Thank you for your continuing comments upon The Mark Steyn Club's eighth birthday. From First Day Founding Member Jim Holman:
Dear Mark,
I loved every square inch of The Mark Steyn Show on CRTV, from the fantastic intro animation and music to the final signoff. I was, therefore, devastated when you were summarily fired, cancelled, sued, and defenestrated. I promptly demanded my $30 subscription fee returned, ready to sue for 'breach of contract'. They acquiesced and I was thrilled to be able to transition immediately to The Mark Steyn Club at Steyn Online as a Founding Member on May 6.I had hoped to be able to toast you on the most recent Cruise but the opportunity never presented itself, here is what I would have said:
The cost to gain and maintain liberty has always been very high, and easily keeps pace with inflation, but those costs are not amortized equally among its' beneficiaries. For me, it's an occasional autographed book or Liberty Stick and a subscription fee here and there. For you, it has been, literally, your Life, your fortune, and your sacred honor. If our Founding Fathers were here today, they would stand, salute you, and call you brother and equal. Words fail but thank you for fighting, day and night, on my behalf.
That is far too generous of you, Jim. As you will have seen on the brand new edition of our show, the intro music and animation still play - even if, post-heart attacks, my hairpiece has changed colour.
Still, we stagger on to the latest episode of our current Tale for Our Time. If you hop over to our timely Tales home page, you'll find it displayed in Netflix tile style, with the stories organised by category - thrillers, fantasy, romance, etc - which we hope will make it easier for you to find your favorite serial. If it doesn't, please let us know. But you can now access seventy of our cracking yarns here - and all previous episodes of our current adventure, Three Men on the Bummel by Jerome K Jerome, here.
And with that welcome to Part Eleven of our tale. In tonight's installment, our intrepid troupe find themselves at a momentous location:
The lady, her eye catching sight of an advertisement of somebody's cocoa, said "Shocking!" and turned the other way.
Really, there was some excuse for her. One notices, even in England, the home of the proprieties, that the lady who drinks cocoa appears, according to the poster, to require very little else in this world; a yard or so of art muslin at the most. On the Continent she dispenses, so far as one can judge, with every other necessity of life. Not only is cocoa food and drink to her, it should be clothes also, according to the idea of the cocoa manufacturer.
It is true that late-nineteenth-century cocoa advertising appears to suggest aphrodisiacal properties usually associated with stronger tipples. But your mileage may vary. Members of The Mark Steyn Club can hear me read Part Eleven of Three Men on the Bummel simply by clicking here and logging-in.
If you've yet to hear any of our Tales for Our Time, you can do so by joining The Mark Steyn Club and enjoy our nightly audio adventures every evening twenty minutes before lowering your lamp - or hoard the episodes and binge-listen at the weekend or on a long car journey. For more details on that and other benefits to Steyn Club membership on this eighth birthday, see here - and don't forget our special Gift Membership.
