BMTG Daily Dose

Formerly known as the Daily Dose, the Weekly Dose is home to weekly excerpts from a wide variety of important books. These excerpts are near and dear to the hearts of the BMTG membership. Submissions from BMTG members are welcome, as long as the guidelines are followed. Submissions that do not conform to the official guidelines will be rejected without the opportunity to appeal. Excerpts are best when read aloud with a dramatic flair.

2006
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Week of May 29, 2006

The Soul of the Indian by Charles A. Eastman

To keep the young men and young women strictly to their honor, there were observed among us, within my own recollection, certain annual ceremonies of a semi-religious nature. One of the most impressive of these was the sacred "Feast of Virgins," which, when given for the first time, was equivalent to the public announcement of a young girl's arrival at a marriageable age. The herald, making the rounds of the teepee village, would publish the feast something after this fashion:
"Pretty Weasel-woman, the daughter of Brave Bear, will kindle her first maidens' fire to-morrow! All ye who have never yielded to the pleading of man, who have not destroyed your innocency, you alone are invited, to proclaim anew before the Sun and the Earth, before your companions and in the sight of the Great Mystery, the chastity and purity of your maidenhood. Come ye, all who have not known man!"

The Adventures of Captain Bonneville by Washington Irving

The party of Mr. Campbell had met with a disaster in the course of their route from the Sweet Water. Three or four of the men, who were reconnoitering the country in advance of the main body, were visited one night in their camp, by fifteen or twenty
Shoshonies. Considering this tribe as perfectly friendly, they received them in the most cordial and confiding manner. In the course of the night, the man on guard near the horses fell sound asleep; upon which a Shoshonie shot him in the head, and nearly killed him. The savages then made off with the horses, leaving the rest of the party to find their way to the main body on foot.

Week of May 22, 2006

Reginald in Russia and Other Sketches by Saki

The Sex That Doesn't Shop
        The brutal directness of the masculine shopper arouses a certain combative derision in the feminine onlooker. A cat that spreads one shrew-mouse over the greater part of a long summer afternoon, and then possibly loses him, doubtless feels the same contempt for the terrier who compresses his rat into ten seconds of the strenuous life. I was finishing off a short list of purchases a few afternoons ago when I was discovered by a lady of my acquaintance whom, swerving aside from the lead given us by her godparents thirty years ago, we will call Agatha.
        "You're surely not buying blotting-paper HERE?" she exclaimed in an agitated whisper, and she seemed so genuinely concerned that I stayed my hand.
        "Let me take you to Winks and Pinks," she said as soon as we were out of the building: "they've got such lovely shades of blotting-paper--pearl and heliotrope and momie and crushed--"
        "But I want ordinary white blotting-paper," I said.

The Latin & Irish Lives of Ciaran by R. A. Stewart MacAlister (translator)

Now in the school of the most holy master Finnianus there were many saints of Ireland; to wit, two Saints Kiaranus, and two Saints Brendanus, Columba, and many others; and each of them on his day would grind with his own hands on the quern. But the angels of God used to grind for Saint Kiaranus, as they did for him in his captivity.

Week of May 15, 2006

The Art of War by Sun Tzu

        There are not more than five musical notes, yet the combinations of these five give rise to more melodies than can ever be heard.
        There are not more than five primary colors (blue, yellow, red, white, and black), yet in combination they produce more hues than can ever been seen.
        There are not more than five cardinal tastes (sour, acrid, salt, sweet, bitter), yet combinations of them yield more flavors than can ever be tasted.
        In battle, there are not more than two methods of attack - the direct and the indirect; yet these two in combination give rise to an endless series of maneuvers.
        The direct and the indirect lead on to each other in turn. It is like moving in a circle - you never come to an end. Who can exhaust the possibilities of their combination?
        The onset of troops is like the rush of a torrent which will even roll stones along in its course.

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark by William Shakespeare

        Hamlet. You should not have believ'd me; for virtue cannot so inoculate our old stock but we shall relish of it: I loved you not.
        Ophelia. I was the more deceived.
        Hamlet. Get thee to a nunnery: why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners? I am myself indifferent honest; but yet I could accuse me of such things that it were better my mother had not borne me: I am very proud, revengeful, ambitious; with more offences at my beck than I have thoughts to put them in, imagination to give them shape, or time to act them in. What should such fellows as I do crawling between earth and heaven? We are arrant knaves, all; believe none of us. Go thy ways to a nunnery. Where's your father?
        Ophelia. At home, my lord.
        Hamlet. Let the doors be shut upon him, that he may play the fool nowhere but in's own house. Farewell.

Week of May 8, 2006

Travels in England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth by Paul Hentzner

Camboritum, Cantabrigium and Cantabrigia, now called Cambridge, a celebrated town, so named from the river Cam, which after washing the western side, playing through islands, turns to the east, and divides the town into two parts, which are joined by a bridge, whence its modern name--formerly it had the Saxon one of Grantbridge. Beyond this bridge is an ancient and large castle, said to be built by the Danes: on this side, where far the greater part of the town stands, all is splendid; the streets fine, the churches numerous, and those seats of the Muses, the colleges, most beautiful; in these a great number of learned men are supported, and the studies of all polite sciences and languages flourish.

The Bride of Fort Edward by Delia Bacon

        Arnold. There's a smoke from that chimney; are those houses inhabited, my boy?
        Boy. Part of them, Sir. Some of our people went oft to-day. That white house by the orchard—the old parsonage there? Ay, there are ladies there Sir, but I heard Colonel Leslie saying this morning 'twas a sin and a shame for them to stay another hour.
        Arnold. Ay, Ay. I fancied the Colonel was not dealing in abstractions just now.

Week of May 1, 2006

Reagan In Pursuit of the Presidency - 1980 by Doug Wead & Bill Wead

From Reagan's Official Announcement, November 13, 1979
"...Well, business is not a taxpayer; it is a tax collector. Business has to pass its tax burden on to the customer as part of its cost of doing business. You and I pay the taxes imposed on business every time we go to the store. Only people pay taxes and it is political demagoguery or economic illiteracy to try and tell us otherwise..."

"...We need more energy and that means diversifying our sources of supply away from the OPEC countries. Yes, it means more efficient automobiles. But it also means more exploration and development of oil and natural gas here in our own country. The only way to free ourselves from the monopoly pricing power of OPEC is to be less dependent on outside sources of fuel..."