Carol Burnett Show!). Haunting in French or English. It was used recently in The Trip to Spain.