Author: Robert Coontz (Administrator)

What Is So Rare…

The title of this months random thread comes from a famous but unfashionably florid poem by the 19th-century American poet James Russell Lowell…

The title of this month’s random thread comes from a famous but unfashionably florid poem by the 19th-century American poet James Russell Lowell. It starts like this:

And what is so rare as a day in June?
Then, if ever, come perfect days;
Then Heaven tries earth if it be in tune,
And over it softly her warm ear lays;
Whether we look, or whether we listen,
We hear life murmur, or see it glisten;
Every clod feels a stir of might,
An instinct within it that reaches and towers,
And, groping blindly above it for light,
Climbs to a soul in grass and flowers…

GAPA Reunion!

Robert was in Northern California last weekend, and he and Rosanne got together with some friends and went to a Chinese restaurant. Photographic proof inside!


Rosanne looking frolicsome, as usual. Note impeccably curly hair, a result of her strict conditioner-without-shampoo regimen.


Robert looking considerably less frolicsome than usual because he had to get up at 3 a.m. Washington time to catch his plane and now has been on the go for 20 hours straight. Don’t be fooled, though: he’s really enjoying himself immensely.

Coy Woodnesse, v. 2006.1

A forum for practicing archaic English, foreign languages, and other off-the-beaten-track forms of communication. Back by popular request.

A forum for practicing archaic English, foreign languages, and other off-the-beaten-track forms of communication. The original Coy Woodnesse thread may be worth a look.

(Coy woodnesse means “quiet madness” in Middle English, the version of our language spoken about 600 years ago.)

Useful resources (additions welcome!):

Accents to paste in:
à á â ã ä å æ ç è é ê ë ì í î ï ð ñ ò ó ô õ ö ù ú û ü ¿ ¡

“Chaucer’s Middle English” site at the University of California, Santa Barbara
Librarius has another Middle English glossary and a load of information about Chaucer and the Canterbury Tales

World Religions

There’s an admission fee for this thread: to post, you must have read at least one chapter of Huston Smith’s book The World’s Religions or (new) The Complete Idiot’s Guide to World Religions. Here’s why:

There’s an admission fee for this thread: to post, you must have read at least one chapter of Huston Smith’s book The World’s Religions (known in earlier editions as The Religions of Man), and preferably the whole thing. Here’s why:

  • It’s a good book–fair, readable, and full of fascinating information. In a word, Muselike.
  • It’s a topic that most people care about but don’t know much about.
  • It’s something they don’t teach in school.

Suggestion: read the introduction, then skip to the chapter about your own religion, if any. See if Smith gets it right. Then read the rest. You’ll want to.

*** NOTE (22 May): Some MBers say they’re having trouble finding Smith’s book. For them (and others who find Smith’s book hard to follow), we’ll accept The Complete Idiot’s Guide to World Religions as a substitute.

It may take a while for discussion to get started on this thread, but that’s fine. What are summers for?

Other possibly useful sources of information: The Cartoon History of the Universe; and Wikipedia, for example,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinduism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confucianism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taoism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinto
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoroastrianism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judaism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Catholic_Church
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Orthodox_Church
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protestantism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_Society_of_Friends (Quakers)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mormonism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam

Pumpkin Drop Update

This year’s annual Pumpkin Drop at West Virgina University in Morgantown has been scheduled for Friday, October 26. Start planning now! More information will appear soon at http://www.mae.cemr.wvu.edu/ .

To catch a glimpse of Team Muse’s last entry (and of Robert, Nak, and Nak’s son Aaron), check out The Koko Bomb Saga on the Muse Fan Page.

Meanwhile, if you hear about any other pumpkin drops elsewhere, just let us know, and we’ll post the information here.

Focused Topics The Incredible Morphing Chameleon Thread, v. 2006.1

Closed to comments (though still eminently readable) and continued on version 2006.2.

An experiment: the opposite of a random thread. Once a topic is chosen, posts must stay on the topic until people someone agree decides to change it. GAPAs will zap as necessary to keep things on track.

(Thanks to Pink Stalking Penguin of Penzance and Purple Panda for the idea for this thread.)

Architecture
Plants
Origami and Paper Folding
Musicals
Camp
The May/June 2006 issue
Sheer Joy
It starts at Comment 208.