"He never clearly grasped how much weight attaches to a good, true, and pure word thrown into the torrent of human speeches and how profoundly it alters its course...
"Many people stop short before uttering a good word, flushing bright red with shame, while they utter a frivolous one boldly and aloud..."

Ivan Goncharov, Oblomov

( Kenya, plastic bag capital of the world )

You know what? I'm sick and tired of all this nonsensical talk about running out of things that's been going around in the news lately. Oil, coal, xbox 360s: all bullshit. You'd think the earth's resources were finite or something. Let's look at some things whose supply is not threatened ( Read more... )

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Can anyone tell me anything about Charlottesville, Virginia? Tuppence to any who can. And thruppence (ay, you heard me correctly--THRUPPENCE) to any who can tell me about Moscow, Idaho ( Read more... )

I'm launching a new project. I collect weird junk, and, more to the point, I have a lot of weird junk. So I would like to be charitable with it; I would like to give it away. That's right; I will mail or deliver this stuff to you for free! All I ask is that you justify to me what you want it for. Give me a good story. Stuff (and shipping ( Read more... )

just a few things.

new slogan for '08: "The Democrats--We're not just your son's political party any more."

"Waiting for people to change is like waiting for a pot of water to boil--it never happens while you're watching it. Even if you stir the fuck out of it with a giant spoon."
--From the forthcoming title, Chicken Soup for Matt Volcano's ( Read more... )

Sergei Eisenstein:


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Why is a man apt to feel bad in a good environment, say suburban Short Hills, New Jersey, on an ordinary Wednesday afternoon? Why is the same man apt to feel good in a very bad environment, say an old hotel on Key Largo during a hurricane ( Read more... )

A few months ago I had to go through our bookstore's inventory and clean out used books that were no longer in stock. While cleaning my room today, I found this list of titles I had cleaned out. Guess which ones are real and which I made up while I was bored; I can't remember ( Read more... )