- Proverbs for Paranoids, 3: If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about answers.—Gravity’s Rainbow
‘Is it about a bicycle?’ he asked.—The Third Policeman Categories
-
Recent Posts
Recent Comments
- WorldWideWeber on Prefix
- WorldWideWeber on Phew!
- Prince Myshkin on Beastie
- WorldWideWeber on Teatime
- WorldWideWeber on Hitchhiker
Tags
- Armenia
- art
- blogging
- Cleveland
- cycling
- daily life
- ecology
- education
- family
- fauna
- food
- genocide
- Great Britain
- hearth and home
- history
- humor/farce
- Iraq
- Israel
- language
- literature
- mathematics
- media
- Middle East
- militarism
- music
- mysteries
- nature
- patriotism
- philosophy
- phone
- photography
- politics
- privacy
- psychology
- religion
- Russia
- science
- security
- Slovenia
- technology
- terror/-ism
- Turkey
- TV
- U.S.
- Washington DC
Archives
Our Pledge
You will never see an ad here. If you want or need something, we trust you will be able to want or need it without us planting the urge or ache. You certainly do not need our help finding what your heart desires on the internet.- “When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race.”—H.G. Wells
More bicycle quotations »
Tag Archives: literature
Subsolar
“The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.” (Ecclesiastes 1:9 ) In an autobiographical fragment, Mark Twain … Continue reading
Leftness
Have I ever mounted a bicycle from the right? No, and I do not recall seeing anyone else do it. “Why do you ask?” I ask myself. Blame it on The Third Policemen—specifically, the fecund imagination (or is it boundless … Continue reading
Bottled
The Cleveland classical radio station WCLV made me do it, twenty years ago. In the month preceding Valentine’s Day in 1997, they kept reading a love poem by a British poet laureate and asking: “Can you write something that good?” … Continue reading
Memory
I had to memorize this in high school: (though not in this format).
Nots
To kick off the new year, here’s a story by a Russian writer with a very Polish name: Sigismund Krzhizhanovsky. I’m just starting to explore his works, only a few of which have appeared in English. I thought I’d add … Continue reading
Twofer
Happy Bloomsday, everyone! And what a lucky day it is. A tweet from uchicagomag (the University of Chicago alumni magazine) led to this wonderful photo showing two of my most favorite things: Looks like she’s absorbed in Molly’s soliloquy. “Yes” … Continue reading
Georgious
Not many notes have been emanating from the basement recently. A lot has been happening upstairs, but the excitement generated there is unlikely to be of particular interest to you. And of course something big is afoot in the world … Continue reading
Posted in Russia
Tagged Cold War, cycling, Dostoevsky, literature, Russia, Washington DC
Leave a comment
Relaxing
The lefty blogs have gone so batscheiss crazy over the fact that Clinton is still in the race, it’s impossible to read them. So, for some weeks now, I haven’t. It’s very pleasant. I finally got around to reading a … Continue reading
Posted in Random
Tagged blogging, daily life, literature, music, politics, Washington DC
Leave a comment
Shanty
Fifteen men on a dead man’s chest, Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum … I always imagined fifteen guys stomping up and down on some poor guy’s chest. Maybe I’m the only one—I never really checked with anyone else. Well, … Continue reading
Plagiarism
The recent news coverage of Barack Obama’s supposed “plagiarism” stirred up once again the confused pot of ideas I have or seem to have about originality and the overselling of same in the form of “intellectual property rights.” Due to … Continue reading
