Programming note: Tomorrow, Wednesday, at 3pm North American Eastern (8pm British Summer Time), I hope to be here for the annual birthday edition of our Clubland Q&A, taking questions from Mark Steyn Club listeners around the world. Hope you can swing by.
~Thank you for all your kind comments upon the Steyn Club's eighth birthday. Robert Bridges is a First Month Founding Member, but regrets, he has a few:
My regret was that I wasn't a First Day member. Tarnished but hanging on.
You'd only feel bad for not being a First Hour Founding Member, Robert.
Our birthday Tale for Our Time, and the seventieth of our Steyn Club audio adventures, is my serialisation of Three Men on the Bummel, Jerome K Jerome's sequel to his comic classic Three Men in a Boat. In tonight's episode, we have a digression within a digression:
From my Uncle Podger's house to the railway station was eight minutes' walk. What my uncle always said was:
"Allow yourself a quarter of an hour, and take it easily."
What he always did was to start five minutes before the time and run. I do not know why, but this was the custom of the suburb. Many stout City gentlemen lived at Ealing in those days—I believe some live there still—and caught early trains to Town. They all started late; they all carried a black bag and a newspaper in one hand, and an umbrella in the other; and for the last quarter of a mile to the station, wet or fine, they all ran.
Folks with nothing else to do, nursemaids chiefly and errand boys, with now and then a perambulating costermonger added, would gather on the common of a fine morning to watch them pass, and cheer the most deserving...
Members of The Mark Steyn Club can hear Part Five of our adventure simply by clicking here and logging-in. Earlier episodes of Three Men on the Bummel can be found here, and previous Tales for Our Time here.
April's preference, expressed yesterday, for fiction over non-fiction prompted this response from Veronica in Auckland:
I understand that not everyone likes listening to political or philosophical tracts but I would personally love to hear MS read excerpts from Machiavelli, Schmitt, Evola, Glubb Pasha (the Fate of Empires is great) and especially the titan of 19th century essayists, social critics and thinkers, the Sage of Chelsea himself, Thomas Carlyle.
Everybody who was anybody read and was influenced by Carlyle and his 'Essays on Politics and Society' are still well worth reading as are his series of lectures on 'Heroes and Hero Worship'.
The second lecture 'The Hero as Prophet', featuring Mahomet aka Mohammed, would prove very popular I think :)
Just a suggestion.
PS. Re the current tale, Jerome was undoubtedly the master of the comical digression, however I do miss the vital presence of Montmorency, who was my favorite character in the first book, and Ethelbertha (what a name!) is something of a pain. Other than that, lots of fun thus far :)
Well, when you put it like that, Veronica... I last read Glubb Pasha when I was in Ramadi, a town he knew well. But it's been a while since Carlyle or Machiavelli. I'll give it some consideration.
If you'd like to join April and Veronica in The Mark Steyn Club, we'd love to have you: please see here. And, if you've a chum who enjoys classic fiction, we've introduced a special Steyn Gift Membership: you'll find more details here. Oh, and we also do video poetry - and an annual Steyn Cruise.
Please join me tomorrow evening for Part Six of Three Men on the Bummel.
