Year in Review

I picked up a meme (reminds me of what my grandaddy used to say if we got pinkeye: "stop peeing in the alley!") at Darwin Catholic, which involves posting the first line from your first post of every month. This seemed like a good idea because sometimes my best line is the first one. For example, a blog friend recently complimented me on "What sylvan glade, at least in frigid winter, compares to the beauty of a cleaned bathroom?" saying, "You have quite a way with an opening sentence!" which I suppose is like having a good first step in basketball although not as lucrative. A surprising number are actually not said by me but by someone quoted in Spanning the Proverbial (i.e. not necessarily literally) Globe, which I will put in quotes:

December:
"The title of my talk has been taken from Francois Mauriac."

November:

Once upon a time, in a Midwestern state said to be politically competitive, I received a voice mail that began with a stirring rendition of the U.S. Marine Corp hymn.

October:

Bevin Alexander makes this statement early in his book How the South Could Have Won the Civil War: "William Tecumseh Sherman won the war for the North by employing precisely the strategy that Stonewall Jackson had tried but failed to get the South to follow: he conducted "unrelenting war" on the people and property of George in his march from Chattanooga to Atlanta, and from Atlanta to the sea, in 1864. The campaign broke the back of Southern resistance."

September:

"We are blessed in the 21st century with crystal-clear photographs and action films of the living realities within their pregnant mothers."

August:

This is a cut & paste from a comment made on Sancta Sanctis.

July:

"It's easy to think of St. Peter and St. Paul in binary terms: one as the positive to the other's negative. Heck, we could draw two tables on a piece of paper and make a parlour game out of their contrasting personalities and ministries."

June:

Saturday was magical from start to finish, embodied physically by the breath of the cottonwoods in the backyard, white whispers floating in the wind.

May:

As the pandering begins to really heat up, lets cool off with this (from St. Pat's parish bulletin):

April:

"When the mob gathers against Horton, the argument that his cause must be ended and the speck destroyed is a familiar one: it must be done for the sake of the children!"

March:

"There’s a wideness in God’s mercy,
Like the wideness of the sea;
There’s a kindness in His justice,
Which is more than liberty."

February:

Given that Hillary has at least a 1-in-3 chance of being president (with only Obama & McCain standing in her way), the media has rightly pointed out how wrong it feels for a democracy to have two families, Bush & Clinton, owning the presidency for thirty years.

January:

Mom called me to complain about my comments about as written concerning an aunt (not on the blog).