The most popular dinner speaker is the one who sits down before he stands up
-Mahaffy 1900
Imagine if literary novelists stopped writing about love and sex. We'd notice, wouldn't we? Where Have All the Strivers Gone?
Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: A bleak bard's stark century
Dublin embraces the playwright who found meaning in nothingness
SAMUEL BECKETT is everywhere in Dublin, glowering down on the home town he deserted as a young man.
A hundred years after the playwright's birth on April 13, 1906, the Irish capital is embracing its difficult native son.
• Dublin embraces plays [It doesn't have quite the same ring as Dale Peck's infamous line ... Michiko Kakutani recently embarked on her 25th year as a New York Times book critic, and it's gotten to the point that when her name is mentioned in print, you can see the smoke rising from the page A critic with a fixation; Ordinary Czechs pulled together magnificently during the last week's catastrophic flooding, as people on the ground generally do in a crisis Prague: Flood weary ; A statue of Karl Marx still greets visitors to the headquarters of the Czech Communist Party Czech Communists shrug off Marx, look to future ; How is history to judge Blair? ]
• · I just walk around. I want to be swept off my feet, you know? I want my children to have magical powers. I am prepared for amazing things to happen. I can handle it Me and You and Everyone We Know ; The group chief executive of Axa Asia Pacific, Les Owen, warned yesterday that home owners could face a 50-year fall in the real value of Australian homes after 50 years of rises and argued for a phasing out of tax breaks such as negative gearing. Speaking at a symposium in Melbourne, Mr Owen said that virtually all the increase in Australians' net worth from about $70,000 per person in 1990 to $180,000 now had come from the increase hi the value of houses. Australian Financial Review, 10/04/2006, Financial Services, Page 54 real value of Australian homes ; Can the loneliest corner of North Dakota attract anyone to go live there? Not Far From Forsaken
• · · Whether its tattoos, scars or bright underwear, body art is nothing new - and tells us a lot about being human. A statement of identity ; Think murder by poison, and Lucrezia Borgia comes quickly to mind. Willful, beautiful, sexually promiscuous, and by historical reputation ruthless, she was said to rival her brother Cesare and her father, Pope Alexander VI, in jealousy, intrigue, and homicide, dispatching those who thwarted her with a dash of white arsenic in their drinks. Don't Chew the Wallpaper ; Cold River in front of silver screen
• · · · Living together may lead to more breakups. As men who get the milk free don't buy the cow Should we live together? ; LIFE seems to be rosier for people whose parents stay together. As divorce becomes more prevalent, young people are more likely to have their education disrupted by family problems and experience difficulty finding a partner they are happy with Have a life - keep the folks wed ; My heart opens up to you when she says she has no time for you now. 'My soul, why dost thou not depart from me?' Unrequited Love: Then and Now
• · · · · Sex today: condoms and pills ; Definition of sex consent splits legal world; Surely sex can be wrong if it involves force, manipulation, barranquering, lying or cheating, but sex itself seems innocent enough In the age of science, why be shamed by sex?
• · · · · · Here are words that no parent wants to hear: I've decided to major in English. I feel I've dwelt in this immensely rich world. I've dwelt in marvels and riches ... Literary experience heals the wound without undermining the privilege of individuality Eat This Book ; On the bizarre story of flightless birds and red herrings Penguins Fail to Prove Existence of God; Conservatives teach sex ed to medical students. Thanks, Congress. Chastity, M.D.