Monday, March 20, 2006



Two men were sitting next to each other at the Iceberg bar. After a while, one guy looks at the other and says, "I can't help but think, from listening to you, that you're from Ireland."
The other guys responds proudly, "Yes, that I am."
The first guy says, "So am I. And where about from Ireland might you be?"
The other guy answers, "I'm from Dublin, I am."
The first guy responds, "Sure and begora, and so am I. And what street did you live on in Dublin?"
The other guys says, " A lovely little area it was, I lived on McCleary Street in the old central part of town."
The first guy says, "Faith and it's a small world, so did I! And to what school would you have been going?"
The other guy answers, "Well now, I went to St. Mary's of course."
The first guy gets really excited and say! s, :And so did I. Tell me, what year did you graduate?"
The other guy answers, "Well now, let's see, I graduated in 1964."
The first guy exclaims, "The Good Lord must be smiling down upon us! I can hardly believe our good luck at winding up in the same bar tonight. Can you believe it, I graduated from St. Mary's in 1964 too."
About this time a woman walks in to the bar, sits down and orders a drink.
The bartender walks over to her shaking his head and muttering, "It's going to be a long night tonight."
The woman asks, "Why do you say that?"
The bartender replies, "The Murphy twins are drunk again."

My purpose is not only to make the lions roar. Bounce. But to trigger people's imagination. Bounce. Bounce. It's not only sex that's exciting, Mr. Holdengräber says, but the life of the mind. When you come into contact with a great idea, it can change your life. In the Age of the Overamplified, a Resurgence for the Humble Lecture

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: Love may be lovelier the second time around
Without something to hate, said Wm. Hazlitt, we should lose the very spring of thought and action. The hate-filled Duke-North Carolina rivalry

If we could survive without a wife, citizens of Rome, all of us would do without that nuisance. So proclaimed the Roman general, statesman, and censor Quintus Caecilius Metellus Macedonicus, in 131 B.C. Still, he went on to plead, falling birthrates required that Roman men fulfill their duty to reproduce, no matter how irritating Roman women might have become.


• A Tar Heel Gives the Devils His Boo Final glory [Call it an absence of “social capital” or “trust.” In some topsy-turvy African nations, it’s in people’s interests to do what damages everyone else Why Poor Countries Are Poor; Celebrity Big Brother, is produced by the great grandson of the man who built the London sewer system. Somehow, it fits Big Brother - pure McLuhan]
• · Urban sprawl is charged with endless sins: causing global warming, pollution, obesity, killing family farms, cities, mom-and-pop stores The Way We Live Now ; Economic Man is a lovely pawn for academic theorists. But he does not exist. Real people are driven by weird, irrational, self-sabotaging, even altruistic behavior. Like all revolutions in thought, this one began with anomalies, strange facts, odd observations that the prevailing wisdom could not explain. Casino gamblers, for instance, are willing to keep betting even while expecting to lose The Marketplace of Perceptions ; How a small, leftist publisher in Vermont is having a national impact Do the Write Thing
• · · An inheritor of War and Peace sings of love and loss
Leo Tolstoy's great-great granddaughter ; There are times, one reader said, when I wish I could unread it. Another was persuaded by it that life was empty and without purpose. A powerful book.. The Selfish Gene: It's all in the genes ; Hundreds of Heads Books is dedicated to working with booksellers to promote our Cold River books online and offline
• · · · Annie Proulx’s Brokeback Oscar hopes were dashed by Crash. Now there’s blood on the red carpet, and the taste of sour grapes in the mouth... Blood on the red carpet ; Ted Morgan’s memoir of his own Battle of Algiers is a love song for a ruined city and a damaged people. War enriches no one... The Front Lines of Fear ; Want to be German? Name three philosophers
• · · · · Sometimes, mere words are just not enough to express to a friend or loved one how we feel. Yet, try we must. ; What lying does do is damage the relationship between reader and memoirist. Autobiography is a genre that is defined solely by a handshake. There’s no internal distinction between an autobiographical novel and an autobiography. Rather, it’s the autobiographer’s pledge to try to tell the truth that makes a reader respond differently . . . . And when this quaint contract turns out to be a con, we feel like rubes. The Predictable Scandal ; In a society where polite discourse is impossible, improving the world may become impossible, too. Most Frequently Challenged Book? It's Perfectly Normal The Power of Escapes: How Soul and Mind Interact
• · · · · · The latest abomination in CEO pay; The lure of incentive pay