THURSDAY, MAY 15
RAIN, GLORIOUS RAIN!
RAIN, GLORIOUS RAIN!
It began raining early this morning. It has rained all day. I went in for a color. Leroy is still sick. Margaret ended up doing a quick shampoo. Everyone going into their saloon was happy! It was like a holiday. “Happy Rainy Day”! It is the first real moisture we’ve had here since January. Things were getting terribly dry to the point of danger – Extreme Fire Hazard. This will help us crawl through until the monsoons begin on the 4th of July. (Every year the rains start on the 4th of July – you can put money on it) even if we have no more moisture until then. I had do run a few errands after leaving the beauty shop. Everywhere I went people were happy, visiting, congratulating one another – all because of the glorious rain!
This evening I called Alicia to coordinate our efforts to keep up with Joneses next week. She was telling me this morning it snowed several inches up on the ski area. She said the principal of the school where she taught made several announcements to the effect that school would not let out early because of snow on the mountains! Tomorrow morning they will be white. It’s about 42 where I am, so up on the higher elevations there will be snow!
The punchline:
When is the first snow of the year in Ruidoso and when is the last snow of the year?
The answer is June.
The Pink Flamingo did not participate in today’s very special John McCain blogger conference call. I had an appointment, and my head still isn’t working fast enough. I’ve had so much cold medication, and am so tired I can’t talk and think at the same time. I can write and think, but can’t talk and think. I send a prepared question to someone in case there was an opening, but obviously my question was lost in the excitement of the day. Let’s be honest here. When you think of the mess I make of things when I’m completely sober, just think of all the damage I could do half stoned out of my brain on cold med!
That’s fine. What a day! It’s times like that these that makes me love politics.
I don’t know about you – but I REALLY NEED THIS!
So now those of us who aren’t thin are responsible for Global Warming! You gotta be kidding.
Did you hear the one about the Girl Scout who sold over 17,000 boxes of cookies?
Harrison Ford now official
The ants who ate Dallas!
Lizardman exonerated in van attack.
THE CHAMBERS BOOK OF DAYS
Born: Cardinal Alberoni, Spanish minister, 1664, Placentia, Italy; Constantine, Marquis of Normanby, 1797.
Died: St. Isidore, 1170, Madrid; Mademoiselle Champmele, celebrated French actress, 1698; Alexander Cunningham, historian, 1737, London; Ephraim Chambers (Cyclopoedia), 1740, London; Alban Butler, author of Lives of the Saints, 1773, St. Omer; Dr. John Wall Callcott, musician, 1821; John Bonnycastle, 1821, Woolwich; Edmund Kean, tragedian, 1833; Daniel O'Connell, 1847.
Feast Day: Saints Peter, Andrew, and companions, martyrs, 250. St. Dympna, virgin, martyr, 7th century. St. Genebreed, martyr, 7th century.
ALBAN BUTLERDied: St. Isidore, 1170, Madrid; Mademoiselle Champmele, celebrated French actress, 1698; Alexander Cunningham, historian, 1737, London; Ephraim Chambers (Cyclopoedia), 1740, London; Alban Butler, author of Lives of the Saints, 1773, St. Omer; Dr. John Wall Callcott, musician, 1821; John Bonnycastle, 1821, Woolwich; Edmund Kean, tragedian, 1833; Daniel O'Connell, 1847.
Feast Day: Saints Peter, Andrew, and companions, martyrs, 250. St. Dympna, virgin, martyr, 7th century. St. Genebreed, martyr, 7th century.
Supposing any one desired to take a course of reading in what is called hagiology, he might choose between the Acta Sanctorum and Alban Butler's Lives of the Saints. The first would be decidedly an alarming undertaking, for the Acts of the Saints occupy nearly sixty folios. The great work was commenced more than two hundred years ago by Bolland, a Belgian Jesuit. His design was to collect, under each day of the year, the saints' histories associated therewith. He got through January and February in five folios, when he died in 1658. Under the auspices of his successor, Daniel Papebroch, March appeared in 1668, and April in 1675, each in three volumes. Other editors followed bearing the unmelodious names of Peter Bosch, John Stilling, Constantine Suyskhen, Urban Sticken, Cornelius Bye, James Bue, and Ignatius Hubens; and in 1762, one hundred and forty years after the appearance of January, the month of September was completed in eight volumes, making forty-seven in all. A part of October was published, but in its midst the work came to a stand for nearly a century. It was resumed about twenty years ago. Nine volumes for October have now appeared, the last embracing only two days, the 20th and 21st of October, and containing as much matter as the five volumes of Macaulay's History of England. Although abounding in stores of strange, recondite, and interesting information, the Acta Sanctorum do not find many readers outside the walls of convents; and the secular inquirer into saintly history will, with better advantage, resort to Alban Butler's copious, yet manageable narratives.
The Rev. Alban Butler, the son of a Northamptonshire gentleman of reduced fortune, was born in 1710, and in his eighth year was sent to the English college at Douay. There he became noted for his studious habits. He did nothing but read; except when sleeping and dressing, a book was never out of his hand. Of those he deemed worthy he drew up abstracts, and filled bulky volumes with choice passages. With a passion for sacred biography, he early began to direct his reading to the collection of materials for his Lives of the Saints. He became Professor of Philosophy, and then of Divinity, at Douay, and in 1745 accompanied the Earl of Shrewsbury and his brothers, the Talbots, on a tour through France and Italy. On his return he was sent to serve as a priest in England, and set his heart on living in London, for the sake of its libraries. To his chagrin he was ordered into Staffordshire. He pleaded that he might be quartered in London for the sake of his work, but was refused, and quietly submitted. Afterwards he was appointed chaplain to the Duke of Norfolk. His Lives of the Saints he published in five quarto volumes, after working on them for thirty years. The manuscript he submitted to Challoner, the vicar apostolic of the London district, who recommended the omission of all the notes, on which. Butler had expended years of research and pains. Like a good Catholic he yielded to the advice, but in the second edition he was allowed to restore them. He was ultimately chosen President of the English college of St. Omer's, where he died in 1773.
Of Alban Butler there is nothing more to tell, save that he was a man of a gentle and tolerant temper, and left kindly memories in the hearts of all who knew him. His Lives are written in a simple and readable style; and Gibbon, in his Decline and Fall, perhaps gives the correct Protestant verdict when he says, 'It is a work of merit; the sense and the learning belong to the author—his prejudices are those of his profession.'
The Rev. Alban Butler, the son of a Northamptonshire gentleman of reduced fortune, was born in 1710, and in his eighth year was sent to the English college at Douay. There he became noted for his studious habits. He did nothing but read; except when sleeping and dressing, a book was never out of his hand. Of those he deemed worthy he drew up abstracts, and filled bulky volumes with choice passages. With a passion for sacred biography, he early began to direct his reading to the collection of materials for his Lives of the Saints. He became Professor of Philosophy, and then of Divinity, at Douay, and in 1745 accompanied the Earl of Shrewsbury and his brothers, the Talbots, on a tour through France and Italy. On his return he was sent to serve as a priest in England, and set his heart on living in London, for the sake of its libraries. To his chagrin he was ordered into Staffordshire. He pleaded that he might be quartered in London for the sake of his work, but was refused, and quietly submitted. Afterwards he was appointed chaplain to the Duke of Norfolk. His Lives of the Saints he published in five quarto volumes, after working on them for thirty years. The manuscript he submitted to Challoner, the vicar apostolic of the London district, who recommended the omission of all the notes, on which. Butler had expended years of research and pains. Like a good Catholic he yielded to the advice, but in the second edition he was allowed to restore them. He was ultimately chosen President of the English college of St. Omer's, where he died in 1773.
Of Alban Butler there is nothing more to tell, save that he was a man of a gentle and tolerant temper, and left kindly memories in the hearts of all who knew him. His Lives are written in a simple and readable style; and Gibbon, in his Decline and Fall, perhaps gives the correct Protestant verdict when he says, 'It is a work of merit; the sense and the learning belong to the author—his prejudices are those of his profession.'
Dime con quien andas y te digo quien eres.
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