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Why the politicking part of politics is sometimes disgusting [Matt Taibbi].
Oh hey, and look what happened: 319 American troops died in Afghanistan this year, double last year’s total [LAT].
I don’t remember where that quotation is from, but it was the only thing in a draft I apparently saved a few weeks ago. So, ponder that as you will.
But, more importantly, a task I’ve set for myself: to read every book I own — not sure yet about books I bought for class — before buying / getting from the libes any new ones.
This is mostly going to be a case of finishing books I’ve already started. My problem is I start a book, see another one I want to read, buy that new one and in the excitement of newness put down the one I hadn’t yet finished. And the cycle repeats. Many of these books aren’t even dull or unworthy, just unlucky.
Except, some of the books I own truly suck. Or rather, I’m only fairly sure they suck, based on outside information, because I haven’t actually read them. For example: Atlas Shrugged (I think we can all agree you don’t need to read this one to know it’s soul-destroying and awful). Other unfortunate titles I’ve thus committed myself to reading include:
Sometimes I really want just to take a week and go to Mexico. Then I read passages like this:
Mexico is where facts, like people, simply disappear.
… More than 14,000 people have been killed in the almost three years since President Felipe Calderón mobilized the army to fight Mexico’s half-dozen major drug cartels. Virtually none of those homicides has been solved, partly because witnesses suffer short-term memory loss when questioned, and partly because the police, for various reasons, also feel profoundly that things do not stand much looking into.
And that makes me want to go even more? Yup.
— from the novel White Noise by Don DeLillo
Reason #8,490 economics and I don’t get along very well: of the 200 most-cited economists, I counted four women. The first woman shows up at #50, with no other women till we’re out of the top 100.
“…Now, their territory is tainted by marketers seeking their own slice of the mommy money pie….”
Keep alliterating! Alliteration is awesome.
When I was very little, to discourage my sister and I from picking too many flowers from my grandma’s gardens, my parents told us that the trees felt pain when you took away one of their flowers. I didn’t quite believe it, but since I also wasn’t sure that it was false, I tried never to tear a leaf or flower or branch from anything. I wonder if this was an early seed of my later veganism.
Out of context quotes:
Dear guy at Caribou Coffee,
I love you. Even when your beatiful blue eyes give me those pitying looks after I’ve paid more than I can afford for more caffeine than is healthy. You may see in me a pathetic addict with a habit getting out of control. But to me you are a savior, you allow me to feel human again each morning. Yes, I think this relationship is going to last a long time indeed. I’ll see you again tomorrow, and the day after, and the one after that (I’ll try to look awake next time).
What does it mean for a piece of literature to have “poise”? I’ve seen this adjective thrown around with no explanation in too many book reviews and I have no idea what it means. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that I’m too stupid to get it, but I’d rather believe that some guy on a deadline threw it in as filler and a bunch of people copied him, believing there was an implicit meaning everyone knew but them. And now it’s gone out of control. But uhh, if anyone does have an explanation, let me know.
