16-0!

In perfect fashion, the New England Patriots finished a perfect regular season.

Now, call me greedy but...if they could just win 3 more.... That is, they need to win their 3 post-season games, including the Super Bowl to complete the magic they've accomplished thus far.

His Excellency

Mary surprised me with a gift perfect for me—a biography of George Washington by Joseph J. Ellis entitled His Excellency. While I've learned a great deal about Jefferson, Madison, and Adams, Washington has always been on the periphery of my knowledge. Now is a very good time to learn about him in a focused fashion.

The preface has given me a good feeling about Mr. Ellis, who is new to me.

For example, "[George Washington] is in our wallets but not in our hearts." Ellis cites Richard Brookhiser as the source of this quote. This immediately reminded of my friend's observation on how Turks commemorate Atatürk in contrast to how Americans remember Washington.

Well, as much as I admire Washington, I look forward to learning more about him, to anchor him deeper into my heart. I especially look forward to Ellis' scholarship in light of the context in which he writes. For example, in his preface, he reports:

...the reigning orthodoxy in the academy regards Washington as either taboo or an inappropriate subject, and any aspiring doctoral candidate who declares an interest in, say, Washington's career as a commander in chief, or president, has inadvertently confessed intellectual bankruptcy.

Properly, Ellis criticizes this orthodoxy as "thoroughly ahistorical and presentistic." At the same, Ellis writes that he seeks to avoid portraying Washington as a cartoon hero. In short, he says he seeks to portray Washington, the man free of myth.

To this end, he closes his preface with this astute observation:

It seemed to me that Benjamin Franklin was wiser than Washington; Alexander Hamilton was more brilliant; John Adams was better read; Thomas Jefferson was more intellectually sophisticated; James Madison was more politically astute. Yet each and all of these prominent figures acknowledged that Washington was their unquestioned superior. Within the gallery of greats so often mythologized and capitalized as Founding Fathers, Washington was recognized as primus inter pares, The Foundingest Father of them all. Why was that?

I look forward to seeing how Mr. Ellis tackles this question.

New Template

A couple of days ago, I tried out a new template. Now, I'm trying another one. This one gives me more choices for adding new elements. Also, it includes a widget from Amazon.com. Very cool.

Amazon's widget gives you the option of making some money for referrals to its site. I passed on that for now. The pennies I might make weren't worth the work of reviewing the contract Amazon understandably requires. The cool widget is enough value for me.

If you want to add this widget to your blog, just click the "Get Widget" button. That will take you to a very simple Amazon wizard. All you need to do is make choices.

Technology rocks!

One Chance

I'm happy to report that I now have a copy of One Chance, Paul Potts' first album following his remarkable performance on the British version of American Idol.

Thank you, Mary!

Force Over Football

As a New England Patriots fan, I was excited to hear that their upcoming game was going to be broadcast on CBS and NBC. My excitement turned to horror when I learned that this event was happening because our government pointed a gun at the head of the NFL.

The "smoking gun" in this case is the threat of revoking the NFL's "antitrust exemption". That threat confesses the antitrust laws' inherently capricious, arbitrary nature.

As such, they allow the arbitrary use of force for whatever a bureaucrat and/or politician wishes. In this case, it happens to be something as small as a football game. Yes, it's a big game for fans of football. However, our government has made it a far bigger game for anyone who values freedom and hates seeing it slip away.

No Country for Old Men

No Country for Old Men is the best movie I haven't liked in a while. By that I mean this—evil is cast a potent while the good is feeble. Ayn Rand called this the malevolent universe premise.

No spoilers here. I'll just say that it was interesting to read a Time magazine article about the Coen brothers collaboration with Cormac McCarthy. The Time picture contrasting the brothers with McCarthy told a story in itself. The story in the film ends up being a fusion of gripping story-telling (thank you, Coen brothers, for the screenplay) and the aforementioned malevolent universe premise (no thank you, Mr. McCarthy).

The Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog

On a search for new art work to adorn my newly renovated walls, this candidate (by Caspar Friedrich) caught my eye. The subject appeals to me because of my lifetime of philosophic travel, forging through thousands of years of fog. I stress candidate because this painting is new to me. I'm still digesting it.

What I don't like is that the man is looking down into the fog from his vantage point. It's as if he still has questions lingering in the fog. I'd like to see his head lifted upward toward sunlight and new heights to climb, emphasizing leaving the fog behind forever.

Love seat & chair

The two final pieces of my new living room furniture arrived today. It blends in perfectly with the color scheme Mary recommended.

My neighbors' playful envy made the delivery fun. They were trying to leave when the furniture truck arrived, blocking their path. Since there were only two pieces to deliver, they waited. While they waited, they ooh'ed and ahh'ed the love seat and said playful stuff like "You shouldn't have gone to such lengths to buy us Christmas presents! Hey, why are they bringing that stuff into your place? Our condo is over here!"

Covet away, good neighbor. Just keep yer paws off! ;^)

Of course, I called Mary right away, not only to tell her how happy I was about how it all looked together but to call her a genius. Her excellent judgment hit another homerun.

Must Be Jelly

Gotta take a moment out of my chores to sing the praises of Must Be Jelly by William Clarke. The xylophone woven with the mean harmonica and the rest of the arrangement makes it complete for me. Damn, I love this song!

My thanks to Pandora.com for introducing me to his music.

Will Ferrell & the Landlord

Now, I'm not a big fan of Will Ferrell, but why does this make me laugh?

Miata vs Maserati

This summer, Mary and I paid a visit to her sister in Maine. While we were there, she let us drive one of her cars. Not big on cars, all I keyed in on was that it was sporty and close to the ground. I loved it. Later, relating it to friends, all I recalled was that its name started with M. I ended up confusing Maserati with Miata. I drove the latter not the former.

Later, I was duly corrected as to the magnitude of my gaffe. Yikes!

So, here's the evidence. Me in a...Miata!

Of course, we're in the driveway before take off. Unfortunately, Mary could not run fast enough in front of the car on the highway to catch me in action. (Come on, Honey! Put some effort into it!) ;^)

Ok, I'm ready to go, baybee!

Vrrrrroooom, Vrrrrroooom!