Ann Voskamp, author of the immensely popular One Thousand Gifts, spoke to a packed house last night at the Passionate Borderless Empowered Frontiers Without Borders Conference through her recently-hired translator, who is fluent in Voskamp-to-English. “Fan flame,” Voskamp urged the audience in a loud whisper. “Fan it in the gloaming, to the redolent glockenspiel, with Paris askance. Wildly, a laughing womb, a reflection in nuzzling. Proceed from a place of salubrious reticence. Gather, but forefend.”Can't be that bad. Can it? I'm not familiar with Voskamp, so I 'tuned in' to the first Youtube clip I could find. Seven seconds: "A pulsing joy. A bird. Daily tasks." Yes, it can be that bad. The parody was only 10% stretched.
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Polistra was named after the original townsite of Manhattan (the one in Kansas). When I was growing up in Manhattan, I spent a lot of time exploring by foot, bike, and car. I discovered the ruins of an old mill along Wildcat Creek, and decided (inaccurately) that it was the remains of the original site of Polistra. Accurate or not, I've always liked the name, with its echoes of Poland (an under-appreciated friend of freedom) and stars. ==== The title icon is explained here. ==== Switchover: This 2007 entry marks a sharp change in worldview from neocon to pure populist. ===== The long illustrated story of Polistra's Dream is a time-travel fable, attempting to answer the dangerous revision of New Deal history propagated by Amity Shlaes. The Dream has 8 episodes, linked in a chain from the first. This entry explains the Shlaes connection.