Obscure question: What special connection does the name Katie Casey have to baseball aficionados today? Well, it was 100 years ago today (May 2, 1908) that America's universal musical standard Take Me Out to the Ball Game was published. Jack Norworth penned the words; Albert von Tilzer the unforgettable melody. To clear up the connection, Norworth's and Van Tilzer's Tin Pan Alley creation was written to be sung by a young female character:Only a handful of fans realize that the two verses of the song are about Katie Casey (later changed to Nelly Kelly), a girl who was mad with baseball fever as she asked her young beau to take her to a ballgame rather than a show. This faint whiff of romance added to the song's success on vaudeville, … [Read more...]
Passion Week: Thursday
Today we remember the Last Supper and Christ's betrayal. Though there are many passages to choose from, in particular I am reminded of the Savior's ultimate example of service and his incomparably fervent prayer (both from the New American Standard Bible): John 13:3-5 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God, and was going back to God, rose from supper, and laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself about. Then He poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded. Luke 22:41-44 And He withdrew from them about a stone's throw, and He knelt down and began to pray, saying, … [Read more...]
Happy Leap Day Everyone, Especially to All Ye Leaplings
It's not often we get to wish one another Happy Leap Day - the only other time for this blog was in the very early days of its existence. So let's celebrate the opportunity to catch our calendars up to the earth's solar revolution schedule, and enjoy the irony of what this day means. One of my favorite February 29 memories comes from my freshman year in college, walking to the buildings on "the Hill" and seeing homemade signs posted urging us to wish fellow student Sam a happy 5th birthday. No, Sam - whom I later got to know and appreciate for his good nature and good humor, not to mention his artistic and literary gifts - wasn't some sort of amazing prodigy. He was what Wikipedia informs me is called a "leapling." Another "leapling" is … [Read more...]
Tribute to Buckley Reminder of “Great Task Remaining Before Us”
Over at Pajamas Media, Scott Johnson eulogizes the late William F. Buckley, Jr.. First, probably his most significant accomplishment:When Buckley founded National Review as the voice of the [conservative] movement, he performed two acts of statesmanship that were vital to the movement’s ultimate, if unlikely, success: he reserved exclusive ownership of the magazine to himself so as to prevent the kind of sectarian brawls that had killed other such magazines, and he prohibited John Birchers and other kooky anti-Semitic organizations from the magazine’s precincts. Johnson also observes what is left undone:Until [Buckley] gave up public speaking in 1998, his frequent campus speaking engagements were part missionary work, part … [Read more...]
Bill Buckley (1925-2008)
Via K.J. Lopez at the Corner, news comes today that the great William F. Buckley, Jr., has passed away. While very few writers and speakers have ever had a greater facility with the English language than Buckley did, there was much more to him than the elegance of his prose. He was an intellectual champion for conservatism long before there was any popularity to be gained by it. From his seminal book God and Man at Yale to his great legacy in the founding of National Review, he did as much as any American in the 20th century to advance the conservative cause through logical, forceful, and passionate argument, as well as through refined wit and good humor. To get a glimpse of the man - his ideas and his rhetoric - you can search a … [Read more...]
Battle of Cambria 46 Years Later
Diverting from our regular blogging fare on this Friday, we pause to remember the 46th anniversary of the decisive and destructive Battle of Cambria. It is also the 12th anniversary of the founding of Cambria Tours (Facebook account required to view page). The ill-fated, crushing defeat of February 22, 1962, along the frozen pond and quiet streets of a midwestern hamlet, marked the ultimate demise of the small and short-lived Socialist Union of Al Gansee. It's all chronicled in the biography of the quixotic and eccentric, Michigan-born dictator, Passion and Purpose: The Rise and Fall of Al Gansee. Rumor also has it that the battle's story is being adapted into a screenplay. We'll see if it goes anywhere. Questions linger regarding how … [Read more...]
Presidents Day
Maybe some of you get a paid holiday from work to celebrate the likes of Martin Van Buren, Franklin Pierce, Benjamin Harrison, Warren G. Harding, and Gerald Ford, but not this think-tank scribbler. Yet even though it'll be like a normal day of work for me, that won't stop me from wishing you all a very low-key, lukewarm, and laid-back Presidents Day. Happy Monday to the rest of us. … [Read more...]
Mount Virtus Turns Four
I launched Mount Virtus four years ago today. On February 6, 2004, I was a complete neophyte in the world of blogging. Today, I am practically a blogging grandfather, but far from the bigtime. A lot has changed in four years. My how heady those early days were - ready to change the world, waiting for the 1,000th visitor, thrilled to receive a link or comment from anyone. (Someone noticed what I wrote?) Over the years, I've taken occasional breaks (never too long) from putting up posts here, and once or twice even contemplated letting it go. But here we are, two election cycles later, still hovered over my laptop, wearing my pajamas, typing away, trying to share a serious thought here and there. Okay, time to ditch the sentimentality … [Read more...]
Roe v Wade at 35
Tomorrow is the annual Blogs for Life conference at Family Research Council headquarters in Washington, DC, a somber commemoration of the 35th anniversary of the terrible and infamous Roe v Wade decision from the U.S. Supreme Court. A provocative NewsMax essay today from Joseph Sobran summarizes three and a half decades of the debate:Note the strange progress of the advocates of abortion. A generation ago, just before the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that virtually all legal restrictions on abortion violated the U.S. Constitution, these people agreed that killing the unborn was evil; but they held that its evil might be minimized by legalizing and regulating it. Then they shifted to what might be called an agnostic position: that nobody … [Read more...]
Merry Christmas
Merry Christmas: 1Now in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth. 2This was the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3And everyone was on his way to register for the census, each to his own city. 4Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, 5in order to register along with Mary, who was engaged to him, and was with child. 6While they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth. 7And she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because … [Read more...]
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