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The great thing about Chicago is that by the time advanced ideas get here, they're worn so thin you can see right though them.
Saul Bellow

Middle of Life
There may be those that say we are an uncivilized people, that humanity tinkers on the brink of something just awful -- but those people don't get good Thai food by delivery often enough. Good Thai food delivery even in Cronulla, Sydney. That is civilization.
Trust me on this; It is not possible to be unhappy while reading about lakes:
The earth hangs down
to the lake, full of yellow
pears and wild roses.
Lovely swans, drunk with
kisses you dip your heads
into the holy, sobering waters.
But when winter comes,
where will I find
the flowers, the sunshine,
the shadows of the earth?
The walls stand
speechless and cold,
the weathervanes
rattle in the wind.
Friedrich Hölderlin, "The Middle of Life" (trans. James Mitchell)
· Little-known poem: And from this nothing seen, tells news of devils, Which but expressions be of inward evils [ via Civilization]