Defending the 12th century since the 14th; blogging since the 21st.

Catholicism, Conservatism, the Middle Ages, Opera, and Historical and Literary Objets d'Art blogged by a suburban dad who teaches law and writes stuff.


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"Too modest" -- Elinor Dashwood

"Perhaps the wisest man on the Web" -- Henry Dieterich

"Hat tip: me (but really Cacciaguida)" -- Diana Feygin, Editor, THE YALE FREE PRESS

"You are my sire. You give me confidence to speak. You raise my heart so high that I am no more I." -- Dante

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Who was Cacciaguida? See Dante's PARADISO, Cantos XV, XVI, & XVII.


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Marine graduation

Jonathan Lee's is coming up. He called last Sunday -- last Sunday of boot camp, they get to (or some of them get to?) use the public phone at the island branch of the Navy Federal Credit Union -- and he sounded great.

Thomas Ricks, in his bookumentary following one platoon through boot camp, describes the scene on the day before graduation:

[The platoon] moves out as one into the warm, hazy morning for its final 4.3 mile "motivational run" around Parris Island. "You own this island," Gunnery Sergeant Camacho shouts at them. The sound of rifle fire pops through the woods. 1st Sergeant Tucker, also joining them for the run, adds, "You're the best on the island, understand? You're the senior company on the island."

They shout as they run:

Feels good
Like it should
Feels fine
Double time!

Earlier, a colonel spoke to a group of recruits soon to graduate:

"It's your Marine Corps now," he says. "We're all responsible.

"Anyone here hear of Aristotle?" he asks. The recruits look at one another as if to say, No Sergeant Aristotle in my unit. The colonel explains: "He was a smart guy who lived a long time ago. He said we are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, isn't an act, it is a habit."

Whoa. I like to imagine that scene continuing this way:

JONATHAN LEE: Sir, this recruit thinks that's from Book 6 of the Nicomachean Ethics, sir."

COLONEL: Cut the classical-home-school crap, Morris, or you'll drop for fifty. Now like I was saying....

Naa, Jonathan would never hot-dog that way (and any recruit who did would be lucky to get off with a nocturnal wedgie from his buddies, in addition to whatever the sergeant dealt out on the quarterdeck).

Anyway, we're all ready for the trip. Family day is Thursday the 14th, graduation is Friday the 15th. I'll see about bringing the laptop so we can blog along, and maybe post some pictures. But if not, then -- blogbreak until Sunday, when I'll tell you all about it.
posted by Cacciaguida at 2:59 PM