CURRENT EVENTS

Results of APF/AAPF Push/Pull Meet

in Kalamazoo, Michigan

Let’s just say I had a good day.

BOOK OF THE WEEK

After reading about Lafayette and the role he played in the French Revolution, I wanted to know more about Talleyrand who played such an influential role during this era.

This book is 375 pages long without the bibliography. I am currently on page 306.

Talleyrand: A Biography (1932)

By Duff Cooper

Unique in his own age and a phenomenon in any, Charles-Maurice, Prince de Talleyrand, was a statesman of outstanding ability and extraordinary contradictions.

He was a world-class rogue who held high office in five successive regimes. A well-known opportunist and a notorious bribe taker, Talleyrand’s gifts to France arguably outvalued the vast personal fortune he amassed in her service.

Once a supporter of the Revolution, after the fall of the monarchy, he fled to England and then to the United States. Talleyrand returned to France two years later and served under Napoleon, and represented France at the Congress of Vienna. Duff Cooper’s classic biography contains all the vigor, elegance, and intellect of its remarkable subject.

MOVIE OF THE WEEK

I didn’t watch anything this week that I thought was worth mentioning, so instead here is some movie trivia.

MUSIC OF THE WEEK

I like this video because it promotes a healthy lifestyle 

and

Encourages people to make something of themselves.

Light Switch (January 20, 2022)

By Charlie Puth

Background

“I created the concept for this music video based on an idea I had and shared with the incredible director, Christian Breslauer. I wanted to humorously portray all the things we sometimes try to change about ourselves in order to capture that unrequited love, when deep down we should be changing our lives only to benefit ourselves and no one else.” (Source: Charlie Puth)

ART OF THE WEEK

People Haven’t Changed That Much

As this ancient (1895 BC to 539 BC) Babylonian statute shows, people back then were dealing with the same everyday problems that many of us face today.

  EXTRAORDINARY PERSON  OF THE WEEK

Talleyrand

Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord (2 February 1754 – 17 May 1838), 1st Prince of Benevento, then Prince of Talleyrand, was a French clergyman and leading diplomat.

He worked at the highest levels of successive French governments, most commonly as foreign minister or in some other diplomatic capacity. His career spanned the regimes of Louis XVI, the years of the French Revolution, Napoleon, Louis XVIII, and Louis-Philippe. Those Talleyrand served often distrusted him but, like Napoleon, found him extremely useful. The name “Talleyrand” has become a byword for crafty, cynical diplomacy.

Talleyrand polarizes scholarly opinion. Some regard him as one of the most versatile, skilled and influential diplomats in European history, and some believe that he was a traitor, betraying in turn the Ancien Régime, the French Revolution, Napoleon, and the Restoration.

  JOKE OF THE WEEK

I thought this was funny, but perhaps many will not get it right away.

PHYSICAL TRAITS

Vegetables are so important for good health.

I often have a serving or two of vegetables

CHARACTER TRAITS

SOCIAL TRAITS

Toxic Relationships

I’m not a fan of poetry, but here is something I found on the June 16, 2022 Philosophy Through Photography blog.

I thought it was rather thought provoking and perhaps it may give some of you something to reflect on.

MOTH: I GAVE YOU MY LIFE.

FLAME: I ALLOWED YOU TO KISS ME

By HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN

LEARNING TRAITS

Some of you may not have known this.

MISCELLANEOUS