(Howell Creek Radio address for October 27., 2012 -- ) # Maple Talk The week started out warmer than we wished, for a late October week -- that combination of cloudy and warm which is always unseasonable and always unsettling; but yesterday and today the mercury finally dropped down low enough to match the needle on the barometer, the wind picked up, and the maples have been tapping at our window, presumably to be let in from the cold. We just celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving in our home, extending our little dining room table with folding card tables covered in red cloth so that it would seat ten of our friends and peers. I can give you no definite snapshot of the conversation; as Victor Hugo once said, table talk and lovers' talk alike elude reproduction: the one is clouds, and the other smoke. In the course of the coversation we did often times lapse into discussing movies, but never, surprisingly and thankfully, did we fall to the point of discussing politics. When I am in my right mind, I avoid politics, and, absent any good reasons to the contrary, which I have yet to hear, I much prefer it when others around me do the same, not because it is a sensitive topic but because it is an insignificant, esoteric one. We might as well argue about accounting principles as about politics. Thoreau said "I believe the mind can be permanently profaned by attending to trivial things," and if one is honest, one can feel this profaning happening to one's mind over the course of any amount of time spent attempting to converse about politics: arguing to no definite purpose and producing no meaningful result. So I view political discussion as very nearly equal with profanity: that is, best used sparingly. It is a rule of mine; not a rule of law, but a rule of thumb, as all rules should be, like my rule of not having any clocks hung in the house. We make an exception for the one on the electric stove. But returning to the subject of Canadian Thanksgiving: most Americans suspect it as being a copy of the American version, but it has a rather long pedigree of its own, quite distinct from anything that went on at Plymouth or Jamestown, and which, in fact, predates those events. May I here advise all of my single American friends that having a Canadian wife will do wonders for rounding out your history education if you enjoy such things. (I do.) * * * > She had no saying dark enough > For the dark pine that kept > Forever trying the window latch > Of the room where they slept. > The tireless but ineffectual hands > That with every futile pass > Made that great tree seem as a little bird > Before the mystery of glass! > It never had been inside the room, > And only one of the two > Was afraid in an oft-repeated dream > Of what the tree might do. [^ord] Tree at my window, window tree My sash is lowered when night comes on; But let the never be curtain drawn Between you and me. Vague dream-head lifted out of the ground, And thing next most diffuse to cloud, Not all your light tongues talking aloud Could be profound. But tree, I have seen you taken and tossed And if you have seen me when I slept, You have seen me when I was taken and swept And all but lost. That day she put our heads together, Fate had her imagination about her, Your head so much concerned with outer, Mine with inner, weather. [^tamw] [^ord]: _An Oft Repeated Dream_ by Robert Frost [^tamw]: _Tree at My Window_ by Robert Frost * * * Thanks for listening to Howell Creek Radio. I want to add that I've just started listening to the unabridged audiobook of _Les Misérables_ by Victor Hugo ahead of the release of the new movie coming out this Christmas, and have been enjoying it very much. The book is ponderous in a surprising, delicious-yet-nutritional sort of way. Among many choice thoughts, I came across was this one, which plays into a theme I've revisited a couple of times on the podcast this year: > "It is our conviction that if souls were visible to the eyes, we should be able > to see distinctly that strange thing that each one individual of the human > race corresponds to some one of the species of the animal creation; and we > could easily recognize this truth, hardly perceived by the thinker, that from > the oyster to the eagle, from the pig to the tiger, all animals exist in man, > and that each one of them is in a man. Sometimes even several of them at > a time." I've enjoyed it so much that I've set it up so that Howell Creek Radio listeners can get the unabridged audiobook of _Les Misérables_ for free, all 57 hours and 46 minutes of it, from Audible.com. You can do this by going to and signing up for a free 30-day trial from Audible.com. If you cancel within the 30 days, the book is still yours. I myself joined Audible this way and have been a member for several years; I view it as low-cost mind-enriching entertainment for commutes and long trips. Again, visit to sign up, or for more info and a direct link to the unabridged audiobook narrated by Frederick Davidson. At any rate: read it or reread it before the new movie comes out in December. Synopsis: --------------- Radio address for October 27, 2012: the weather gets colder, and we celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving. Mention is made of _Les Misérables_. Listeners can download a free copy of the unabridged _Les Misérables_ audiobook. To do so, go to and sign up for a free trial[^1], then sign in and go to the [_Les Misérables_][lm] page to download the book. If you cancel within the 30 days, the book is still yours. I myself joined Audible this way and have been a member for several years; it's a great (and low-cost) source of mind-enriching entertainment for commutes and long trips. Whatever you do, be sure to read (or reread) the book before the [new movie][lmm] is released on Christmas Day, 2012. The music at the end is [_Cascading_][cpk] by Phil Keaggy. [^1]: I may promote other audiobooks this way in the future, but probably not more than once every one or two months, and only because I myself enjoy them so much. [lm]: http://www.audible.com/pd?asin=B002V8L8KA [lmm]: http://www.lesmiserablesfilm.com/ [cpk]: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003YOP9BO/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B003YOP9BO&linkCode=as2&tag=joelsimprpers-20