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Uncle Keith.
My Uncle Keith - My Mom's little brother - has been fighting a losing battle with cancer for the past year. The last time I saw him was before the election. He was frail, and had been reduced to almost skin and bones. While he thought there was truth to the Bradley effect, my grandmother was quite optimistic. He died about an hour ago ( Read more... ) -
Great moments in Emo.
In Part Three, Chapter 6 of Jack Kerouac's On The Road, Sal and Dean have stopped at a diner, and while using the restroom, Dean insensitively remarks that Sal will not be able to do his arc trick at urinals for much longer because he is getting older. Sal takes umbrage at this, which makes Dean feel ashamed enough to leave the diner and his food ( Read more... ) -
Pomp and circumstance.
In the chapter 'The Earling,' from Mervyn Peake's Titus Groan, the time has come for the titular character, Titus Groan, the two-year-old 77th Earl of Gormenghast, to perform in an ancient ritual which involves him sitting on a raft in the middle of the castle moat. All of Castle Gormenghast watches, including Barquentine, Master of the Ritual, who ( Read more... ) -
A stronger loving world.
In Part III, Chapter Eight of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz, the narrator, Yunior, remembers reading Oscar's copy of Alan Moore's Watchmen:
(Includes Spoilers for those of you who haven't read Watchmen!!)
And yet there are other days, when I'm downtrodden or morose, when I find myself at my desk late at night, unable to ( Read more... ) -
Es muss sein!
In Part 2 of Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Tereza, a young photographer, hears a recording of Beethoven while she brings her eventual lover Tomas an order of cognac while on her waitress shift. As she has been hearing Beethoven a lot lately, and has been reading Anna Karenina, she considers the cosmic coincidence of it, a ( Read more... ) -
Mellow yellow.
In Chapter Twenty-Four of Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner, the protagonist, Amir, meets with Omar Faisal, an immigration lawyer in Pakistan, who tells him that the chances of adopting an Afghani child are next to nil:
"You're telling me to give it up?" I asked, pressing my palm to my forehead ( Read more... ) -
Well, that's just it, isn't it?
In Part VI, Chapter 14 of the Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Joe Kavalier, performing magician, escape artist, and comic book artist, recalls the "golems" that he and his cousin, Sam Clay, created when they wrote their costumed superhero comic books:
"In literature and folklore, the significance and the fascination of ( Read more... ) -
Jeremy spoke in class today.
In Part IV, Episode 8 of Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow, Roger Mexico, an English statistician living during World War II, meets Jeremy, the fiancee of Jessica, the woman that Roger has been having an affair with, who has just dumped him and returned to her betrothed. The first quote is from Jeremy.
"...Jessica tells me you're--ah--a math chap ( Read more... ) -
New 'Lucky + Guy'!
A new edition of 'Lucky + Guy' has been posted, for your enjoyment.
Reading comprehension [answer in one or two sentences]:
1. Who are the 'Two Stooges' referred to in the title of the strip? Lucky and Guy? Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker? Reps. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.) and Ike Skelton (D-Miss.)? Karl Rove and Alberto Gonzales ( Read more... ) -
U.p.: Up. / The lily of the alley.
What could possibly be more frustrating than the world's most unreadable novel? The world's most unstageable play. Thought it would get easier. Plays are all dialogue. Not even Joyce can muddle this one up. But he's not to be outdone, the lout. He sticks his pen in and twists it. Crazed look in the eyes. Teeth gold like piss. A San Francisco ( Read more... )