Tea at Trianon: Mom Olympics

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Thursday, November 28, 2024

Mom Olympics

From Matriarch Goals:

I am hosting only my family for Thanksgiving dinner this year, but many uncles and cousins will stop by midday for post-football beers and apps, and I need to bring several pies to my brother’s house for our great post-feast jam session. The extended family on my side gets together to sing and teach the kids how to play and sing in a band, with multiple guitars and bass, keyboard, drums, and sound boards and amps and mics. I haven’t added my requests to the spreadsheet of songs we are supposed to practice before Thursday. But there is still a little time. Perhaps tonight after choir rehearsals.
Do I want to try to make everyone learn Lord Huron or should we just stick to old reliables: Beatles, Pearl Jam, Foo Fighters, and the Cranberries? Definitely Starship’s We Built This City and The Outfield’s Your Love are going in the request line this year.
Things to do on the Monday before Thanksgiving: get ahead on laundry, make broth, assemble menu, delegate tasks to kids, go to the grocery store. When I was younger I used to have to take out all recipe cards and make lists, and do one giant trip to the grocery store; now I’ve been doing the same thing for so long, plus we have all the meat and most of the goods already in our deep freezer/panty, I barely need to get anything today. There’s no pressure to remember it all, anyway: the six gallons of milk I bought won’t last us through Thursday. I’ll be back. (Read more.)