"You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep spring from coming." - Pablo Neruda I missed yesterday's post. Thursdays have become my most difficult point on the calendar--the midday class is among the most challenging, with a couple hundred pages of reading a week. By Thursday my paying work has piled up, as has my homework, to the point that from the moment I roll out of bed I'm hustling to get everything done so we can drive back to Corning after class. It doesn't leave

TS Eliot (1888–1965) Ash Wednesday (first stanza) Because I do not hope to turn again Because I do not hope Because I do not hope to turn Desiring this man's gift and that man's scopeI no longer strive to strive towards such things (Why should the aged eagle stretch its wings?) Why should I mourn The vanished power of the usual reign? Because I do not hope to know again The infirm glory of the positive hour Because I do not think Because I know I shall not know The one verit

"An American has not seen the United States until he has seen Mardi-Gras in New Orleans." - Mark Twain A gray, cool Shrove Tuesday in Manhattan. Not getting up to take the photo because I'm in the middle of eleventh-hour trial prep, and my knee is absolutely throbbing nearly four weeks post-surgery. My constant pain and immobility has sort of put a damper on this adventure. Poor P--she has so many things she'd like to see and do, and she's shackled to a guy who can barely wal

"Der Führer does not say, "Achtung, baby.'" I figured this would be a quiet Monday, being Presidents Day and all. "Presidents Day"? How completely ridiculous. We used to honor Washington and Lincoln, two shining models of how to occupy that office. Now we seem also to be honoring Warren G. Harding, or maybe James Polk. Or maybe the senile jester holding the title as I write this. I had a thought this weekend that maybe, someday, perhaps even in my lifetime, we'll see a modern