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Dave Schuler of The Glittering Eye tapped me with the 123 Meme. The Rules of the 123 Meme are as follows:

1. Pick up the nearest book ( of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people.

Dave had a fine selection, a book`that coincidentally sits closely nearby on my own shelf. As a result, I decided to go with what was nearest in terms of the unshelved,” handy”, unread bookpile from which I pick up and read at odd moments or choose from to read seriously from start to finish. At the top of the pile is Robert Dallek’s Nixon and Kissinger:Partners in Power. The anecdote has an eerie timeless quality about it:

When Nixon and Kissinger told Hoover that the May 9 and earlier leaks”were more than damaging, they were potentially dangerous to national security,”  Hoover  began tapping the phones of three national security officials identified by Henry – Henry Davidson, Morton Halperin, and Hal Sonnenfeldt – and one other Defense Department officer, Colonel Robert Pursley, a Laird assistant. Within days, two other NSC staff members came under scrutiny as well: Richard Moose and Richard Sneider. FBI agents also began listening to the phone conversations of four journalists- Beecher and Hedrick Smth of the Times, and an English correspondent based in Washington, Henry Brandon of the Sinday Times of London, and CBS newsman Marvin Kalb.

By the power vested in me by the 123 Meme, I infect the following bloggers:

Shane Deichman of Wizards of Oz

Bruce Kesler of Democracy Project

Dave Davison of Thoughts Illustrated

Cheryl Rofer of Whirledview

Dr. Daniel Nexon of The Duck of Minerva

This year, Mrs. Zen and I hosted Christmas Eve for my relations. Though it was not a maximum possible turnout for a variety of reasons it was still a significant affair as Mrs. Zen believes in a good presentation and a menu cooked from scratch ( as a result, we entertain maybe once every three or four years – LOL!). A festive time was had by all. Or…possibly except one.

As it turns out, a gift was left behind. Or more correctly, abandoned. It appears to be a kind of sweater, perhaps one worn by an upscale shepherd or by a Scottish noble in Braveheart. To augment this woolen tunic, the gift-giver guiltily included an off-brand colonge of some kind, one marketed to young urban men of limited means who make a point to wear baggy jeans that sit low on their posterior so as to reveal a large portion of their underpants (I suspect a re-gifting on this aspect).

We have polled everyone in attendance and no one will cop to having received this interesting juxtaposition of merchandise. Or to have given it either. Whoever received it had the foresight (or anxious sense of shame) to have methodically  peeled off the incriminating gift tag before slinking away into the night.

Is it just me or is this some kind of common holiday hazard ?

The Joker as a scary, homicidal, maniac….as he should be.

“Between the years when the oceans drank Atlantis and the rise of the Sons of Aryas…”

– Robert E. Howard

A geoethnological map of blondness, courtesy of Strange Maps.

I must offer my profound thanks to Shane Deichman, Esquire of Wizards of Oz and IATGR. On the strength of his recommendation, I, Mark the Zenpundit, have been admitted to the august ranks of the Tennesse Squire Association, sponsored by the honorable and venerable Jack Daniels Distillery, maker of America’s finest spirits. I am at once humbled and bursting with aristocratic presence.

Rest assured, I will put on no airs due to my new rank of Squire, though I may quietly lobby for a baronetcy from the British Crown.