A Visit to a Camel

Went down to Mt. Vernon today to visit with the camel (https://www.mountvernon.org/plan-your-visit/things-to-do/animals/aladdin/) and take a nice little walk.

 

 

From a Former Student...

 

Happy Solstice!

 

Ancient Folkloric Traditions

Here Christmas Duck (right) and his husband Mario prepare for CD's big journey Christmas Eve.

Ah Youth!

Occasionally I look back wistfully on the sweet, simple joys of childhood...

A Little Christmas (right this very minute)

 

Checking In

Dear & Gentle HamsterFans:  Please be assured that all is well here at the Imperial Rodentine Residence.  My recent silence merely stems from a dearth of potentially interesting/amusing things to write about.  Hope all is well with you and yours!

A Cloudy Walk

 

Family Visit

Since house sheep don't get Covid, Brian invited his sister Lavinia and her lambs Clifford and Hortense over for the holidays.

High Holy Day

As you may have perhaps noted, today is a double high holy day for us monarchists: the anniversary of Napoleon's coronation in 1804 and Franz Josef's accession to the Austrian throne in 1848. Happy Holiday!

--- The "Vivat" from Napoleon's coronation, which became the unofficial imperial anthem.

 

 

 

--- "Gott Erhalte Franz Den Kaiser," the Habsburg imperial anthem, written by Haydn long before anyone thought of that Prussian abomination they called the German Empire.

Doing the Good

 I just donated, for the first time, to Washington National Cathedral (Episcopal). I don't mind donating to a church that actually tries to practice Christianity.

 

 

--Judy and Dennis Shepard watch as the ashes of their son, Matthew Shepard, are brought to the Washington National Cathedral for interment Reverend Gene Robinson in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 26, 2018. Photographer: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images--

Dido's Lament - Annie Lennox

 So beautiful, so emotional...
 

The words, from Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas (1688):

 

When I am laid, am laid in earth,

May my wrongs create

No trouble, no trouble

in thy breast;

When I am laid, am laid in earth,

May my wrongs create

No trouble, no trouble

in thy breast;

Remember me, remember me,

but ah!

forget my fate.

Remember me, but ah!

forget my fate.

Remember me, remember me,

but ah!

forget my fate.

Remember me

but ah!

forget my fate.

Bird.

 

Yay Sports!

OK, I think we've got to get serious now about finding a name for the DC NFL team; the cheers of "Go football team!" are beginning to sound silly. Here are some obvious, and quite good and catchy, choices:

-- The Washington Bureaucrats

-- The DC Deep-Staters

-- The Washington Establishment

-- The DC Swamp

-- The Washington Fighting Lobbyists

-- The Waste Fraud & Abuse

-- The Embattled Political Appointees

-- The Washington Unnamed Sources

Gobble, Gobble...