A Fool in the Forest
A fool, a fool! I met a fool i' the forest,
A motley fool; a miserable world!
As I do live by food, I met a fool
Who laid him down and bask'd him in the sun,
And rail'd on Lady Fortune in good terms,
In good set terms and yet a motley fool.
As You Like It, Act II, Scene 7
L'homme y passe à travers des forêts de symboles
Qui l'observent avec des regards familiers.
Les Fleurs du Mal, “Correspondances”
Friday, November 28, 2003
10 Brief Lines for Thanksgiving Weekend
Hark! The festive season calls
Both faint of heart and bold to malls
To seek -- en pilgrimage, en masse --
To find the Very Thing. Alas!
This world's no place to seek perfection,
No matter what one's predilection
For the quest. Still, hope or stronger
Urges drive us to search longer:
Striving, struggling, plunging on --
With what success? We'll know anon.
Tuesday, November 25, 2003
A Word in Your Tufted Ear
Word has just come in that I need to start a trial in San Diego in the morning, so posting here will be interrupted at least briefly.
Herewith a parting bit of advice. Take it from one who knows: when selecting a college, be sure that your choice offers a sufficiency of squirrels.
Wichita Ozymandian
Les affaires Ozymandesque continue . . .
Mika Cooper has responded at length (interspersed with -- parents be warned -- a virtuoso display of old-fashioned Anglo-Saxon expletives) to Aaron Haspel's response to her take on Shelley's Ozymandias. She has also kindly linked back to my own frivolous paraphrase of the work in question, which she trumps with a rather more serious paraphrase (also rife with those Anglo-Saxonisms of which I spoke earlier) by Howard Nemerov (whose position as elder brother to photographer Diane Arbus will be of interest to at least one of my more loyal readers).
In her reply, Mika has offered links to a number of photos to assist those still wrestling with the phenomenon of Stone Heads That Frown While Sneering. In a fit of synchronicity, today's celebrity news provides a further example of such a face, in the unexpected form of singer Glen Campbell's DUI mugshot:
A "wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command" indeed.
Monday, November 24, 2003
A Low Culture Moment
I know, this item really doesn't fit into the high moral tenor we try to maintain around here, but the following is hard to believe: Can it be that it has taken Hugh Hefner and Playboy magazine nearly five decades to present the first Jewish Playmate? Surely it can't have been for lack of qualified candidates.
[Link via L.A. Observed.]
Of course, one must always be aware that associating with Hugh Hefner can be dangerous to your status in the community. Take all appropriate precautions.
