Quote of the Day (A.N. Wilson, on the ‘Light of Christ” at Easter and Beyond)

“The light of Christ is handed from neighbour to neighbour not only in the Easter ceremony but down the ages. The huge majority of Christians have derived their faith not from reading books but from contact with other people. One of the things that liturgy, or public prayer, does is link you and me now with all the many who have gone before us; not as a club, or a party or a political movement is linked — collectively — but as a series of flickering candle-flames, each distinct, each ablaze with a different light, though touched by the common source, which is Christ. Those of us who count ourselves (even if, as in my case, wishy-washily) among the Christian number do so because we have been shown the light by other Christian lives — by friends or family, or by lights in history.”— A.N. Wilson, “He Is Risen!” The Financial Times, Apr. 4-5, 2015

(The image accompanying this post is a detail from the painting Resurrection, by the Italian Renaissance master Piero della Francesca.)

Photo of the Day: Colors of Easter

I found this Easter decoration hanging from a slender branch outside a Middle Eastern restaurant in my hometown, Englewood, NJ.

TV Quote of the Day (‘The Big Bang Theory,’ As Spock Visits Sheldon Unexpectedly)

Mr. Spock [played by Leonard Nimoy, uncredited]: “Dr. Cooper! Dr. Cooper!”

Sheldon Cooper [played by Jim Parsons]:  “Is someone there?”

Spock: “Down here, on your desk.”

Sheldon: “Spock?”

Spock: “I need to speak with you.”

Sheldon: “Fascinating! The only logical explanation is that this is a dream.”

Spock: “It is not the only logical explanation. For example, you could be hallucinating after being hit on the head by, say, a coconut.”

Sheldon: “Was I hit on the head by a coconut?”

Spock: “I'm not going to dignify that with a response. Now, to the matter at hand, you need to play with the transporter toy.”

Sheldon: “Yes, but it's mint in box.”

Spock:  “Yes, and to open it would destroy its value. But remember like me, you also have a human-half.”

Sheldon: “Well I'm not going to dignify that with a response.”

Spock: “Consider this. What is the purpose of a toy?”

Sheldon: “To be played with.”

Spock: “Therefore, to not play with it would be...?”

Sheldon: “Illogical. Oh, damnit Spock, you’re right! I'll do it!”

Spock: “Sheldon, wait. You have to wake up first.”

Sheldon: “Oh, of course. Set phasers to dumb, right?”— The Big Bang Theory, Season 5, Episode 20, “The Transporter Malfunction,” original air date Mar. 29, 2012,  teleplay by Steven Molaro, Jim Reynolds and Steve Holland, directed by Mark Cendrowski

Eighty-five years ago today, actor Leonard Nimoy was born in Boston, Mass. Though in middle age he wrote a memoir whose title bluntly disclaimed any connection with his most famous character (I Am Not Spock), he had, within another decade, embraced the role several times on the big screen. By the time he came to this delightful episode of The Big Bang Theory, he had grown comfortable enough to send up his role in a way that assured what would have enormously surprised TV viewers when they first glimpsed the pointy-eared Vulcan 50 years ago on Star Trek: immortality for the character.

Though Mr. Spock is immortal, Nimoy, sadly, was not. His death a little more than a year ago surprised and saddened fans who—perhaps not as fanatically as Dr. Cooper—had taken him to heart.

Photo of the Day: Ambrose Burnside Statue, Providence RI

I must say that I was rather surprised to see not just a statue but an entire park honoring Ambrose Burnside in downtown Providence when I visited the Rhode Island capital this past fall. I always understood that he made less of a mark through his achievements in public life than his tonsorial style. In fact, he didn’t even really get proper credit for the latter, when you think of it. (“Sideburn,” of course, reverses the syllables of his surname.)

The Union commander at the Battle of Fredericksburg has become synonymous with all manner of misfortune from bad luck (he was left at the altar by his fiancée at his first wedding) to incompetence (during the Civil War, he pleaded with Abraham Lincoln not to appoint him commander of the Army of the Potomac because he was unfit for the job—a proposition he commenced to prove by ordering one useless attack after another at Fredericksburg, then leading his troops on a dismal, pointless midwinter “Mud March”).

Ever since taking this photo, I’ve wanted an excuse to write this patriotic but appropriately unheralded soldier—and now I have it. On this date in 1856, Burnside received a patent for a breech-loading carbine, the culmination of work on the project that began three years before, when he had still been a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army.

In a way, Burnside’s experience was of a piece of the rest of his career and life: initial success followed by deeply frustrating failure. Despite beating out 17 other carbines in an 1857 competition conducted at West Point, Burnside couldn’t make a go of his business and was forced to declare bankruptcy two years later. He had already assigned patent rights to others when the outbreak of the Civil War fanned interest in the weapon. By the end of the conflict, the gun was the third most used carbine utilized by the Union cavalry, exceeded only by the Sharps and Spencer brands.

Back to the general’s statue. Burnside might have failed as soldier and businessman, but he found rather more success in politics, as he was elected to three one-year terms as governor of Rhode Island and another term as U.S. Senator. The equestrian bronze statue in this photo was unveiled in 1887, a half-dozen years after his death. It stood for nearly 20 years in Exchange (renamed Kennedy) Place, facing City Hall, until the opening of a railroad station necessitated its move to its current location.

The elements have been about as kind to Burnside’s statue as posterity was to his memory. Acid rain and pollutants ate into the metal, leaving a blue-green coat of copper sulfate. Nor were human beings much better: they gave it a “psychedelic” look during the city’s arts festival in 1969, and during the Occupy Providence protests of a few years ago was festooned with signs, banners, and a mask over the statue’s face. At last, this past August, the city hired a company that halted and, one hopes, even helped return the statue to something like its original condition.

Bonus Quote of the Day (Christopher Buckley, Imagining President Trump on His First Lady)

“So what do you think of your new first lady? I picked Moronia— what's your name, honey? Melania, right. Great name. I just picked Melania here from a very wide selection of possibilities—not just because the sex is incredible but because this nation wants and deserves a trophy first lady.  When everyone sees our first lady standing next to some other first lady of another country, the wife of a premier or whatever, they’ll want to go to bed with our first lady, not the other one. So the American people no longer have to worry on that score. And if they get tired of her, not a problem, because chances are I’ll be tired of her before they are. And we’ll get a new first lady. Trying to keep North Korea from getting the bomb, maybe that’s a problem. Finding a new first lady? Trust me, not a problem.”—Christopher Buckley, “Trump: The Inaugural," originally published in The Wall Street Journal, reprinted in Buckley’s But Enough About You: Essays (2014)