Laudator Temporis Acti

The Oxford Etymologist discusses that unjustly maligned adjective niggardly, and Balashon - Hebrew Language Detective investigates the history of the Greek word keration (whence English carat).

Fred Reed has some provocative remarks on boys and girls in school. He mentions that his high school principal was nicknamed Chrome Dome. My high school algebra teacher had the same nickname.

Fr. Jim Tucker at Dappled Things explains why he blogs.

Back after a month's silence, Outer Life describes himself in a way that reminds me eerily of myself:

Some people are friendly, attracted to other people. Others are charismatic, attracting other people. I am neither. Wood in a world of magnets.

Theodore Dalrymple writes on Hobbesian Soccer.

From Norman Douglas' Good-bye to Western Culture:

Curry is India's gift to mankind; her contribution to human happiness. Curry atones for all the fatuities of the 108 Upanishads.

At Kenneth Lay's funeral,

The Reverend Dr. Bill Lawson compared Lay with civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and Jesus Christ, and said his name would eventually be cleared.

From a letter to the editor of the Lewiston, Maine, Sun Journal:

We were sitting next to a Somali family for the fireworks when one member of that family asked what the fireworks were for. When someone said, "America's birthday, our independence," one of the Somali children said, "Screw America."

God bless America, I say.

David Warren criticizes a proposal to get rid of St. George as the patron of England and replace him with St. Alban. St. George is "potentially offensive to Muslims," whom we must be very careful not to offend. Warren's essay is a good piece of writing, especially the last paragraph.

Keith Burgess-Jackson claims:

We have nothing to learn from Europeans. Nothing.