Reader Tips

Reader Tips 23 Comments

Welcome to Late Night Radio. Tonight we feature Richard Thompson’s fine guitar playing, and, especially, his talent as a narrative songwriter, as he tells a long-ago tale of unrequited love. The song’s verses are short biographical vignettes of a moment in time when shifting cultural forces collided in the figure of two strong-willed but differing characters; this clearly-recalled detail floats a lyrical chorus wherein the narrator’s wistful sense of loss, whetted by those remembered circumstances, now soars in pure feeling far above them.
Here’s Shakespeare-headed English songwriter Richard Thompson performing Beeswing. (Lyrics here.)
The thread is open for your Reader Tips.

23 Replies to “Reader Tips”

  1. Lordy lordy, look who’s lordy:

    “In the late 1950s, three men who identified as the Son of God were forced to live together in a mental hospital. What happened?”

    Um, they all showed up in the comments thread at a blog? Nope – Al Gore had yet to invent the internet. Here’s what happened:

    “In the late 1950s, psychologist Milton Rokeach was gripped by an eccentric plan. He gathered three psychiatric patients, each with the delusion that they were Jesus Christ, to live together for two years in Ypsilanti State Hospital to see if their beliefs would change. The early meetings were stormy. ‘You oughta worship me, I’ll tell you that!’ one of the Christs yelled. ‘I will not worship you! You’re a creature! You better live your own life and wake up to the facts!’ another snapped back. ‘No two men are Jesus Christs. … I am the Good Lord!’ the third interjected, barely concealing his anger…”

    Bear in mind that this was back in the days before pseudonymous commenting…

  4. Excerpt from Richard Fernandez’s Memory and Survival:
    “In a society without traditions the ‘free riders’ may gain ascendancy and even suppress history to aid their increase. Gradually they may destroy a society’s capacity for mutual altruism and take it over for themselves. Yet even so their victory may be short-lived. Within their mutation lie the seeds of their own downfall. For “if the pathogen’s virulence kills the host and interferes with its own transmission to a new host, virulence will be selected against.” Eventually they kill the host and then themselves die.
    “It may take a while, but the demise eventually happens. And then the survivors gradually rediscover the benefits of thinking in terms larger than themselves and begin to act on that basis. And then the words, ‘truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit’ will become comprehensible again.”

  5. @EBD: snippet gleaned from that excellent article on the Three Christs –
    “…surely there can be no clearer demonstration that simple and constant contradiction offers no lasting remedy.”
    Never have I encountered a more succinct description of the leftist mindset.

  7. “A propos” of the Afghan detainee “controversy” (*I think*), Calgary West MP Rob Anders wrote on a banner to be sent to Kandahar that “When in doubt, pull the trigger – [signature]”.
    Thus, Calgary CTV has a poll that needs tweaking.

  8. Al & Tipper – she got as bored with him as the rest of us.
    Now she needs to share with the world the secret to getting rid of him. It would make her a fortune!

  9. GOLD.
    There’s an amusing piece at Lou Rockwell by Gary North beating up on WSJ hack Brett Arends on the subject of GOLD as a suitable component in an investment portfolio.
    I was startled to learn that there have been only TWO “gold standard libertarians” in Congress in the last century. Get this: Howard Buffet, Warren’s father, and, and, and … Ron Paul.
    Warren himself followed the Friedman line:
    “Gold gets dug out of the ground in Africa, or someplace,” he said. “Then we melt it down, dig another hole, bury it again and pay people to stand around guarding it. It has no utility. Anyone watching from Mars would be scratching their head.”
    What Warren didn’t and doesn’t understand is that GOLD had great utility in restraining politicans and preventing the wholesale monetary destruction being rained down upon us by government and central banks.
    While I’ve never been a gold bug, I now strongly believe we should all have 20%-30% of our financial assets in gold and gold stocks.

  10. The Los Angeles County Board voted 3-2 to boycott Arizona over its illegal immigration law.
    No word yet on whether the boycott will include the 25% of their electricity consumption they get from Arizona.

  11. Re: your CTV poll jwkozak91. I voted and it was 40% for Rob, 60% against.
    If I lived in Rob Ander’s riding I would volunteer for his team – and I would be proud to vote FOR him. Rob is a man who cares more about the lives of our soldiers than he cares about the ‘tender’ feelings of some fanatical terrorists who hate us and would be delighted to blow all of us to he double l and back. Thank-you for speaking for me, Mr. Anders.

  14. Thanks, EBD. ‘Loved Beeswing: ‘took me back to my own hippie days when I sang folk songs. What a great guitarist!
    Richard Thompson is a favourite of my sister’s. I can see why.

  15. In Gaza:
    >>> “Many pharmacies have been driven out of business by aid agencies.”
    >>> “Inside Gaza: blockade has brought the enclave’s economy to its knees”
    http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article7142146.ece
    …-
    “NGOs cite ‘political chill’ as federal funding sits in limbo”
    “Both Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff and NDP Leader Jack Layton expressed their support for the organization.”
    http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/NGOs+cite+political+chill+federal+funding+sits+limbo/3099585/story.html

  19. Al Gore’s Weather (AGW):
    Tipper point reached.
    It’s not fair; and, it’s her fault.
    …-
    “Global Cold Wave May Be Looming — This Time, the Science Is Good”
    “La Nina, a solar minimum, and a massive volcanic eruption make a threesome of cold weather events not seen for two hundred years.”
    “In a cosmically ironic twist of fate and timing, nature may be set to empirically freeze any and all anthropogenic global warming talk: a blast of Arctic cold may encase the earth in an icy grip not seen for 200 years.
    This is not alarmist fantasy or 2012 babble — several natural forces that are known to cause cooling are awakening simultaneously, raising speculation of a “perfect storm” of downward pressures on global temperature. These forces let loose one at a time can cause the Earth to cool and can bring about harsh winter conditions. If they all break free at once, the effects could be felt not just in the coming winter, but year-round, and for several years to come.”
    http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/global-cold-wave-may-be-looming-%E2%80%94-this-time-the-science-is-good/?singlepage=true

  21. Muslims killing Muslims.
    Islam is a cannibal.
    …-
    “Pakistan hospital stormed in deadly attack on mosque survivors
    Gunmen stormed a Pakistani hospital where doctors were treating the victims of an earlier suicide attack on Monday, killing at least six people in an attempt to free a militant being treated there.
    The assault came three days after two teams of Islamist extremists armed with guns, grenades and suicide vests killed more than 80 worshipers belonging to a minority Muslim sect.
    One of the captured militants and about 30 survivors of the Friday attack were being treated at Jinnah Hospital in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore.
    Witnesses said visitors, hospital staff and security guards were killed when at least three gunmen dressed in police uniforms opened fire shortly before midnight.
    (Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk”
    http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2526477/posts

  23. Always a pleasure to see the great Richard Thompson get some exposure. I saw him perform in Calgary a couple of years back. It was Sneak-A-Peek Thursday. (For non-Calgarians, this has nothing to do with visiting the French Maid, it’s a long-standing custom whereby the midway at the Stampede Grounds is opened on the Thursday evening before the Stampede begins.) Whether by design or delightful chance I do not know, but he chose to perform his wonderful midway ride song, “The Wall of Death”, the only time I’ve ever seen him do it. What a treat.

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