Miscellaneous

Of Springs and Cables

by

Here’s an essay written by 17-year-old Ruby LaRoca, winner of a Free Press essay contest.  There’s a lot in it, but I was particularly struck by this:

As I head into my final year of homeschooling, I often think about the dilemma in American education, which perhaps should be called the student crisis (it is also a teacher crisis). Students and teachers are more exhausted and fragile than they used to be. But reducing homework or gutting it of substance, taking away structure and accountability, and creating boundless space for ‘student voices’ feels more patronizing than supportive. The taut cable of high expectations has been slackened, and the result is the current mood: listlessness.

I like that phrase “the taut cable of high expectations.”  It reminded me of something that Antoine de St-Exupery wrote, which I had previously cited in a post and had been thinking about referencing again.

In St-Ex’s unfinished novel Citadelle (published in English under the unfortunate title Wisdom of the Sands), the protagonist is the ruler of a fictional desert kingdom.   One night, he goes to the prison in which a man who has been sentenced to death in the morning is being held. He muses that this man may well contain an inward beauty of some form–perhaps he should commute his sentence?  but goes on to justify his execution:

For by his death I stiffen springs which must not be permitted to relax.

The context in which I had been thinking of this passage was the present situation in San Francisco.  Failure to enforce laws–while endlessly searching for ‘inward beauty’ in the perpetrators of a wide range of crimes–had resulted in a relaxation of those springs of which St-Exupery wrote.

Our society at present suffers from both the loosening of Ruby LaRocca’s ‘taut cables’…which act to pull people upward…and St-Exupery’s ‘springs’…which reduce the incidence of disastrous falls.

 

 

Harvard and America

by

My recent post at Ricochet:   the results of FIRE’s recent study on the free speech climate at America’s universities, a view of Harvard from 1835 (which I posted here a while back), and some signs of pushback against academic credentialism.

Retrotech Event

by

The New England Wireless & Steam Museum is having its annual steam-up on Saturday, October 7.   I’m hoping to make it this year, which I haven’t managed to do previously.

Related posts:

Machine tools and glassmaking – visiting the American Precision Museum and the Simon Pearce glassmaking facility.

A retrotech adventure – the Essex Steam Train and Riverboat.

Retrotech, revitalized – a triple-expansion steam engine, built for municipal water pumping, has been restored to operating condition.

Retrotech event, west coast edition – Bill Brandt visits a lumber mill from 1914.

Worthwhile Reading and Viewing

by

Allocation of IQ to thinking about relationships–different in men and women.   So argues this article, which is linked and discussed in a thread by Rob Henderson at Twitter.

The Great Untethering–school choice and remote work.

East of the Mississippi–19th century American landscape photography.

How Allied mass production drove the victory over the Axis powers. A YouTube documentary, which I haven’t seen yet but which looks promising.

What kinds of people are attracted to mass movements?   “(Eric) Hoffer emphasizes that creative people–those who experience creative flow–aren’t usually attracted to mass movements.”   (Twitter)   Makes sense, but is this really true?   Seems to me that there were quite a few creative scientists and artists who were strongly attracted to Communism, and I can think of at least one supposedly-creative philosopher who was strongly attracted to Naziism.

The Real Roaring Twenties Was… the 1720s.   So argues Anton Howes in this article.   His Twitter feed is here.

A 3D Reconstruction of the Aztec Capital of Tenochtitlan.

RetroMusical Goodness

by

There are a lot of great songs, once well-known, that aren’t performed or listened to much anymore. Here are some that I especially like.

Thine Alone.   This beautiful song sounds like it might be a hymn, but it’s actually a love song, from the 1917 operetta Eileen. I only know it because it’s on a Victor Herbert album that belonged to my parents.

Duncan Gray.   A fun song, with lyrics written by Robert Burns in 1792.   The tune seems to be much older, dating as far back as 1700.   The Scottish lyrics are only partly understandable to English-speakers and are translated    here.

Three for Jack.   My father liked to sing this song from 1902.

Softly as in a Morning Sunrise.   My father also liked this one.   Nelson Eddy, from his 1940 movie  New Moon.   Originally from the 1928 operetta of the same name.

10,000 Miles Away.   The singer’s wife or girlfriend has been convicted of a crime and is being deported to Australia. Seems to date from the early 1800s.

Lorena.   Written by a Reverend in 1856 after a broken engagement. Popular among both sides during the Civil War.

Carrier Dove.   From 1841.

Summertime Love.   I heard this song on the radio once and really liked it but could never locate it again.   Finally found it at the link shown here…but I can’t quite manage to decode all the lyrics.   Any help would be appreciated.

Seeman  (Sailor).   A German song from 1959.   Also heard on the radio once and not rediscovered until many years later.   I think the version I heard was    the US hit version of 1960, which includes an English-language overlay of some of the words.

When the Wind Changes.   A most unusual 1960s protest song, by PF Sloan.

Where e’er You Walk.   From the musical dram  Semele, 1744, libretto by William Congreve and music by Handel.   Another favorite of my father’s, who sang it beautifully.

Westron Wynde.   This song fragment dates in published form from 1530, but the lyrics are believed to be several hundred years older.

Some of my previous music posts:

Crimesongs

Coal Mining Songs

Rodeo Songs