Here, once again, is a selection of quotations for Sunday. You all have made my job much easier this week as most of these quotations were sent to me directly. Please feel free to continue to do so. I'll try to post as many as I can. 

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Hannah and I took one of our walks again last night. We set out at sunset; now that it's February, the five o'clock hour comes before the light cedes everything to the dark, and we walked in the last of the shadows up the road toward one of our regular haunts. … Read full post »

 I might repeat to myself slowly and soothingly, a list of quotations beautiful from minds profound--if I can remember any of the damn things. 

Dorothy Parker

All novels are about certain minorities. The individual is a minority. The universal in the novel--and isn't that what we… Read full post »

Cary,
You know how great a piece this is. I can see the book now. It's gelling in front of my eyes.

But one of the things I loved about major surgery (except for the waking up part--that part where you wake up, and everything hurts and they're saying, "Lorraine. Wake up,… Read full post »

 Yesterday, while handing out tiaras, JK mentioned that she thought some extreme travel stories were in order. I asked if I might re-post something I wrote a while back, and J.K., who by that time, had been drinking whatever Bill S. had been able to find in his liquor cabinet, said,… Read full post »

The hope of the world lies in what one demands, not of others, but of oneself.  James Baldwin

He who binds to himself a joy

Doth the winged life destroy; 

But he who kisses the joy as it flies

Lives in eternity's sun rise.

William Blake

Wooden-headedness consists… Read full post »

“Loneliness is the poverty of self; solitude is the richness of self.”

-- May Sarton

 The difference between loneliness and solitude in our inner lives, is very similar to the difference between how we use the words naked and nude to describe our physical bodies. Naked descri… Read full post »

One in Eight Women in Sierra Leone will die in Childbirth. Tell me again how childbirth is safe, and how women who choose to have abortions are selfish, undependable, untrustworthy, and, ironically, unable to be trusted with a choice (although trustworthy enough to raise children against the… Read full post »

I'm the last person you might expect to write something that compliments a a corporation's business practices. And believe me, this "good deed" does not obviate the need for Bank of America to be held accountable for other bad decisions that they have made (or continue to make).

But, I… Read full post »

Kennedy had even less tolerance for New York state politicians. His brother gave him a book entitled, "What I Know About New York Politics, by Robert Kennedy." The pages were blank.

--Robert Kennedy: His Life by Evan Thomas (pg. 303)

Robert Kennedy, as much loved as he was, was a carpet-bagger… Read full post »

This gelid morning, the outside thermometer is five degrees below the Fahrenheit zero. I want nothing more than to curl toward your warmth, keep you with me all day, pretend that it is not a Monday, a day of capitalistic obligation. 

Come back to bed with me. 

 … Read full post »

My good news today starts with an enormous THANK YOU to RicTresa for his generosity with me while I have been a member of Open Salon. (A membership I'm not intending to give up anytime soon.)

Ric designed not one, but two, beautiful banners for my blog. 

You'll note, however, that… Read full post »

Image blatantly stolen from Michael Rodgers' outstanding

A Simple Call for Help

A few months ago, Michael Rodgers posted a beautiful piece of prose about food banks, the hungry, and about not forgetting them at the holidays. Well, the holidays have passed. And one of my… Read full post »

Oh, how I struggle with this issue. It's not clear cut for me, and anyone who is reading this blog post thinking that I'm going to present a cogent, totally rational, black-and-white argument is going to be sorely disappointed (and probably doesn't know me very well anyway, since… Read full post »

This week, two lovely things happened as a direct result of the work I do here on Open Salon.

I received my copy of the most recent Virginia Quarterly Review. Inside the printed magazine was an ad for the the full-lenth, internet-only article that the magazine did on the… Read full post »

Last week, my daughter and I were sitting in the semi-darkness of the theatre, prior to the screening of Precious,  discussing this excellent article in Bust (from Oct '09) about High School Feminists. Daughter #1 has gone from being a high school feminist to a college freshman feminist, and lea… Read full post »

 Journalist Michelle Lang, who had been in Afghanistan since December 11, was killed with four soldiers yesterday.

This is brief. Reuters is reporting that four Canadian(en) soldiers and a Canadian journalist, Michelle Lang, were killed today near Kandahar.

I want to extend to o… Read full post »

We were not what you would call a gourmet family. We were English peasants, and I grew up on a diet of minced meat; meat pie; pie and chips; fish and chips; bubble 'n' squeak; sole boiled in milk; mashed potatoes; boiled potatoes;  roasted potatoes; new potatoes; baked beans; the occasional… Read full post »

Yesterday, I went to the doctor's office again to talk about my headaches again, but this is not a story about that. This is a story about what happened afterward.

Armed with a handful of prescriptions that would all supposedly do their parts to ameliorate pain that has plagued my… Read full post »

"It does not profit a man to marry. For what is a woman but an enemy of friendship, an inescapable punishment, a necessary evil, a natural temptation, a domestic danger, delectable mischief, a fault in nature, painted with beautiful colors?"

St. John Chrysostom

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Waning crescent moon

Mid-winter chamomile sun

What will light my way? 

At 11:49 last night, those of us in the Northern Hemisphere passed the Solstice. For the next 187 days, we can look forward to a minute or two more of daylight each day. 

As if… Read full post »

It's that season of the year again: while you're all out, shopping for the various holidays you celebrate, or trying on vacation clothes, I'm spending day (oh god. I've lost track) of "grading" my students.

It's the worst part of my job. 

I love reading what they've written. I have… Read full post »

 I believe that David Brooks is a smart man. I also believe that deep within him lies a belief in Manichaeism, that is, that the world is divided into dark and light, good and evil, and each person must choose his or her side or thereby lose his soul. 

More important… Read full post »

It's Hanukkah. That magic season of lights.

Oy, my migraine says. Lights? My brain sharply rejects lights when the headaches invade.

It's an uneasy peace between the two peoples who inhabit my brain. Last night, as they did thousands of years ago, the Romans went back… Read full post »