Author Archives: Markham Shaw Pyle

Forty years long was I grieved with this generation

Sunday the 22d October was the 20th Sunday after Trinity. That workaday Season of the Church is hasting to its yearly end: soon enough, it shall be Advent-tide, and then Christmas, the birthday and New Year of the Church. But you’ll not be interested in that, and are perhaps doubtful of its relevance. (O thatContinue reading “Forty years long was I grieved with this generation”

The secret utility of mist and fog: observations on observing

This morning was a morning of mist and fog. Some should no doubt casually label it autumnal. I do not, quite, because I do not particularly measure by weather or by equinox: to me, Autumn has come when first I hear the geese overhead. Fog and mist are not commonly welcome in history or lawContinue reading “The secret utility of mist and fog: observations on observing”

Luke, geese, and Anglican humor: a miscellany in times of trouble

Briefly tearing my eyes, at once enraged and horrified, from the spectacle of barbarism that is Hamas, I note that today is the Feast of Saint Luke. In a world in dire need of spiritual physic, not to say an emetic of the soul, and of Greek logic and learning, that is no bad thing.Continue reading “Luke, geese, and Anglican humor: a miscellany in times of trouble”

Finis Palæstinæ. Delenda est.

It is impressed upon me that those with close personal ties to the region, or with family present in the warzone, particularly but by no means exclusively Jews or Israelis, may find my necessary afterword too much to read as they mourn or wait in dreadful suspense for news of their families, friends, and neighbors.Continue reading “Finis Palæstinæ. Delenda est.”

The end of the beginning

Well. That was an amusing and instructive four-and-twenty hours. And the lessons appointed for the feast of Saint John Baptist were remarkably apt to it. This is going to be a very quick and no-frills commentary. Let us rehearse what happened. Gruppa Vagnera pulled out of the line, and, led by its proprietor, Yevgeny ViktorovichContinue reading “The end of the beginning”

A Commination: Against VV Putin

Little Volodya, your doom is upon you. Hear me, Vladimir Vladimirovich! And hear me also, you sedulous, credulous bastard bootlicker and bumboy to Putin, Alyaksandr Ryhoravich Lukashenka! May all free peoples hear me: not only in Ukraine and in the world, but those in Russia who groan beneath your more than Mongol yoke, and whoContinue reading “A Commination: Against VV Putin”

Talkin’ Baseball

Congratulations to the Braves as a ballclub, from field to front office. Naturally, I’d have preferred that our lads had won it all, for this town and for Dusty. But this is baseball, the national pastime, the American game: a sport of individual effort in the service of a common cause, nine duels at aContinue reading “Talkin’ Baseball”