TBT^4: Christmas Eve

22 December 202217 December 2022 The Portly Politico5 Comments

Once again, it’s nowhere near Christmas Eve—it’s Christmas Eve Eve Eve this year, and I’m sure the Catholics and High Protestants have some special, esoteric name for 22 December, but I don’t know what it is. Regardless, I always enjoy looking back at my original “Christmas Eve” post from 2019.

As I wrote at the time:

Christmas Eve is always the most magical, mystical part of Christmas time. Popular depictions of Jesus’ Birth take place, presumably, on Christmas Eve—the angels bursting into the black, silent night above Bethlehem. The whole event is supernatural—the Virgin Birth, the Star guiding the way to the manger, the angels appearing to the shepherds and singing. Tradition has it that even the animals in the manger talked at the moment of Christ’s birth (at exactly midnight, of course). If the rocks can cry out, singing praises to Him, why not some donkeys?

That scratches the same itch as Halloween for me—another “Eve”—that connection with our Creator, a Being far beyond our comprehension, and a whole other world just beyond our meager vision. It’s all the more remarkable to consider that that very same God sent His Son as a mere baby to bring a fallen world salvation. Rather than an aloof, indifferent God, or the disinterested Clockmaker God of the Deists, we have a God who loves us enough that He sent His only Son to die for our sins.

We don’t deserve that, but thank God for it!

With that, here’s “TBT^2: Christmas Eve“:

TBT^4: O Little Town of Bethlehem and the Pressures of Songwriting

15 December 202211 December 2022 The Portly Politico6 Comments

It’s another Exam Week, a welcome respite after two weeks of madness. Proctoring exams is a pain, but it’s the kind of tedious pain that we’re all used to enduring from time to time. Fortunately, it’s basically two hours of boredom at a time, followed by frantic grading. The sooner that’s done, the sooner Christmas Break can truly begin.

I’ve been thinking quite a bit lately about how pressure creates diamonds. I was incredibly, almost superhumanly productive in the two weeks after Thanksgiving because I had to be. I was putting in twelve-to-sixteen-hour days to get everything done, and while I was exhausted, I felt like a champion.

Then this last Saturday I had an endless day before me, and accomplished almost nothing. Part of that was recovering from the craziness of the week before; part of it was woman problems (the greatest drain on energy and resources); part of it was the lack of anything to do. I understand why retirees die within six months if they don’t find something productive to do—I was starting to think that all my endeavors meant nothing (maybe they do mean nothing, but as a Christian I know they do; if they didn’t mean anything, it’s all the more reason to keep myself moving so I don’t have time to dwell on The Darkness).

Anyway, that pressure can create Beauty. All this pressure has had me thinking about Neo’s comment on my post “You’ll Get Everything and Not Like It“: “I always remember that our soldiers in France in 1944 had a saying, ‘The road home goes through Berlin’. Berlin is on all of our ways home.” That’s the end of a very long and poignant comment, but those two sentences say it all.

With that, here is “TBT^2: O Little Town of Bethlehem and the Pressures of Songwriting“:

TBT^2: The Morning After

1 December 202213 November 2022 The Portly PoliticoLeave a comment

I’ve been pretty salty—in the parlance of the kiddos these days—about the midterm election results, a level of disappointment I haven’t experienced since the 2020 presidential election.

It brought me back to this post, in which I opine about Trump’s loss and the stolen election. My hope was that the Republican Party would embrace the working-class voters that helped Trump win in 2016, lest they simply “return to being the party of agreeable losers.”

Looks like—ironically—the “agreeable losers” won, and have made losers of us all.

With that, here is 4 November 2021’s “TBT: The Morning After“:

TBT^256: It’s a Thanksgiving Miracle!

24 November 202210 November 2022 The Portly Politico2 Comments

I’m continuing the time-honored tradition of Thanksgivings past (2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, and 2017) with the annual reblogging of “It’s a Thanksgiving Miracle!” I wrote the original post (on the old blog) back in 2017, just a few days after I fell from a ladder and broke my wrist. It was my lowest point in a number of ways, but I was grateful to be alive.

I’m thankful this year, too, although I am similarly in a bit a slump personally. No matter—I’ve got a good family, a good house, a good dog, and lots of private lessons to tide over my insatiable lust for frozen pizza and LEGO sets.

My pastor has been working painstakingly through Philippians for some time now, and has been hammering home the idea of finding joy amid our situations, no matter how difficult they might be. If the Apostle Paul could rejoice in a Roman prison, we can rejoice in the far less trying times of our daily lives.

Good stuff, even if it’s hard to live out. At least today I’ll get to eat some turkey.

With that, here is “TBT^16: It’s a Thanksgiving Miracle!“:

TBT: Game Review: Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution

10 November 20226 November 2022 The Portly Politico2 Comments

I’ve been on a YouTube history kick lately, listening to long historical biography videos while doing things around the house. If you’re a history nerd like me, listening to the intrigues of medieval kings gets you hankering for a piece of the action, albeit a sanitized simulacrum of the real thing.

Yes, that means I have been playing a great deal of Civilization VI. I was a bit sick this past weekend, so I had hours in bed conquering the world as Poland. If your fantasy is a world in which an Eastern Orthodox Poland controls all of Europe, Asia, and most of Africa, as well as large swaths of North and South America, then you’d have loved that game.

With turn-based strategy still fresh on my mind, I’d thought I’d look back to this review of a far more primitive game in the legendary Civilization series: Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution on the Nintendo DS Lite.

With that, here is 30 November 2021’s “Game Review: Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution“:

Lazy Sunday CLXX: Cozy Time

6 November 20221 November 2022 The Portly PoliticoLeave a comment

It’s still hot and humid here in South Carolina, but we’re tantalizingly close to the cozy season—the “hygge,” as our Danish friends call it. In anticipation of autumnal coziness to come, I decided to look back some of the coziest posts TPP has to offer:

“The Joy of Autumn” (and “TBT: The Joy of Autumn,” “TBT^2: The Joy of Autumn,” and “TBT^4: The Joy of Autumn“) – Autumn—fall—is the best season. This post explains why.
“Tarantulas and the Hygge” (and “TBT: Tarantulas and the Hygge“) – Just as we like to bundle up and enjoy a warm home, so do the tarantulas.
“The Joy of Coffee” – A powerful brew, and the elixir of life!

Here’s to a warm cup of coffee on a crisp autumnal day—tarantulas optional.

Happy Sunday!

—TPP

Other Lazy Sunday Installments:

TBT^4: Hand it to Handel

3 November 202225 October 2022 The Portly Politico3 Comments

Autumn is here, and it’s a time for music! There is something about the fall that makes music even better. Sure, summertime is for outdoor concerts and music festivals, but I find music sounds better in the fall.

There is some science behind this feeling: sound waves travel farther in colder weather. It has something to do with air particles being further apart in the cold, so sound waves can keep going. I’m sure I’m explaining it incorrectly, and I’m too lazy to look it up, but just trust me on this one.

Unfortunately, I am no longer teaching the Pre-AP Music Appreciation course that saw me steeped in the best that medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, classical, Romantic, and modern composers had to offer. That doesn’t mean I have to stop enjoying these composers, though!

One of my all-time faves—and a composer who is quintessentially English, even if he’s German—is George Frideric Handel. His works are among the finest from the Baroque period.

With that, here is 18 November 2021’s “TBT: Hand it to Handel“:

TBT^2: Monsters

27 October 202222 October 2022 The Portly Politico26 Comments

Monsters. Ghouls. Ghosts. Democrats.

They’re all creatures of the night: bloodsucking, blood-curdling, blood-soaked.

Or they’re adorable, CGI critters that work in a factory, according to Pixar.

Of course, if you’re Stephen King, the real monsters are us—humans. Have you read ‘Salem’s Lot? A woman beats her own baby (and that baby becomes an infant vampire—yikes)!

That’s all a very weak, very contrived introduction for this week’s edition of TBT, which looks back at a couple of years’ posts and related commentary on monsters. Whatever they are, whatever their intentions, monsters are always one thing: interesting.

With that, here is 21 October 2021’s “TBT: Monsters“:

TBT^4: On Ghost Stories

20 October 202220 October 2022 The Portly Politico4 Comments

Ah, yes—ghost stories. They are perhaps my favorite variation on the short story form. I always find it fascinating that the Victorians liked their ghost stories at Christmastime, but it makes sense—what else are you going to do on those long, dark, cold nights? Best to huddle around the fire and spin some yuletide yarns.

Every culture has its ghosts, spooks, haunts, haints, devils, and the like. As I’m writing this post, I’m reading about the boo hags of the Gullah culture of the South Carolina Lowcountry. Apparently, homes in the Charleston still feature porch ceilings painted “haint blue” to ward off evil spirits.

Looks I’ll be heading to the hardware store for some Behr Premium Ultra Lowcountry Haint Blue.

With that, here is 14 October 2021’s “TBT^2: On Ghost Stories“:

TBT^2: Things That Go Bump in the Night

13 October 20228 October 2022 The Portly Politico4 Comments

It’s the so-called “spooky season” again, which naturally turns my mind to things not seen. Lately, I’ve been pondering the pre-modern mind, and how differently pre-moderns saw the world. It’s hard for us to wrap our minds around it. What must it have been like to fear God—naturally (as in, without the scientistic arrogance we moderns seem inculcated into at an early age)? To suspect mercurial forces at play in every tree or lonely bog?

There’s so much we don’t know; so much we can’t see (even if it’s caught on video). Ironically, for all of our assuredness about how the world works, we find ourselves in an age of constant epistemological confusion, one in which we seem incapable of knowing what is True or not.

Heady contemplations, indeed. The possible existence of Bigfoot or any other number of odd creatures, corporeal or otherwise, is not insignificant: if supernatural beings exist, God Exists (or, more probably, because God Exists, there are all manner of spirits and angels and the like at work, just beyond our perception).

Spooky stuff! With that, here is “TBT: Things That Go Bump in the Night“:

The Portly Politico

One Southerner's unique, erudite, conservative perspective in a hectic world

Tag: TBT