In the hall

Woman of perhaps thirty, to a man of maybe 60, who she obviously has never met:

Woman: You are really good at that.

Man: Oh, thanks.

Woman: I could hear you through the wall. You sounded just like a cartoon.

Man: I'll take that as a compliment.

Prudential wisdom

-- And if it were true also that she had fought a duel with one husband, that also ought to be a reason why a gentleman should object to become her second husband.

"The Way We Live Now" -- Trollope

Giving Cover

Awesome site of awesomely bad sci-fi covers. Sci-fi.

http://www.goodshowsir.co.uk/

(from Andrew Sullivan)

Late Breaking News From the 2010 Pulitizer Prize jury

Special citation:

Hank Williams for his craftsmanship as a songwriter who expressed universal feelings with poignant simplicity and played a pivotal role in transforming country music into a major musical and cultural force in American life.

Truth in Advertising

A Southern California pastor has been charged with bigamy after one wife learned about his new marriage on the internet. He is the pastor of the Church of the Great I Am in Bellflower, California.

Sage words

Not everything can be about everything -- Gertrude Stein

Selections from "The Southpaw" by Mark Harris

"It will do them much good," said Krazy. "It will buck up their spirits and give them the idea that folks back home are thinking about them. There is nothing like the sight of baseball to make them think they are home."

"I see baseball every day," I said, "And never get the idea I am home."

*

I thought to myself that what was wrong with the club was they was thinking too much.

*

I must say that you have got to admire anybody like Sid that is willing to give up his milk for his religion.

*

I guess all I was saying was they could go their way and I would go mine, and some folks is born to play ball and the rest is born to watch, some folks born to clap and shriek and holler and some folks born to do the doing.

This week's band

The Low Anthem -- e.g., "To Ohio"

Annals of Hollywood crime

Those who play prosecutors must watch how they play.


The alibi: "We just stopped into a friend's house for a drink -- and suddenly we find ourselves in the middle of a rumble."

2010 Tournament of Books

http://www.themorningnews.org/tob/let-the-great-world-spin-v-miles-from-nowhere.php

R.I.P. Sparklehorse

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2010/03/mark-linkous-aka-sparklehorse-takes-own-life.html

Woof

"No! You don't bark in an office!"

-- Woman in the office next to mine, to her two little dogs who have been wandering among my papers and legs much of the day, and right now.

Song of the Day

"No Easy Way Down" -- Dusty Springfield (prompted by Mark Eitzel's live version)

-- and while we are at it, you and I, listen to the rest of the album too (Dusty in Memphis)

Dream

Fitful night, but must have slept, unless this really happened:

Sitting in the stands, some stands, two women maybe 23 years old sit next to me, one of whom is wearing some kind of YALE t-shirt. I comment on it to her: "I don't see that many of those out here, and yet there are a couple of other people in the stands wearing YALE t-shirts."

Then walking around some plaze among tall buildings, I notice more people wearing YALE shirts, and then sitting in different stands, many people with such shirts, some of which seem like a uniform -- either a sporting team or YALE laundry workers.

Suddenly green paint drips on me from the sky, and huge cannon bursts of green paint globules are launched from cannons behind us, to splatter against the tall buildings around us. Now it becomes clear: the Yale graduates are hear to watch the YALE sneak attack on these buildings, hoping to besmirch the honor of Princeton. (Neither institution is anywhere near, nor do the buildings seem to have anything to do with Princeton.)

That's why. Why'd you think?

Lyric of the day:

Oh please don't you rock my boat
'Cause I don't want my boat to be rockin'.

"Satisfy My Soul" -- Bob Marley

Faith and food

"Father . . . what are we to do?" . . .

"Sleep!" cried Father Brown ". . . Do you know what sleep is? Do you know that every man who sleeps believes in God? . . . it is an act of faith and it is a food."

from The Innocence of Father Brown