Wednesday, September 14
Via DonJim, I enjoyed this entirely too much. An excerpt:
The man of letters, of course, needs a place in which to withdraw from his various dalliances in the social realm and to concentrate on the dominion of learning; a private place in which to enjoy a book, broadsheet or other periodical, or perhaps to brood in a comfortable chair with a dram of scotch and some sound music. The ladyfolk, needless to say, have no place in such a bailiwick, not even to clean, for the wise gentleman knows that a study which accumulates in dust likewise accumulates in a certain intangible value. After all, what man of letters does not relish in removing his 1928 Burns and Oates edition of Martyrs of the Upper Volta from the shelves, blowing the dust from the cover, and charging inwards to read of some blessed soul who met his end in a steamy cauldron?
What then could throw arcadian bliss into disarray quite as much as the sudden appearance of Kaiser Wilhelm?
![[SMMMHDH]](http://www.mgilleland.com/music/smmmhdh.png){kind=small}
