Oakeshott Party

500 North Park hosted the final night's celebration for the 5th Michael Oakeshott Conference, held at Baylor from November 12-14, 2009. It was a great party! Guests included many luminaries from the Oakeshott world and elsewhere, including Andrew Sullivan, Roger Scruton, Timothy Fuller, and Paul Franco. Family and friends also attended, as did children, who (along with Grandma) are still recovering a week later.

Everything was decked out in full Texas regalia, with a Texas flag flying and yellow roses in all the arrangements throughout the house. We even gave in to Texas kitsch and bought ceramic cowboy boots as centerpieces. The menu was an authentic Texas BBQ, with sausage, brisket and all the fixings. And we had a keg of (what else?) Shiner Bock beer, our favorite Texas brew. There was one concession to Louisiana, however, brought by Grandma: Louisiana pralines!

The party went well into the night, ending only after serious philosophical/theological conversation with the Foleys. Above is the poster that Mary Campbell designed for the converence. Awesome!

Cowboy Boots

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500 North Park has been abuzz with activity. The Michael Oakeshott Association convened in Waco yesterday for its 5th international meeting. Past meetings have taken place in Jena (Germany), London and Colorado Springs. The meeting is in Waco this year because Elizabeth Corey (known to 500 North Park as "Mama") took on the awesome responsibility of managing the conference this go-round.

But these matters, while important, are not as important as the fact that Grandma and Papa Campbell arrived here yesterday. Grandma and Papa came not only to observe the conference, but also to enjoy time with their grandchildren. Today Grandma and Papa took John and Anna to the local boot store to buy them their first pair of cowboy boots, or cow"girl" boots, as Anna insists. Attached is a photo. The kids are so proud of their boots! And we're all thankful to Grandma for seeing what should have been obvious: kids who live in Texas need cowboy boots! Of course!

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We'll likely be posting another entry soon. Tomorrow 500 North Park is hosting a party for the Oakeshott association -- 50 or so wonderful human beings (admirers of Oakeshott are, by definition, wonderful) gathering together at the house for cocktails, dinner, and energetic conversation. We'll let you know how that all goes.

Metronome

John was digging around inside the piano bench today and came up with our metronome. He thought it was something related to dancing, and he invented some wonderful dances for tempos around 80-120 beats per minute.

Just as we tried to film him though, he discovered the "A 440" tone. Look at the disconcerted face he makes when he realizes that something is different! John often reminds us of those cartoons about Calvin and Hobbes. John is Calvin! Have you ever seen a living human being who is more of a Calvin than this boy?

Anyway, John eventually gets the metronome to beat time for him, and then he does his dance. Is it groovy or what?

Apologies to our readers for the hiatus since our last post. 500 North Park sent a small expedition team (consisting of one representative) to the faraway city of Tulsa, Oklahoma late last week. This was related to some goings-on at the University of Tulsa. The trip was a real pleasure for the one who went. But the blog had to take a backseat while he was gone.

Perhaps we'll be seeing more of Tulsa in our future.

Halloween Parade

This morning at St. Paul's, the kids had their Halloween parade. John was a cowboy and Anna was (surprise!) a fairy princess, as was her friend, Helen.

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The photo of John was snapped while he was saying his morning prayers with his class.

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The photo of Anna catches her, wand in hand, leading her comrades to the parade line.

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We took a few more photos that can be seen on Flickr, where the photo quality is always superior.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/50471452@N00/sets/72157622695087328/

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Songs and Articles

Anna and John were such a hoot yesterday! We just had to take some video. John is learning how to sing Twinkle, Twinkle; but it comes out more like "winkle, winkle," and he gets tied up after the first line.
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Anna, for her part, has been writing scholarly articles on the British philosopher, Michael Oakeshott (1901-1990). She's evidently getting ready for the annual meeting of the Michael Oakeshott Association that will be held here at Baylor in a couple of weeks. She seems somewhat evasive when asked about the content of her articles. See what you think.
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What a Party!

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500 North Park hosted a party tonight: Tony & Barbara, Cal & Laura, Chip & Nicky. What a party! We're all cigar smokers (the men, at least). And Mr. Poe (Tony) set us up with the very best.

The picture speaks volumes about the quality of the cigars, if the length of the ash is any test--which it is, of course.

But cigars were not all. Chip is famous around these parts for his world-class whisky. He's the master distiller and inventor of Balcones.

Since Chip was with us for the festivities, we may (may! We're not saying we did....) have tasted a sip or two of his Blue Corn Whisky. If we did in fact taste some, which we're not saying we did, we might have thought it was "oaky, superbly balanced, corn-like on the nose, and smooth." But, of course, that's all speculation. Also on the menu: beef fillets (medium rare!) with a romaine lettuce & blue cheese salad, and a side of Louisiana seafood gumbo.

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Barbara: We realized after you left that we owe you big time! (You know why.)

What a fun evening and what great people! 500 North Park was honored.

Jumping!

Tonight, before our very eyes, John learned to jump. He and Anna were running laps around the house and it finally "clicked" for John. He's been trying to jump for weeks, but he's never left the ground. We think the crucial variable may have been the fried rabbit we ate tonight. Only kidding! (Jeesh! People will believe anything about Texas.) We actually had fish tonight. No special jumping powers there. But Johnsie: he's got it!