A Potpourri

We here at Bloody Nib Manor like to laugh. Despite adhering to a theology more akin to the Puritans of Early America and Commonwealth Britain than the current evangelical bip-bop, hip-hop, we like to exercise our diaphrams with a good guffaw. Let's just say that we take the attitude of Samuel Johnson -- life is ridiculous and yet serious.

Last night your faithful correspondent saw Dolly Parton on the television. And seeing Ms. Parton reminded me that there is an American style of humor that goes beyond irony, snide comments and insults of others. Ms Parton, while a great country singer, is a very funny woman and if she ever loses her singing voice she can look forward to a career as a comedianne. Can you imagine Rita Rudner, Margerat Cho or Ellen DeGeneris saying something like, "It takes a lot of money to look this cheap"?

A promoter is trying to excite interest in sumo wrestling in the U.S.Among the featured sumo wrestlers are a group of Yanks. As a young man. before my marriage to the ever lovely Lady Nib, I thought sumo wrestling was basically a pair of fat fellows trying to bump one another out of a ring. Since then I've found out that there is a lot more to the sport. There is a lot of skill and training involved in the sport. I'll never be a sumo fan, but the promotion of the sport in America is a good thing. It shows a form of wrestling that is real, unlike the current fascination with fake wrestling such as the WWF. Meanwhile Greco-Roman wrestling (Plato's sport) is relegated to high school and junior college basements.

The local PBS station is running a new series of mysteries based on the P.D. James novels. The problem is that the actor who is supposed to play Adam Dahlglish just doesn't quite cut it. The actor, whose name I can't remember, would be much better suited to play the role of psychiatrist in some kitchen sink drama than he is suited to play a detective. I've known a couple of police detectives over the years and they have been hard men. And if, God forbid, if I were in a situation where an investigation were done over the death of one of my loved ones, I would much prefer that the investigation done by a hard man instead of a soppy Sam.

I like an English type blend of pipe tobacco. I don't smoke a pipe very often, but when I do I like what I like. When I do smoke a pipe in a public place I usually smoke something like Captain Black. Captain Black is a black Cavendish. It is quite mild. And, for some reason, people who don't smoke like the smell of Captain Black in a pipe. More than once, while smoking Captain Black I have been told something like, "What are you smoking? It smells good." The ever lovely Lady Nib claims that is smells like hot chocolate. The taste of the tobacco is rather inane, but it's acceptable to the public. And given the choice of being able to please the uneducated public with a tobacco that "smells good" or a tobacco that tastes good to me, I'll take the "smell good" tobacco for the simple reason good manners demands a regard for the feelings and senses of those other than one's self.