At Baltimore Yearly Meeting

The reason I haven’t been posting much here this past week is that I’ve been at the Baltimore Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends. As nearly always seems to happen when I come here, I start off by thinking I’ll manage to get plenty of time to blog, but end up not able to do much. Partly it’s because the internet connection is slow. But partly, too, it’s because I go into a different mental zone when I’m here.
I wish I had the energy to tell you some of the interesting, uplifting, and thought-provoking things that have happened here. But I’m afraid I don’t even have the energy to do that.
Ommmm.
John Woolman, 1763: “Love is the first motion.” Yes, indeed.

14 thoughts on “At Baltimore Yearly Meeting”

  1. I surprised what you said, now in US in this day 2008 and you talking about “internet connection is slow”?
    Is it because you choose slow connection? Or this is what available in US market right now?

  2. Helena
    while you have been away, the halfwit Sakashvili in Georgia poked the bear in the eye.
    The Bear is now bombing and shelling Georgia and has lost two fighter aircraft.
    Reinforcements are pouring in from North Osettia and the guys in Abkhasia are shellin the Georgians in the Khodri Gorge.
    Let us wait to hear the wsidom of Paris Hilton on resolving the situation.

  3. It is probably useful to point out that sending a Marine Expeditionary Force into the Black Sea would be as colossal a blunder as the incident with the Light Brigade in the Crimea.
    The Treaty of Montreaux covers the rules about sending warships through the Bosphorous.

  4. Give Helena some space — she just spent a week in Baltimore, which explains the slow internet connection. Baltimore: If it weren’t for Washington, you couldn’t find it, but it is a good preparation for New Jersey.

  5. While Don may be right about Baltimore (I’ve only ever passed through from DC to NYC and back), Helena is presumably attending BYM in what passes for mountains in western MD:
    “Frostburg State University, in the city of Frostburg (population 7,300) is located in the mountains of western Maryland at an elevation of 2,200 feet. Centrally located on the I-68 corridor, the FSU campus is just two and one-half hours southeast of Pittsburgh and two and one-half hours west of the Washington, D.C. and Baltimore metro areas. The University is near the Rocky Gap and New Germany State Parks and Deep Creek Lake, which offer boating, camping, swimming, hiking, skiing, and other sports.”

  6. I am puzzled.
    Internet, TV and Radio are widely available in West Cork, so I fail to see why Don thinks this is a mitigating factor.

  7. That’s Helena, keeping her real location secret. Now I’ll have to look up some Frostburg jokes, though with a name like Frostburg it shouldn’t be difficult. Like: What’s worse than a yearly meeting in Baltimore?
    Reminds of a place called Earthquake Valley in California (on the Elsinore Fault) that they re-named Shelter Valley to enhance the real estate market.

  8. Frank is referring to the fact that there is a Baltimore in West Cork, Ireland. Cute. I bet they don’t have a Frostburg (but they do have a Dingle, and it’s wonderful).

  9. Oh Dear Don
    Now all Helena’s readers from the Kingdom of Kerry will be up in arms. Better get Ban Ki Mun on standby. This could get worse then the punchup in the Caucuses.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dingle_Peninsula
    Dingle lies in the Corca Duibhne and some of the ships of the Armada are believed to have sunk in the bay nearby.
    Baltimore lies in the Barony of Carbery and gets visited by Corsairs on slave raids.

  10. Don,
    That’s Helena, keeping her real location secret.
    Looks Don either he is joking here or he knew some thing about Helena Secret location!!
    What brings this idea more here is Helena complaining about her slow internet connection which looking weary especially in US and living in 08-08-2008?
    The only secret location that some Blogers don’t telling I guess is Iraq!! As this bloger David Adesnik

    I’ve mentioned in passing that I’ve been travelling abroad for the past few months. Well, that was a euphemism. I was in Iraq, working as an analyst for the Coalition’s counter-IED task force.

    That wasn’t a secret per se, but I was instructed not to blog about my job until I got home from Iraq.

  11. As W.C. Fiels might have said: I shoulda stayed in Baltimore (when I was ahead). My apologies to all Kerryites. I’ll buy them all a tall, dark and handsome Guinness the next time I’m there, at least for those who recognize me.

  12. Salah: in many parts of the USA, there is only rural area with farms and little development – those parts usually only have telephone dial-up services for the internet.
    Here in western North Carolina, we are working on getting WiFi internet to the rural areas – a bit of a challenge, due to the mountains – because they will never have cable internet access. And the reason for no cable – the cable companies would not make a big enough profit, due to the low number of residents.
    I have several friends who only have dial up internet and can not get anything else. And it is very slow for them.

  14. And perhaps we should honour the passing of a great poet.
    Mahmoud Darwish has died.
    Record on the top of the first page:
    I do not hate people
    Nor do I encroach
    But if I become hungry
    The usurper’s flesh will be my food
    Beware…
    Beware…
    Of my hunger
    And my anger!

Comments are closed.