Sunday 2 July 2017

O Canada


O, Canada - What's Wrong with this Picture...?


O Canada!
Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all thy sons command.

AND DAUGHTERS!

With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The True North strong and free!
From far and wide,
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

God keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

Ô Canada!
Terre de nos aïeux,
Ton front est ceint de fleurons glorieux!
Car ton bras sait porter l'épée,
Il sait porter la croix!
Ton histoire est une épopée
Des plus brillants exploits.
Et ta valeur, de foi trempée,
Protégera nos foyers et nos droits.




"They thought the tea was the least they could do."


BARTLET
3.2 billion men in the world. She picks him.

DEBBIE
I hear he had a great pitching arm.

BARTLET
When he was 19, sure. 
She dumped a Rhodes scholar for this guy.

Zoey left Charlie for the Frog. 

Ellie and the guitar player with the purple van. 

My children choose morons. Every one.

DEBBIE
They say daughters look for their fathers.

BARTLET
You know, 15 years ago, we took a trip to Egypt, all five of us, saw the pyramids and Luxor, then headed up into the Sinai. 

We had a guide, a Bedouin man, who called me "Abu el Banat." 

Whenever we'd meet another Bedouin, he'd introduce me as "Abu el Banat." 

The Bedouin would laugh and laugh and then offer me a cup of tea. 

And I'd go and pay them for the tea, and they wouldn't let me. 

"Abu el Banat" means "Father of Daughters.


They thought the tea was the least they could do.


I Want to a Lie Shipwrecked and Comatose Drinking Fresh Mango Juice


Elvis’ death shocks LV

Elvis Presley collapsed and died at his home in Memphis, Tenn. Tuesday and the tragedy sent a rippling shock through Las Vegas where he made his show business comeback and attained a popularity peak from which he never descended.

At the Hilton, where Elvis had made exclusive Las Vegs appearances since 1969, executives were caught by surprise and reacted numbly.

Barron Hilton, head of the worldwide hotel chain, had flown into Las Vegas for a late afternoon advertising conference but cancelled it after word of Presley's death was flashed at 12:30 p.m. PDT.

Hilton, who had befriended Presley here, issued a terse statement of tribute but declined press interviews. In part, his statement said, "...Presley was more than just a great talent, he was a good friend to all of us at the Las Vegas Hilton."

Henry Lewin, the Hilton's senior vice president, was more graphic. Stopping for a hallway interview in the hotel's buzzing executive suite, he referred to Presley as "...an absolute superstar who was also a very simple person."

"I am going to miss him. It makes me very sad that this could happen," Lewin said.

"The man had no season. He was unique and he was magic to our (gaming and tourism) industry," the Hilton executive stated.

Initial conflicting reports said Presley died of a heart attack, respiratory failure and an overdose of drugs.

Doctors at Baptist Hospital in Memphis, where the dead entertainer was initially taken, issued a statement in the late afternoon which said he died of an "erratic heartbeat."

Presley apparently collapsed in a bathroom of his Graceland Mansion in Memphis and was found face down on the floor by his road manager, Joe Esposito, at 3:3 p.m. Memphis time. However, Shelby county Medical Examiner Dr. Jerry Francisco said Presley may have been dead more than five hours before he was found.

Francisco told reporters after an autopsy Presley died of "cardiac arrythmia," which he described as a severely irregular heartbeat. he said it was brought about by "undetermined causes."

Both Francisco and Dr. George Nichopoulos, Presley's physician in Memphis, emphasized there was "no evidence of any illegal drug use."

Rumors had persisted for more than a year in Las Vegas that Presley was a heavy user of cocaine, but the rumors were never confirmed.

Dr. Elias Ghanem, Presley's Las Vegas physician who was also a personal friend, expressed extreme surprise when told of the entertainer's death from heart failure.

"Why, he was in perfect health," ghanem said in news interviews. "I personally gave him a physical examination for insurance reasons only recently. I can't understand this," he exclaimed.

Ghanem cancelled all late afternoon appointments at his office on Joe W. Brown Drive in the shadow of the Hilton Hotel and flew to Memphis for a firsthand review of events.

The Las Vegas doctor last year was a recipient of Presley's well known generosity. After treating the entertainer for pneumonia, Ghanem was gifted with a $42,000 Stutz racing car and a $16,000 Mercedes sedan.

Ghanem's claim that Presley's health was good contradicted other reports which alleged fame and wealth had taken its physical toll long before the singing idol's death Tuesday at the age of 42.

Noticeably overweight during the last few years, Presley was plagued with problems of hypertension and an elarged colon. He was admitted five times in the past four years for treatment at Baptist Hospital in Memphis.

In Las Vegas, Presley cut his appearances at the Hilton from eight eight times a year to twice a year and in 1976 departed from the two-shows-a-night tradition to doing only one show.

His last appearance in Las Vegas was December, 1976, but Hilton executives expected him back this fall.

When the Hilton first opened on July 2, 1969, it was the International Hotel and Barbra Streisand opened in the showroom. Presley followed her on July 31, making his first nightclub appearance in 10 years.

His salary at the hotel was never made public but unconfirmed reports said it was upwards of $200,000 for each engagement. In later years he was said to have earned $300,00 a week in Las Vegas.

He filled the 2,000 seat Hilton showroom for every performance. To see his show, reservations had to be made months in advance. Fans stood in line up to 12 hours at a stretch to catch his act.

But if Presley brought business to the Hilton, he also brought problems.

There were times, especially during the past two years, when Presley's off-stage antics rendered him immobile and he could not make his scheduled showroom appearances.

But he crowds he drew and the gamblers who followed him to Las Vegas and the Hilton's casino, more than made up for his temporary inconveniences.

his first Las Vegas appearance was at the Old Frontier Hotel on the Strip where the Frontier now stands. That was in April, 1956, and Presley was listed third on the entertainment bill behind the Freddy Martin band and comedian Shecky Greene. He didn't go over well and was not signed for a return engagement.

Years later at the Hilton, things would be different. Presley was so idolized he was forced to stay in his five room suite, except for showroom performances, or be mobbed by crowds of fans.

With such single hits as "Hound Dog" and "Don't Be Cruel", Presley became a national legend before his 25th birthday. His long-playing records were the fastest selling albums in history. They reached astronomical levels in the eight figures, and made "Elvis the Pelvis" famous in every corner of the land.

The great teenagers' idol was born in Tupelo, miss. on Jan. 8, 1935, one of a pair of twins, to Gladys and Vernon Presley.

His mother said: "We matched their names - Jesse Garon and Elvis Aron. Jesse died when he was born. Maybe that is why Elvis is so dear to us."

She often reminisced about her son's early childhood.

"When Elvis was just a little fellow," she said, "he would slide off my lap in church, run down the aisle, and scramble up to the platform. He would stand looking at the choir and try to sing with them. He was too little to know the words, but he could carry the tune."

The future musical star, with his two parents, appeared as a popular singing trio at camp meetings, revivals and church conventions. Elvis' father purchased a guitar for the boy at a cost of $12.95.

His mother recalled: "he liked the guitar best of all his things. He'd sit in front of the radio picking out melodies, or play the phonograph, trying to learn the songs he heard."

The family moved to Memphis when Elvis was 13. He attended the L.C. Humes High School, and worked as an usher in a local movie theater. After graduation, he took a job at $35 a week driving a truck.

The fabulous Presley career had its humble beginning in the summer of 1953, when Elvis dropped into the office of the Sun Record Co. in Memphis and paid out four dollars to cut a record. He took the record home and played it over and over again.

A year later he went back to Sun and cut another record, but this one was for the company rather than for himself. It was released in the summer of 1954, under the title "That's All Right, Mama" and drew some attention but was not a big hit. Listeners noted in the song a new quality - a blend of hillbilly and rock-'n-roll. His next recorded song, "Blue Moon of Kentucky" did better.

A shrewd song promoter named Col. Thomas Parker was impressed by the records. He took over management of Elvis and toured him throughout rural areas under the moniker "The Hilly Billy Cat."

Elvis' big change of fortune came in the fall of 1954 at the annual convention of the Country and Western Disc Jockeys Assn. in Nashville, Tenn.

Steve Sholes, head of RCA Victor's specialties division, heard Presley's records at this meeting - and felt that he was a winner.

Sholes approached Sam Phillips, chief of Sun Records, who had Elvis under contract. He offered him the then unheard of sum of $35,000 for the masters of all five of Presley's records for RCA-Victor.

What's more, he gave Presley a bonus which permitted the youth to buy the first of a long string of Cadillacs. Victor broke all previous precedents by releasing the five records simultaneously...and history was made.

Elvish changed the course of popular music with such hits as "Hound Dog," "Don't Be Cruel," "All Shook Up," and "It's Now or Never." The long-sideburned youth with undulating lips, snake eyes, demi-sneer, skin tight pants, gyrating pelvis, and electric guitar made a particular dent in teenage consciousness with the tune, "Heartbreak Hotel."

Some critics judge Presley to have been the most important popular musical figure fo the third quarter of the century. The well-known musicologist Alan Lomax for instance, believed Presley liberated American popular music from the European tradition.

From the years 1956 through 1958, the American Bandstand poll ranked Presley the nation's most popular male singer.

He received $1 million a piece for filming four successful movies: "Love Me Tender," "Loving You," "Jailhouse Rock", and "King Creole." The pictures, combined with his records, made his name a household word.

In 1958 Presley began a two-year hitch in the United States Army. He served in Bad Nauheim, Germany, where he rose to the rank of sergeant.

New records he had made before his induction were judiciously released while he was abroad, and his popularity still was high upon his return to civilian life.

Now came a fresh spate of movies: "GI Blues," "Blue Hawaii," "Fun in Acapulco," "Viva Las Vegas," "Harum Scarum," "Double Trouble," "Clambake," and "Change of Habit."

When his movies started to lose audience appeal, Col. Parker arranged for his protege to make special television appearances.

Presley was meantime becoming richer and richer, driving about in a Rolls Royce and five Cadillacs - painted white, pink, blue, canary yellow and goold.

His house in Memphis, and a Grecian palace he purchased in Bel Air, creaked with pinball machines, pool tables, and jukeboxes.

In 1967 he married Priscilla Ann Beaulieu, and they had a daughter the following year. The couple separated in 1972.

Presley went into semiretirement during the late 1960s, with 400 million records and 31 films to his credit.

When he made a brief reappearance in the limelight in 1972, he found his fans still faithful.


1
The Sleeping Beauty Diet

As most of us are aware, Elvis Presley, late in his life, was a whale. To make himself feel better about it, he would eat six eggs, a pound of bacon, a half-pound of sausage and 12 buttermilk biscuits for breakfast. His staple dinner sandwich was a foot-long baguette containing an entire jar of peanut butter and jelly and a pound of bacon. He would eat two of those, then follow it up later with a midnight snack of five hamburgers. Instead of, for example, cutting down to three hamburgers or half a pound of bacon, which would have been unreasonable, he had himself sedated for two weeks.

The Theory: Logically, it makes sense that if you're too sedated to move, you can't get yourself food, and if you don't eat, you won't gain weight. Coma patients don't get fat, for instance. Elvis was supervised by celebrity doctor Elias Ghanem during this time and fed a special "liquid diet," and as we all know, drinks aren't food, so you won't gain weight.

The Reality: Unfortunately, Elvis's body may have outsmarted him. Being a pretty efficient machine, the human body will shut down to a minimal level of energy consumption when asleep or extremely inactive. Even being awake and reading quietly will burn a fair amount more energy, as brain activity consumes a decent amount of calories (see below).

Calorie burn rates for various stationary activities:

  • 80 - reading (Dostoevsky)
  • 70 - reading (Dean Koontz)
  • 70 - watching TV
  • 60 - baseline, comatose, asleep
  • 55 - posting comments on the Internet

Also, common sense should tell you that it doesn't matter whether something is liquid or solid--calories are calories. A hamburger doesn't become a diet hamburger after you put it in a blender.

The Results: Elvis left the treatment 10 pounds heavier than when he'd started, and it probably wasn't muscle weight. By 1977, he had become so large that aliens were able to spot him from space, and, as we all remember, abducted him. Depending on which tabloid magazine you read, the aliens either used their advanced technology to restore his youth and figure, or to keep him alive for an eternal torment of anal probing.

Either way, the lesson is that your body is an evolutionarily adapted traitor that can't be trusted to lose weight for you while you nap for two weeks. If only liposuction had been around ...

Catch-777 : When Praying for One's Enemies....





Catch-777 : When Praying 4 1's Enemies B Careful What  U Wish 4

Catch-777 - The Agape Wake-Up Call Reminder

The point at which prayer and magick intersect exists as a conscious inner recognition and acceptance of responsibility occurs in conjunction with a sincere and considered request for some specific form of help, accompanied some voluntary and unsolicited act of pennance, adequate and sufficient to the scale of the demand implicit in your submitted plea.


One of my personal favourite case-study examples of outstanding good moral behaviour, sacrifice and Christ-like behaviour to really freak out all of the self-righteous, judgemental and prideful Judeo-Christian policy wonks, Flag-suckers and Bible-Thumpers is to cite, chapter and verse, the specific, documented instances of acts of agape and sacrifice, the Christ-like qualities and character-traits demonstrated by the late Col. Mumar Qaddaffi of Libya as Head of State of that country.


Who wasn't even a Christian.







Saturday 1 July 2017

Equally Cursed and Blessed and Commissioned


" As if the weight of such a commitment to the life and health of America were not enough, another burden of responsibility was placed upon me in 1964. 

And I cannot forget that the Nobel Peace Prize was also a commission, a commission to work harder than I had ever worked before for the brotherhood of man. 

This is a calling that takes me beyond national allegiances. "


O thou well skill'd in curses, stay awhile,
And teach me how to curse mine enemies!



 HEAR ME!!, you wrangling pirates, that fall out 
In sharing that which you have pill'd from me!!!

Which of you trembles not that looks on me? 

Can curses pierce the clouds and enter Heaven? 

Why, then, give way, dull clouds, to my quick curses! 




“I am sending my love and prayers to my fellow Israeli citizens. Especially to all the boys and girls who are risking their lives protecting my country against the horrific acts conducted by Hamas, who are hiding like cowards behind women and children…We shall overcome!!! Shabbat Shalom! #weareright #freegazafromhamas #stopterror #coexistance #loveidf”


HekateHekateHekate

Goddess Hekate, Work Thy WillBefore Thee, 

  • Let The Veil be Lifted from Thy Daughter's eyes, the stainéd be washed clean
  • The Prideful-Arrogant be made brought low and made humble so that 
  • She may soon soar all the more High

HekateHekateHekate

  • I do invoke thee Hekate and thy power to SEIZE thy daughter in all thy Glorious majesty, 
  • I do invoke thee again Hekate, to bind thy daughter with a CURSE of thy aspect of awful, terrible wrath,
  • I do invoke thee thricewise Hekate, to BLESS thy daughter in thy aspect of Perfect Charity, Grace and Agape;

Let thy thricewise Will be done - answer the call of Thy True Preist-Forever to confer on Thy wayward daughter thy Blessing/Curse/Divine Commission thy gift of 

  • TRUE DISCERNMENT
  • WISDOM and 
  • INSIGHT.

Answer my thricewise plea to thee O Hekate

  • Queen of Heaven, 
  • Mistress of Wild Beasts and all The Earth, 
  • Ruler of My Heart.

Thy Will Be Done.

In the Name of 

  • The Mother
  • The Daughter and 
  • Aunt Dot,

Amen-Ra.

HekateHekateHekate

The Dismal Science






"There's another fellow," muttered Scrooge; who overheard him: "my clerk, with fifteen shillings a week, and a wife and family, talking about a merry Christmas.  I'll retire to Bedlam."

This lunatic, in letting Scrooge's nephew out, had let two other people in.  They were portly gentlemen, pleasant to behold, and now stood, with their hats off, in Scrooge's office.  They had books and papers in their hands, and bowed to him.

"Scrooge and Marley's, I believe," said one of the gentlemen, referring to his list.  "Have I the pleasure of addressing Mr. Scrooge, or Mr. Marley?"

"Mr. Marley has been dead these seven years," Scrooge replied.  "He died seven years ago, this very night."

"We have no doubt his liberality is well represented by his surviving partner," said the gentleman, presenting his credentials.

It certainly was; for they had been two kindred spirits.  At the ominous word "liberality," Scrooge frowned, and shook his head, and handed the credentials back.

"At this festive season of the year, Mr. Scrooge," said the gentleman, taking up a pen, "it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the Poor and Destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time.  Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts, sir."

"Are there no prisons?" asked Scrooge.

"Plenty of prisons," said the gentleman, laying down the pen again.

"And the Union workhouses?"  demanded Scrooge.  "Are they still in operation?"

"They are.  Still," returned the gentleman, "I wish I could say they were not."

"The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, then?"  said Scrooge.

"Both very busy, sir."

"Oh!  I was afraid, from what you said at first, that something had occurred to stop them in their useful course," said Scrooge.  "I'm very glad to hear it."

"Under the impression that they scarcely furnish Christian cheer of mind or body to the multitude," returned the gentleman, "a few of us are endeavouring to raise a fund to buy the Poor some meat and drink and means of warmth.  We choose this time, because it is a time, of all others, when Want is keenly felt, and Abundance rejoices.  What shall I put you down for?"

"Nothing!" Scrooge replied.

"You wish to be anonymous?"

"I wish to be left alone," said Scrooge.  "Since you ask me what I wish, gentlemen, that is my answer.  I don't make merry myself at Christmas and I can't afford to make idle people merry.  I help to support the establishments I have mentioned -- they cost enough; and those who are badly off must go there."

"Many can't go there; and many would rather die."

"If they would rather die," said Scrooge, "they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.  Besides -- excuse me -- I don't know that."

"But you might know it," observed the gentleman.

"It's not my business," Scrooge returned.  




"It's enough for a man to understand his own business, and not to interfere with other people's.  Mine occupies me constantly.  Good afternoon, gentlemen!"


Seeing clearly that it would be useless to pursue their point, the gentlemen withdrew.  Scrooge returned his labours with an improved opinion of himself, and in a more facetious temper than was usual with him.




Scrooge fell upon his knees, and clasped his hands before his face.
"Mercy!" he said.  "Dreadful apparition, why do you trouble me?"

"Man of the worldly mind!" replied the Ghost, "do you believe in me or not?"

"I do," said Scrooge.  "I must.  But why do spirits walk the earth, and why do they come to me?"

"It is required of every man," the Ghost returned, "that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellowmen, and travel far and wide; and if that spirit goes not forth in life, it is condemned to do so after death.  It is doomed to wander through the world -- oh, woe is me! -- and witness what it cannot share, but might have shared on earth, and turned to happiness!"

Again the spectre raised a cry, and shook its chain and wrung its shadowy hands.

"You are fettered," said Scrooge, trembling.  "Tell me why?"

"I wear the chain I forged in life," replied the Ghost. "I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it.  Is its pattern strange to you?"

Scrooge trembled more and more.

"Or would you know," pursued the Ghost, "the weight and length of the strong coil you bear yourself?  It was full as heavy and as long as this, seven Christmas Eves ago.  You have laboured on it, since. It is a ponderous chain!"

Scrooge glanced about him on the floor, in the expectation of finding himself surrounded by some fifty or sixty fathoms of iron cable: but he could see nothing.

"Jacob," he said, imploringly.  "Old Jacob Marley, tell me more.  Speak comfort to me, Jacob!"

"I have none to give," the Ghost replied.  "It comes from other regions, Ebenezer Scrooge, and is conveyed by other ministers, to other kinds of men.  Nor can I tell you what I would.  A very little more, is all permitted to me.  I cannot rest, I cannot stay, I cannot linger anywhere.  My spirit never walked beyond our counting-house -- mark me! -- in life my spirit never roved beyond the narrow limits of our money-changing hole; and weary journeys lie before me!"

It was a habit with Scrooge, whenever he became thoughtful, to put his hands in his breeches pockets.  Pondering on what the Ghost had said, he did so now, but without lifting up his eyes, or getting off his knees.

"You must have been very slow about it, Jacob," Scrooge observed, in a business-like manner, though with humility and deference.
"Slow!" the Ghost repeated.

"Seven years dead," mused Scrooge.  "And travelling all the time!"
"The whole time," said the Ghost.  "No rest, no peace.  Incessant torture of remorse."

"You travel fast?"  said Scrooge.

"On the wings of the wind," replied the Ghost.

"You might have got over a great quantity of ground in seven years," said Scrooge.

The Ghost, on hearing this, set up another cry, and clanked its chain so hideously in the dead silence of the night, that the Ward would have been justified in indicting it for a nuisance.

"Oh!  captive, bound, and double-ironed," cried the phantom, "not to know, that ages of incessant labour, by immortal creatures, for this earth must pass into eternity before the good of which it is susceptible is all developed.  Not to know that any Christian spirit working kindly in its little sphere, whatever it may be, will find its mortal life too short for its vast means of usefulness.  Not to know that no space of regret can make amends for one life's opportunity misused!  Yet such was I!  Oh!  such was I!"

"But you were always a good man of business, Jacob," faltered Scrooge, who now began to apply this to himself.

"Business!" cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again.  "Mankind was my business.  The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business.  The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!"

It held up its chain at arm's length, as if that were the cause of all its unavailing grief, and flung it heavily upon the ground again.

"At this time of the rolling year," the spectre said "I suffer most.  Why did I walk through crowds of fellow-beings with my eyes turned down, and never raise them to that blessed Star which led the Wise Men to a poor abode!  Were there no poor homes to which its light would have conducted me!"

Scrooge was very much dismayed to hear the spectre going on at this rate, and began to quake exceedingly.

"Hear me!" cried the Ghost.  "My time is nearly gone."

"I will," said Scrooge.  "But don't be hard upon me!  Don't be flowery, Jacob!  Pray!"

"How it is that I appear before you in a shape that you can see, I may not tell.  I have sat invisible beside you many and many a day."

It was not an agreeable idea.  Scrooge shivered, and wiped the perspiration from his brow.

"That is no light part of my penance," pursued the Ghost.  "I am here to-night to warn you, that you have yet a chance and hope of escaping my fate.  A chance and hope of my procuring, Ebenezer."

"You were always a good friend to me," said Scrooge.  "Thank `ee!"

"You will be haunted," resumed the Ghost, "by Three Spirits."

Scrooge's countenance fell almost as low as the Ghost's had done.

"Is that the chance and hope you mentioned, Jacob?"  he demanded, in a faltering voice.

"It is."

"I -- I think I'd rather not," said Scrooge.

"Without their visits," said the Ghost, "you cannot hope to shun the path I tread.  Expect the first tomorrow, when the bell tolls one."

"Couldn't I take `em all at once, and have it over, Jacob?"  hinted Scrooge.

"Expect the second on the next night at the same hour.  The third upon the next night when the last stroke of twelve has ceased to vibrate.  Look to see me no more; and look that, for your own sake, you remember what has passed between us!"

When it had said these words, the spectre took its wrapper from the table, and bound it round its head, as before.  Scrooge knew this, by the smart sound its teeth made, when the jaws were brought together by the bandage.  He ventured to raise his eyes again, and found his supernatural visitor confronting him in an erect attitude, with its chain wound over and about its arm.

The apparition walked backward from him; and at every step it took, the window raised itself a little, so that when the spectre reached it, it was wide open.  It beckoned Scrooge to approach, which he did.  When they were within two paces of each other, Marley's Ghost held up its hand, warning him to come no nearer.  Scrooge stopped.

Not so much in obedience, as in surprise and fear: for on the raising of the hand, he became sensible of confused noises in the air; incoherent sounds of lamentation and regret; wailings inexpressibly sorrowful and self-accusatory.  The spectre, after listening for a moment, joined in the mournful dirge; and floated out upon the bleak, dark night.

Scrooge followed to the window: desperate in his curiosity.  He looked out.

The air was filled with phantoms, wandering hither and thither in restless haste, and moaning as they went.  Every one of them wore chains like Marley's Ghost; some few (they might be guilty governments) were linked together; none were free.  

Many had been personally known to Scrooge in their lives.  He had been quite familiar with one old ghost, in a white waistcoat, with a monstrous iron safe attached to its ankle, who cried piteously at being unable to assist a wretched woman with an infant, whom it saw below, upon a door-step.  





The misery with them all was, clearly, that they sought to interfere, for good, in human matters, and had lost the power for ever.

Accession : Tyrrel



KING RICHARD III
O bitter consequence,
That Edward still should live! 'True, noble prince!'
Cousin, thou wert not wont to be so dull:
Shall I be plain? I wish the bastards dead;
And I would have it suddenly perform'd.
What sayest thou? speak suddenly; be brief.
BUCKINGHAM
Your grace may do your pleasure.
KING RICHARD III
Tut, tut, thou art all ice, thy kindness freezeth:
Say, have I thy consent that they shall die?
BUCKINGHAM
Give me some breath, some little pause, my lord
Before I positively herein:
I will resolve your grace immediately. 
Exit
CATESBY
[Aside to a stander by
The king is angry: see, he bites the lip.
KING RICHARD III
I will converse with iron-witted fools
And unrespective boys: none are for me
That look into me with considerate eyes:
High-reaching Buckingham grows circumspect.
Boy!
Page
My lord?
KING RICHARD III
Know'st thou not any whom corrupting gold
Would tempt unto a close exploit of death?
Page
My lord, I know a discontented gentleman,
Whose humble means match not his haughty mind:
Gold were as good as twenty orators,
And will, no doubt, tempt him to any thing.
KING RICHARD III
What is his name?
Page
His name, my lord, is Tyrrel.
KING RICHARD III
I partly know the man: go, call him hither. 
Exit Page 
The deep-revolving witty Buckingham
No more shall be the neighbour to my counsel:
Hath he so long held out with me untired,
And stops he now for breath?
Enter STANLEY
How now! what news with you?
STANLEY
My lord, I hear the Marquis Dorset's fled
To Richmond, in those parts beyond the sea
Where he abides.
Stands apart
KING RICHARD III
Catesby!
CATESBY
My lord?
KING RICHARD III
Rumour it abroad
That Anne, my wife, is sick and like to die:
I will take order for her keeping close.
Inquire me out some mean-born gentleman,
Whom I will marry straight to Clarence' daughter:
The boy is foolish, and I fear not him.
Look, how thou dream'st! I say again, give out
That Anne my wife is sick and like to die:
About it; for it stands me much upon,
To stop all hopes whose growth may damage me.
Exit CATESBY
I must be married to my brother's daughter,
Or else my kingdom stands on brittle glass.
Murder her brothers, and then marry her!
Uncertain way of gain! But I am in
So far in blood that sin will pluck on sin:
Tear-falling pity dwells not in this eye.

Re-enter Page, with TYRREL

Is thy name Tyrrel?
TYRREL
James Tyrrel, and your most obedient subject.
KING RICHARD III
Art thou, indeed?
TYRREL
Prove me, my gracious sovereign.
KING RICHARD III
Darest thou resolve to kill a friend of mine?
TYRREL
Ay, my lord;
But I had rather kill two enemies.
KING RICHARD III
Why, there thou hast it: two deep enemies,
Foes to my rest and my sweet sleep's disturbers
Are they that I would have thee deal upon:
Tyrrel, I mean those bastards in the Tower.
TYRREL
Let me have open means to come to them,
And soon I'll rid you from the fear of them.
KING RICHARD III
Thou sing'st sweet music. Hark, come hither, Tyrrel
Go, by this token: rise, and lend thine ear:
Whispers
There is no more but so: say it is done,
And I will love thee, and prefer thee too.
TYRREL
'Tis done, my gracious lord.
KING RICHARD III
Shall we hear from thee, Tyrrel, ere we sleep?
TYRREL
Ye shall, my Lord.

Exit

Accession : The Swan



Her grave, on the "Round Oval", on the island in the lake.

A path with 36 oak-trees, marking each year of her life, is leading to the "Round Oval". 

Originally the family-animals were buried on this island, including Diana´s  favorite cat Marmalade

The oak and limetrees on the island are planted 
by the family, also by Diana herself. 

White Rambling roses are planted all over. 

At the end of the island stands an urn from Portland stone. 



Four black swans are swimming in the lake, symbolizing sentinels guarding Diana's grave. 

In a dream Charles Spencer saw this vision. 

In the water there are several water lilies. 

White roses and lilies were Diana's favorite flowers.


swan (Latin cygnus or olor) A BIRD of great symbolic significance for the ancient world (despite its rarity in Mediterranean regions); its limber neck and WHITE plumage made it a symbol of noble purity. 

This is why Zeus chose to approach the unsuspecting Leda in this guise. It is interesting that Homer (in Hymn 21) praises the singing swan, which (unlike the mute swan) lives only in more northern latitudes. 

This swan is associated with Apollo, who also was said to be revered especially by the northern mythic race of Hyperboreans

The swan was present at the god's birth, carried him across the sky, and derived from him its gift of prophecy. 

At times the swan is referred to as the enemy or opponent of the EAGLE or (like the eagle) of the SNAKE, each of which the swan frequently defeats. 


The proverbial "swan song" (the significant final words or performance of a great person) goes back to the prophetic talent of the swan, already mentioned by Aeschylus (525-456 B.C.): it supposedly foresees its impending death and emits extraordinary cries bemoaning its own passing.


J. Boschius, 1702
 Swan: "Unblemished radiance." J. Boschius, 1702 

 In fact, the singing swan of Northern Europe (cygnus musicus) can produce a powerful Swan song. A trumpet-like note in the upper register and a weaker one in the lower, even shortly before it is paralyzed by severe cold. If several of these swans cry at once, they do give the impression of song.


According to Germanic superstition, VIRGINS could be transformed into prophetic swan maidens (as in the Nibelungenlied); similar myths (in which the maidens can doff their plumage) are found in a variety of cultural contexts. 

In Christian thought the cygnus musicus came to symbolize the Savior crying out from the Cross in extremis. 

The association of the bird with song (and hence lyrical beauty) led Ben Jonson to call Shakespeare "the sweet swan of Avon."

 The swan often symbolizes feminine grace; Aphrodite and Artemis (Latin DIANA) are often portrayed as accompanied by swans. It is in part because of the association of swans with physical grace that Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake is for many the quintessential classical ballet.

 In the imagery of ALCHEMY the swan symbolizes the element mercury (see SULFUR AND MERCURY) in its volatility.

 The swan is important in HERALDRY as well, frequently appearing in coats of arms (e.g., those of Boulogne-sur-Mer and the Saxon city of Zwickau, whose Latin name was Cygnea). 

A chivalric Order of the Swan was founded in 1440, then renewed in 1843 by the German king Friedrich Wilhelm II as a charitable secular order, but never came into operation.

A strange, negative symbolic interpretation of the swan surfaces in medieval bestiaries. In contrast to its snow-white plumage, it is written, the bird has "utterly BLACK flesh": 

"Thus it is a symbol of the hypocrite, whose black sinful flesh is clothed by white garments. 

When the bird's white plumage is stripped away, its black flesh is roasted in the fire. 

So, too, will the hypocrite, once dead, be stripped of worldly splendor and descend into the fires of hell"
 [Unterkircher]. 

Bockler, on the other hand, writes that swans do battle even with eagles if attacked. 

They "are the royalty among water fowl; the meaning that they carry is of the whiteness of peace" (1688). 

This poetic formulation is reminiscent of the swan knight, Lohengrin.