Marche Slav was playing in the breakfast place while I drank ginger licorice tea and stared out the window at a broad church with clean lines and an imposing statue of a Founding Father. He was pointing at something in the distance. The insipid Gamsco box was previewing one of its new games, "StripTease Poker ( Read more... )

Apparently the State Department of the United States of America agrees with me. I would make an excellent diplomat. And they told me so, too. Pending one last minor hurdle, I will have myself a new job.

I have gotten too accustomed to failure. This is surreal.

I don't want to be one of those people who mutters to himself while performing menial tasks. There have been people like this in every office I have ever toiled ( Read more... )

For the last two days I have hit every green light on my crosstown walk from the Port Authority to my office, across 45th street from the Met Life Building. Infected Mushroom eases the pain of the knot in my lower leg. Just a brick in the wall of black overcoats on a warm Friday morning ( Read more... )

I did not know that Stravinsky did a treatment of the Lamentations of the Prophet Jeremiah. I am intrigued ( Read more... )

Have no fear, Scipio, and what I am about to tell you, commit to memory.

Africanus appears to Scipio in a dream. Having withdrawn to heaven, they look down upon the world and the majesty of the Spheres, and the elder Africanus gives his mighty grandson advice. Unsurprisingly they talk about Carthage.

Videsne illam urbem, quae parere populo ( Read more... )

Gondora gonna fallsa.

I think I am going to leave work in a few minutes. My head is pounding and screaming for sleep, and I can't seem to be able to force myself to read much of anything.

Unfortunately her fever spiked early this morning, so it is looking less likely that she will be able to come home today. Fuck.

A lot of people make New Years' Resolutions. I like resolutions quite a bit, actually. In fact, I don't think a single day goes by in which I don't resolve myself to do something. I'm pretty into self-discipline, and not the leather variety, thanks ( Read more... )

The Parthian Empire, founded in Iran by the two brothers Arsaces an Tiridates, extended from the Euphrates to the Oxus in the east, and from the Caspian to the Indian Ocean in the south. The effectively controlled Iran, Media, Mesopotamia, Hyrcania, Ariana, Margiana, and Armenia ( Read more... )