The Library Phantom

So I stumbled upon this magnificent story and had to share with thee. I have a sneaky suspicion that the phantom is actually one of you...cleverly disguising yourself as a female, as this is what we would all least expect. There is no way a female could have produced works so remarkable! And...if she did...I am left wondering how much more exquisite they would have been if sculpted by the superior gender! Enjoy the story and works of art...

http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2011/11/29/142910393/the-library-phantom-returns?ft=1&f=100

~Master Lieb

Wrapping up Rosemary

I have been meaning to put the 'nail in the coffin' (so to speak) regarding our last parchment: Rosemary's Baby. Thank you to Von Pluma for reminding me me to do so.
In summary, it sounded like everyone enjoyed the book. It was short, simple, and worked well with our tight time constraints.
I think the ending was somewhat disappointing. To me, Ira seemed to forget that he'd written a fairly real and believable book up until the final chapters. I wasn't a fan of the baby with horns and a tail. A little too cliche.
I want to take this opportunity to thank McReadie for allowing me to hold the meeting at his home. Also to Pompous for the fire pit and beer, and to Lieb for the fire log. Sorry if I missed anyone!

Go forth ye seekers of the written word, with thou codpiece in hand.

A sneek peek!

Rosemary Baby ....addendum

Check out the "Total Shipment Price" of my book order. Coincidence? I think NOT!

Last night's events

I wanted to tell you all of what happened to me last night. I didn't want to bring it to your attention until I'd had time to think it over myself. But I feel like you each deserve to know, as it directly effects each and every one of you.

I was awoken from my sleep at exactly 3:33am to a very strange noise. At first I thought it might have come from outside, or that I had imagined it. However, on hearing the sound again I realized it was coming from Ronan's baby monitor on my bedside table. Of course I immediately got out of bed and made my way to the stairs. On climbing the stairs I noticed how cold it was on the second floor. It felt like -25. I could see my own breath, and immediately began to shiver. I also saw what appeared to be smoke coming from beneath the door to Ronan's room. As I reached out to grab the door knob I saw that it was glowing red hot. I took a step back and used the bottom of my foot to kick the door in.

What I saw when I entered the room is hard to explain. It was so unreal that I thought for sure I was still asleep, in some horrible nightmare. I was immediately hit by a blast of hot air and smoke. As I looked into the room I saw that the walls were on fire, and looked like they were melting like candle wax. I then saw Ronan laying on the floor in the middle of the room surrounded by a circle of fire. I jumped through the flames to get to him and picked him up into my arms. As I did this the fire on the walls and the flames surrounding us immediately disappeared, as if nothing had ever happened.

Ronan, who was asleep, suddenly woke up and started crying.

I took him into the other room upstairs and held him until he calmed down. I checked him over to make sure he was ok. He was fine, apart from his upper back. He had markings that looked as though they had been scratched or cut into his skin - but there's no way he could have done it to himself.

I could see that the markings weren't random, and appeared to be letters and symbols, so I wrote them down quickly as they were fading/healing right before my eyes. Here's what I wrote down:

X.VIII.XI
III.III.III ante meridiem.
Erit concilio revelavit hominibus.

I recognized the first part as roman numerals, which are 10.8.11 3.3.3, and I know ante meridiem stands for AM. The first part appears to be a date and time.
The third line I had to look up in a translator. It's latin, but it was difficult to find an accurate translation. But here's how this whole thing effects us all. The best english translation of 'Erit concilio revelavit hominibus.' I could find comes out as 'It shall be revealed to the council of men.'.

I'm defintely still in shock from what happened. I have no idea what to tell you, or how to protect yourself from what the message implies.

Please let me know what happens tonight - and above all please stay safe.

Men Aren't Finished

Greetings. I just thought I'd share this short article about changing gender roles and such. It's told from a women's perspective. I know we've talked about this sort of thing from time to time and thought the MOP would enjoy.

http://www.slate.com/id/2303907

We are...MOP!

First off I want to thank Master Lieb for posting this wonderful group shot. As we all know there were many photos taken that day on the boat - so thank you Lieb for choosing probably the most appropriate one of all! Secondly, I wanted to mention a few exciting additions to the MOP blog. I finally figured out how to add pages to our blog. You will notice in the left hand column a section entitled 'Pages'. We all know about the home page, but I added a new page called 'Council Meetings'. We should all now be able to go to this page and add the details of our past council meetings. This was originally Von Pluma's idea - so hats off to him for the inspiration. There is lots of potential for this page - and I for one am excited to see us populate this new section of the website. We owe it to ourselves to chronicle the history of this great institution. 

I also added a search box to the left sidebar - so we can now quickly search all the posts on the blog. This will become even more useful as we continue to grow the blog.

Lastly. We are missing a member under the 'The MOP are:' section. You know who you are! I have just today sent an invitation to our newest member to join our blog and begin posting wise thoughts. Come into the circle my friend. Come suckle on the tit of knowledge. It is creamy and delicious.

Go forth.

Elementary My Dear Brothers...Elementary

Brothers,

I trust that you have all gotten your eager fingers wrapped firmly around our newest parchment by now. No doubt that your superior cortex has been unraveling Agatha's mystery since page 1 and you all have begun to form theories on the culprit of this great murder. Well, I think it would be fascinating to hear whom each of us suspects has committed the crime at certain points in the story. So, in the spirit of our newest genre...the mystery, why don't you each comment on this post your first guess as to the murderer after completing chapter 12 of the story...page 127 in my edition. Hopefully none of you have made it past that point yet...but if you have, just post your guess anyway and let us know what chapter you are on. Then, once again submit your guess after chapter 19 and 26. Chapter 30 is the last of the book so maybe chapter 26 should be our last guess...who knows, maybe we'll already know by then. Glory awaits the best sleuth among us! Go forth ye seekers!!!

Borders, and the business of books.

Our ally has taken a blow to the groin.

I'm sure by now you have heard the news that Borders are preparing to file for bankruptcy.

As seekers of the written word I believe this news is not a welcome sight, and indeed I find myself somewhat in a state of despair. Any establishment such as this that offers parchment printed with the written word should be seen as an ally to our council, and our cause.

Borders ultimate demise is a forecast of what is to become of the bookstore. Much in the same way that the brick-and-mortar music store has faded away and been replaced by digital online versions; the bookstore too, particularly the book superstore, is becoming extinct. To quote an article from the WSJ:

"Online shopping, and the advent of e-readers, with their promise of any book, any time, anywhere, and cheaper pricing, have shoppers abandoning Borders and Barnes & Nobles bookstores as they did music stores a decade ago."

Consumer habits are clearly shifting. The hunger for parchment is fading. To think otherwise would be lending yourself to foolishness. My question to the group is this: Do we fight this change and become advocates for parchment to our dying breath. Or do we embrace change? Some in our great council have already taken steps towards the e-reader otherwise known as the Kindle. In fact it may shock members absent from the last council meeting to learn that this member, who shall remain nameless, chose to read Oscar's words in pixel form, thus disregarding our great stamp to mark the completion of the book. I say again, is this madness...or is it simply the sound of inevitability....Mr. Anderson.

I wrote a post on this very same topic back on December 19, 2007, entitled "Bastard Child of Parchment?". It makes for some interesting reading. Especially now that we've had over 3 years to witness the rise of the e-reader and e-books.

Reflect fellow members - and then post your comments for the group to read.

Links to articles I read:

Wall Street Journal

New York Times

An Old Friend with a New Trick

 
Scholars,

I just came across this article.  It appears that our old friend, Vladimir, was not just a literary phenom, but a budding scientist as well.  His theory about butterflies has been vindicated.  This just goes to show what a great selection Lolita was for our esteemed council.

Vlad on Butterflies

Evolution and Economics

Gentlemen, I just thought this a worthy topic of discussion.  One of my readings for a marketing strategy seminar is this book chapter (which I'll send via email), that compares the evolution of biology and human life to that of economics.  Some of it is a little much (i.e. an automobile being born from the womb of the factory), but overall it's pretty interesting.  And who would have thought I'd get to rediscover the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle in a marketing course.  Anyway, I am skeptical of some of the comparisons myself, especially at the beginning, but others are really interesting.  I especially like the section on mutations of supply and demand (carbohydrates are out, so the we don't demand as much wheat production) as well as the dialectical process (would it really matter if the Battle of Hastings had gone the other way?)

Again, please don't feel obligated to read or comment, I just thought it worth putting up here.

The Construction of a Sentence

Gentlemen,

I don't know if any of you have this little beauty on your book shelf or not, but The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr. and E.B. White is one of those books, more of a manual, that many writers cite as the end-all-be-all correct way to write.  Wanda gave me a copy when I was in the Wilkes writing program and it has served me well.  Funny, the main thrust of the book has to be that, like Calvin Klein, brevity rules.  Faulker famously quipped that you must be able to "kill your darlings," referring to the necessary skill of being able to cut from your prose that which you think is so clever, witty, or elegant but may not fit with the piece you are writing--or worse yet, may not actually be any of those things.  But clearly E.B. and Billy weren't referring to men of our aptitude and supreme vocabulary because we find great pleasure in qualifiers and ornamental language.  As I read this article on Slate, I thought you all would enjoy it too.  I particularly like how this writer dissects sentences and explains how their meaning would change had words simply been positioned differently.  I hope this finds you all in good health and good nature.  I truly wish I could have been involved in the Portrait discussion as Oscar Wilde was a tremendous writer who somehow turned a play into a novel with style and grace.  Great selection, Brother Pompous.  I enjoyed it thoroughly.  (I probably didn't need the "thoroughly," but we are the M-O-freakin'-P.

The Importance of Sentence Construction