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Friday, March 03, 2006



Once you get past every paper in the Western hemisphere filing the same basic story on the Da Vinci Code case, it's pretty quiet out there ... except for La Sala an atmospheric multidimensional warehouse to dine and wine. Last night was one of those amazing nights in Sydney - multicultural to its sixth degree of separation ;-) as Newd Zilland and Luxembourg make a great combination for soulful conversations peppered with mamahoos. Not even big enough on most maps of Europe to contain the letters of its name, Lilliputian Luxembourg makes up in snazz what it lacks in size. It has a wealth of verdant landscapes crisscrossed by cold rivers and dotted with the sort of rural hamlets that most people associate with fairy tales.

On a winter evening amidst a driving snowstorm a man on horseback arrived at an inn, happy to have reached shelter after hours of riding over the wind-swept plain on which the blanket of snow had covered all paths and landmarks. The landlord who came to the door viewed the stranger with surprise and asked him whence he came. The man pointed in the direction straight away from the inn, whereupon the landlord, in a tone of awe and wonder, said: 'Do you know that you have ridden across the Cold River and the Lake of Constance?' At which the rider dropped stone dead at his feet.
Roman soccer star Paolo Di Canio is infamous for flashing the Hitler salute to his team's far-right fans The Fascist Soccer Star and the Auschwitz Survivor

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: Café society: Modern Socrates
Across the city, novelists, artists, architects, musicians, playwrights, screenwriters and poets abandon their homes for café society.

She sits at the back of the café with her lined notepad, her books — poems by Billy Collins, Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead — and a look of dreamy possibility.
Where will her thoughts take her today? To the unfortunate man, head drooped in sleep, at a nearby table? To thoughts of love, for she is young, pretty and unattached? To a play she will soon be acting in? What matters is that Tracy Michailidis writes, three pages every day and often in this café, Alternative Grounds. "I'll write about anything," she says, "anything to get the pond scum off the top of my brain."


The Artist's Way: The Devil Wears Prada & Mean Girls [Absolut Artist Gabby Malpas Double Happiness: Jewellery ; Top 100 Political Blogs International Double Media Dragon ]
• · Some people say anger puts spring in your step. It gives you energy and fires you up. Imagine how much anger I have accumulated in the last seven months. Anger Stress is a modern priviledge. Turning stress around ... ; Women and their questions can be a frightening experience. Sitting there with TV remote in hand, defenceless, when suddenly you cop a “Don’t you love me, honey?” Muddled men are now resorting to women as a benchmark for defining themselves. Metrosexuals. Diva fits. Believing sensitivity a greater virtue than truth. How to scare and confound men
• · · Is freedom just another word for many things to buy? Freedom is about having choice ; A Clockwork Orange is a novel of immense power. Linguistically inventive, socially prophetic, and philosophically profound, it is very close to being a work of genius... [Y]outh is only being in a way like it might be an animal. No, it is not just like being an animal so much as being like one of these malenky [small] toys you viddy being sold in the streets, like little chellovecks [men] made out of tin and with a spring inside and then a winding handle on the outside and you wind it up grrr grrr grrr and off it itties [goes], like walking, O my brothers. But it itties in a straight line and bangs straight into things bang bang and it cannot help what it is doing. Being young is like being like one of these malenky machines. A Prophetic and Violent Masterpiece; To say I was delighted and privileged to interview Salman Rushdie on the publication of his latest novel is an understatement Salman Rushdie
• · · · · Case Study: A Shake-Up at Harvard ; David Horowitz's latest attack on America's left-leaning college professors doesn't add up Right, left, and wrong Like all his supporters I know anything about, Horowitz is not interested in civilized, intelligent discussion. He is interested in character assassination, not truth. He’s interested in self-promotion, not reasonable argument. It IS time we stop paying him attention. Anything we say falls on stone ears. Let him preach to the choir if he wishes, until the choir too is weary of his vitriol. Who’s Afraid of David Horowitz? ; Student, you're lazy! Professor, you're a zero!
• · · · · · Cupid had two arrows. One was made of gold for virtuous, lasting love. The other was made of lead, and it incited lust... What makes Cupid's arrows stick? ; Struggling with an important but difficult decision? The best way to deal with your problem: Stop thinking about it. Might the ingredients of life have formed by chemicals coming together in a “warm, little pond,” as Charles Darwin suggested? In the beginning...; People buy pricey kitchen machines hoping the right gadget will make them want to cook. It won’t work: you can’t get domestic happiness so easily. Are We Worthy of Our Kitchens?