Let's talk about the dead

I jest. Certainly discussing those who have passed, God willing, from this life into the next are best left to their own devices. That said, I read an interesting article this week in one of my magazines that quoted extensively from the autobio by Mark Twain. I must confess herein that I haven't actually read anything by Twain. I listened to Tom Sawyer, but I'm not sure that an audio book counts the same as reading it. Even though I heard every word, I'm still not sure that the experience itself is similar. Anyhow, enough dithering about, it's time to read quotes by people who are not me.

From a sign at a Tea Party rally

Is so read the
Constitution
As Americans we do not
have the right;
To a house
To a car
To an education
Americans have a right
to per sue (sic) happiness
not to have it given to
them!

Noted that the sign, accusing folks of cultural illiteracy, actually mistakes the Constitution with the Declaration of Independence where the pursuit of happiness line actually appears.

Chance that an American benefits from at least one government antipoverty project 1/6

Average annual income of an Englishman living at the start of the Black Death, adjusted for inflation: 1,300

Of a Haitian at the start of the current cholera epidemic: 659

Number of American soldiers who died in combat last year: 455

Minimum number who committed suicide: 407

Number of states that have applied for funding under the 2010 Affordable Care Act: 50

Number that have joined a lawsuit challenging the act's constitutionality: 26



From internal reports about FBI agents behaving badly:

During a polygraph investigation, and employee acknowledged conducting unauthorized searches on FBI databases and sharing information with coworkers. For example, the employee searched FBI databases for information on public celebrities the employee thought were "hot." Note: Isn't this just checking IMDB?

For my friend Mark on the difference between hipsters and scenesters:

"A hipster is somebody who cares about the music. They're really cool looking, and I guess they shop at thrift stores. They're do it yourself and very heavily invested in the indie music scene. A scenester is somebody who does it for the fashion and gets their clothes at, like, Urban Outfitters and pays 200 for a pair of jeans, which I think is ridiculous, but that's just me"--Betty 22.

Pabst Blue Ribbon. That's the hipster beer. Theres't that with everything. It's exhausting, absolutely exhausting. And that's why I don't try to keep up with it. If I was sitting here right now, and I had girls' jeans on, and a funky haircut, and was drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon all the time, and getting import copies of Swedish psychobilly folk noise pop, whatever the hell, and reading David Sedaris(note: Not too crazy about Sedaris myself. He's good, but so are lots of writers) and watching obscure samurai trash cult movies, if I was going for this just way obscure, cooler than you in ever possible conceivable way kind of thing, I just wouldn't really feel like myself anymore.--Chris 20.

Fiction From Life in Three Houses by Edourad Leve

You used to read dictionaries like other people read novels. Each entry is a character, you'd say that might be encountered under another rubric. Plots, many of them, would form during the random reading. The story changes according to the order in which the entries are read. A dictionary resembles the world more than a novel does, because the world is not a coherent sequence of actions but a constellation of things perceived. It is looked at, unrelated things congregate, and geographic proximity gives them meaning. If events follow one another, they are believed to be a story. But in a dictionary, time doesn't exist: ABC is neither more nor less chronological than BCA. To portray life in order would be absurd: I remember you at random. My brain ressurects you through stochastic details, like picking marbles out of a bag.


Also, Sadie has long pieces of hair that stick straight up in the back. She looks like Dennis the Menace. First full day with her tomorrow.