---

She stepped forward, kissed me and laid her head against my shoulder, leaning prudently forward to keep the rest of herself out of contact with the rest of me. Both of us sighed deeply. I felt as if I had just sat through a complete performance of La Traviata compressed into one and a half minutes.
· Literary biography: fresh, dry, surprising: Bloomsbury and Henry James via Kingsley Amis, Girl, 20

Lightish Links: Gambling With Data Terminals
With personal bankruptcy filings at historic highs, a growing number of grass-roots organizations contend that the phenomenon is fueled, at least in part, by the explosion of legal gambling in the United States over the past quarter of a century. And here's data to back up the claim - a study shows that bankruptcy rates are highest where casinos are.
· Russian Roullette [Christian Science Monitor 03/18/04]
· Be The Smartest Person On Your Block! (On Paper, Anyway...)
· See Also An Invented World (It's Nice In Here)

· See Also Victor Gruen had invented shopping malls in order to make America more like Vienna. Alas, he made Vienna more in the end like America...
Meanwhile, old news is rehashed with an oh-so-scientific study of how your choice of supermarket reflects your character. Right. I'm off to Lidl.
· 'I'm rich and I'm living well. Shopping here is part of that'
· The feeble-minded gullibility of consumers is at the root of much unhappiness in that dogs us