Randy | December 29, 2011
As promised yesterday, here we are for a romp on the dark side. What else is new? Northern Europe is home to a rich cornucopia of mythology centered around the doings of entities, deities, and personalities that practice their own rituals at this time of the rolling year. Born of harsher times, these are naturally […]
Randy | December 27, 2011
“Relax the Eyes, See The Candle ‘Breathe’ ~ Now Take Time ~ Take Time for Reflection – Thank Your Ancestors, Regain your Direction & Become ‘Ready’….” ~ Master at Arms James A. Keating For those caught up in its currents, a lot of you are now in that all too familiar state of holiday depletion […]
Randy | December 25, 2011
Whether you be celebrating or just suffering through it, here we are on Christmas Day! Most of you probably are at a point where reading one of my usual diatribes will be impossible because you’ll be scanning the same line repeatedly, so I’m going to spare you in favour of a brief introduction to some […]
Randy | December 24, 2011
Mrs. LFM and I had traditional Christmas experiences in our mutual upbringings. We both grew up steeped in that peculiar amalgam of Christian observances, family traditions, seasonal flavours and smells, feverish preparation, and breathless anticipation that, for us kids, began with the arrival of the first Christmas gift catalogues mere weeks following the annual return […]
Randy | December 22, 2011
“We plunged into the cornucopia quivering with desire and the ecstasy of unbridled avarice.” ~ Adult Ralphie narrating about diving with his brother into the gifts under the Christmas tree, A Christmas Story (1983) Today is the very day I talked about yesterday – the Winter Solstice is upon us and tomorrow the sun begins […]
Randy | December 21, 2011
If there is one thing to be learned from history, it’s that from a practical standpoint, people don’t learn anything from history. The winter solstice – the interval of time that surrounds the shortest day, and likewise the longest night of the annual cycle, has held deep spiritual meaning for human societies as long as […]
Randy | June 16, 2011
“A goodly man the mower is, With sinews tough as twisted rods, A form of manly grace is his, A head as trenchant as a god’s “A man of thought; the harvest o’er, Its heats and triumphs left behind, He rests, and gives himself once more To pleasures of the heart and mind.” ~ from […]
Randy | March 6, 2011
Oddly enough, this poem was born from an intention to write something with a pretty beginning that set the reader up for a funny punch line involving the way Spring unveils just how much frozen dog shit has been slumbering under the snow and ice in our yard, and that blessed day when Nature does […]
Randy | November 20, 2010
“An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life.” ~ Robert A. Heinlein, Beyond This Horizon, 1942 ~ If you follow me here, then you know I regularly encounter subject matter that’s too big for one article to hold. Well, I’m at […]
Randy | October 21, 2010
I broached the subject of the Wendigo on Dark Sentiments – Day 17, and though that article provided an introduction to the nasty thing, what I wrote that day was intended as an introduction to a tale supplied by the good James A. Keating. But the Wendigo is deserving of deeper exploration, particularly because a […]