I really like Carl Orff's Carmina Burana, so it's a bit disappointing to learn that a new British documentary reveals rather despicable things about Orff:

It turns out that Orff, who was born in Bavaria in 1895, had a Jewish grandmother [OK, that's not what I mean by despicable - ed.] - a fact that, extraordinarily, he managed to conceal from the ( Read more... )

According to expatica, Dutch hospitals are now to offer epidurals to laboring women:

New guidelines mean women giving birth at any hospitals in the Netherlands can now ask for epidurals.

An epidural is a safe and effective procedure that alleviates pain in lower part of the body.  Epidurals were successfully used for decades around the world.  But ( Read more... )

My 18 month-old said "Libertarian" today.

Attributed to Russian kid lit writer Samuil Marshak:

You will know a good children's book when children will memorize the words and cut out the pictures.

Being an early-mid 20th century writer Marshak put a bit of creative destruction in the picture: children with scissors. Considering that the theme is destruction of books, the quote is almost ( Read more... )

In not so many words.

On one hand, my opinion of Livni is as high as it ever was.  On the other, it look like we, the United States are poised for four years of international humiliation.

Actually I was supposed to post about the mysteries of Russian children's lit, but that will take time.

My 18-months old pretends to be sleepy to get the cup of milk reserved for the naptime ritual.  Afterwords we have an hour of bouncing of the walls by the crib.

...At least it happens for one nap only...

Short NYT!

Thomas Sowell comments on one aspect of adulation of President-in-Training:

Among the many wonders to be expected from an Obama administration, if Nicholas D. Kristof of the New York Times is to be believed, is ending “the anti-intellectualism that has long been a strain in American life.”

He cited Adlai Stevenson, the suave and debonair governor ( Read more... )

When we were visiting my parents last weekend, we dumped the toddler on them and went to Ikea near their house.  I have a love/hate relationship with Ikea. On one hand, it's inexpensive, modern and utilitarian, on the other -- not that cheap, poor quality and hard to assemble ( Read more... )

On "Are you Smarter then a 5th Grader" apparently.  They had Gene Simmons on Friday, and given how he is a fellow Zionist, I felt compelled to watch.  Although Gene stumbled with some American-themed questions, he did better then any other celebrity to ever appear on the show.  He aced both world and US History, which were both about WW2.  And what ( Read more... )