To Create a Winter Garden

 From Lifehacker:

Although winter typically isn’t thought of as a gardening season, it is possible—with the proper arrangements and precautions—to plant and grow a handful of vegetables during the colder season. Of course, that depends on exactly how cold and snowy your winter gets, but thanks to climate change, who knows what a “normal” winter looks like anymore.

If this is your first winter garden, you may be looking for recommendations on what to plant. Fortunately, in an article for Hunker, expert gardener Teo Spengler provides some examples. Here are a few to consider, and why.

Turns out, there’s a variety of the leafy veggie called Brassica oleracea​—also known as winter cabbage. Unsurprisingly, this is your best bet for a winter garden, Spengler says. But even this seasonally appropriate cabbage comes with a caveat: While it’s frost-tolerant, winter cabbage can’t survive any hard freezes without protection, he explains. (Read more.)

Share

A Moviegoer Reflects

 From Tom Piatak at Chronicles:

The Searchers (1956): Francis introduced me to this John Ford masterpiece and the novel on which it was based. It bears repeated viewing as major themes are never discussed, much less explained. John Wayne’s performance as Ethan Edwards is brilliant, and today’s beleaguered Americans could do worse than consider some of what Edwards says, including this response about his apparent absence from the Confederate surrender three years before: “I don’t believe in surrenders. Nope, I’ve still got my saber, Reverend. Didn’t beat it into no plowshare, neither.”

A Man for All Seasons (1966): Paul Scofield gives a magnificent performance as Thomas More in this Fred Zinnemann screen adaptation of Robert Bolt’s play. It features some of the most eloquent dialogue ever filmed, including: “God made the angels to show Him splendor, as He made animals for innocence and plants for their simplicity. But Man He made to serve Him wittily, in the tangle of his mind.”

The Day of the Jackal (1973): Another film by Zinnemann, this is a tribute to men who take their jobs seriously and work hard to do them well, whether it’s the endlessly resourceful contract assassin hired to kill Charles de Gaulle, the unassuming yet brilliant police detective leading the task force to find the assassin, or the multitude of bureaucrats doing the mundane tasks needed to find the Jackal. The movie depicts a lost world that had yet to discover that “diversity is our greatest strength” and still thought that hard work was. It’s a tribute to the sort of men society now despises.

It’s A Wonderful Life (1946): The favorite movie of both its director Frank Capra and lead Jimmy Stewart, this film delivers the most powerful ending of any American movie. Its final 10-minute sequence overwhelmed me when I saw it the first time and causes me to tear up even now. Not at all a simplistic tale, it strains credulity only once, in asking us to believe that but for Stewart, Donna Reed was destined to be a spinster librarian.

Doctor Zhivago (1965): After seeing this movie several times, I finally saw it on the big screen and it was like seeing it for the first time, for director David Lean painted pictures with his camera. Robert Bolt wrote the screenplay, and it shows, including when Zhivago’s adoptive father exclaims, “I’m one of the people, too!” after the expropriation of his country house by the Communists, in the name of “the people.” I think of these words often when reading the news. (Read more.)

 

Hollywood Bolshevism. Also from Chronicles:

That Soviet agents successfully infiltrated the Roosevelt administration is a matter of historical fact. Among others, United States counterintelligence efforts identified Alger Hiss in the State Department and Harry Dexter White at Treasury. As I showed in my book, Stalin’s War (2021), their presence partly explains the administration’s bias toward Soviet interests in Europe and Asia. Equally important were the well-known personal sympathies of President Roosevelt and his adviser Harry Hopkins for the Soviet tyrant.

Nonetheless, it remains to be explained why Hopkins and Roosevelt came to hold such positive views about the blood-soaked Soviet dictator, whose crimes were hardly unknown at the time (even if less was known about them in the 1940s than today), or how it came about that hundreds of Soviet agents were able to work in the U.S. government during the war. As one of my more perceptive interviewers, Richard Hanania, pointed out on his podcast, propaganda works, and it helps create the “climate of opinion” in which statesmen and their bureaucratic underlings work.

This was certainly true of print journalism in the 1940s, when a single “Washington Merry-Go-Round” newspaper column by the influential syndicated columnist Drew Pearson could imperil a Cabinet member. When Pearson accused Secretary of State Cordell Hull in August 1943 of being an “anti-Russian,” Hull found himself compelled to contact the Soviet Embassy to deny that he was in any way unsympathetic to Stalin’s regime.

Significantly, Pearson had two American Communist Party members on his staff, who regularly provided him with Moscow-approved talking points. These included, for example, that Hull wanted to “see Russia bled white;” that Roosevelt and Churchill were failing Stalin and the Russian people by not opening a “second front” in 1943; that Chiang Kai-Shek and his wife were hopelessly corrupt and Mao’s Communist guerillas were doing the real fighting against Japan; and that the Polish government-in-exile in London was not to be trusted. Filtered through the authority of his nationally syndicated column (highlights of which Pearson would read on air to more than three million radio listeners), these talking points became conventional wisdom in Washington.

Soviet influence operations on the big screen were if anything even more effective, as they shaped opinion not only among contemporary moviegoers—nearly 75 percent of Americans attended the cinema at least once a week at the time—but among postwar generations hooked on wartime films. An obvious propaganda movie was Mission to Moscow (1943), based on the memoir of the former U.S. ambassador to Moscow, Joseph Davies, who made an appearance in the film to strengthen its pro-Soviet message. So over-the-top was this film’s defense of Stalin’s Great Terror-era show trials and so dismissive of Nazi-Soviet collaboration during the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact years (1939–1941) that its screenwriter, Howard Koch, was among the first targeted by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and blacklisted.

In the explicit nature of its pro-Soviet bias, however, Mission to Moscow is an outlier. For a sanitized wartime U.S. media environment which saw Stalin turned into benign old “Uncle Joe,” the film’s whitewashing of Stalin’s Terror went too far, raising eyebrows even in The New York Times, where one op-ed labeled it “totalitarian propaganda.”

Soviet influence operations in Hollywood worked far better when they were hidden. Not all Soviet-sympathizing screenwriters were, like Lillian Hellman, cheerleaders for Soviet Communism, but even Hellman camouflaged her Stalinist sympathies for the greater good of the anti-fascist cause against Hitler, as in The Watch on the Rhine (1943). (Read more.)

 

Share

Putting The Garden To Bed

 From My Mother Lode:

With the first frosts not too far away, it can be very tempting to forget all about the garden until next spring. But if you are willing to spend some time cleaning up garden debris and protecting your plants and soil, it will be well worth the effort. When next spring arrives, you’ll be ready to plant sooner, your soil will be healthier, and your pest and disease problems will be minimal.

Cleaning up the garden: To remove insect eggs or disease pathogens from garden tools, rinse tools in a 10 percent bleach solution (1-part household bleach to 9 parts water). Dry completely before storing.

Decomposing crops become a place for pests and disease pathogens to spend the winter.  Remove finished and diseased plants. Chop up all non-diseased plants into smaller pieces and add them to your compost pile. Be sure to add “brown” material (chopped, fallen leaves) to your compost pile, and cover. Cleaning up weeds is equally important, since pests like to overwinter there too. If you have fruit trees, make sure to clean up all dead and rotting fruit. Don’t forget your perennials; pull away and compost dead leaves and blossoms.

Getting the soil in shape: Cultivating, digging, or tilling your soil in the fall improves aeration and drainage, which allows roots to spread more evenly. It also can destroy pests that overwinter in the soil or expose them to birds and other predators. Incorporating organic matter helps set in motion the natural cycles that enrich the soil. Earthworms and microorganisms break down organic matter into forms that plants can use. As it is broken down, humus is created. Examples of organic matter are: straw, grass clippings, shredded leaves, compost, any remaining summer mulch, and composted manures. The soil should be dry enough to crumble easily in your hand. If the soil is hard and dry, water it deeply. Wait two to three days and check the moisture level again before turning. (Read more.)

Share

The Last Grand Country House in Wiltshire

Zeals. From Country Life:

According to its Historic England listing, Zeals, has evolved over many centuries. Built on a rambling L-plan of limestone rubble with Welsh slate roofs, the earliest range consists of a two-storey, 14th-century hall house, probably re-built around an earlier dwelling acquired by one Matthew de Clevedon in 1372.

The Chafyn family (later the Chafyn-Groves) acquired the house in 1452, extending it to the north-east in the 17th century. Their descendants further extended the house in the 18th and 19th centuries.

During the Second World War, an airfield was created at nearby St Martins Farm and Zeals was requisitioned as a base and mess for RAF officers. After the war, Zeals became a school for boys until, in 1956, the family, now the Troyte-Chafyn-Groves, ended the lease and moved back in.

The unbroken ownership of Zeals by the Chafyn family was ended in 1968, when Alex Garnet Phippen bought the house and restored the 17th-century orangery and the dovecote. (Read more.)

Share

Sebastian Gorka and The Future of Donald Trump

 

Share

Therapists of Decline

 From Chad Pecknold at The Postliberal Order:

Rod Dreher’s influence on conservative therapies is distinct from Douthat’s talk-therapy and from the Storeys’ nostalgia for an American “liberalism” that sits pretty with all its “pre-political” sources. Indeed, Dreher has distinguished himself as a tremendous chronicler of liberal ills. Like Douthat, he is willing to stare down the decadence directly, but unlike Douthat, he often advocates for purer therapies that take into account the mood of his generation.

One obvious way of reading The Benedict Option is as a typical conservative treatise on decline. The prognosis is devastating—nothing will survive the acids of liberalism, get ready for things to get much, much worse. The only hope for Christians to retain their way of life is by some sort of “strategic retreat.” For some years, Dreher’s therapy actually looked like a real break from liberal order. He gave birth to the idea of little Benedictine-esque communities of work and prayer that would one day rebuild civilization after liberalism had laid waste to all of it. It’s romantic in both the bleakness of diagnosis and the idealistic and ever-distant hope for our political future. But it fit the mood of conservatives whose Reaganesque optimism had been dashed by reality, and sold extremely well as a result.

More recently, Dreher has revealed another way to read his work. I don’t mean as a therapist of decline—he’s always been the quintessential type—but rather as the flipside of the sort of right liberalism that utterly depends on the “little platoons” of “pre-political” civil society. Consider his recent, surprising attempts to pivot from the narratival perch of St. Francisville, Louisiana, to playing in the sandbox of international power politics in Central and Eastern European countries, giving keynotes on “national conservativism.” Amish means to Orbanist ends, perhaps?

Dreher himself seems uncertain, and also impatient with the very question of his coherence as a conservative. After Dreher repeatedly attacked his American Conservative colleague Sohrab Ahmari, Ahmari raised a series of questions intended to help Dreher articulate how he holds apparently contradictory views. (Read more.)

Share

Is ‘Diamonds Are Forever’ The Most Objectionable James Bond Picture?

 I was never a big James Bond fan, although I really loved Sean Connery as well as some of the songs from some of the films. This article is hilarious albeit a tad coarse in some places. The names of the characters in the films and books are really a hoot. People forget that Ian Fleming, the author of the Bond novels, also wrote Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. From The Decider:

In real life, in the United States of America these days, it’s a possibly open question as to whether one even needs a license to kill in order to get away with at least, um, homicide. But never mind that. The whole point is, regardless of the fact that Bond’s efforts are in the service of King (or Queen) and Country, he embodies a corrupt fantasy. He is inherently a Problematic.

Which leads to the question: Which of the Bond movies is the most Problematic?

In my book it’s long been Diamonds are Forever. A little backstory: Connery had left the Bond series after 1967’s You Only Live Twice. Which, speaking of problematic, featured Bond going “undercover” as a Japanese man, complete with makeup and hairpiece. 1969’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service featured Australian George Lazenby as Bond, and while for many years Lazenby was a late-night punchline, signifying The Bond Who Failed, Service is now recognized as a cracking good installment in the series. And it is paid significant and almost persistent homage in No Time To Die, right down to the music under the closing credits. At any rate, the film was initially a box-office disappointment, but the producers wanted to stick with Lazenby, but he himself did not re-enlist. On the advice of his agent, apparently. Who gave bad advice.

So producers Albert “Cubby” Broccoli and Harry Saltzman lured Connery back. Adapting the fourth Bond novel, from way back in 1956, they added tyro screenwriter Tom Mankiewicz to bolster the reliable structure sense of regular screen scenarist Richard Maibaum. And yes, Tom was from that family, the son of Joseph. Tom himself once observed “There was something terribly frightening about writing a screenplay when you have the last name of Mankiewicz. You say to yourself, ‘Oh, sh*t, no matter what I write, it sure ain’t any All About Eve, is it.” Action comedies became this Markiewicz’s niche.

Directed with not-quite-furious dispatch by Guy Hamilton, Diamonds — which celebrates its 50th anniversary this month — does a major reset from Service. This James Bond doesn’t cry or mourn. He’s first depicted in ruthless pursuit of master villain Blofeld. Who’s here played by Charles Gray, who, to confuse matters for cinematic universe connoisseurs, played a friendly (and doomed) contact for Bond in You Only Live Twice. (Read more.)

Share

I Moved to a Remote Cabin to Write, and I Hate It

I think just about every writer dreams of the solitude of a cabin in the wilderness, or of a beach shack, in which to write. But complete solitude all at once can be too much for many people, especially if not accompanied by prayer, reflection and mortification. Being a hermit was seen as the ultimate penance for the Desert Fathers, because it was hard to live the eremitical life well. Being alone is not for everyone. The author of this article is honest, funny and quite a good writer. From Outside:

Six months ago I took the biggest leap of my life: I quit my dead-end job, ended things for good with my on-again-off-again boyfriend, and moved to an off-the-grid cabin in the woods of Montana, with a wood stove and an outhouse. I’ve always loved to write, but never had the time and space to try a real writing project, and I figured big sky country would be the answer. Now I have nothing but space, and time: time to hike, to look at wildlife, to be close to the rhythms of nature, and to write my heart out. My best friend even made me a goodbye present to hang above my desk: a painted sign reading WALDEN II.

My plan for my new life was simple, or so I thought. I’d rise each morning, drink herbal tea, walk on the same trail, watch wildlife, and write down my meditations about the natural world. Then I would come home to my little cabin and have the whole afternoon to work on my book: a combination of memoir and reflection on nature. I have with me the crates of books that I hauled down four flights of stairs from my old apartment, thinking they would inspire me—not just to write, but to work through the trauma that I felt I couldn’t process in my old life. I wanted to find myself here, through a combination of nature and art. But now, day after day, I have nothing interesting to say about nature, and I feel terrified that there is no me to find.

I haven’t written anything. I’m bored with the little trail by my house, and the only wildlife I’ve watched are geese. I don’t know anybody here. My plan was to be self-sufficient, a one-person retreat, but I didn’t plan on the kind of loneliness that would make me want to text my ex. My friends back home—in my old home, anyway—are nothing but supportive, and tell me they can’t wait to read my writing. But I have nothing to show them, and I’m afraid to tell them that I’m not even enjoying a world they often tell me they’re jealous I get to experience. I thought this was what I needed to find my true self, but something is wrong, and I’m afraid it’s me. (Read more.)

Share

The Real Reason Americans Do Not Have Friends

 From Return to Order:

Another factor leading to the lack of friendship is a culture organized around self-gratification. American society is organized like a co-op enterprise. Everyone seeks to make money and enjoy life by contributing to the co-op and working with others to get a profitable return on their investment. The difference of religions, principles, ideals and cultures takes a back seat to pleasure and profit.

As long as this co-op/society prospers, such relationships thrive. However, when times get rough, they fall apart. The same Hollywood mentality that promotes shallow relationships, also teaches Americans to reject sacrifices. Thus, when the time comes to sacrifice for friends, people see them as liabilities. Tragically, many Americans see these co-op friends as a means to an end.

Thus, such friendships are shallow and short-lived. They put the person’s ego in the center of a relationship. Once the direction of the link strays outside this center, it can be terminated because the idea of sacrifice is so distasteful.

True friendship needs a higher ideal that hovers above the two parties involved. The Christian idea of friendship is based on supernatural faith in God, who provides the motive for sacrifice and love. Thus, Catholics love their neighbors out of love of God not personal benefits. They become capable of sacrifice themselves for their friends as a means of showing their love for them. (Read more.)

Share