roth

"Sandy wasn't angry any longer. He wasn't contemptuous. He wasn't superior-acting in any way. It was as though he too had taken a blow to the head, but one that, instead of bringing on amnesia, had rejuvenated the quiet, conscientious boy whose satisfactions emanated not from his being a precocious big shot full of contrary opinions but from that strong, even current of an interior life that carried him steadily along from morning to night and that, in my eyes, had always made him genuinely superior to the other kids his age."
-----------------------
"It's so heartbreaking, violence, when it's in a house -- like seeing the clothes in a tree after an explosion. You may be prepared to see death but not the clothes in the tree.
--Philip Roth, The Plot Against America

jungian reflection

"Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves."
--Carl Jung

the flip side

"I am only slightly less astonished by the egotism of the assassins, the inflated self-esteem it requires to kill a president, than I am astonished by the men who run for president. These are people who have the gall to believe they can fix us -- us and our deficit, our fossil fuels, our racism, poverty, our potholes and public schools. The egomania required to be president or a presidential assassin makes the two types brothers of sorts. Presidents and presidential assassins are like Las Vegas and Salt Lake City that way. Even though one city is all about sin and the other is all about salvation, they are identical, one-dimensional company towns built up out of the desert by the sheer will of true believers. The assassins and the presidents invite the same basic question: Just who do you think you are?"
--Sarah Vowell, Assassination Vacation

a room (and books) of her own

"... if we cordon off the issue of education for girls in the developing world as a 'women's issue,' we will make far less progress than if we enlist both genders in the drive for full equality. I hope that this is not only a women's issue, but also a men's issue.
...
The United Nations has consistently advocated that educating girls has a larger impact on the developing world than any other initiative. If girls do not have the opportunity to attend school, we cannot hope to make lasting progress in the fight to eliminate global poverty ... there are few better ways to change the course of the world than getting girls into school and keeping them there."
--John Wood, Leaving Microsoft to Change the World
Support Room to Read.

yankee doodle dandy

Guess we're all a little country. How yankee are you?
My score:
"38% Dixie. You are definitely a Yankee."

happy birthday to canada

O Canada!
Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all thy sons command.
With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The True North strong and free!
From far and wide,
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
God keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

And I can't think about Canada without fondly remembering poutine in Montreal. Tourtière, too, though I don't remember that quite as fondly.