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reetings from Australia.
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On the assumption that life among wild oranges and yerba
mate scrub has capabilities which it does not offer in Australia, one
of the most feather-headed expeditions ever conceived since Ponce de
Leon set out to find the Fountain of Eternal Youth, or Sir Galahad
pursued the Holy Grail, is about to set forth. It's a damn good story. If you have any comments, write them on the back of a check.
Never go to bed mad. Stay up and fight.
Whatever you may look like, marry a man your own age – as your beauty fades, so will his eyesight.
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Housework can't kill you, but why take a chance?
Phyllis Diller
My mother-in-law had a pain beneath her left breast.
Turned out to be a trick knee.
Phyllis Diller
Ad hoc, ad loc,
and quid pro quo.
So little time,
so much to know.
Jeremy Hilary Boob, PhD
(the 'Nowhere
Man'); Yellow Submarine (the movie), premiered on July 17, 1968
If I spoke prose you'd soon find out
That I don't know what I talk about.
Jeremy Hilary Boob, PhD
July 17
is
the 198th
day of the year in the Gregorian
Calendar (199th
in leap years), with 167
days remaining.
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Wayback Machine might help you
locate the original.
Feast day of St
Kenelm
Kenelm was
an English prince and saint, the son of Coenwulf (Kenwulf), King of Mercia, in
the early 9th Century. Tradition says he was murdered on his sister's
order, at Clent, Worcestershire. This wicked sister, Quendreda (Cynefrith
or Quoenthryth), wanted to be Queen of Mercia, but young Kenelm stood in
the way.
Somewhere between 812 and 821, Quendreda bribed her brother's tutor,
Askbert (really), to take seven-year-old
Kenelm on a hunting trip to the forest of Clent in Worcestershire, far from his home in Winchcombe, and whilst he was there to murder the boy.
At this time, young Kenelm had a prophetic dream, as recorded in The Golden Legend
(Aurea Legenda), compiled by Jacobus de Voragine, 1275,
(' Englished by William
Caxton, 1483'):
"And in this while, and at that same time, this young holy
king was asleep, and dreamed a marvellous dream. For him seemed that he
saw a tree stand by his bedside, and that the height thereof touched
heaven, and it shined as bright as gold, and had fair branches full of
blossoms and fruit. And on every branch of this tree were tapers of wax
burning and lamps alight, which was a glorious sight to behold. And him
thought that he climbed upon this tree and Askeberd his governor stood
beneath and hewed down this tree that he stood on. And when this tree
was fallen down, this holy young king was heavy and sorrowful, and him
thought there came a fair bird which flew up to heaven with great joy.
And anon after this dream he awoke, and was all abashed of this dreme,
which anon after, he told to his nurse named Wolweline. And when he had
told to her all his dream, she was full heavy, and told to him what it
meant, and said his sister and the traitor Askeberd had falsely
conspired his death. For she said to him that he had promised to
Quendred to slay thee, and that signifieth that he smiteth down the tree
that stood by thy bedside. And the bird that thou sawest flee up to
heaven, signifieth thy soul, that angels shall bear up to heaven after
thy martyrdom."
The day of the hunt arrived, and Askbert
and Kenelm made for the woods. After the exertions of
the chase, the young lad soon tired with the heat and lay down under a
tree for a nap. Askbert, meanwhile, began to dig a grave.
Askbert took out his sword to kill the boy, but Kenelm
awoke and said "You think to kill me here in vain, for I shall be slain
in another spot. In token, thereof, see this rod blossom", and stuck his
walking stick into the ground. Over the years, this grew to be a great ash
tree, which was known as St. Kenelm's Ash. Askbert managed to slice off
the boy's head, whereupon a white dove flew out of the boy's head and flew
away.
Jacobus de Voragine:
"And anon, his
soule was borne up into heaven in likeness of a white dove. And then the
wicked traitor drew the body into a great valley between two hills, and
there he made a deep pit and cast the body therein, and laid the head upon
it. And whilst he was about to smite off the head, the holy king, kneeling
on his knees, said this holy canticle: Te Deum laudamus, till he came to this
verse: Te martyrum candidatus, and therewith he gave up his spirit
to our Lord Jesu Christ in likeness of a dove, as afore is said."
Askbert buried the prince's body and went to tell the
triumphant Quendreda of his success.
Jacobus de Voragine informs us,
"And it was so that a poor widow lived thereby, which had a white cow, which was driven in to the wood of Clent. And anon as she was there she would depart and go into the valley where Kenelm was buried, and there rest all the day sitting by the corpse without meat [food, grass]. And every night came home with other beasts, fatter, and gave more milk than any of the other kine [cattle], and so continued certain years, whereof the people marvelled that she ever was in so good point and ate no meat. That valley whereas Saint Kenelm's body lay is called Cowbage."
The miracle of the dove
The murder was miraculously made known at Rome by the
dove, which alighted at St Peter's
Basilica, bearing in its beak a scroll with
the words
In Clent cow pasture,
under a thorn,
Of head bereft, lies
Kenelm, King-born.
[or, depending on source:
In Clent in
Cowbage, Kenelm, king born,
Lieth under a thorn,
His head off shorn.]
which it deposited on the high altar. Clerics tried to read, but they could not make it out, as it was written in English. At last, however, an Englishman was found, and he told them what it said. The Pope sent emissaries to England to discover the meaning, and before long the searchers found a grave under a thorn by a white cow. When the body was removed from the grave a light shone and healing water sprang from the ground – it became known as Saint Kenelm's Well, and in time, a small village called Kenelmstowe sprang up around the site of his martyrdom.
The Canons of
Gloucestershire and Worcestershire both claimed the boy's body,
whereupon a wise man suggested that the men of the two shires should go to
sleep at
the same time, and whichever God should first awake should take the body.
The Abbot of Winchcombe and the Gloucestershire men awoke first, and
quietly made off with the very profitable body of the boy saint.
The monks first took Kenelm's body back to his home and wherever they put down the body, healing waters sprang. Eventually they brought the body into Winchcombe (his feast day is celebrated on July17, the date of this translation to this town), and Quendreda, standing at her window when they arrived, swore "May God blind me, if ever I harmed my brother", whereupon her eyes fell out
Read on at the St Kenelm page in the Scriptorium
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Meet me at Corrigenda
Third Saturday in July, 
La Festa del Redentore, Venice, Italy (third
weekend of July)
