The art of clogging a toilet

As the past and current champion, I'm proud to announce that I successfully clogged a "super-flush" toilet at work this morning.

early diss

The U.S.A. did not even exist yet when its founders began dissing Russia:

It is a maxim with some great military judges, that with sensible officers soldiers can hardly be too stupid; and on this principle it is thought that the Russians would make the best troops in the world, if they were under officers other than their own.

letter from Alexander Hamilton to John Jay, March 14, 1779

there is no safety in this life

Today I cut myself while eating a carrot.

birthday regrets

In November of 1995, the famous Dorati recording of Tchaikovsky's 1812 Festival Overture was re-released.

Somehow my father and I, while driving separately, though neither of us listened much to the classical station, both caught it on the radio at the same time, and both had to pull over to the side of the road so that the blasting cannons didn't cause us to crash.

I have a hard time making friends, and my father had a hard time making friends, and I think that we could have been good friends to each other; and now that I'm old enough to understand this, it's too late - he's been gone almost two years now.

Happy birthday, Dad.

from The Tempest

...Hell is empty
And all the devils are here.

from "Down at the Cross"

"[I]n our time, as in every time, the impossible is the least that one can demand--and one is, after all, emboldened by the spectacle of human history in general, and American Negro history in particular, for it testifies to nothing less than the perpetual achievement of the impossible."

from Edwin Drood

"And be a friend to me, please; for I don't understand myself: and I want a friend who can understand me, very much indeed."