Alexander Hamilton in Love

He is engaged to Miss Elizabeth Schuyler.

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During the summer and fall preceding Hamilton’s wedding in December 1780, he sometimes mooned about in a romantic haze, very much the lovesick swain. “Love is a sort of insanity,” he told Schuyler, “and every thing I write savors strongly of it.” In frequent letters to his “saucy little charmer,” he reassured her that he thought about her constantly. “‘Tis a pretty story indeed that I am to be thus monopolized by a little nut brown maid like you and am from a soldier metamorphosed into a puny lover.” He would steal away from crowds, he told her, and stroll down solitary lanes to swoon over her image. “You are certainly a little sorceress and have bewitched me, for you have me disrelish everything that used to please me.”

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In one letter, he related to her a dream he’d had of arriving in Albany and finding her asleep on the grass, with a strange gentleman holding her hand. “As you may imagine,” he wrote, “I reproached him with his presumption and asserted my claim.” To his relief, Schuyler in the dream awoke, flew into his arms, and allayed his fears with a convincing kiss.

-- Ron Chernow, “Alexander Hamilton”

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slept for a solid five hours

I must have fallen asleep at about 11:30 and I slept for a solid five hours. This hasn't happened in ages. Unfortunately, this was not the best night for it to happen. I left the cats outside. It was a moderate night, but it was in the low forties, which is cold enough, and the cats haven't been outside in that kind of weather for a long time.

Interestingly, Sammy did not want to come inside, even though he must have been starving as well as cold. Coco and Ash eagerly came inside and did not look to return outside. Before I went back to bed, I grabbed Sammy; he didn't put up much of a fight, nor did he cry to be let back out.

No harm, but interesting.

Politics: Krauthammer on the Debt Ceiling

Charles Krauthammer's latest column is creating a stir in political cirles, regarding the battle over the debt ceiling and the larger question of Republican strategy in general. I should read him regularly, but a few years ago I wanted to simplify my news harvesting and I decided that the Times gives me everything and that the Washington Post is largely redundant. So, I only catch his bigger buzz-generating columns.

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Obama’s postelection arrogance and intransigence can put you in a fighting mood. I sympathize. But I’m tending toward the realist view: Don’t force the issue when you don’t have the power.

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Republicans should simply block what they can. Further tax hikes, for example. The general rule is: From a single house of Congress you can resist but you cannot impose.

Aren’t you failing the country, say the insurgents? Answer: The country chose Obama. He gets four years.

Want to save the Republic? Win the next election. Don’t immolate yourself trying to save liberalism from itself. If your conservative philosophy is indeed right, winning will come. As Margaret Thatcher said serenely of the Labor Party socialists she later overthrew: “They always run out of other people’s money.”

-- Charles Krauthammer at The Washington Post

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He still supports using the debt ceiling vote for political leverage, which still strikes me as dubiously ethical, trying to get the government to dance to the tune of the House Republicans, who command a beachhead for right-wing extremism, a power which is based on heavily gerrymandered districts. But Krauthammer's position is relatively moderate and is sharply thought out and written.

Christina Ricci

Okay, how did Christina Ricci end up in "Bucky Larson"? Did she have a major gambling debt to pay off? It was only because of her that I fast-forwarded my way through the movie, in hopes of seeing her naked, and as it turns out, we don't even get that. At least I was reminded that I really should get my own copy of "Black Snake Moan" - classic!

Lindsay

We have another piece on "The Canyons" and LiLo. James Deen gives us an interesting perspective on the controversial starlet.

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People treat actors like these fragile, delicate creatures, and you’ve got to remember that for the past 10 years, Lindsay could not go to Starbucks. She was raised in the Hollywood system, so she’s used to a certain level of treatment. Instead of saying, “Excuse me, could you please pass me the water?” She’s used to saying, “I need water,” and then someone just giving her water. She’s been conditioned to say what she needs and then someone will bring it to her, so I can see why people would consider her to be a train wreck or a bitch or whatever, but her intentions are fine.

-- James Deen

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Let it be remembered that James Deen was a big porn star, and this movie has been his shot into mainstream cinema, thanks to Bret Easton Ellis, and he seems to be riding this wave beautifully, playing it with a lot of class. Ellis, of course, is the "American Psycho" author, and "The Canyons" is his big project.

Daimon asks, "Are you familiar with Deen's porn work, Monk?"

Uh, actually, no. I take it he is fairly new, and I don't really mess with mainstream porn, preferring the nastier stuff on the Net. And I'm not really sure that I will be seeing this film, unless it does the rounds on HBO or Showtime.

1984 (2,9) Goldstein's Book

“From the proletarians nothing is to be feared. [...] They can be granted intellectual liberty because they have no intellect. In a Party member, on the other hand, not the smallest deviation of opinion on the most unimportant subject can be tolerated.”

-- “1984” by George Orwell

Daimon says, “And if you want to play with the Party’s toys and eat their food, you have to dance to their tune.”

Monk says, “Yeah, it’s the end of the game for me if our own oligarchy shuts down the pleasures of the mind and imagination. They may control all the wealth of the world, but one can still find a little satisfaction in life if we are at least left free to enjoy and to think in our minds what we will. Free speech, good books, wild movies - it may not be happiness, but one can get by with a little soul.”

Daily Fun

Guardian To The Golden Forest by *Stroody

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