McQuillan walked into a bar and ordered martini after martini, each time removing the olives and placing them in a jar. When the jar was filled with olives and all the drinks consumed, the Irishman started to leave. "S' cuse me", said a customer, who was puzzled over what McQuillan had done,"what was that all about?" "Nothin', said the Irishman, "me wife just sent me out for a jar of olives!"
A martini joke, not an Irish joke: "He said, like James Bond? I said, yes, just like James Bond."
Saturday, February 28, 2004
Wednesday, February 18, 2004
…all the provisions that He has [made] for the gratification of our senses…are much inferior to the provision, the wonderful provision that He has made for the gratification of our nobler powers of intelligence and reason. He has given us reason to find out the truth, and the real design and true end of our existence.
A young John Adams as quoted by David McCullough in his John Adams.
A young John Adams as quoted by David McCullough in his John Adams.
Thursday, February 05, 2004
Saturday, January 10, 2004
Thursday, January 08, 2004
Thursday, December 18, 2003
A pessimistic law of history was at work here. Many such mixed communities [as Nagorny Karabakh] coexisted for centuries, not just in the Caucasus but throughout Eurasia and North Africa. And yet they were, in reality, only held together by fear, the fear of what a brutal outside authority would do to them all if mutual tolerance broke down. When the external pressure was removed, whether it was the Caliphate, the Tsardom, the Ottoman or British Empire, or Soviet power, then the current of fear which enforced that mutual tolerance was switched off.
Neal Ascherson, In the Black Garden, New York Review of November 20, 2003.
Neal Ascherson, In the Black Garden, New York Review of November 20, 2003.
Friday, December 12, 2003
Monday, December 08, 2003
Friday, November 28, 2003
Wednesday, November 19, 2003
Thursday, November 13, 2003
Wednesday, November 05, 2003
When and from where [the Sumerians] first settled near the Euphrates was much debated a generation ago, but without any clear consensus. People had settled the region and were growing crops by irrigation before 5000 BC; the best we can say is that the urbanized people who, before 3000 BC, first wrote Sumerian emerged out of this agricultural way of life and tradition without any obvious break.
Timothy Potts, in “Buried Between the Rivers”, New York Review, 9/25/2003
Timothy Potts, in “Buried Between the Rivers”, New York Review, 9/25/2003
Friday, October 24, 2003
Well I've been out walking,
I don't do that much talking these days,
These days--
These days I seem to think a lot
About the things that I forgot to do.
I sit alone on corner stones
And count the time in quarter tones to ten,
My friend
Don't confront me with my failures
I had not forgotten them.
Jackson Browne, from These Days
I don't do that much talking these days,
These days--
These days I seem to think a lot
About the things that I forgot to do.
I sit alone on corner stones
And count the time in quarter tones to ten,
My friend
Don't confront me with my failures
I had not forgotten them.
Jackson Browne, from These Days
Monday, October 20, 2003
Jesus said, "Let him who seeks continue seeking until he finds. When he finds, he will become troubled. When he becomes troubled, he will be astonished, and he will rule over the all.
Jesus said: "If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.
Jesus said, "If they say to you 'Where did you come from?' say to them, 'We came from the light, the place where the light came into being on its own accord and established [itself] and became manifest through their image.'
From The Gospel of Thomas as quoted in the New York Review, Oct 23, 2003.
Jesus said: "If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.
Jesus said, "If they say to you 'Where did you come from?' say to them, 'We came from the light, the place where the light came into being on its own accord and established [itself] and became manifest through their image.'
From The Gospel of Thomas as quoted in the New York Review, Oct 23, 2003.
Friday, October 17, 2003
Wednesday, October 15, 2003
Wednesday, October 08, 2003
Oh a sleeping drunkard Up in Central Park
Or the lion hunter In the jungle dark
Or the Chinese dentist Or the British Queen
They all fit together In the same machine
Nice, nice, very nice
Nice, nice, very nice
So many people in the same device
Oh a whirling dervish And a dancing bear
Or a Ginger Rogers and a Fred Astaire
Or a teenage rocker Or the girls in France
Yes, we all are partners in this cosmic dance
Nice, nice, very nice
Nice, nice, very nice
So many people in the same device
Ambrosia, 1975
Or the lion hunter In the jungle dark
Or the Chinese dentist Or the British Queen
They all fit together In the same machine
Nice, nice, very nice
Nice, nice, very nice
So many people in the same device
Oh a whirling dervish And a dancing bear
Or a Ginger Rogers and a Fred Astaire
Or a teenage rocker Or the girls in France
Yes, we all are partners in this cosmic dance
Nice, nice, very nice
Nice, nice, very nice
So many people in the same device
Ambrosia, 1975
Monday, September 29, 2003
Sunday, September 28, 2003
Externally there was nothing to hinder his making another start on the upward slope, and by his new lights achieving higher things than his soul in its half-formed state had been able to accomplish. But the ingenious machinery contrived by the Gods for reducing human possibilities of amelioration to a minimum – which arranges that wisdom to do shall come pari passu with the departure of zest for doing – stood in the way of all that.
Thomas Hardy, The Mayor of Casterbridge
Thomas Hardy, The Mayor of Casterbridge
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