In short, I support people creating “safe spaces” as a shield by exercising their freedom of association to organize themselves into mutually supporting communities, run according to their own norms. But not everyone imagines “safe spaces” like that. Some use the concept of “safe spaces” as a sword, wielded to annex public spaces and demand that people within those spaces conform to their private norms. That’s not freedom of association. That’s rank thuggery, a sort of ideological manifest destiny. It’s the difference between saying “I shouldn’t be forced to go to a talk by this controversial figure” and “this controversial figure should not be allowed to speak at my school.”
Tributes are already beginning to arrive for my dear friend Brett Foster, who died last night at an obscenely early age. Wesley Hill, with whom Brett and I spent many sweet hours, has posted his remembrance, with the addition of an especially appropriate poem by Brett.
In the photo above Brett and I are in London, and about to go, with our beloved wives, to have dinner with Chris and Rachel Bond, who then lived in St. John’s Wood. We brought our ritual offerings, as you can see, our libations to be poured out, but Chris’s parents had fetched such sweet vintage from their home in the south of France, and Chris poured so discreetly and yet freely, that I believe our cheap bottles remained untouched. How we laughed that evening; what joy was had in friendship and fellowship. We all grew drunk with wine and with sheer affection, and the Fosters and Jacobses staggered back to our cab in helpless giggles.
Last year, soon after Brett received his cancer diagnosis — already Stage 4 — he came to visit Teri and me at our home in Waco. “I hope it’s not my time,” he said to me at a sober moment. “But if it is — Alan, my days have been full. They’ve been rich.” Indeed they were, dear Brett; and in God’s mercy will yet be.
People think they don’t understand math, but it’s all about how you explain it to them. If you ask a drunkard what number is larger, 2/3 or 3/5, he won’t be able to tell you. But if you rephrase the question: what is better, 2 bottles of vodka for 3 people or 3 bottles of vodka for 5 people, he will tell you right away: 2 bottles for 3 people, of course.
The Room Three is exactly what fans have been hoping for, and more. Though several classical elements have changed, they’ve changed for the better. There’s a glut of new content, but it’s familiar and tweaked just enough for everyone to find something here they enjoy. There aren’t enough puzzlers out there like The Room, so it’s refreshing to see that Fireproof Games has knocked it out of the park once more. If you’ve not delved into this complex and enigmatic series, you need to do yourself a favor and get locked in The Room as soon as possible.
It has been the fate of many poets to find that the world is at once too much and not enough, to be driven to suicide and madness, or to the creation of hermetic works or mythologies, secondary worlds that overlay or displace the unaccommodating original. We might say that Murray’s Catholic faith serves as a mythology whose scope he sees as requiring no adjustment. What we definitely can say is that the world Murray renders is close at hand even for the remotest reader. It is completely lived in. It is handled, worked, scented, mapped, celebrated, lamented, and its people honoured in both presence and memory. Murray’s way is not the only way, but it is a wonderful achievement.
Aunt Polly blushed crimson with humiliation, and frowned and shook her head at Tom.
“Experience,” said Holmes, laughing.“ Miss Prism.
“My opinion is in no way altered.”
I must arise and examine. I eagerly hope that you will confirm this intelligence soon in your own handwriting. He and his companion entered the cottage, in which they remained for a few minutes, and then departed. Mrs. Samsa to her contractor and Grete to her principal.
“And here, shipmates, is true and faithful repentance; not clamorous for pardon, but grateful for punishment.”
Elizabeth had caught the scarlet fever; her illness was severe, and she was in the greatest danger.
