Remembering PRESTAGS

Persistence

Up

down

Up

FUQn down

One more

Of The FMW - Five Quintrains

Five Quintrains for Python. 

 

Of no boys weekend Python lament,

Because no forum for his news.

All his mates were absent,

The weekend, just empty pews.

So alone in Sydney he stews.

 

But not long did Python have to wait,

One mate his dates did send.

The other mate alas, a nasty ingrate,

No reply bad news portend.

So hope for Python  suspend.

 

But clever lawyer mate,

a cunning plan he did conceive.

Don’t worry about the date,

Just a new name to deceive.

Cause Thygo, well he’s naïve.

 

Instead of boys weekend, what is it,

Well it’s a cracker.

Why nothing but a simple Kanbra visit,

To the home of the duck caretaker.

Python at last, a merrymaker.

 

But what is the Python’s news,

He’s so desperate to impart.

Could it be some sexual blues,

That needs a heart-to-heart.

Poor old Bonaparte.

 

Nudity

A Mayfly visited me today,
   "What are you doing here, mate?"
It looked uncertain
  Human thoughts are so deceptive.

Good Friday

Crux fidelis inter omnes arbor una noblis

Nulla silva talem profert, fronde, flore, germine

Dulce lignum, dulce clavos, dulce pondus sustinet

Faithful Cross above all other, one and only noble tree.

None in foliage, none in blossom, none in fruit thy peer may be.

Sweetest wood, sweetest iron, sweetest weight is hung on thee.

(Venantius Fortunatus, d 609 AD)

 

Ecce lignum crucis

Venite adoremus

 

The timing of the Good Friday Liturgy in this Church generally gifts us the illumination of the cross with beautiful autumn afternoon light, as if heaven shines on the commemoration of Our Lord's passion and the cross which is now our trophy.

We're Not Gonna Take It

I'm not ordinarily into heavy metal music.

However there is one song by Twisted Sister that I really like: "We're Not Gonna Take It".

Here is a You Tube Link to the Song with the Words. Don't worry, it's the song with the words - no video.

The song is a bit of an anthem against political correctness, or at least that's how I interpret it. I sometimes play this song in the car, but I usually get opposition from the passengers.

This is my favourite verse. You have to imagine a hideous rad fem or a sooky whinging liberal when you listen to this verse:

Who would have ever thought Paul would recommend a Twisted Sister song!

For those who are interested the official Twisted Sister music video for the song is here. This is 1980s and quite quaint compared to the utter garbage now. If you have rebellious teenage boys (the target audience for Twisted Sister) you will be very amused by the opening story to this video.

15 August - the Assumption of Our Lady into Heaven

From the definition prompulgated by Pope Pius XII on 1 November 1950 in Munificentissimus Deus  (the most bountiful God ... link to full text):

"44. For which reason, after we have poured forth prayers of supplication again and again to God, and have invoked the light of the Spirit of Truth, for the glory of Almighty God who has lavished his special affection upon the Virgin Mary, for the honor of her Son, the immortal King of the Ages and the Victor over sin and death, for the increase of the glory of that same august Mother, and for the joy and exultation of the entire Church; by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and by our own authority, we pronounce, declare, and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma: that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory."

Signum magnum (audio link) is the Introit of the Mass (composed after the definition)  - taken from the Apocalypse - "A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars."

Gaudeamus (audio link) is the ancient introit (which is an option for the new Mass).

Let us jecoice in this great feast and join our voices to Mary's Magnificat (audio link) and continue to ask her to pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.

1. Magnificat * anima mea Dominum. 2. Et exsultavit spiritus meus * in Deo salutari meo. 3. Quia respexit humilitatem ancillae suae: * ecce enim ex hoc beatam me dicent omnes generationes. 4. Quia fecit mihi magna qui potens est: et sanctum nomen ejus. 5. Et misericordia ejus a progenie in progenies * timentibus eum. 6. Fecit potentiam in brachio suo * dispersit superbos mente cordis sui. 7. Deposuit potentes de sede, * et exaltavit humiles. 8. Esurientes implevit bonis: * et divites dimisit inanes. 9. Suscepit Israel puerum suum, recordatus misericordiae suae. 10. Sicut locutus est ad patres nostros * Abraham at semini eius in saecula. 11. Gloria Patri, et Filio, * et Spiritui Sancto. 12. Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper, * et in saecula saeculorum. Amen.

1. My soul doth magnify the Lord. 2. And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. 3. Because he hath regarded the humility of his handmaid: for behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. 4. Because he that is mighty hath done great things to me: and holy is his name. 5. And his mercy is from generation unto generations, to them that fear him. 6. He hath shewed might in his arm: he hath scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart. 7. He hath put down the mighty from their seat and hath exalted the humble. 8. He hath filled the hungry with good things: and the rich he hath sent empty away. 9. He hath received Israel his servant, being mindful of his mercy. 10. As he spoke to our fathers: to Abraham and to his seed for ever. 11. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. 12. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

23 December - O Emmanuel; hymn Veni, Veni Emmanuel

last of the preparatory O antiphons - Vespers of the 24th will be 1st Vespers of Christmas

Listen to O Emmanuel click here

Listen to the hymn Veni, Veni Emmanuel as set by Zoltán Kodály  click here Latin + English below

A PRESTAGS' Best Friend

We extend our best wishes to Thygocanberra and his family on the loss of their loyal dog Banjo. Our family also has many fond memories of this kind natured cattle dog. I remember Banjo would always sit on your foot for the human contact.

As A. B. Banjo Paterson would say, he is now "on his way":

A Dog's Mistake (1933)

               He had drifted in among us as a straw drifts with the tide,
            He was just a wand'ring mongrel from the weary world outside;
            He was not aristocratic, being mostly ribs and hair,
            With a hint of spaniel parents and a touch of native bear.

            He was very poor and humble and content with what he got,
            So we fed him bones and biscuits, till he heartened up a lot;
            Then he growled and grew aggressive, treating orders with disdain,
            Till at last he bit the butcher, which would argue want of brain.

            Now the butcher, noble fellow, was a sport beyond belief,
            And instead of bringing actions he brought half a shin of beef,
            Which he handed on to Fido, who received it as a right
            And removed it to the garden, where he buried it at night.

            'Twas the means of his undoing, for my wife, who'd stood his friend,
            To adopt a slang expression, "went in off the deepest end,"
            For among the pinks and pansies, the gloxinias and the gorse
            He had made an excavation like a graveyard for a horse.

            Then we held a consultation which decided on his fate:
            'Twas in anger more than sorrow that we led him to the gate,
            And we handed him the beef-bone as provision for the day,
            Then we opened wide the portal and we told him, "On your way."   

In Memoriam: J R R Tolkien

There have been a number of posts recently about my favourite author, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE.

Today is the anniversay of Tolkien's death. He died 40 years ago, on 2 September 1973, aged 81.

Both PythonMagus and Thygocanberra are also fans of Tolkien, and of his great books "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy. The trilogy consists of "The Fellowship of the Ring", "The Two Towers" and "The Return of the King". Much has been written about Tolkien and his works, and I have read most of it. On this day I offer some random thoughts about Tolkien and my life.

When I was a young boy I used to travel to Albury to visit my grandparents. One of my oldest and happiest memories is staying in bed all morning, reading "The Lord of the Rings" for the first time, while my grandfather brought me cups of tea and bread & butter.

I also remember as a boy being intrigued by the Middle Earth alphabets in the appendices at the end of "The Return of the King". My favourite was the Dwarvish runes - the Angerthas - and I had hours of fun writing messages using these runes. I can't resist now grabbing my old copy of "The Return of the King", yes my original 1974 edition with a nice musty smell, and providing a copy of The Angerthas from Appendix 3 for any budding students of Dwarvish languages.

The world of Middle Earth created by Tolkien is so deep and so vivid that it remains in the mind like a real memory. Whereas the contents of other books fade, my imagining of Middle Earth still lives in me as fresh as it ever was. Perhaps I prefer Middle Earth to the world we live in now, and perhaps I keep Middle Earth alive by visiting it frequently in my mind.

Tolkien is one of the lucky soldiers who went to the trenches in World War I and returned. He created a code he could use in correspondence with his wife Edith to avoid the British army's postal censorship. This is pure Tolkien. He went on to invent entire languages and alphabets for the races of Middle Earth. When one thinks of the creative energy and achievements of Tolkien, only one returned soldier, the enormous tragedy of the loss of 10 million military personnel comes into perspective. The total number of casualties including wounded and civilians exceeded 37 million.

My father is an avid reader but he has never liked Tolkien's works. I wonder whether Tolkien is an author that you either love or hate. Or perhaps it is the fantasy genre that you love or hate. Tolkien has been described as the father of 'high fantasy' but I don't even know what that is. I have always been much more of a science fiction buff than a reader of fantasy novels. To me, Tolkien's creation is so unique that it deserves a category, even a genre, all of its own.

I have always admired the 'Catholicity' of Tolkien's works. For over two decades now I have attended the Traditional Latin Liturgy (the Tridentine rite, now the Extraordinary Form) and fought the good fight against modernism, and other heresies and uglinesses in the Catholic Church. Only recently I found out that Tolkien's grandson Simon Tolkien had offered the following recollection: "I vividly remember going to church with him in Bournemouth. He was a devout Roman Catholic and it was soon after the Church had changed the liturgy from Latin to English. My grandfather obviously didn't agree with this and made all the responses very loudly in Latin while the rest of the congregation answered in English. I found the whole experience quite excruciating, but my grandfather was oblivious. He simply had to do what he believed to be right". This is fantastic: Tolkien was a traditionalist like me!

When I was at university in the 1980s I rembering thinking how great it would be if there was a movie of "The Lord of the Rings", but I thought it would be impossible to ever translate the book to the screen. I was wrong. Special effects and computer graphics and Tolkien fans rising in the ranks of movie making all came together in 2001-2003 when Peter Jackson released the amazing trilogy of Lord of the Rings movies. Jackson was, in my opinion, largely faithful to Tolkien and he managed to capture the magic of Middle Earth. The casting, the music, the cinematography, the script - it was all amazing and most Tolkien fans were not disappointed.

The Lord of the Rings movies depicted some things exactly as I had imagined: Strider / Aragorn, Gandalf, the inside of hobbit holes, and the Argonauth. I'm sure every Tolkien fan has their own list. There was only one chapter in the whole "The Lord of the Rings" that I never really warmed to, being chapter VII in "The Fellowship of the Ring": 'In the House of Tom Bombadil'. Jackson left this out of the movies and I agree with this decision. However, I don't agree with leaving out chapter VIII of "The Return of the King": 'The Scouring of the Shire'. This is one of my favourite chapters.

Last year Peter Jackson released the first of the Hobbit movies, 'An Unexpected Journey'. While it was not as serious as the Lord of the Rings movies (and neither was Tolkien's book) the movie was great fun.

Just as Tolkien interesects with many happy childhood memories, so the movies intersect with newer happy memories. I remember seeing 'The Fellowship of the Ring' with my sister on one of her rare 10 year home visits from her religious order. My memories of 'An Unexpected Journey' are associated with my daughters, and a new generation of Toklien fans.

Tolkien was happily married to Edith for over 50 years, and they had four children. Tolkien and his wife share a grave in Oxford, which includes the inscription 'Edith Mary Tolkien, Luthien, 1889-1971' and 'John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, Beren, 1892-1973'. In Middle Earth lore, Luthien was a princess who forsook her immortality for her love of the mortal warrier Beren.

Tolkien lives on, in his great books, and in the movies.

Vietnam Veterans Day

Today is Vietnam Veterans Day. August 18 was picked because it is the anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan.

"The battle of Long Tan was the largest single unit battle fought in Vietnam by Australian troops. It began on the afternoon of August 18th and went right through the night until the morning of the 19th. The reason why is was looked on as decisive and significant was because the Australians had only been there a few months - it was the first major conflict involving Australian troops in Vietnam. The Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army were aware that the Australians were there to secure the province and decided that they would take them on. That was the fate that befell a company of men - Delta company, from the 6th Batallion, Royal Australian Regiment - who were on patrol that particular day. The enemy lay in wait for them - a huge ambush in a rubber plantation called Long Tan. The Australians held off thousands of enemy troops for the duration of that battle. Eighteen Australian troops were killed - up to a thousand of the enemy. The skills of artillery men and arrival of armoured carriers with more men saved the day. The 6th Batallion was called the "Baby Batallion" as it was made up largely of national servicemen - and they certainly underwent a baptism by fire". (RSL, WA Branch)

We grumpy post 50 wargamers were too young for Vietnam by about 10 years. Thankfully, just boardgames for us. I still remember a school class mate who had an older brother killed in Vietnam, and I remember the fall of Saigon on TV.

I commend a wonderful poem:  Long Tan by Gary Jacobson

At least we made it to 50. And we remember them.

Marching bravely into Long Tan, diggers do as they were told
Sadly, some will never have a bloody chance of ever growing old

150th Anniversary: Battle of Gettysburg 1-3 July 1863

Today is the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg.

To all of the brave soldiers who perished in this terrible battle, I pray for your souls.

I congratulate the Americans for preserving the Gettysburg battlefield. Even today it is possible to walk the ground with a real understanding of what happened a century and a half ago, with numerous monuments marking important locations and events during the battle.

The little town of Gettysburg is one of those rare places that has hardly been changed by time, with many period buildings, some of which still bear bullet holes from the battle.

From the other side of the world, I remember.