The Iconoclast

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams may be on his way out, The Telegraph reports:

Perched uncomfortably on the chair of St Augustine, Dr Williams is constantly aware of two figures on either side of him: his predecessor, Lord Carey of Clifton, and his probable successor, Dr John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York. We do not know whether Dr Sentamu wants the post, but the chances are that he will be offered it, and sooner rather than later.

Clergymen spend a lot of time on the internet, mostly for innocent purposes, such as following ecclesiastical backstabbing.

Google "bashing" and "bishops" and see what you get.

The idea that Rowan Williams will step down in two or three years' time – a decade before he is required to – is being discussed in many quarters. It was first floated on Ship of Fools, a theological internet chat site, by someone calling himself "Spawn", who also predicted that the coming Lambeth Conference would be the archbishop's swansong. Does Spawn have inside information? He makes no secret of the fact that he is Andrew Carey, son of the previous Archbishop of Canterbury.

Like the Pope, Lord Carey has surprised everyone by reinventing himself. As Primate of All England, he was dismissed as a self-important booby: Captain Mainwaring in a mitre. Since his retirement in 2002, however, he has become "the king over the water" for conservative evangelical Anglicans, who – thanks to mushrooming churches in Africa – now far outnumber communicants of the Church of England.

Carey has done this partly by offering moral support to anti-homosexual Africans and Americans, even to the extent of travelling to Virginia to confirm opponents of Gene Robinson, the gay Bishop of New Hampshire. According to one Sunday newspaper, "a personal feud between the Archbishop of Canterbury and his predecessor has burst into the open" – a claim to be taken seriously, given that the commentator who made it, Christopher Morgan, was Rowan Williams's best man.

But, to give Lord Carey his due, he has also developed a knack that eluded him in office: of talking common sense. He was the first senior churchman to attack moderate Muslim leaders for not condemning Islamic suicide bombers "clearly and unequivocally"; this week he criticised the wearing of full-face veils by Muslim women.

Such outbursts fly in the face of every convention governing the behaviour of retired primates. Lord Carey's conservative admirers are not concerned; they continue to regard him as the real Archbishop of Canterbury. But that baton is now about to be passed, over Dr Williams's head, to a prelate whom African conservatives can truly consider one of their own: the Ugandan-born Dr Sentamu, who in his previous incarnation as a judge was a ferociously brave critic of Idi Amin.

Actually, it is not just Africans who look to Dr Sentamu as the de facto leader of the Church of England.

As Brown notes, he has been "anointed" by the tabloid press for speaking out on topics that his boss has sidestepped or overlooked. It was York, not Canterbury, that issued a long-overdue condemnation of the BBC's anti-Christian bias; it was York that attacked British Airways' fatuous ban on employees wearing a cross.

In other circumstances, Rowan Williams could have relied on liberal bishops to come to his rescue. But his equivocation over gay clergy and his private criticism of the calibre of women priests have alienated them.

If Rowan is so clever, they ask, why does he tie himself in rhetorical knots every time he opens his mouth?

I would be delighted to see Dr Sentamu at the helm - does a church have a helm? - although there is a possibility that he would be less outspoken were he in charge.

I'm not sure what to make of David Cameron. It's about time we had a Tory government, obviously, especially as Gordon Brown is such a tax-and-spend merchant. But Cameron vacillates between tough talk (saying, for example, that Muslims who want Sharia law should leave the country), and touchy-feely nonsense about the environment and the work-life balance.  Now he is trying to woo the yoof vote, telling them to ignore their "inner tosser". From The Telegraph:

With a use of language that does not spare the blushes of traditional Tory activists, the party has launched an internet campaign called "the inner tosser".

The so-called "viral ad" campaign is the first of series designed to reach younger voters via the internet.

Mr Cameron, at 40 the youngest by far of the main party leaders, has set great store on using the internet to target young people.

Francis Maude, the party chairman, has also claimed the "blogosphere" for the Tories, claiming Right-leaning bloggers dominate the political internet.

The new campaign features a video showing a young man being persuaded to spend beyond his means by an evil sidekick - "the tosser within" - who embodies his worst impulses.

It shows the man being persuaded to use his credit card to buy clothes and shoes as well as huge flat-screen television.

"Two years' interest-free credit – what do you care? You could be dead by then!" advises the evil friend.

The young man finally buys a sports car, before being advised to curb his "inner tosser", a slang expression with a variety of meanings.

A variety of meanings? News to me. I hope this campaign works because I want Labour out, but I can't help feeling that it is as patronising as Tony Blair's Cool Britannia was all those years ago. Furthermore, "tossers" can only really be male, unless you count ships tossing on the open sea. The idea of a tosser within will not necessarily be unpalatable to female voters.

Tossers are male, as are wankers. But slappers and sluts are always female. It seems that you insult a woman by suggesting she does it with lots of people and you insult a man by suggesting that he does it by himself. I can't get my head round it.

You have done it again - all this talk of the Boston tea party has got yet another classic rock song running round my head.  The Sensational Alex Harvey Band

Chorus

Are you going to the party?

Are you going to the Boston tea party?

Redcoats in the village

There’s fighting in the streets

The indians and the mountain men, well

They are talking when they meet

The King has said he’s gonna put a tax on tea

And that’s the reason you all Americans drink coffee

Chorus

Fire in the mountains, flames upon the heath

And the president spits out the news

He’s biting on wooden teeth

The children of the colonies

Got a different tale to tell

I’m going down to the city

Tell my folks I’m doing well

Chorus

Bringing back the buffalo to the long prairie

Bringing back the fishes swimming in the sea

The children of the colonies

Got a different tale to tell

I’m going down to the city

Tell my folks I’m doing well

Chorus

 

I never saw Alex Harvey but my husband did one year at Reading festival. Next!

The Thanksgiving service was kept to a little more than 100 words for a reason. Ordinarily the rule is Brecht's "Erst kommt das Fressen, dann kommt die Morale" (englished as "Grub first, then ethics"). But at Thanksgiving, though the feast's the thing, it comes only after an internal sermon or sometimes one that is uttered, so that sermons come before soda-water, soda-biscuits, soda of any kind. So it's important to abridge all possible palaver, pared down as close as possible to that model of laconic prayer: "God is great/God is good/And we thank him for our food." (see Helge Kokeritz on how to rhyme "good" and "food").

Rebecca, have you been reading Vermont Royster? Or the play entitled "Ralph Roister-Doister"? Or possibly the "Essays (Second Series)" of Ralph Waldo Emerson? Any or all of them would do.

"There was a man from the Muslim Canadian Congress on who seemed like a decent, thoughtful man. But, when asked about the death sentence for apostasy, he said he would not say if it was right or wrong. He said he was troubled by it and agreed that most Muslim scholars interpreted the text as meaning what it says: apostates must be killed. So, he is troubled by it, but he won't renounce it. Why the heck not?"-- from a reader

For the same reason that Hamid Mir accuses Robert Spencer, in pointing out the real contents of Qur'an and Hadith, of forcing him, Hamid Mir, to learn of certain disturbing and unpleasant teachings of Islam and, having learned about them, accept them in toto.

For Islam demands submission. Submission is all. Not thought, not questioning, not deciding that some parts must be rejected. Submission to the declared will of Allah. It is a religion that encourages mental slavery, that demands mental slavery. Some escape by becoming apostates. Others can't do that, don't know quite how to do that. So they pretend and live a lie, based on willful ignorance. But now there is no room for willful ignorance. Everything is now capable of being known, and is being more widely known, among Infidels too, so there is no longer a possibility of denying or pretending. Those who call themselves Muslims must choose.

Once to every man and nation/Comes the moment to decide.

It's up to them. If they continue, after learning about what Islam is all about, to call themselves loyal Muslims, that is a declaration of war on Infidels. The war may be conducted openly, or it may be conducted through the deception that Muhammad talked about ("War is deception") and certainly practiced. But they should be seen as soldiers in that war being conducted against all Infidels, perhaps not active soldiers, perhaps merely on inactive duty, in the reserves, but soldiers nonetheless in an army of enemy aliens whose hostility to us has no end, because no end to such hostility is permitted by the Qur'an and Sunnah. And that must be grasped and thoroughly assimilated by Infidels.

"I am thankfull we have Jihad Watch and all those who contribute to the site. And that I don't live in cesspoolia." -- from a reader

Not to be confused with "Cespuglia," a freshly-minted mythical land first discovered by explorer and botanist a ses heures Amerigo Vespucci, a place which has nothing to do either with the real Puglia, still holding up Italy's silk stocking, or with the vicious "Bushlandia" fabricated out of misunderstood bits and pieces of America by nasty anti-Americans who know not whereof they speak.

"This could lead to another Boston "T" Party." -- Mary Jackson

Great Anna, as you know, doth sometimes counsel take, and sometimes "T."

Why not out-top her,  and take both?

Erratum sheet:

For "Jean Harlow" read "Carole Lombard"
For "Chateau Marmont" read "love-nest in the Laguna Hills"
For "Harley MS." read "Cotton MS"
For "Bodleian" read "British Museum"
For "Carfax" read "Filofax"
For "Sir Hugh de Harley" read "Sir Roger de Coverley"
For "taste" read "haste"

 I knew you would understand.

With due respect to Ed Morrissey, what Tom Tancredo describes is not a fringe position to fear that lots of serious people in this country would like to see a North American political integration that resembles Europe's political integration.  The Council on Foreign Relations task force recommendations demonstrate this point.  John Podhoretz's comment about free trade suggests unfamiliarity with how far along this project is.  In it, free trade is already taken as a given; what internationalists are talking about is common policy on a range of issues that transcends trade (e.g., immigration, economic development, energy and security).  (It is probably worth noting, for example, that we already have a bilateral aerospace defense arrangement with Canada, known as NORAD.)

Personally, I don't think President Bush shares the internationalist agenda — at least, not all of it.  I also happen to believe, for what little that may be worth, that some of the agenda is desirable — a joint air defense arrangement with trusted allies, for example, is a good idea in the modern threat environment ... as long as the allies don't have a veto over security measures the president may believe are necessary to protect Americans.  Nevertheless, it's not unreasonable for people to look at Bush's immigration policies and worry that he is insufficiently alert to the internationalist pressures (what John Fonte calls "transnational progressivism") vigorously challenging the traditional understanding of sovereignty on many fronts.

With that, I wish you and everyone who stops at the Iconoclast a very happy Thanksgiving.

And do the feathers on Shamsu Miah's mouth possibly indicate that there was a quick, possibly loveless swan-tupping before Shamsu Miah faithfully followed the Khomeini rules about islamically correct treatment of animal paramours: kill, season to taste, then serve -- but do be careful about the guest list?

The final "t" in "Harlot" is not pronounced, one may concede, if the signified in question walks out with Charlot and wishes to chime with him, as beautiful 22-year-old lithe Paulette Goddard did for a while, or if that not impossible signified she should be another of the Chateau Marmont ilk (this one playing blonde Rowena opposite Paulette Goddard's Rebecca), such as a certain Jean, fooling around with Clark Gable, and then of course there is Richardson's heroine, which brings up a host of matters about the novel eighteenth-century for which there is not space to discuss here. Going back to the Middle Ages, we have the Harley manuscripts, the MS. Harleiana, which I have reason to believe were incorrectly attributed to the wrong donor, Hugh de Harley, who did leave manuscripts to the Bodleian, rather than to their real donor, the little-known and uprepossessing Prudence Harlot, the first female antiquarian in England (and, with Dorothy Penreath, one of the last speakers of Cornish), whose name was always pronounced without sounding the final consonant. Someone in some Oxford office, a stone’s throw from Carfax, no doubt heard the name of the donor as “Harlow” or, even more likely, read the first four letters of her name, couldn’t make out the last two (a common source of scribal error) and confused her name with that of a previous donor, much more distinguished by lineage and all-round fame but a provider of much less valuable manuscripts, Sir Hugh de Harley, and thus did Prudence Harlot’s enormous legacy to the Bodleian become misnamed and misattributed, seemingly for all time, until just this minute, when cometh the hour, cometh the right man, and the crooked is at last made straight.

It’s all a matter of taste and innate confusion.

"This medial consonant cluster occurs in few English words (diphtheria, diphthong, ophthalmology, naphtha), and in each instance the clustered f and th (as in thin) sounds, both unvoiced, are usually shortened to p plus , a stop plus a continuant rather than two continuants. Therefore diphtheria has two Standard pronunciations—dip-THIR-ee-yuh and dif-THIR-eeyuh—and so it is with the other three words too."

But "apophthegm" is pronounced not "apofthem" or "apopthem" but rather as "apo-them" and so too is the preferred (by me and tens of millions more) spelling of the word as "apothegm."

On the other hand, "phthisic" is pronounced neither as "fthisic" nor "pthisic" (not even by psmith) but rather as "tisic" pronounced "tizzick" so as to rhyme with "Chiswick."

And if you correctly pronounce it yet still won't yield on the field of orthoepy, out of sheer obstinacy, then for god's sake try to fake phthisic, pomp, and expose thyself to feel what wretches feel.

For I, you see, am that wretch.

I’m sticking to my guns on this. Of course you don’t need to put the –ph- in, as it is not pronounced, but reason not the need. Basest beggars can choose an extra letter or two. Apophthegm is much more fun than apothegm. Apothegm is for Roundheads, but apophthegm is for Cavaliers.

 

Besides, if we start leaving letters out merely because we don’t say them, where will it end? Would you spell Cholmondesly-Featherstonehaugh as Chumley-Fanshaw? Or leave out the letter “u”, making words colourless and flavourless?

 

And, what about the other way round? Do we have to pronounce the silent “t” in Harlot?

ISTANBUL, Turkey - Police on Wednesday detained about 40 members of a Turkish nationalist party who earlier had occupied one of Istanbul's most famous buildings, the Haghia Sophia, to protest the visit next week of Pope Benedict XVI.

The protesters belong to the Great Unity Party, a far right-wing group that has previously staged demonstrations against the planned Nov. 28-Dec. 1 visit.

They entered the 6th century former Byzantine church and mosque, shouting "Allahu akbar!" — "God is great!" — and then knelt to perform Islamic prayers.

They also shouted a warning to Benedict: "Pope, don't make a mistake, don't wear out our patience." --from this news item

Will the huge green flag of Islam, with the Qur'anic verse on it, that hangs within, dominating and claiming all in Hagia Sophia, continue to hang when, and if, the Pope visits?

For if the Pope visits, world-wide cameras will be whirring, and the Infidels of the world will see that green menacing flag laying claim to what was for 500 years the largest and most important church of Christendom, in the city that was for a thousand years the largest, richest, and most important in Christendom, still flies, still menaces, still lays claim. Will the Turkish government, in order to spare itself, and to prevent the further understanding of what Islam is all about, especially by those in Western Europe who are supposed to welcome Turkey into the E. U., at least for the duration of the Pope's visit take down that green flag of Islam?

Or will that green flag continue to menace and lay claim to mastery over Hagia Sophia and over all the Christian sites and Christian peoples of Constantinople, of Turkey, and of the Ottoman Empire, as that flag has symbolically done since round about Tuesday, May 29, 1453?

Picture from Slate, 1988

Ann Coulter makes sense amid the absurdity:


Read the rest here.

Where to begin?  The National Geographic collection in Uncle Ronald's attic room (and the crawl space that was our Africa)?  Ex-Rockette Aunt Jeannie's world-class legs?   The list would be endless (the names alone:  Aunt Nora and Uncle Joe, Aunt Julia and Uncle Gus, Aunt Kitty and Uncle Bert).

But how about rhubarb custard pie?



Curious?  Marion Owen tells you everything you ever wanted to know about rhubarb and its uses here.

Socialism is absurd, obviously. Most socialists mean well – perhaps they are “wrong but wromantic”. But rich socialists are the worst. To have become rich they, or more usually their families, must know how wealth is created, yet they try to deprive others of the chance to better themselves. Polly Toynbee, as Boris Johnson argues, is a case in point. Socialist in all she preaches, in practice she is a natural Tory:

 

In so far as New Labour has a fairy godmother, Polly is the girl. She incarnates all the nannying, high-taxing, high-spending schoolmarminess of Blair's Britain. She is the defender and friend of everyone whose non-job has ever been advertised in the Guardian appointments page, every gay and lesbian outreach worker, every clipboard-toter and pen-pusher and form-filler whose function has been generated by mindless regulation. Polly is the high priestess of our paranoid, mollycoddled, risk-averse, airbagged, booster-seated culture of political correctness and 'elf 'n' safety fascism. In an ideal Polly Toynbee world, private sector broadcasting would be banned, Rupert Murdoch would be nationalised, and the BBC would hire thousands more taxpayer-funded social affairs correspondents to psalm the benefits of social democracy…

 

In spite of all she gets wrong, there are things that Polly says that are serious and true, and that any Conservative government should be saying. I don't just mean her stance on fox-hunting, admirable though it is. I recall some powerful pieces in favour of the immemorial rights of the British to slaughter foxes – as you might expect from a gel who is a descendant not just of various ineffably grand Toynbees but also of Gilbert Murray and the Earls of Carlisle. More important still, she is also deeply conservative and Conservative in some of the things she does, as opposed to the things she says.

She joins the usual Labour snarling against fee-paying education, and selective education of all kinds. In reality, of course, she is the beneficiary of a highly selective education and also sent her own offspring to one of the most expensive and competitive public schools in the country, an establishment way beyond the means of most people.

I should add that Toynbee naturally opposed - and was complicit in the unforgivable destruction of - the grammar schools, the greatest engine of social mobility that Britain has ever known. Well, we can't have children from ordinary families doing better than a Toynbee, can we? Back to Boris:

Of course there will be those who accuse her of monstrous hypocrisy, and wonder how she can write her hate-filled philippics about selection in education, and how on earth she can insist on imposing a one-size-fits-all comprehensive system on the rest of the country, and close down the opportunities of so many poor but bright kids, when she has so ruthlessly maximised the opportunities of her own children….

Then there will be those who complain that it is hypocritical of Polly to have her lovely second home in Italy, to which she doubtless repairs on so many cheapo flights that she has personally quilted the earth in a tea-cosy of CO2; to which I say, yes, it probably is wrong of Polly to keep calling for higher taxes when that would put such opportunities – for air travel to second homes – beyond the reach of millions slightly less fortunate than her. But never mind the hypocrisy: look at the fundamental Tory behaviour. At least she's renting the villa out at pretty keen rates. Good on you, Polly! You can't buck the market, as Mrs Thatcher used to say.

And the private-school-using, villa-owning Polly Toynbee is also right in this paramount sense: that if natural Tories like Polly are to have a hope of governing this country again, then they must show that they know and care about what life is like for those who do not have it as easy as they do.

Or should that be “an historical perspective”? Possibly even ahisotircal? 

Thanksgiving happens not long after our Bonfire Night. Here is some useful historical background from You Know Where: 

The Gunpowder Plot arose in the following way: the King had recently invented a new table called Avoirduroi, which said: 

            1 New Presbyter = 1 Old Priest

            0 Bishop = 0 King 

James was always repeating, “No Bishop, No King” to himself, and one day a certain loyal citizen called Sir Guyfawkes, a very active and conscientious man, overheard him, and thought it was the slogan of James’s new policy. So he decided to carry it out at once and made a very loyal plan to blow up the King and the bishops and everybody else in Parliament assembled, with gunpowder. Although the plan failed, attempts are made every year on Sir Guyfawkes Day to remind the Parliament that it would have been a Good Thing. 

It was at this time that some very pious Englishman known as the Early Fathers, who were being persecuted for not learning Avoirduroi, sailed away to America in a ship called the Mayfly; this is generally referred to as the Pilgrims’ Progress and was one of the chief causes of America. 

But as we know, the main cause of America was as follows:

One day when George III was insane he heard that the Americans never had afternoon tea.  This made him very obstinate and he invited them all to a compulsory tea-party at Boston; the Americans, however, started by pouring the tea into Boston Harbour and went on pouring things into Boston Harbour until they were quite Independent, thus causing the United States.  These were also partly caused by Dick Washington who defeated the English at Bunker’s Hill.  After this the Americans made Wittington President and gave up speaking English and became USA and Colombia and 100% etc. This was a Good Thing in the end, as it was the cause of the British Empire, but it prevented America from having any more History.   

So now you know.

From The Telegraph

Almost 100 MPs have joined the protest against British Airways over its decision to ban employees from openly wearing religious symbols. A total of 94 MPs from all parties have signed Parliamentary motions condemning BA for its “deplorable behaviour” in banning check-in worker Nadia Eweida from wearing her Christian cross. The list includes several serving and ex-cabinet ministers, one Muslim and one Hindu MP.

They include Peter Hain, the Northern Ireland Secretary, and Ben Bradshaw, the environment minister, who is threatening to boycott the airline over its “intransigence”. The protest has been joined by 30 Labour MPs, 37 Conservatives, 16 Liberal Democrats and 11 from other smaller parties. They have joined the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, who had condemned BA’s approach as “flawed nonsense” which took no account of Britain’s cultural heritage. 

Last night, Vince Cable, Miss Eweida’s MP and the Liberal Democrat deputy leader, said he was “delighted” at the strength of protest among fellow members of Parliament. One motion in circulation in the House of Commons last night said: “The company’s intransigence will damage its reputation and lost many regular customers including honourable members.” Jon Cruddas, Labour MP for Dagenham and a contender for the Labour deputy leadership, described BA's behaviour as “ridiculous”.

Last night it was reported that UN leaders will raise the issue at a conference in Prague this weekend. It will be debated alongside other claims of religious intolerance including complaints about death sentences for critics of Islam in Pakistan.

I posted here earlier about the North Wales man who killed a swan to eat as he was hungrey during Ramadan.  At that time his mental health was suspect and he was remanded for reports prior to sentencing.

According to The Times today he was sentenced to 2 months imprisonment which term he had already served while on remand.

Shamsu Miah, 52, killed the mute swan at a boating pond in Llandudno, North Wales, on September 25.When challenged by police he said: “I am a Muslim, I am fasting, I needed to eat.” Llandudno magistrates were told that Miah, from the town, had white feathers stuck in his beard and blood on his shirt. Jim Neary, for the prosecution, said: “The officers told him the swan was the property of the Queen and he replied, ‘I hate the Queen, I hate this country’.”  Miah, who has no previous convictions, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to intentionally killing a wild bird and possessing a bladed article.

Yes, Rebecca, you've managed to put many in the right all-is-safely-gathered-in-e'er-the-winter-storms-begin harvest-home holiday mood.

It puts one in mind of the very first Thanksgiving with John and Myles and Priscilla and Squanto carrying his Wampanoag Cookbook brimful with Native American recipes for festive occasions.

And might I this year be given an extra portion of the hot Indian pudding? It's my favorite.

Why, thank you.

Just now a decuman wave of sentimental tiny-timism, ahead of its wonted time by two days more than a month, has suddenly washed over me on this, my favorite holiday, so here, somewhat abashedly, goes:

May God or a reasonable facsimile thereof bless us, every one.

The Service Now Is Ended.

The Pilgrims left Plymouth, England, on September 6, 1620. Their destination? The New World. Although filled with uncertainty and peril, it offered both civil and religious liberty.

For over two months, the 102 passengers braved the harsh elements of a vast storm-tossed sea. Finally, with firm purpose and a reliance on Divine Providence, the cry of "Land!" was heard.

Arriving in Massachusetts in late November, the Pilgrims sought a suitable landing place. On December 11, just before disembarking at Plymouth Rock, they signed the "Mayflower Compact" - America's first document of civil government and the first to introduce self-government.

After a prayer service, the Pilgrims began building hasty shelters. However, unprepared for the starvation and sickness of a harsh New England winter, nearly half died before spring. Yet, persevering in prayer, and assisted by helpful Indians, they reaped a bountiful harvest the following summer.

The grateful Pilgrims then declared a three-day feast, starting on December 13, 1621, to thank God and to celebrate with their Indian friends. While this was not the first Thanksgiving in America (thanksgiving services were held in Virginia as early as 1607), it was America's first Thanksgiving Festival.

Pilgrim Edward Winslow described the Pilgrims' Thanksgiving in these words:

"Our harvest being gotten in, our Governor sent four men on fowling [bird hunting] so that we might, after a special manner, rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labors. They four in one day killed as much fowl as... served the company almost a week... Many of the Indians [came] amongst us and... their greatest King, Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted; and they went out and killed five deer, which they brought... And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet BY THE GOODNESS OF GOD WE ARE... FAR FROM WANT."

"Gevrey... a Morey St. Denis, Chambolle-Musigny all very good reds. Me - I prefer the Rhone's, Chateauneuf and Hermitage wines to those wimpy thin, over priced Cote de Nuits...

When it comes to whites, I prefer the 'les Champs Gain, Chassagne-Montrachet or a Les Clos Chablis...

I'd love to raise a glass of wine, toast with you. Cellar is full... I am looking for a reason to open a 3 Liter of Domaine de Vieux Telegraphe." -- from a reader

Suddenly we have become fast friends. Your cellar is "full." My cellar is bare, or in fact non-existent. Remember that nursery song that hasn't lost its appeal or its relevance? The one that goes "Christmas is coming/The goose is getting fat./Please to put a penny in an old man's hat" and "if you haven't got a penny, a ha'penny will do/And if you haven't got a ha'penny" -- we interrupt this song for a personal Christmas appeal -- bottles or even a case of Pauillac or Gaja Barbaresco or anything with the words Musigny or Montrachet in the appellation would be most welcome round about December 24-January 6 and you can send an email to me for more details, and now back to our regularly scheduled program of this evening's Musical Hour -- "then God bless you."