First Looks category archive
Light Bloggery 0
If you want know why, call my dentist at 1-800-555-PULL.
A Poem for Trumpled Times 0
by T. S. Eliot
(who is, with e. e. cummings and Samuel Coleridge, among my favorite poets.)
I
We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats’ feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar
Shape without form, shade without colour,
Paralysed force, gesture without motion;
Those who have crossed
With direct eyes, to death’s other Kingdom
Remember us-if at all-not as lost
Violent souls, but only
As the hollow men
The stuffed men.
II
Eyes I dare not meet in dreams
In death’s dream kingdom
These do not appear:
There, the eyes are
Sunlight on a broken column
There, is a tree swinging
And voices are
In the wind’s singing
More distant and more solemn
Than a fading star.
Let me be no nearer
In death’s dream kingdom
Let me also wear
Such deliberate disguises
Rat’s coat, crowskin, crossed staves
In a field
Behaving as the wind behaves
No nearer-
Not that final meeting
In the twilight kingdom
III
This is the dead land
This is cactus land
Here the stone images
Are raised, here they receive
The supplication of a dead man’s hand
Under the twinkle of a fading star.
Is it like this
In death’s other kingdom
Waking alone
At the hour when we are
Trembling with tenderness
Lips that would kiss
Form prayers to broken stone.
IV
The eyes are not here
There are no eyes here
In this valley of dying stars
In this hollow valley
This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms
In this last of meeting places
We grope together
And avoid speech
Gathered on this beach of the tumid river
Sightless, unless
The eyes reappear
As the perpetual star
Multifoliate rose
Of death’s twilight kingdom
The hope only
Of empty men.
V
Here we go round the prickly pear
Prickly pear prickly pear
Here we go round the prickly pear
At five o’clock in the morning.
Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom
Between the conception
And the creation
Between the emotion
And the response
Falls the Shadow
Life is very long
Between the desire
And the spasm
Between the potency
And the existence
Between the essence
And the descent
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom
For Thine is
Life is
For Thine is the
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.
Meta: OTR 0
I stumbled over a new-to-me old time radio website and added it to the sidebar, over there, on the right.
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“Come into My Parlor” 0
California man recreates Sherlock Holmes’s sitting room with period items.
You can hear him discuss the process with the Baker Street Babes.
Break Time 0
Off to drink liberally.
Light Bloggery 0
Things to do.
Break Time 0
Off to drink liberally.
Drinking Liberally Virginia Beach Tomorrow 0
When fellowship is needed, join us . . . .
When: Thursday, October 12, 6 p.
Where:
Croc’s 19 Street Bistro
620 19th Street (Map)
More here.
Make TWUUG Your LUG 0
Learn about the wonderful world of free and open source. Use computers to do what you want, not what someone else wants you to do. Learn how to use GNU/Linux and its plethora of free and open source software to get stuff done with computers.
It’s not hard; it’s just different.
When: Monthly TWUUG meeting at 7:30 p. m. on the first Thursday of the month (October 5, 2017). Pre-meeting dinner at Chicago Uno, JANAF shopping center, 6:00 p. m. (map)
Who: Everyone in TideWater/Hampton Roads with interest in any/all flavors of Unix/Linux. There are no dues or signup requirements. All are welcome.
Where: Lake Taylor Transitional Care Hospital in Norfolk Training Room (map). (Wireless and wired internet connection available.) Turn right upon entering, then left at the last corridor and look for the open meeting room.
Because There Are Always Enough Electrons for Another Cat Picture 0
Meet Peaches and Ziggy.
(When we got them from the SPCA, Ziggy was named “Mango,” and we thought, “What the hell kind of name is ‘Mango’ for an [ex-]tom cat?” “Ziggy” came about because he zigs and zags about the house.) They are brother and sister and get along famously, snuzzling and nuzzling throughout the day.
They fill the hole left by JoCat’s passing. We were loading her into the carrier to take her to the emergency vet when she breathed her last.
JoCat joined the family when my father passed away a dozen years ago and had a long full life of dominating the household.
Her sister lives with my brother. Originally, they were Joe and Sam, until it became apparent that they were Josephine and Samantha. With cats kittens, it’s hard to tell . . . .
“The Jet Set” 0
That’s the proposed new term for Donald Trump’s cabinet. Eugene Robinson explains.
Data Corruption 0
If it goes viral, double-check it.
Twice.
Per The Smoking Gun:
But Kushner’s current voter registration form (seen below) reveals that he is, in fact, 100% male. The document is on file with the New York City Board of Elections.
Follow the link for the image.
Empty Space–Filled 0
We went to the SPCA on Friday and adopted two six-month-old cats, brother (on the left) and sister. They are as rambunctious as one could wish and busily engaged in taking over the house. Their favorite spot is the top of the cat tower that I built several years ago from scrap lumber and left-over carpet pieces.
They do not replace JoCat; they succeed her.
