Footfalls echo in the memory Down the passage which we did not take Towards the door we never opened Into the rose-garden. –T.S. Eliot, from “Burnt Norton“ It is terrible when the whole man resonates with echoes and echoes, none becoming a real voice. —Elias Canetti, Notes From Hampstead Broken world: How is it that … Read more
Yesterday, the Bush administration leaked the bad news that it will likely abandon a proposal to require better gas mileage for the largest SUVs. The reason will come as a surprise to no one: because it might hurt the “fragile bottom line” of many American automakers. See, the funny thing is that CAFE requirements that … Read more
Just you watch: the Twins will now proceed to go on some kind of unholy tear, winning twenty-three of their next thirty games, and they’ll still come up short and miss the playoffs. That would be just my luck. Yes, my luck, because it’s clear the mess of this season to date has been purely … Read more
I received this message –or these messages– from my old friend Ruckert today, scrawled in his almost microscopic handwriting across the back of several subscription cards for a magazine called Country Living: Late last night, as I was in the basement digging around for a book on the Black Hole of Calcutta, I stumbled across … Read more
The essence of being human is that one does not seek perfection, that one is sometimes willing to commit sins for the sake of loyalty, that one does not push asceticism to the point where it makes friendly intercourse impossible, and that one is prepared in the end to be defeated and broken up by … Read more
The news that counts Barcelona, Spain One of the things about being out of the country for a week is you see how the other half lives without the constant bombardment of propaganda from our government. (They have their own to BS them, of course.) There has been the news of Britain’s crack down on … Read more
It hadn’t been good for quite some time, but it was time for them to admit to themselves and to each other that now it really wasn’t good, and wasn’t going to get any better. Neither of them liked the doctor, a young Indian. He was a man who’d built too much science around himself, … Read more
Whenever my blood pressure feels like it’s getting dangerously low, there are two things I like to do. Eat more anchovies, and watch Bill O’Reilly on Fox. Both anchovies and O’Reilly share the same four virtues: bony, salty, fishy, and strong. I like anchovies a lot more than I like Bill O’Reilly, but both appeal … Read more
When I was a kid, there was this store out at the mall that sold cheese from all over the world. The place reeked. They must have had hundreds of different kinds of cheese. I like cheese as much as the next guy, but you wouldn’t think there would be any real need for so … Read more
The day had been hot, and it was apparent that the night would bring little relief. There was no wind, nothing but the humidity and the stillness and the swelling sleigh bells of the cicadas from the trees. Up and down the block people were sitting out on the stoops of the apartment houses and … Read more