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Monthly Archives: November 2006

Ashes, live and Laughing Politics

Monday, November 27, 2006

Watching Ashes live in England:
___________________________
David Hopps writes in the Guardian on the pleasures of watching Ashes from midnight to morning. Here is one juicy bit on reinvigorating oneself with a ‘power walk’ during the tea break.
4.30am: As part of the pre-Test hype, Sky TV paraded its own Ashes medical adviser, who suggested that the tea [...]

Filed in Laughing Matters | | Comments (0)

Wendell Berry and Thanksgiving

Sunday, November 26, 2006

From Iraq to Oakland, this thanksgiving has been a particularly violent one. Instead of reading depressing newspaper stories, here are a few paragraphs from Wendell Berry’s A Place on Earth. As in his other novels, Berry offers a vision of how individuals can live in community and what I quote here articulates that vision [...]

Filed in Civilization, Dharma | | Comments (0)

Ashes chatter

Thursday, November 23, 2006

Ashes began yesterday. Last time around, I watched some fantastic cricket as England played brilliantly, competed with the Aussies and actually won the Ashes. Etched in memory is that exciting second test, as Lee and Warne fought back to almost win the game. Since then the Poms have regressed and this series will probably not [...]

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Sick

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Yesterday as I watched Michael Richards aka Cosmo Kramer unravel and go after against a heckler in LA, I was reminded of a Seinfeld episode in which Kramer accuses Jerry of being an anti-dentite. Kramer has a brief but eloquent comment on discriminating against marginal groups, including dentists in this episode.
This sickness within us. I [...]

Filed in Calm-entry, Peepul | | Comments (0)

Renaming Hunger and other such laughing matters

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

The 16th century devotional poet, Purandara Dasa, sang:
Nageyu barutide enage nageyu barutide
jagadoLiruva manujarella
hagaraNa maaDuvuda ka.nDu.
Seeing the pandemonium
men in this world cause,
I laugh, I laugh.
Not me though, not after:
OJ returns to the oblivion:_______________________
There was nothing funny about the now canceled OJ special - both the TV show and the book deal. It’s sad that the [...]

Filed in Laughing Matters | | Comments (0)

Of Poets and Poetry

Friday, November 17, 2006

Some months ago, I wrote about the friendship between Bhoja and Kalidasa. Here is another similar episode from medieval South India involving Krishnadevaraya and Allasani Peddana. A catu verse couched as a lament by Peddana offers a vision of the esteem that Krishnadevaraya had towards his favorite poet:
When he would see me on the street, [...]

Filed in All that we savor, Poetry | | Comments (2)