Welcome to November

Holiday of the Month: Thanksgiving.

"Americans are a race of convicts and ought to be thankful for anything we allow them short of hanging." -- Samuel Johnson.

Armed Forces Day

"The existence of the soldier, next to capital punishment, is the most grievous vestige of barbarism which survives among men." -- Alfred de Vigny.



Also on this day, in 1763, James Boswell met Samuel Johnson.

"That he (Boswell) was a coxcomb and a bore, weak, vain, pushing, curious, garrulous, was obvious to all who were acquainted with him."

Don't fish for compliments

Izaak Walton (The Compleat Angler), history's most famous fisherman, died on this day in 1683.

"Angling or float fishing I can only compare to a stick and a string, with a worm at one end and a fool at the other." -- Samuel Johnson.

Let's all set a goal for the New Year

Samuel Johnson, the English writer, lexicographer, critic, wit and subject of Boswell's Life of Johnson, died on this day in 1784. He is buried in Westminster Abbey.

"The goal of all life is death." -- Sigmund Freud.

For some of Johnson's thoughts on the subject of death (and life leading up to it), visit farewells.blogspot.com.

This Thanksgiving, be true to your convictions

Happy Thanksgiving!

"Americans are a race of convicts and ought to be thankful for anything we allow them short of hanging." -- Samuel Johnson, English writer, writing in the 18th century.

That's just what he thinks

Auguste Rodin, the great sculpture (The Thinker, shown here), was born today in 1840.

"A fellow will hack half a year at a block of marble to make something in stone that hardly resembles a man." -- Samuel Johnson.

(Also read about Rodin's last wishes at Last Words -- click this entry's title.)