"Living on black coffee and breakfast cereal"

Six months ago he had thought his ghostly place . . . would be . . . between a yearning to prolong the summer of the passionate body and a reluctant recall from the long sleep of oblivion. But he was wrong. It is not the erotic that is calling to him after all, nor the elegiac, but the comic.

from Disgrace.

Benjamin Franklin on Man

Men I find to be a Sort of Beings very badly constructed, as they are generally more easily provok’d than reconcil’d, more dispos’d to do Mischief to each other than to make Reparation, much more easily deceiv’d than undeceiv’d, and having more Pride & even Pleasure in killing than in begetting one another, for without a Blush they assemble in great Armies at Noon Day to destroy, and when they have kill’d as many as they can, they exaggerate the Number to augment the fancied Glory; but they creep into Corners or cover themselves with the Darkness of Night, when they mean to beget, as being asham’d of a virtuous Action.

from a letter written in Passy, 1782 (quoted by Steven Johnson, "The Invention of Air")

Ode To a Hummingbird

Ode to a Hummingbird

hmm mm hmm mm hmmmm mmm mmm

hmm mm hmm hm hm other birds

hmm mm hmmm hmm mm mm hm

hmm hmm mm mm can't recall the words

Air

Sylvie believed in stern solvents, and most of all in air. It was for the sake of air that she opened the doors and windows, though it was probably through forgetfulness that she left them open. It was for the sake of air that on one early splendid day she wrestled my grandmother's plum-colored davenport into the front yard, where it remained until it weathered pink.

from Housekeeping.

The Magic Word

"Perhaps the most frequently invoked [of the automatic grounds for ejection in a baseball game is the use] of profane language directed at [an umpire or his partner.]

'People always want to know if there's a magic word,' the umpire Gary Cederstrom would tell me later. 'Is it 'cocksucker'? Is it 'asshole'? No. The magic word is 'you.'"

from As They See 'Em . . . .

"I Happen To Have Marshall McLuhan Right Here"

http://nerdworld.blogs.time.com/2009/09/08/true-tales-of-conversational-vengeance/

Because the proper way to study Pynchon is to be ignorant of popular culture.

News From The Daily Breeze

A Harbor College geography professor, who for two years barraged TV weatherman Fritz Coleman with e-mails contending his forecasts are inaccurate, has been convicted of violating a judge's order to stop harassing him.

Melanie Patton Renfrew, 54, who has taught at the Harbor College Wilmington campus since 1997, pleaded no contest Aug. 7 in Burbank court to violating a restraining order [KNBC weatherman Fritz] Coleman had obtained to keep her from stalking him.

In an interview at her El Camino Village home, in an e-mail and in an entry on her own blog, Renfrew denied she is a stalker, saying she was trying to get the KNBC weatherman to change the terminology he uses to describe onshore and offshore winds to better inform the public.
She contends it is a science and health issue.

"I did what I felt God was calling me to do," she said in an interview. "I don't feel obsessive."

http://www.dailybreeze.com/ci_13257678?source=rv


AND

A doctor driving a Mercedes Benz struck and killed another doctor running across a street at the entrance of Los Angeles International Airport, police said Thursday.

Richard Burrus, 59, was crossing Sepulveda outside of a crosswalk when he was hit in the No. 3 lane.

Scott, the driver, wearing green scrubs, ran to Burrus' side to help him as police and paramedics arrived. Burrus died at a local hospital.


http://www.dailybreeze.com/news/ci_13265121?source=email


[both from http://www.laobserved.com/]

Sun in smoke

The sun setting through the smoke-strewn skies in Los Angeles. In person, the sun glowed red.

Southern Oregon Endzone Scoreboard

Southern Oregon Ducks

Southern Oregon Deer and Flowers