Conservative Conversation and Community
We have a lucky seven days open for this month. I have not yet rolled out bears or outhouses as part of October’s theme: “Trick or Treat!” Do your part to keep it that way! Treat yourself and your friends to a post, nothing tricky about it. Our schedule and sign-up sheet awaits. The clock […]
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Autumn hit like a hammer this year. In little more than a week, coastal Texas dropped from blistering 100-degree days to chilly 50-degree nights. In the middle there, if only for a day or two, is perfection.
Earlier posts this month broached the subject of Halloween loot. The question before us now is: what is the best and worst of Halloween loot, present or past. Herein, a few candidates for your consideration. Back in the early 70s there was a brief movement towards healthy alternatives to candy. Hence apples. But then the […]
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The medieval poet John Donne wooed his lady by noting the romance of a flea mingling his blood with hers. Consequently, fleas became fashionable across Europe. Plague was not hitherto part of the courtship routine, but every romance has its ups and downs. Since then, many clueless artists have attempted to up-show The Donne with […]
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Did you know you can buy a demon on Etsy? I wasn’t aware there was much of a market for that kind of thing, but I learned that for less than a hundred bucks you can invite the devil to come and play in your house. There are plenty available on eBay as well. More
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Folks, you know me by now. I am perfectly ready, willing, and able to descend to outhouse humor, of a sort. My notion of an amusing story can be downright un-bearable! If Friday’s musical entry was more trick than treat to you, consider that I am perfectly capable of putting on my platform shoes and […]
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After looking up a piece by the Guckenheimer Sour Sauer Kraut Band,* remedying an oversight in my “Colorful Korean Meal” musings, I happened upon this first item, since I had in mind the link between kimchi and sauerkraut: More
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There has been a great deal of good writing over the years, inspired by monthly theme cues. Maybe you missed some, or joined more recently. Instead of searching on tags, just bookmark this post. This index will capture all of them in one post, updated monthly. A big thank-you to past keepers of the themes; […]
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When people are free to associate as they please, we can’t be surprised if they sometimes self-segregate. People self-sort along many affinities, including ethnic affinities. This is what lawyers call de facto segregation, and it’s none of the law’s business. De jure segregation — segregation imposed by law, including segregation promoted by public policy — is, on the other hand, very much the law’s business.
In 1866, Congress passed a Civil Rights Act (the 1866 CRA) asserting the equal rights of blacks before the law, including property rights, and real-estate rights in particular. The 1866 CRA warned
MoreWhen we see the moon, it is by the reflected light of the sun. Still, we speak of “moonlight” to describe a tone as well as a reality. It is the tone of Gothic cathedrals, ghost stories, and dark beauty. In Greek theory, the Mixolydian tonos (the term “mode” is a later Latin term) employs […]
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I am old enough to remember when…we kids trooped around our neighborhood collecting candy from the neighbors. We mostly wore homemade costumes. Unless there was an old enough family child, our father was riding herd, while Mom held down the fort and doled out the candy to other little monsters, in accordance with her rules. Over the years, and with our incredible surge in material wealth, Halloween became an increasingly adult event, with slutty [occupation here] outfits and other costumes in adult sizes sold or rented from seasonal party stores.
For the past several years, yours truly has attended an adults-only party, but not like that. A couple with whom I am friends has a house party without the bacchanalia atmosphere. Yes, it is a costume party, a costume party with a difference.
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They always said I’m not a leaf,
But now I am their thief of time.
I revel in their Autumn grief.
They needled me for my belief
I served the same as them for pine.
They always said I’m not a leaf.
There are two major monthly Group Writing projects. One is the Quote of the Day project, managed by @vectorman. This is the other project, in which Ricochet members claim one day of the coming month to write on a proposed theme. This is an easy way to expose your writing to a general audience, with […]
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Oh, the deep, dark despair of Bathilda the Brown!
Her days were numbered from the first day she sprouted.
She’ll destroy her last looks with a dreadful, damp frown.
Her ev’ry dear neighbor is painted like a clown,
She hears the laughter as her name, it is shouted.
Oh, the deep, dark despair of Bathilda the Brown!
Agnes looks low upon her flat sides.
“How did I ever get to be orange?”
She is baffled by seasonal tides.
Agnes had thought she had green insides.
Now her color is warmer in tinge.
Agnes looks low upon her flat sides.
I was a minor rock hound — a rock pup, if you will — in my youth. Nothing serious, a small collection, only a few spectacular finds of my own, the rest either dull or store-bought. I liked crystals. But not as “wellness” aids. The folklore surrounding minerals, including their medicinal use, is part of their history. Still, I found myself mildly disappointed by the degree to which even geology shops treated the folklore as true.
Apparently, “wellness” claims for rocks have only gotten worse — er, I mean, more popular — since I was a young rock hound. Gwyneth Paltrow, for example, has gifted the world with Goop, like crystal-enhanced water bottles! Yoni eggs! (Warning: these eggs NSFW.) Rose quartz, with its soft pink hue, is particularly popular for “wellness.” Fair-trade certification, which is supposed to guarantee humane treatment of workers, is also popular in wellness products. But — and it’s a big but — most “wellness” crystals are far from fair trade. That pretty rose quartz is the color of sweat and blood.
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What are the colors of the Constitution? Tan, perhaps “buff,” and black, oh, and white and red. The tan color comes from the untanned but soaked, stretched, scraped smooth and dried animal hide. The black, fading to grey with the centuries, comes from the iron gall ink.
The actual name of this federal minor holiday, marked with ceremonies but not designated for time off from work or school, is “Constitution Day and Citizenship Day.”
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WelI I wasn’t going to participate this month, but Clifford A. Brown kept browbeating everyone left and right everywhere I turned, and then I realized, Hey! I have a photo for that! Actually I have a photo for everything, and when did I ever pass on an opportunity to post a picture of myself! So […]
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College football season is in full swing, and college basketball is right around the corner. The two are very different, as you will not miss much if you wait until the end of February to start checking on the basketball rankings. When the annual top level college basketball tournament starts with 64 teams in a […]
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Blue were the skies that early September day.