Brother Heinrick's Christmas

In Dulci Jubilo is attributed to a Dominican Abbot of the fourteenth century, Heinrick Suso. The fable suggests that one night the Abbot heard the angels singing it as he was stabling his donkey Sigismund.

In 1985 John Rutter used the fable to write a narration to accompany the music he wrote (auto play, sorry) based on Brother Heinrick's Christmas.  

In the 1990's Jurgen Gothe, then proprietor of the best radio show in the world: Disc Drive*, made it an Advent tradition in our house. I'm sure many others in Cascadia did the same. When Canada's Tories became the Reee-foorm party, they set their sights on the destruction of the CBC Stereo. As they succeeded in dumbing down everything, I found a copy of Three Fables by John Rutter to add to our collection to continue the tradition.

Some when in this process the idea came to make a mobile illustrative of the tale

Diana created the 'sillies' (as she calls them) over a couple of  years and finally I set up the mobile.

Enter the villain of the piece:

This is Jinx who, when we were all out shopping, somehow acquired one of the angels from the top of the mobile without bringing the mobile down! That is a standing leap of about 8 feet!

Maybe next year we will get Brother Heinrick back in place.
--ml
*CBC Stereo, Vancouver B.C. Canada

Misfiled Vagueries

About this time of year I embark on all the filing I might have done throughout the past year if I had half the brains god gave a crab apple. Among the bills and legal notices I found the following this year:

The tragedy of American medicine is that money buried the ugly fact before it arranged an opportunity to kill the beautiful hypothesis.

And:

As my twin lodestones, Twain and Marquis, might advise, it is a good to write one's own obituary to ensure the salient points are included. Leave the dust mote matter to the depiction of the cub reporter and junior reporter. the process will build their moral fibre by habituating them to their depravity their life offers.

--ml

Quandary #326

As beauty resides in the beholder's eye, so logic belongs to whoever defines its terms.
Your reasons are not mine.
Hence the difficulty of persuading by "reasoned argument."
Logic is a game of mathematics. Follow its rules and there is no escape. The conclusion arises from the premise.
Ventilate the game with reality -- which includes such messy things as passion -- and all changes. Surprising information appears and certainty is shaken beyond its foundation.
Not to worry -- it is all argy-bargy in the end.
--ml

So Far As

Stars drew our eyes until we saw patterns palpable to all.

Stars so far as we could see until we learned to see farther.

Universes! They, too, took form and pattern, so far as we could see.

Now the cosmos awaits our puny wit to find plurality so far as we can see.

So near can we see, we split neutron from proton with a mighty flash and bang

To announce, We Master!, with lots of people killed and stuff blown up,

Then we looked again and, so near as we can see, there's finer yet to see.

Some claim, so near can they see, the scale changes yet again. Many times.

Look near or far the pattern repeats: A fractal universe with no ends.

The creation ever iterates; we part of it and it all of us.

The old man hums a tune into his brass spittoon

Cocks an eye at the old moon and allows a point or two for the metaphor.

But shakes his head at my hopes of passing. Too, too many missed chances,

too few noble deeds, so little simple honesty, so near and far as he has seen.

--ml

"Talking about the Poor"

Erik Loomis  is right to question a speakers position: Pro? Con? In? Out? Pay Me? Bless me? or round about?

Brecht said: "First feed the face and then talk right and wrong!"

One's moral worth is best measured after dinner and the Doctor's bill is paid; Not as a ticket of admission to the hall.
--ml

Alas Alack a Day! Why Was I Not Invited to the Wake?

Digby posts a quote which, despite her usually persuasive prose, and without the least fault on her part, induces me to wander off her point to my own pointless weepy stuff for the English language:

Peter Ludlow, a professor of philosophy at Northwestern and a fan of Mr. Brown’s work, wrote in The Huffington Post that, “Project PM under Brown’s leadership began to slowly untangle the web of connections between the U.S. government, corporations, lobbyists and a shadowy group of private military and infosecurity (sic) consultants.”

When did among die?

Between thee and me
but
Among thee and me and the old bailey.

Yet here is this putative academic, with a presumable pile higher and deeper, quoted in a fileting of the language worthy of Macheath.

This is not the first time I noticed this atrocity. The first half hundred that passed barely stirred my stupor. This year's wine being altogether thinner did make it grate more thoroughly of late. Until this -- if only to belie the death of blogs -- results.
Remember, please! Connect two only with between. Conjoin all and sundry more with among!
--ml

An Ox and a Moron?

Halfway through the morning coffee I came across Duncan's post on the grifter society. That an arts administrator might claim a salary so far in excess of the annual budget of the small arts groups I can lay any claim to once administering boggles.

But a further thought meditated on the title Chief Executive Officer. Somewhere late in the sixties this locution became trendy, and then de riguere, in place of the title 'President'. It was part of the moves that took top management compensation into the stratosphere. It appears to be an interesting feint.

In the way of things corporate power is nominally wielded by a Board of Directors who delegate their powers to the President. The President runs the operation, with the consent of the board. The military analogue is a Captain of a ship. Said 'Captain' [a title, not necessarily a rank] may report to an Admiral, but still runs the ship.
Assisting him or her is a second in command titled The Executive Officer. Every officer aboard may execute orders, indeed, that is their function, but only one is 'The Executive Officer'.  To call him a 'Chief Executive Officer would be an offense even to the Navy's love of verbal redundance. To call the Captain a Chief Executive Officer would offer a heinous demotion insulting to military honor or gloire or some such.
So, in an epic Uriah Heap move, our quondam president offers to titularly demote himself to Chief Executive Officer for a slight increase in compensation by a power of ten, or so. And, with complete humbleness would be delighted to remove the onerous duties of Chairman of the Board from the Board's weary care including adding to their compensation and a promise to vote likewise for each Director at their own company. All CEOs together!
--ml

POV

Today's Guardian has an article about job interviewer's trick questions and riddles to winnow applicants.

Try this one. You're locked in a pitch-black, empty room with bare walls and no electric lights. You've got a book of matches, a box of tacks and a candle. How would you attach the candle to the wall for a light?
The best answer: empty the box of tacks. Take the box top, turn it upside down and tack it to the wall. The box top projects out like a little drawer. Then put a tack to attach the candle to the box's bottom. The tack's point, projecting through the box bottom, serves as a pricket. Finally, slide the box bottom into the box top on the wall. The nested top and bottom will be sturdier than either alone, and safely support the weight of the candle.
.

So that works.

If you are used to tacks distributed in full telescope boxes. (that's the kind where the bottom has sides that fit inside the sides of the top.)

In my observation, tack makers stopped using that style decades ago. The boxes cost too much and slowed processing which diminished productivity.

Reverse tuck boxes had a go. (That's the kind that is one piece and the top flap tucks into the side opposite the one it is integral to.)

These were disparaged when the blister pack appeared.

These permitted small quantity packaging in an easily handled form. Everybody appeared to win.
The customer is sold on the convenience; she can see the product, and buy as few as she needs. There is little excess to store.The blister pack's total retail cost is less than the box price.
The seller has an attractive low maintenance display which saves his clerks' time because customers find the options they desire on their own. The cards the blisters were on, make the product bulky enough to discourage shoplifting while they provide a good platform for price tags and, later, bar codes.
The maker can inflate the price per unit outrageously. The per pound price of a 100 count box might be $10 at retail. When repackaged in tens, those same fastenings might sell for $1.98 each. That makes $19.98 per hundred. The maker and seller  more than double their margins. The customer "saves" $8.00.

Neither blister packs nor reverse tuck boxes would be suitable to support the candle as the full telescopic box does. Given the difficulty I had finding the image of the telescopic box, I guess it would not be very familiar to today's job applicants.

The interviewer might think that these children just don't know as much as she did at their age. That would prove that the labor force has declined in quality?

Perhaps that is the real point?
--ml

Bela Lugosi Slurps Again

The fortnight of seasonal tricks and treats quickly, but stealthily, approaches.
To aid your mayhem quest and spread the cheerful dread I offer this virtual haunted house tour through the cobwebby passages of Dum Luks.
Bela Lugosi fans look here for the tale direct and here for the flourishes and details of incipient verisimilitude which warm the cockles while chilling the spine.
Muse on all the likely comers.
When the hobgobblins and haints depart it will be timely to make our penitient orisions with this carefree ditty.
Yet one dry squib remains to delight as our guide turns on his peg leg to ask a penny for the guy.
As the children's radio show host said: That ought to keep the little bastards. Alas the mic was still on and so that was his last show. Fear not. This omnibus score card is neither final nor farewell.
--ml

A Dirty Secret

What price a turn of phrase?

Dailykos posts a diary recommending some counter actions to ameliorate the unhappiness of local merchants over toilet use at the Wall Street demos: OWS. It concludes with the above photo of a mural depicting a common cliche.
Thing is, carpets are dirt traps. Dirt arriving on top from boot soles, shedding animals, plants and so forth, wend their way through the warp and weft of the carpet to the floor where continued traffic turns it into an abrasive. I suspect that many a tweeny has been unjustly accused of sweeping it under the carpet when nothing more than normal activity by the occupants of the room caused the pile. No justice for the lower 99%.
--ml

The Cat Will File You Now

--ml

Consult Consultants Consulting

Earle: "The job of a consultant is to restate the client's question in such a way that the problem states its solution."

Problem:
At present we have a depressed economy with too little demand.
Unemployment is unconscionably high.
Major corporations are awash in cash.
Income inequality is at the highest level in generations.
Manufacturing has moved offshore.
Research is moribund.
Our greatest innovations are fraudulent financial instruments.
Infrastructure -- roads, bridges electric grids, water supplies and sewage systems, et. al. -- are antiquated and crumbling.

So: Government should tax the rich to get money to build infrastructure, providing demand to employ people, increase investment in manufacturing, spur innovation by increasing research, and regulate the banks to make them the servants of capitalism they are meant to be rather than the piratical bosses they claim to be now.

Plutocrats own the government.

Geez! It was working so well until that last line!

So maybe the real solution is to get new elected officials -- ones who serve the public rather than the plutocrats?
--ml

Curiouser and Curioser

Saw this ad on my morning Krugman:

What caught my attention was the graphic. Circles with lines taking various controlled paths. In three colors. Red. Blue. Yellow.
Reminds me of ...
oh, yeah. A stylized color offset press.
Just the thing to bring the digital world to mind.
--ml

Marketing Fail

My bank statement -- always a fantasy exercise -- is even more over the top due to an ad for a visa card. The headline is "Carpe Savem Translation: Seize the Savings!"
As it happens, Latin is one of several languages that Dum Luks can be misunderstandable in. So I seized my ancient Collins Gem (Carpe liber) and found this:
Save is servāre. Save up is reservāre. No conjugation leads to savem which sounds like it might be very vaguely Piute or even more distantly Shoshone. The closest to a root for savem I found in a quick look is: Sāvior "to kiss".

So it might read "Seize the kiss!"
But a freer rendering might be: "Getcha Redhot Kiss Off!"
--ml

Fatalism is Lazy

Paul Krugman complains about the fatalism which pervades the Masters of the Sands of Policies Box.
I would add that there is also an element of laziness which prevents a more active approach.
Much of the work that needs doing is boring, stupid and dumb stuff. Like rebuilding old bridges, replacing sewer lines, upgrading water works or remaking the various highways for power, data, goods and people into more efficient 21st century models. How about insulating houses for an exciting job? How about cleaning up urban streams for rugged outdoor activity.
Yeah. Right. Not sexy like writing up a derivative trading algorithm to make a ton of money for the Masters of the Sands of Policies Box.
We've ignored maintenance for two generations too long. It isn't romantic work. It is hard back breaking labor. You have to wear work clothes to do it, not fashionable whatevers from Armani.  So the Masters of the Sands of Policies Box have ignored it. They kept the money to pay for maintenance in their own pockets. With more than five applicants chasing every job opening I bet it's easy to find workers willing to do the jobs. I don't think there are too many non-tea party mayors who would refuse the offer. All that lacks is a bit of can do from the Masters of the Sands of Policies Box instead of the fatalism we get.
The lazy fatalism that won't sully its hands with anything less filthy than money.
--ml

Solidarity!

From the IWW via Oly Mike at the Left Coaster:

That's more like it.
And if you feel the need for an apposite stem winder, see Tommy Douglas clips at You Tube. His Mouseland parable is particularly appropriate for this poster. Funny, if you elect white cats in preference to black cats, they still write very good laws -- for cats. The Us needs us mice to gather and elect mice to govern. Only then will we have a chance to create a progressive society where all care for all, and each can be their best.
--ml

Just a Thought ...

This is my preferred campaign:

The progressive who's policy is:

”... It's simple. Its effective. Its doable. Right Now.”

and makes it so, wins.

Think: "Not Insurance reform -- but medicare for all."
or "This year the Bush tax cuts expire. Today I introduce the Obama tax reform -- one which lowers taxes on 90% of Americans while raising the revenue we need to defend, to leran, to repair and to grow."
or: "To survive, this great nation must be as good as its word. So today I have asked Congress to investigate all questionable actions of the previous administration to assure all of us, the American People and the people of the world, that in America we do not break our oath. And if any do so in our name, they meet prompt, swift, but above all, fair justice."

A different world? Maybe. But one that invites.

Aren't you glad I don't run the zoo?

--ml

Solstice Meditation

DaveJ at Open Left poses a discussion topic:

What are some things that a real, honest-to-goodness "far left" would be agitating for, and why isn't anyone doing just that?
Here's a start:

• Nationalize the oil companies.
• Guaranteed job or income for everyone, put to work on infrastructure investment projects, alternative energy projects, retrofitting buildings to be energy efficient, etc.
• Cradle-to-grave Medicare-For-All.
• Child care for all.
• Eldercare for all.
• 6 week paid vacation for everyone.
• Triple Social Security's payments, lower retirement age to 55.
• Worker representatives on Boards of Directors.
• Limits to the how much of larger companies can be owned by a person or entity.
• When companies reach a certain size they become public entities. (Because they have so much effect on everything.)
• Companies responsible for externalized cost payback.
• A person whose job is replaced by technology receives for life a share of the savings.
• Bring back 90% top tax rates.  (OK I have been agitating for that one.)
• Very very high estate taxes on very large estates.  Maybe up to 99% on estates over $1 billion.
• Freedom from distraction.  We have a right to our own attention, free from advertising and commercialization.  The right to public spaces free from commercialization.

How many of these are even "far left" ideas? I'd agree with most of these.  Basically I'm describing Europe here, not Maoist China.  

I like most of these ideas. They seem somewhat left of center in the real world. Too bad I'm stuck in this one where we're taught to consider these ideas a far radical fantasy of socialism bent so far left its fascism, or something.
Some things I'd add:

• A six hour work day in a four day work week at twice the current pay.
• Political advertising provided free by communications media companies as a cost of their license to use our public airwaves.
• Nationalization of all grids: telephony, power, rails etc. with a mandate to improve and maintain the best technology.

These dreams do not mark me as barmy. I have other signifiers for that. And so does everybody else. But dreams they are. That is my current point: As a Free society dedicated to freedom, equality, and technological progress we must provide a firm foundation to every member of our society. FDR called it the Four Freedoms. Truman called it the Fair Deal. JFK called it the New Frontier. LBJ called it The Great Society. But the point is for society to provide what is necessary to every member of our community so that they are able to contribute their best to our culture.
Now the American dream is a perversion of our national goals. We work harder to maintain less than our parents -- oh so briefly -- had in the fifties and sixties. Our children must accept even less because the surplus we make goes to the 2%.
The American dream requires Freedom. Who is free who is a paycheck away from foreclosure? Freedom begins when one's need for food and shelter are satisfied.  Freedom demands the best infrastructure to furnish basic needs with minimal effort; To provide the tools to make what mind can imagine. Freedom requires a well stocked and cultivated mind in a healthy body.
The American dream requires Equality. Equality does not happen when 2% of the people inherit more than 50% of our assets. It requires free education for all to the highest level they can achieve because that way we all can benefit from their best efforts.

The party that makes policies of these ideals is worthy of votes by the 98%. Any party whose policies increase the 2% primarily -- not so much.
--ml
UPDATE: 12/22/2010 I am reliably informed by The Kid^tm, in the full glow of her newly minted A.B.Hist., that I blew it. (Did not use the in-house fact checker. Am lower than -- Ah-ah! be civil.) Indeed the synapse slipped and are now corrected above. Mr. Truman offered us the Fair Deal. It was the first President Roosevelt who demanded the Square Deal. As the French probably don't say: Chagrin c'est moi.
--ml

Sunday Cats

Bruiser James, aka Diamond Jim, and Smedley Q. Clangweedle await.
Not sure what. Too early for a smackerel of gnosh. The door is too far to be their concern. Still they wait. For something.
--ml

Shaun Limns the Other Horn

Upper Left: They've warned us…
... and he flourishes forth the other horn of the dilemma as he lists the first ten points of the Tea Party Agenda which the GOP will gladly pursue. Read it and reap that any one could be so blind.
Then read Goldy's piece on dog poop bags to get the reason.

The problem is that in a real world we only consider half the possible solutions to our problems. We need more parties. We need them now.
--ml