Rest in peace, Paul Conrad

How I enjoyed his political cartoons over the decades.

How little has changed since he drew the one above in 1999.

Rest in peace and rise in glory. And give my regards to Molly Ivins!

h/t to Digby

--the BB

Working my way back into writing

T's wife, Lady L., had not seen her husband for weeks. [H]er father-in-law, spoke words of encouragement but his pale gray eyes were so like his son's that L. only thought about T. all the more.

Hardly great prose but my heart really goes out to L. She married someone whose ambition turns him into a somewhat nasty piece of work. Worse, he might have been a decent enough guy if his sister's ambition were not the true driving force (think of a Lady Macbeth only a sister instead of a wife). L. bears the brunt of it as her husband rides of to ostensible glory and actual disaster. She cannot even turn to her own side of the family. Her father has just been killed, her sister is hostage to the family of another claimant to the throne, and her brother fights on behalf of yet another claimant.

Even I do not know for certain what will become of her.

Then again, I finally have picked up the threads of the tale (and it was one tangled skein, let me tell you).

--the BB

A word to the drug-addled gasbag

h/t to The Dependable Renegade

--the BB

Heaert thread - 08/29/2010

I ask your prayers for my sister Shirley. Our Little Sister writes:

Saw Shirley at home later today. The blocked arteries are the bypasses she had four years ago. One is 30%, one 100% (blocked) and the other is clear. Dr. told them three years ago when she had a stent put in that they are working on developing a larger stent and that is what she needs. Still is not available. He changed her meds a bit and took her off her multivitamin.

Sister Ellie asked our prayers on Friday:

Please pray and/or think good thoughts for my little great-nephew, James ..., who was born late Tuesday night and baptized just yesterday. He is undergoing open-heart surgery this morning at 10:00 (Eastern time, USA) at the University of Virginia Medical School Hospital. He will die within a month's time without the surgery.

Also pray for his young mother, Jane (my niece), and her husband, Chris, as well as Sam and Susan (my brother and his wife.) As if the baby's illness weren't enough, Susan just got back suspicious mammogram results. She has already been through a bout of breast cancer so this is very worrying.

Thank you all more than I can say. Blessings to all.
Ellie

She had this update yesterday:

Little James came through his eight hour heart surgery but is now on a ventilator as he can't breathe on his own. The word is that he will stay on it another two days and then they will try to wean him off.

Thank you all for your concern and good thoughts and prayers.

Ongoing prayers for Kirstin, battling cancer, and for Joel and Margaret dealing with his myasthenia gravis, for David's friend Rosemary in her final journey.

For the people of Pakistan suffering from floods.

For the trapped Chilean miners and those who work to rescue them.

For those threatened by the eruption of Mount Sinabung in Indonesia.

For those who lack food this day or shelter this night.

For families torn apart by strife.

For mass systemic metanoia so the denizens of this planet may cope with the ever-nearing consequences of climate change.

Κυριε ελεησον
Χριστε ελεησον
Κυριε ελεησον

--the BB