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Saturday, January 21, 2006



The Hydra, now she was a worm. Chop off one head and straight away there’d be another glaring at you. Like marriage really. And after this I’ve got to go down into Hell and drag out that stupid dog, what’s his name, Cerberus. Three heads, loads of teeth – that one. No wonder the dead don’t get any letters – who’s going to deliver them with a dog like that at the gate?
-- Hercules to Atlas, in Jeanette Winterson’s Weight

Human taste buds can detect the presence of strychnine when it is but 1 part in 2,500,000. Some moths are able to pick up the scent of their female mate as a distance of a mile or more. The moth being attracted to the flame pales in comparison with the male moth who is attracted to and can find his mate over such an extraordinary distance of separation. This is a design that prefigures a love story A search for wisdom

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: Night: To the very last moment, a germ of hope stayed alive
Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel's wrenching attempt to find meaning in the horror of the Holocaust is technically a novel, but it's based so closely on his own experiences in Birkenau, Auschwitz, and Buchenwald that it's generally--and not inaccurately--read as an autobiography

Oprah has announced her next big pick, Night by Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel. In Night, a pious teenager racked with guilt at having survived the Holocaust asks an intolerable question: how can God have allowed these monstrous events to occur? No Better Picture of God than Here - Except in the Bible


• To the best of my knowledge no one has left behind him so moving a record Reality and humanity at their worst [Elie Wiesel's statement, ...to remain silent and indifferent is the greatest sin of all... Elie Wiesel born in Sighet, Romania ; Going Down Swinging and Cordite are the places leading the way Going Global:Charting transformations in the concept of ‘Australian Literature ]
• · If philosophy is a search for wisdom, then a true philosopher will find the enticing goal that first animated his search 355 LIVE LONG--AND PROSPER? ; He traversed an entire nation in a long weekend. Now Rolf Potts shows how you can impress members of the opposite sex and write a textbook-perfect travel article in eight easy steps The Art of Writing a Story About Walking Across Andorra ; How odd, and yet fitting, that Mark Twain’s most important and enduring masterpiece can inspire feelings of awe and, yes, disgust Mark Twain vs. Tom Sawyer
• · · You have inspired me like Goliath inspired David; He is the best ex-husband in the world"; and other expressions of literary gratitude I Thank You: The cost of a best seller is high, not only to an author, but also to her secretarial staff ; THIS BUSINESS of conversation is a very serious matter Autocrat, interrupted
• · · · Truth has become a commodity so valuable many will do anything to sell it Emotions can be more easily manipulated than our intellect Stranger than fiction: the fabrication of fact ; Does anyone care anymore about the ratio of fact to fiction in the memoir? My True Story, More or Less, and Maybe Not at All ; The poor once prided themselves on their honesty, cleanliness, and thrift. Now they pride themselves on their bohemianism. This is actually not a good thing Most murderers just need to get a life
• · · · · Society: Increasing rates of anxiety could be due to a poor diet, according to a leading mental health charity. Poor diet link to rising cases of depression; The black dog claims a political victim: Gallop made brave decision: Labor; Text messages are in their spare reality mostly devoid of complex feeling. Which, of course, suits emotional cripples just fine Life and Romance in 160 Characters or Less ;
• · · · · · In James English's book, ours is a culture addled by awards. Still, says the Penn professor and author, we couldn't do without them A plethora of prizes ; Weighing in on A Million Little Lies