Links You Minx

The title comes from Oscar Wilde and I don’t know the context: with Wilde, sometimes there is not context; it’s just a witticism he dreamed up and dropped when most apt. It seems to elevate and denigrate at the same time, but I’m not sure that’s the intent. What isn’t considered is how much the clown wishes to be a High Priest, and vice versa. I can’t consider this without thinking of Laurence Olivier, a man equally adept with low comedy and “serious drama”.
It might be that Oscar was referring to all the arts with this dichotomy: some are edifying and uplifting; and the rest are simply entertaining. He might have meant that, but I doubt it. I think he was saying something profound about the work of the actor, about his/her skill set, and about contribution made to society.
Being a clown is not a bad thing. The world needs to laugh, and those most in need are the ones least able to amuse themselves. Also, there are benefits to the novelty, the interplay of wit, and the refreshing atmosphere of play that occupy comedy.
What do the High Priests convey? They are conduits to other worlds, hence their lofty appelation. That world must be transcendant to be esteemed. They are the equal to writers in this regard, but their work is more accessible, and it is experienced in groups.
There is no space in Oscar’s system for the adequate or the mimics; these are not serious artists, they are mere functionaries, and not worthy of advanced consideration.

When did hospitals get so noisy? Pehaps it is a myth that health centres were once oasis of calm, the very tranquility and absence of noise itself an agent of healing. If is it, it is a myth I grew up believing, so that today’s hospitals with their mix of braying nurses and orderlies, beeping and sirening machines, pa systems and the clamour of visitors and hangers on seems to be a counterproductive invasion into the halls of healing.

Being on the other side of the pond, it’s hard to know if the anti-Catholicism in Britain is as virulent and wide-spread as it seems, or whether I’ve formed a skewed notion or am too sensitive to what is justifiable criticism. A couple of things make me think that, in general, the British are openly hostile to Roman Catholicism, and singularly intemperate in their attacks upon it. The kind of vitriol reserved for Catholics is not used against Lutherans, Hindus, Buddhist, Jains, Taoists, because a self-aware speaker would fear he’d portrayed himself as an intolerant bigot. Why exactly are Catholics such open game in a nation that produced and esteemed people like (from Wikipedia) John Henry Newman, Augustus Pugin, Muriel Spark, Gerard Manley Hopkins, G. K. Chesterton, Ronald Knox, Evelyn Waugh, Graham Greene, J.R.R. Tolkien, Malcolm Muggeridge and Joseph Pearce. Members of the Royal family such as the Duchess of Kent and former Prime Minister Tony Blair? The reception the Pope received during his visit to Britain and the controversies surrounding the visit underscore the remarkable ease with which the British feel at ease in attacking Catholism. What brings this to mind today is something quite small, but here it is: On the John LeCarre fan Facebook page, a comment writer attacks Graham Greene and devalues his worth as a writer solely because he was a Catholic. (In contrast, in all the recent Canadian material I’ve read about Marshall McLuhan, I found no one who thought his Catholicism lessened his worth or impact. It probably expanded his vision and deepened his insights.) It’s not simply that the British, in general, find it easy to attack Catholicism, it is that they do so in an environment where it’s clearly acceptable to do so, and it’s acceptable to be rude about it. I can’t help feeling that the larger, and equally intolerant atheism movement in Britain contributes to this. Perhaps I’m seeing a sliver of what Jews and Muslims around the world experience when people attack their faith, and regard all believers as dangerous lunatics. Catholism has been under attack for nearly 500 years in Britain, and sneerers and scoffers seem certain they’re about to triumph. They smell blood, are sure of victory, and that has given them a confidence indistinguishable from arrogance.

Enjoying the new ASUS Transformer 32 gig with keyboard dock. First unit went back to the store because the rear cover did not fit right. Keyboard dock does not come with its own power supply, which was a big disappointment–I was planning to leave it plugged it at home, and travel with the tablet, but now any extended trip will mean carrying the single power supply around. I’m cheesed off about this. The dock is $150, requires power, but does not have its own hardware. I think the ASUS people own me one. Like trying new apps but the store is a bit odd.

it was only three days after the great forgetting that people started to understand the extent of the world’s amnesia. It would take several months before the scale of the loss could be enumerated, but by the time, scientists were unsure if the number they’d arrived at was in fact a real number. They could not check it against anything else to compare or to establish an authenticity.
The great forgetting was long foretold but the prophets of calamity are never heeded. A solar flare, that’s what they termed it, but it was unlike any solar flare ever seen before. It was to previous solar flares as an atomic bomb is to a firecracker. It lasted a full 87 seconds, and a good 1’5 of the world’s population was exposed to radiation levels that will assuredly cause cancers. Every telephonic, telegraphic, tele anything was rendered useless–that was to be expected. the prophets had said that would happen. What wasn’t expected was that it would wipe clean every bit of digitial information stored on computers, disks, tapes, cartridges and keys the world over.