I must must *must* go see if the local Blockbuster has "Donnie Darko" to rent. Any film with an imaginary demonic bunny is a film I *must* see. I'll let the Stufflings watch it-- if it won't scare them. I don't want the little Psyduck or my Official Brideshead Revisited Aloysius Bear to be frightened or have bad dreams. [Dorian of course is a vur' brave little Mongolian Pony and quite fearless.]

Now I'm thinking of a standing rib roast for Christmas. I followed along this morning on Food TV's "Good Eats"... I could do a vur' standing rib roast for the family. That might be better than a hotel buffet Christmas-- let alone doing the buffet on one of the casino boats.

I'm reading St.-John Perse's "Exile" and "Anabasis"-- translations by Archibald MacLeish and T.S. Eliot, bi-lingual editions. Lovely things to whisper aloud in French.

Talking to people (inc. Samantha and Mika-- Christmas cards from both of whom arrived this morning...)about Tolkien has made me (once again) want to read about Tolkien's linguistics-- and made me want to read Charles Williams' poetry. I have an edition of "Region of the Summer Stars" and "Taliesin Through Logres"; I'll pull it down tonight.

Tolkien began thinking of languages and epics after learning enough Finnish to read the "Kalevala". *Now*... What do I remember? Long ago there was a small series of sci-fi books based on the "Kalevala". I vaguely do recall that. And of course I know about the role of the "Kalevala" in constructing Finnish nationalism... But was the "Kalevala" a literary hoax? Was it like MacPherson's "Songs of Ossian"? Damn it-- I remember someone, somewhere telling me that Finnish nationalists had created the "Kalevala" to give the Finns a separate identity from Swedes and Russians during the 19th-century... True or not? I need to look into that.

Educated Finns did want to separate themselves from their traditional Swedish culture...All the more so after Finland became part of Russia in 1809. And the re-structuring of the tsarist state later in the 19th-century did cut back on Finland's autonomy. A new national epic would have been...useful. But I'll have to find out *if* the "Kalevala" was faked-- and if so, by whom...and who unravelled the story.

These are sorts of things I can think about while cooking a standing rib roast.

I'm really programmed to be an eccentric bachelor academic. That might have worked in late-Victorian London; it doesn't do much in 21st-century America.

[And, yes-- I *must* tell the Small Pika to read Jerome K. Jerome's "Three Men in a Boat" and watch the old BBC film with Michael Palin and Tim Curry...]