The best part of Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Paton:

“A boy salutes as he has learned in the school, and cries umfundisi. He waits for no response, but turns away and gives the queer tremulous call, to no person at all, but to the air. He turns away and makes the first slow steps of a dance, for no person at all, but for himself.”

Stumbled across a goth grooming guide. Number 5 is a classic. From “Makeup Tips for the Bleak”:

5. If you have scars on your wrists from suicide attempts, by all means display them proudly. The same goes for bruises, cuts, and track marks. Abscesses, however, should always be coyly veiled in filmy black fabric.

A heartening note from Rosecrans:

Going to the butcher, I buy a paper and read it in the park on Saturday
morning because it’s so nice out. Little girl and her mother sit down
next to me with a plastic bag from a bagel store. Mom answers her cell
phone. Little girl picks up the bagel bag, says fondly, “Bag…I love
you.”

Great insight into comedy by Billy Connolly from an article in the New Yorker:

“It’s not because you’ve said something terribly funny; it’s because you’ve reminded them of something very bright in their lives, because you’re so passionate about telling them this tiny thing. It’s a girl you love, it’s fly-tying, it’s a banjo–all the things that make you want to dance.”

“If you ever get mauled by bears, I hope they stay away from your face, because I think you’re cute.”

Down load some Valentines.

Evany says:

“Do you ever wake up feeling blue for no discernable reason and immediately start to wonder if maybe there is a reason, after all? And then you easily come up with a long list of really good reasons for why you might find yourself feeling blue? And then you start to feel shitty for real, which leads you to realize that maybe when you woke up you weren’t blue at all, just a little hungry? But you’re sure as shitting feeling blue now?”

The news that Bush planned his war with Iraq a few days after inauguration has me upset. Plato, who is smarter than me, says this:

“When the tyrant has disposed of foreign enemies by conquest or treaty, and there is nothing to fear from them, then he is always stirring up some war or other, in order that the people may require a leader.”

The lead of this article reads:

“A Boynton Beach music teacher seduced one of her 11-year-old students and carried on a 19-month sexual relationship with him until the boy’s stepmother stumbled upon evidence of their escapades Tuesday, authorities said.”

Does anyone else think the word “seduced” is an odd choice in describing the ongoing molestation of an eleven-year-old boy?

From a November article in GQ, by Rory Evans:

“…Compared to the other men in Hollywood’s 18-to-34-year-old bin, [Colin Farrell] does seem like the most compelling character. Leonardo DiCaprio drives a car that runs on batteries. Josh Hartnett lives in St. Paul, and Ben Affleck is supposedly sober. Farrell, in contrast, rents a whatever car, has fathered a child without getting roped into marriage (his son was born to model Kim Bordenave in September), likes to get laid and, even better, likes to talk about it–a lot.”

So, to break this down, Mr./Ms. Evans is against environmentally friendly modes of transportation, the Twin Cities, and sobriety for alcoholics. In the “compelling” category you’ll find, “whatever cars,” men who are unable to land a model even when they’ve managed to impregnate her, and people who like discussing sex–a lot.

A while back, I was reading a Salon article about how Iraqis were surprised that Saddam didn’t fight back when the troops found him. The article quoted a man who is employed by U.S. troops as a security guard. He said of Saddam’s capture, “We lost our only hope and now we are stuck with the Americans.” So that’s comforting.