Why a democracy NEEDS literature, and why colleges need general education

"Paradise Lost seeks to create 'fit readers,' not just to preach to them.  The hope is that those who pick it up will, through reading it, be able, for example, to see how tyrants gain their power and, perhaps, next time, stand firm against tyranny.  Paradise Lost therefore both demands and creates readers who will be alert to all its complexities, able to appreciate its ironies, able to share its anger and its compassion." 

-- Anna Beer, Milton: Poet, Pamphleteer, and Patriot (347-348)

My Lives at The Covington Latin School (as student and teacher)

The Covington Latin School Student Council 1973-1974

The Class of 1977

Student Council Meeting (1984-1985?)

CLS Greek Day role as stand-up comedian, Henny Neanias (ancient Greek for "young man"), 1984

The greatest automatic hand-dryer EVER!

The Dyson Airblade...experienced firsthand at Marche Bonsecours, Montreal.

It works...and FAST!  I want one for home.

A Tres Ecumenical Evening in Montreal

Dinner at Chez Schwartz for smoked meat sandwiches followed by a trip to the Oratoire-St.-Joseph. 

Amen!

 (Pictures: M.C. Gigliotti)

International Incident #3: "The Mass is ended, now leave."

Attended a beautiful French mass at the gorgeous Notre-Dame Basilica of Montreal on Saturday evening, at the end of which there was a taped announcement in French and English, the gist of which was "thanks for coming, now please stop praying -- we've got a light and music show to prepare for!"
(Pictures: M.C. Gigliotti)

International Incident #2: What's Canadian for "Rubbernecking"?

TWICE on the trip from Niagara Falls to Montreal on Route 20 we suffered traffic delays (of 45 minutes and 30 minutes, respectively) simply because of accidents on the OTHER side of the highway.

I thought Canadians were supposed to be smarter than we!

(And, if the young lady at the concession stand at the Royal George Theatre in Niagara-on-the-Lake, where older daughter and I were attending the George Bernard Shaw Festival's production of the  K. Weill/O. Nash/S.J. Perlman musical One Touch of Venus, is any indication -- with her mis-use of a calculator to tally the purchase of a bottle of water and a box of Junior Mints, our neighbor to the north is no threat to beating the US in all that STEM stuff either).

"So what part of Ohio are you from?"...

...asked the Canadian Border Patrol officer when we pulled up to show our passports, after admittedly I had noticed but ignored the stop sign (in two different languages!) and drove up almost right behind the car in front of us.

"We live in Connecticut," I responded.

"Oh, usually people who don't stop at the stop sign are from Ohio."

"I was raised in Ohio!"

"Okay, I'll take that as a legitimate explanation.  How long you here for...?

Happy birthday to the genius behind "Calvin and Hobbes," Bill Watterson!

Happy Independence Day, Everyone!

I've always wondered why the military gets so much attention on the 4th of July, when they already have Memorial Day, Veterans Day, and isn't there an "Armed Forces Day", too?  It's not that I neither understand nor appreciate the role the military has played in the history of our free nation, but it has always seemed to me that the Fourth of July shouldn't be about the physical fight for Independence and the bravery demonstrated and sacrifices made in battle, but rather the philosophical and political bravery exhibited in Philadelphia on those devilishly hot days in early July 1776 in Philadelphia.

You know, the stuff celebrated so wonderfully in the musical 1776!
 
And just as Tom here has written
We say "To hell with Great Britain"
The eagle inside belongs to us!

:"The Egg", 1776

Enjoy the link ...and the holiday!

"The Maracana has been silenced by only three people...

...the Pope, Frank Sinatra, and me."