This blog is officially retired.  This blog, although I am proud of it — I think it is something beautiful, if purely amateur — has run the race.  The time to go home has arrived.

Posting my always right (or always self-righteous) opinions has been amusing.  Sharing my discoveries, and tastes in art, literature, music, and cuisine has reaped great rewards.  Others have shared with me, and my tastes have expanded (I wouldn’t say changed), my interests have broadened considerably, and my knowledge, even of my core interests has deepened.

I’ve often gone exploring for material to embellish this blog, and made some delightful discoveries thanks entirely to the very simple, easy research just to find a picture, or a citation.  There is so much on the Internet, and combined with what was once known as the “real world”, one can grow in knowledge without being a pedant.

I started blogging with help, and the encouragement of Sledpress, one of my closest friends. Without that friendship, this blog would never have entertained, and annoyed so many readers with time to waste.  It is a friendship that has steered me to hundreds of books over the years, perhaps thousands of web links, and a love of Baroque Era opera, truly an expansion of my deep love for all things Baroque, and Rococo.  Yes, I said opera.

My stats show that this blog has a small, faithful following.  That’s not surprising.  I have never sought a large audience, nor an audience of Zeus clones.  The first requires a different type of blogging with massive ratings as the primary aim.  I could do that, but I wouldn’t have posted what you have seen.  The other is just a lonely echo chamber, and who needs that?  One could just stay in a room and talk at a wall, no typing skills or electricity required.

I plan to leave this blog up for at least another several months as a resource for the many, many visitors to the science, penmanship, art, and literature postings.  I seem to get a lot of hits on my posts about Turgenev, Zola, French-ruled paper, Gentileschi, astrolabes, and a few other tags and topics.  It pleases me greatly to know that some of my postings have become regularly accessed sources of information about topics that are meaningful to me, and apparently to others.  Please, make use of the embedded links.

I am also keeping the email address for this blog active.  I’ve met some wonderful people through this blog, and I’d love to keep in touch.  Please write to me anytime.

This has been rewarding, thanks entirely to you, dear readers. I’ve met interesting people, and these interesting people have taught me much, and perhaps made me a little better as a person.  Thanks again.

There is something elegant, beyond cool, about the gangster films that come of the Melville/Delon pairing.   “Le Samourai” creates a criminal and cop who are duelists.  There will be an end, even a predictable end, but the duel is carried out with resolve, precision and care by both criminal and lawman.

I viewed “Le Cercle Rouge” earlier this year and enjoyed that film too.  This is an era in French film-making that appeals to me.

A blog posting about Tsinandali.

Artcyclopedia’s links to resources about this painter.

Wikipedia’s article about this painter.

I was wrong.  I thought the jury would be deadlocked, and we were looking at a retrial.  “Whatever brings the tourists, and the dollars to Florida” I had cynically opined.  My sister thought (she was adamant) that the jury would find Miss Anthony not guilty.  She was right.  I now have to find ways to avoid paying the one dollar I owe her.

Twelve, with not one holdout, but twelve jurors reached an unambiguous verdict on all the major counts in this case.  They said “not guilty.”  They didn’t say they thought the woman was innocent.  They said that based upon the evidence, and testimony presented in a court room (and the jury instructions too) by trained, qualified, government authorized, tax-payer salaried prosecutors, that they could not convict Miss Anthony of any but the least serious crimes of which she stood accused.

I’ve done jury duty before.  I’ve been part of a couple of juries that simply could not reach a unanimous verdict, and the juries deadlocked. Those cases could be retried, I don’t know if they were, but I would think they were.

Angry ex-lawyers on TV, court TV watchers, and know it all bloggers second guessing this jury (just as happened after the O. J. Simpson trial) are free to do so, but they are also way out of line. If the State of Florida couldn’t persuade twelve jurors, jurors of whom the prosecution played a role in selecting let us not forget, then the Sunshine State didn’t have a case for whatever reason.

Remember, the prosecution had nearly three years to get a solid case together.  They didn’t, and the result was a not guilty vote.  Florida couldn’t even convince one juror.

A court of law isn’t the same as the public meeting, not even that greatest of public meetings, Cyberspace.  We are a free people only because the rule of law does not bend to the feelings of the mob, the blogosphere, or the consensus of “experts” on TV.  If adherence to that rule of law results in a verdict like this (and the OJ verdict), I’m actually grateful. I didn’t say I thought Miss Anthony didn’t do it, but I am grateful that when a jury couldn’t be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt in a death penalty case, that the jury reached the only correct verdict. Of that I am very grateful.

For my freedom’s sake, for your freedom’s sake, the State needs to prove guilt in criminal cases beyond a reasonable doubt.  Since we insist upon retaining, and employing the death penalty in Florida, it is crucial, indeed necessary that the State satisfy a very, very high burden of proof before putting anyone to death.

A review of this film by a critic for the Independent. The critic obviously missed a couple of Rohmer’s short, early films (“The Curve” a short film in which Rohmer was certainly involved, comes to mind right away), but I think the critic appreciates this film.

Today’s Enlightenment Era reading.