He's Dead, Jim
A thousand pardons, faithful readers, I've been under the weather with the dreadful sick. Though composing these bloggy blog posts consists principally of the act of typing, they require a surprising amount of energy, which I am simply incapable of summoning whilst under the sway of the dreadful sick. I owe you "The Explorers Club," "This Week in Motorsport," & a more extensive (and less self-centered) "He's Dead, Jim," plus, if I can ever finish it, "Project PANDORA: The Other Woman, Part Deux" (and beyond).

Moustache Hero
This week, 'tis my pleasure to present to you the only man to serve as both President of the United States & Chief Justice of the United States. Ladies and gentlemen, the moustache of William Howard Taft. Behold!



The Rebel Black Dot Songs of the Day
Barenaked Ladies, "Summertime" from All in Good Time (T.L.A.M.)

Commentary: I have not listened to All in Good Time enough to have reached a verdict on B.N.L. as a quartet, as opposed to the old quintet, which I suppose is something of a verdict in and of itself.

Montag, 31 Mai
Charles Ives, "He Is There!" from The Pity of War: Songs and Poems of Wartime Suffering (T.L.A.M.)

Commentary: Long before the Congress defiled Memorial Day by transforming it into little more than a three-day weekend to kick-off the summer, Memorial Day (and before it, Decoration Day) was the day on which America honored her glorious dead. We have paid a terrible price in blood & treasure for our liberty, a liberty we will lose the very moment we forget that terrible price.

"Fifteen years ago today
A little Yankee, little Yankee boy,
Marched beside his granddaddy
In the Decoration Day parade.
The village band would play those old war tunes
And the G.A.R. would shout,
'Hip hip! Hooray!' in the same old way
As it sounded on the old camp ground."

Another memorial day, about which I meant to remark some months hence: The Glorious Dead. May they rest in the Lord's peace.