Sunday, March 18, 2007

Ridgway gets the Boot


The Full Story.....

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mark,

Why is it the you will use your political spy glass to look at Democrats and those Republicans that you don’t agree with but you will not put the political spy glass on the Salt Lake County Republican Party Leadership and the Executive Committee that (Carrie Towner) your wife sits on that continually to break State of Utah Election Code, The Salt Lake County Republican Party Bylaws, Utah Republican Party Constitution and Bylaws, National Republican Party Rules, Salt Lake County Republican Party Standing Rule and Robert’s Rules of Order.
You are in fact condoning such actions. When can we expect that you will do a story on how you will push the legislators of Utah to try to help Salt Lake County Republican Party if a law suit is filed against them for breaking all those laws and rules? What about your wife serving on a committee that is also responsible for these same laws and rules to be broken?

Mark E. Towner said...

Don Quixote tells the story of Alonso Quixano, a minor landowner who has read so many stories of chivalry that he descends into fantasy and becomes convinced he is a knight errant. Together with his companion Sancho Panza, the self-styled Don Quixote de la Mancha sets off to save Dulcinea del Toboso, an imaginary object of his courtly love crafted from a neighbouring farmgirl by the illusion-struck "knight".

Alonso Quixano, a fiftyish retired country gentleman, lives in an unnamed section of La Mancha with his niece and a housekeeper. He has become obsessed with books of chivalry, and believes their every word to be true, despite the fact that many of the events in them are (clearly) impossible. Quixano eventually loses his mind from little sleep and food because of so much reading. He decides to go out as a knight-errant in search of adventure. He dons an old suit of armor, improvises a makeshift helmet, renames himself "Don Quixote de la Mancha," and names his skinny horse "Rocinante." He designates a neighboring farm girl, Aldonza Lorenzo, as his ladylove, renaming her Dulcinea del Toboso, while she knows nothing about this.

He sets out in the early morning and ends up at a roadside house, which he believes to be a castle. He asks the innkeeper, whom he takes to be the lord of the castle, to dub him knight. Don Quixote spends the night holding vigil over his armor, during which he becomes involved in a fight with muleteers who try to remove his armor from the horse trough so that they can water their mules. The innkeeper then "dubs" him knight advising him that he needs a squire, and sends him on his way. Don Quixote battles with traders from Toledo, who "insult" the imaginary Dulcinea, and he also frees a young boy who is tied to a tree by his Master because the boy had the audacity to ask his master for the wages the boy had earned but had not yet been paid. Don Quixote is returned to his home by a neighboring peasant, Pedro Crespo.[8]

Back at home, Don Quixote plots an escape. Meanwhile, his niece, the housekeeper, the parish curate, and the local barber secretly burn most of the books of chivalry, and seal up his library pretending that a magician has carried it off. Don Quixote approaches another neighbor, Sancho Panza, and asks him to be his squire, promising him governorship of an island. The rather dull-witted Sancho agrees, and the pair sneak off in the early dawn. It is here that their series of famous adventures begin, starting with Don Quixote's attack on windmills that he believes to be ferocious giants.

Although the first half of the novel is almost completely farcical, the second half is serious and philosophical about the theme of deception. Don Quixote's imaginings are made the butt of outrageous and cruel practical jokes. Even Sancho is unintentionally forced to deceive him at one point; trapped into finding Dulcinea, Sancho brings back three peasant girls and tells Quixote that they are Dulcinea and her ladies-in-waiting. When Don Quixote does see only three peasant girls, Sancho pretends that Quixote suffers a cruel enchantment which does not permit him to see the truth. Sancho eventually does get his imaginary island governorship and unexpectedly proves to be wise and practical; though this too, ends in disaster. The novel ends with Don Quixote's complete disillusionment, with his melancholy return to sanity and renunciation of chivalry, and finally, his death.