Clever turns of phrase, special splashes of wit, provocative insight — all in a sentence or two.
“[M]ost people get worse as they grow older, because they become more like themselves.”
Paul Krugman stating a particular example from Issawi’s Law on the conservation of evil.
That may be the single most insightful line that has ever appeared on this blog (or anywhere for that matter).
It is certainly the scariest line that has appeared here.
“President Obama is tied with… wait for it… Kim Kardashian as one of the top ten twitter follower getters, and yes, that’s how you say that. If you are new to our country, welcome! This is how we roll.”
Another from the same source:
“One of those arrested during a protest of higher tuition fees in England was the son of Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour. So much for that thing about not needing no education.”
It is ten minutes past eight. I must tell you how much I love you at ten minutes past eight on a Sunday evening, January 27th 1918.
I have been indoors all day (except for posting your letter) and I feel greatly rested. Juliette has come back from a new excursion into the country, with blue irises — do you remember how beautifully they grew in that little house with the trellis tower round by the rocks? — and all sort and kinds of sweet-smelling jonquils. The room is very warm. I have a handful of fire, and the few little flames dance on the log and can’t make up their minds to attack it.
There goes a train. Now it is quiet again except for my watch. I look at the minute hand and think what a spectacle I shall make of myself when I am really coming home to you. How I shall sit in the railway carriage, and put the old watch in my lap and pretend to cover it with a book — but not read or see, but just whip it up with my longing gaze, and simply make it go faster.
My love for you tonight is so deep and tender that it seems to be outside myself as well. I am fast shut up like a little lake in the embrace of some big mountains. If you were to climb up the mountains, you would see me down below, deep and shining — and quite fathomless, my dear. You might drop your heart into me and you’d never hear it touch bottom.
I love you — I love you — Goodnight.
Oh Bogey, what it is to love like this!
Katherine Mansfield to John Middleton Murry, whom she’d been dating for more than seven years. They were married that May but the marriage did not last a year.
Above from The Writer’s Almanac with Garrison Keillor.
New Mexico is more quietly beautiful than some Western states. It isn’t “one National Park after another” like Utah or California. It doesn’t have one spectacular spot like Yellowstone. You might have to spend an entire year in this vast state to hit your photographic stride. But if you do hit that stride, you’ll be in good company with the artists and photographers who’ve been attracted to the light for over a century.
There are three cultures co-existing in New Mexico (if you read the middle third of my Summer 1994 travelogue then you might question the extent to which these actually co-exist). The Indians created interesting pueblos. The Spanish some impressive churches. The Anglos … mostly some houses that look like they could have been imported from Cleveland.
From Philip Greenspun writing about New Mexico at photo.net. There are many gorgeous photos.
“Rep. Bachmann’s odd onscreen appearance, in which she seemed to be staring off-camera for the duration of her speech, was initially blamed on ‘a squirrel that got into the studio and distracted her,’ said one Tea Party official.
“But the Minnesota congresswoman offered her own explanation: ‘I was looking off to one side because I was trying to read off Sarah Palin’s hand.’ ”
There’s more.
“The devil has his grip on the business of the NFL. Former players, like [Troy] Aikman, who are still profiting from their NFL image, see little benefit in questioning the safety of the game. Any such comments would be met by the league as a betrayal, and he would probably be relieved of his post as Fox’s No. 1 guy. And you can be sure he won’t let that happen. Troy Aikman has his dream job, and he will echo the company line. Aaron Rodgers’ brain could be leaking out of his earhole, and Aikman will be talking about James Jones’ inconsistent hands.”
“If you are still hungry, have another fortune cookie.”
My fortune tonight after Chinese.
“This Blog would like to point out that the team currently favored to win the Super Bowl is community-owned.
“Oh, noes.
“SOCIALISM!”
“Having Nat[alie Portman] in a fairly standard romantic comedy is like having Meryl Streep show up on an episode of Hot in Cleveland.
Shoebox » Tiny Little Movie Review: No Strings Attached
The whole tiny little review is amusing.
You’ll have to click. Probably not amusing if you are less than 65.
“Today is 1/23. Only 34 more years til 1/23/45.”
“It’s not so much my coworkers as it is their ability to talk that annoys me.”
-Allyson
“He lied.”
Natalie Portman, accepting the Best Actress Golden Globe for Black Swan, reminding “the audience that her baby daddy, the film’s choreographer Benjamin Millepied, played the cameo role of the dancer who said he wouldn’t sleep with her” as reported by Peter Travers.
“For instance, it’s not against the law to be the highly-compensated attorney representing the Gigantic International Megabank that recently foreclosed on an old lady in suburban New Jersey because she entered one number incorrectly on one check for one monthly mortgage payment (there actually is such a case). That’s not illegal, but if that’s how you make your living — if you paid for your S-Class Mercedes helping Jamie Dimon and Lloyd Blankfein throw old ladies out of their houses — I’m pretty sure you’re an asshole.”
Matt Taibbi in a wonderful blog post — he’s establishing a Supreme Court to rule on Assholedom — “to wit, to decide a) whether or not a certain person is an asshole, and b) if he or she is, how much of an asshole.”
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report) – Ushering in what it is calling “a new era of civility in American political discourse,” the Republican leadership in Congress said today that from now on it would acknowledge that President Barack Obama was born “near America.”
There’s more at the Borowitz Report.
“We should learn a lot from the new session of Congress. For example, how politicians define ‘civil.’ ”
“Not to be uncivil, Mr. President, but some of my fellow citizens are morons.”
Charles Pierce noting that a gun store near Knoxville, Tennessee, is having Shoot [former] Coach Lane [Kiffin]’s Bobble-Head Day this weekend.
“4. Get your insults right. There is, I believe, a fair bit of evidence against the hypothesis that I’m stupid. What you mean to say is that I’m evil.”
“You want to know who to put in charge of national security? It should be the people who run Disney World. Mickey and Donald and Goofy are nice, but if you cross them, they will make your family disappear in the middle of the night.”
Author Brad Meltzer quoted at USATODAY.com
In the case of our visit to the “Happiest Place on Earth” last month, the above is literally true.
“It’s a shame, really, that the grown-up snow day means working from home and periodically going out to shovel the front walk. If you were a sensible eleven-year-old, you spent blizzards playing outside or sitting in your pajamas watching daytime television (never mind that ‘working from home’ might mean the same thing).”
“One of the great ironies of the Tucson shootings is that the initial call for everyone in America to simply talk more civilly to one another has mainly resulted in everyone in America becoming angrier and crazier.”
“Glock sales soar after Arizona rampage”
Bloomberg reports that Arizonans are rushing to pick up the $499 semi-automatic. According to one store owner, “We’re at double our volume over what we usually do.” This was two days after the shooting.
Another stat: one-day Arizona Glock sales jumped 60 percent Jan. 10 compared with the corresponding Monday last year. And it’s not isolated to the Grand Canyon state, either.
“You know why I made the second basket? Because the first one felt so good.”
Kiley, age 8, after scoring 4 of her team’s 8 points in her first ever basketball game. Final score: 8-8 in OT.
“John Boehner is the ultimate Beltway hack, a man whose unmatched and self-serving skill at political survival has made him, after two decades in Washington, the hairy blue mold on the American congressional sandwich.”
Matt Taibbi beginning his profile of Boehner at Rolling Stone
One more:
“Boehner, in short, has for most of his career been a Bush Republican, i.e., a corporate schmoozer and a remorseless spender of taxpayer money for whom the notion of small government is just something to say when the cameras are on, or when the public money in question might go to poor people or immigrants or other such unlikely golfers.”
