A new book containing some of the Reagan diaries will appear soon, and it occured to me that in the not so distant future, historians are not going to have the same luxuries. I simply do not know anyone who has a diary, and after the Packwood affair, I doubt very many politicians do, either.
Open Thread
If open threads are outlawed, only outlaws will open threads.
Poetry Slam!
I’m not that big a fan of honoring every random thing with its own calendar slot,* but I like poetry so it seems fitting to send off National Poetry Month with at least one post on the topic. The whole idea of favorite poets does a disservice to the art, since we go through times when any of two dozen poets and specific works speaks to us more strongly than the others. I have had Donne periods, Frost, Pound and Wislawa Szymborka. Often I switch between being mesmerized at the mythic renderings of Gary Snyder’s beatnik life and frustration with the way that he poemizes ordinary journal entries by adding arbitrary line breaks. For a few demented nights in college I was a Neruda guy.
So instead of picking our favorite poets, let’s use this thread to recall the poems that we can write down without looking them up. By definition that will make this a thread for poetry wonks, as if that is a bad thing. I will lead off with one of the few poems that I both like and (hopefully) remember in full.
Fire and Ice
Robert Frost
Some say the world will end in fire,
some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if I had to perish twice,
I think I’ve known enough of hate
to say that for destruction ice is also great
and would suffice.
***
(*) Please remind me when Intergalactic Coblogger Week comes around this year. For some stupid reason I keep missing it.
Abortion Clinics Bombing
Planting bombs at abortion clinics is terrorism. Eric Rudolph and those like him are domestic terrorists.
When the News Reads Like a Porn Script
Tell me this new story does not sound like a description of a cheesy porn:
Chinese tourism authorities are seeking investment to build a novel concept attraction — the world’s first “women’s town,” where men get punished for disobedience, an official said Thursday.
Not that I am in the habit of reading porn scripts (side question- do porno’s actually have scripts?).
A Few Questions For The Community
Maybe you guys can help me resolve a couple of things.
* Why does anybody still care what Tom DeLay thinks? Of course he will say outrageous crap. He’s a disgraced, toxic bombast with less personal credibility than most inanimate objects. He ran the Congress into the ground and personally contributed as much as anybody to losing the GOP majority. The only way he will see his name in a headline that doesn’t include the word ‘trial’ is if he says something outrageous. He’s a troll, I say ignore him.
* Blogger’s privilege – I just invested in a Mac laptop to replace the crash-prone Compaq POS desktop that has tormented me for far too long. Our site’s tracking info tells me that 13% of you come via Mac OSX so the odds are pretty good that many of you have useful knowledge about cool widgets, blogging on Mac, Windows on boot camp, whether airlines have enough seats with power outlets to make that adapter thing useful etc. Use this space to share any tips, anecdotes, scoldings for choosing the wrong computer and whatever comes to mind.
* Treat this as an open thread.
Open Thread
Crazy busy.