mrs rochester burns the house down

"I waited a long time after I heard her snore, then I got up, took the keys and unlocked the door. I was outside holding my candle. Now at last I know why I was brought here and what I have to do. There must have been a draught for the flame flickered and I thought it was out. But I shielded it with my hand and it burned up again to light me along the passage."
--Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea

the documentary age

"When we say a thing or an event is real, never mind how suspect it sounds, we honor it. But when a thing is made up -- regardless of how true and just it seems -- we turn up our noses. That's the age we live in. The documentary age. As if we can never, never get enough facts. We put on the television set and what we hear is the life cycles of birds. The replaying of wars. Interviews with mass murderers. And the newspapers know nothing else.
--Carol Shields, The Stone Diaries

missing the point

"Now there's a woman who made a terrific meatloaf, who knew how to repot a drooping rubber plant, who bid a smart no-trump hand, who wore a hat well, who looked after her personal hygiene, who wrote her thank-you notes promptly, who kept up, who went down, went down and down and down, who missed the point, the point of it all, but was, nevertheless, almost unfailingly courteous to others."
--Carol Shields, The Stone Diaries

unexpected delight

A week in Minneapolis, a more delightful city than I expected it to be:

My favorite destination(s):
Walker Art Center and Sculpture Garden
This was especially interesting.

Some great meals:
Bellanotte (I will remember this meal for a long time, especially the chocolate lava cake)
Chambers Kitchen
New Delhi (the only meal to slightly disappoint, probably because it was lunch buffet)
Hell's Kitchen (ham and pear grilled sandwich -- yum!)