THE REFLECTIONS by reader and pizza deliveryman Ben Jolly on how he learned manners as a child during rare meals out in elegant restaurants reminded me of the 1911 essay “The Decay of Manners” by the Southern-born writer and lawyer Thomas Nelson Page. The essay appeared in The Century Illustrated magazine. Page’s complaints about boorish behavior seem positively quaint today. Some of his wisest observations concern the role of women in defending civility. He wrote:

This is the crux of the whole question. Among all civilized peoples woman is the custodian of good manners. She places the stamp on the currency which gives it value in the public mind, and if she will not assert her royal prerogative it will soon become debased. (more…)

ROSE writes:

 I haven’t been keeping up with my blogs lately because of the many wild animals I’m taking care of, but recently I’ve been thinking of you daily. You see, a few weeks ago the 13-year cicadas emerged, many from my very backyard. [Cicadas were discussed previously here, here and here.] It’s half an acre and potentially could have contained 500,000 of them. There are thousands of tiny holes everywhere and it’s blanketed with cicada shells while the gigantic red-eyed bug monsters swoop down at you from the air.

And the noise… I told you they’re usually loud in the summer but this year the paper reports that people have been calling the police to find out if a big construction project or military exercises are
going on. They’re like little vuvuzelas made by God.

(more…)

AT GALLIAWATCH, Tiberge writes about the renewed outpourings of anti-Americanism in France with the Dominique Strauss-Kahn affair. She writes:

The beauty of [Dominique Strauss-Kahn] is that he is a perfect example of the money-obsessed Socialist, who doles out crumbs to the workers of France, making them work harder and harder for less and less, making their daily lives miserable through lax policies on crime and immigration, sapping them of their will to take private initiatives, and at the same time slowly destroying their ancient traditions, religion and values.

… I think the disgrace for France is not so much what DSK did, but that the backwardly puritanical “Ricains” caught him and hold him. If only he had done this at Sofitel Bangkok! (more…)

IN A PIECE about the engagement of Nancy Shevell and Paul McCartney – or make that, Sir Paul McCartney since the former Beatle is among the numerous rock musicians, actors and fashion designers dubbed knights by Queen Elizabeth  –  The New York Times states that any children of the couple will not inherit a title.

Ms. Shevell is 51 and the Knight is 68.  They are both retreads: she is on her second marriage and he is on his third. Is it rude to state the obvious? Children are unlikely. Interestingly, the ages of the two are completely omitted from the newspaper’s reporting on the engagement. The daily chronicle of the Boomer generation avoids the inconvenient facts of advancing age. (more…)

THE reader Paul C. sent a letter, excerpted below, to Senator David Vitter of Louisiana.

Dear Senator Vitter:

It is displeasing to say I can no longer turn out for Republican politicians. Republicans are toe-in-the-water conservatives. At the first sign of criticism from the liberal Media and Republican constituents, they run for the lily-white hills behind the liberals who have been leading the run since the 1960s. See New Hampshire. If Republicans cannot see that we are in a desperate struggle with Hispanic and other non-European and non-Asian immigration to save our traditions, culture, race, language, and country, then we are going to lose all of them for all time. (more…)

JAMES P. writes: 

Here is yet another horror story in which a  child is left in a car unattended and dies, this time in Italy. Note that the father is a university professor, and thus not stupid. And this in a country with one of the lowest fertility rates on Earth — far below replacement. The full story is below, with some comments of mine. (more…)

A FEMALE READER writes:

Here is a German theme song for your blog. I don’t know if you speak German, but I think you will get the point without a translation. It’s called “Frauen Sind Die Neuen Männer,” or “Women are the New Men,” and is by the group Die Prinzen. It’s not one of their best songs in my book, but relevant to your musings.  (more…)

BEN JOLLY writes:

I have greatly enjoyed your commentary on the plague of pizza. I have worked off and on for Papa John’s in the last four years as a side job or full-time when I have been laid off (aerospace is a rough world). I’m sure you are aware that PJ’s brands itself as a high-end product, with better quality ingredients and more consistent quality, and not surprisingly a higher price. Yet it is still pizza.

I was a delivery driver in the suburbs of Dallas, and again in a suburb of Denver, Colorado. I could probably write a small book on all the strange, interesting, disgusting, or frightening scenarios one encounters in that occupation. One’s colleagues can also fall into the four aforementioned categories. PJ’s doesn’t drug test (at least at any of the places I’ve worked for them) so you can imagine some of the individuals that work there. Here are some of my observations into the standard issue junk food, and the culinary state of our culture in general.  (more…)

 STEVE KOGAN writes:

Some research into book bundles led me to this mother of all book bundles at an exhibit at a gallery called the Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh in 2006. In the long range shot, it appears in a corner of a large, loft-like space, standing floor to ceiling in the form of cross section of books, like the base of a felled tree. (more…)

JOHN PURDY writes:

Here is a letter to the editor I sent to my local newspaper in response to this column about slut walks.

To the Editor,

This is a typical example of feminists making a cause célèbre out of an inept remark. I doubt very much Constable Michael Sanguinetti was trying to imply that sluttily dressed women deserve to be raped. (more…)

THIS ARTICLE in today’s New York Times about nannies in Brazil and their ability to claim higher and higher salaries is written in the seemingly non-judgmental style of most articles about the abandonment of home and children by modern mothers. In truth, the article is highly approving of the trend. The writer Alexei Barrionuevo says the phenomenon has only one serious drawback – it’s hard for some women to instantly find a nanny.

Wealthy women have hired servants for many centuries. There is nothing wrong with that. But it is deeply wrong when a culture’s brightest and wealthiest women leave their homes en masse for jobs. It is immoral. Why?

1. This phenomenon creates more job competition, lessening the ability of men to support their families and forcing other women, including many middle class women, to work.

2. It creates unrealistic standards for the middle class and poor, standards which encourage the societal abandonment of child-rearing and lead to everyday domestic chaos for non-wealthy families.

3. It deprives families and communities of the moral, spiritual and intellectual vigilance of women whose lives are not directed to commercial activity.

4. It creates a society that worships technocratic competence and disparages love. It harms marriage and family bonds.

Many women who leave their homes every day for high-powered jobs love their children and do remarkable things for them. But a society of women who leave their families is soulless and corrupt. (more…)

JEFF W. writes:

To me these corpses of books are modern-day versions of the Roman household gods, theLares and Penates.

Robert Graves in his book The White Goddess said that there are three spirits of the modern age: Apollo the god of knowledge and science, Pluto the god of wealth, and Mercury the god of thieves. These fake books are idols or talismans invoking Apollo the god of knowledge. In the minds of many modern people, scientific human knowledge is much superior to a backward, superstitious Jesus or a sadistic Jehovah. That is why some atheists call themselves “the Brights.” I also notice that guests on TV talk shows often sit or stand in front of a loaded bookshelf. That symbolic display marks the guest as a devotee of Apollo. (more…)

FROM the Pottery Barn catalogue:

Avid readers know that a stack of books can be a comforting sight. We’ve taken authentic vintage books and turned them into art objects by removing their covers and binding them together in sets of four. Neutral in color with deckled and uneven pages, they bring relaxed style to a bookcase, mantel or side table.

• Approximately 8.5″ wide x 6″ deep x 4.5″ high
• Each bundle features four real books with covers removed so that they are all paper.
• Pages are glued shut and books are tied together with twine.
• Purely decorative; contents and titles are not important.

(more…)

                                                AN ESSAY ON BOOKMOBILES AND BOOK FURNISHINGS

                                                                            by Steve Kogan

In her post “The Un-Read Book,” Laura Wood remarks that “there’s something profoundly unsettling about the use of books for interior decorating.” In themselves, books can certainly adorn a room and have been doing so for centuries, but, as Penelope Green of The New York Times observes, the latest “artwork” by Lisa Occhipinti turns them into ornamental “accents,” both inside and out, which complement “the activities of set designers and store stylists who are throwing around what are known as ‘book bundles’ – stitched and ripped old paperbacks in neutral colors – the way they used to set out green apples or lemons in a bowl.” 

I belong to that generation when “they used to set out green apples or lemons in a bowl” (as did still life painters in even earlier times), and there was nothing edgy or hip about having classical music and interior decorating go hand in hand for the commercial appeal of the combination. This effect was promoted by the English actor John Williams, who played Chief Inspector Hubbard in Dial M for Murder (1954) and later hosted a successful TV ad for a box set of classical “hits” put out by Columbia Records. (more…)

  THE WEBSITE Bad Vestments recently featured this photo of an Episcopal canon on Easter at St. Mary's Cathedral in Memphis. A female commenter at Bad Vestments wrote: The feather boa, once a symbol of seduction and worn by women with loose morals, perfectly symbolizes the current state of affairs in the Episcopal Church and should be the required stole for officiating at same-sex (and third, fourth time around) couple blessings.... ... Feathers also being light and airy, express the air-head, breezy, flighty attitudes of TEC toward things rational, theological and Scriptural. Another commenter wrote: So, does the boa go with liturgical pole dancing? ....

AT Oz Conservative, Mark Richardson writes about an Australian man, Michael Fox, who forced the closure of Sydney Harbour Bridge on Friday after abseiling down the bridge and unfurling banners to protest being denied access to his three children in a custody case. Richardson writes:

He has successfully brought the issue of father’s rights to public attention. He told a Sydney radio station:

I’ve asked for help so many times – no one wants to help the blokes. The chicks get in first and start throwing stones, the blokes don’t stand a chance. (more…)