29 March 2007 – 12:01 am +0800
It wasn’t even my car.
It was my sister’s, an ugly-brown Mazda RX-7 that drove fast and smooth. I’d borrowed it for a few days, and Friday night I drove to a nearby liquor store to pick up some wine—something to get me through another empty weekend.
I was inside for fifteen or twenty minutes. With three [...]
28 March 2007 – 12:01 am +0800
“I’d like to engage a private inquiry agent, but the only worthwhile one is entirely too clever. He operates on the principle that when one has eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. And time trafficking may not be too improbable for him.”
— Poul Anderson, “Time Patrol“
26 March 2007 – 12:01 am +0800
Shall I say, I have gone at dusk through narrow streets
And watched the smoke that rises from the pipes
Of lonely men in shirt-sleeves, leaning out of windows? …
I should have been a pair of ragged claws
Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.
— T.S. Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”
23 March 2007 – 12:01 am +0800
Petrified with astonishment, Richard Seaton stared after the copper steam-bath upon which he had been electrolyzing his solution of “X,” the unknown metal. For as soon as he had removed the beaker the heavy bath had jumped endwise from under his hand as though it were alive. It had flown with terrific speed over the [...]
22 March 2007 – 12:01 am +0800
“The first life on earth was in the sea, then something crawled onto the land — a fish with rudimentary legs — and the fish evolved into the early reptiles, and along the way mammals split off. If we don’t contain actual fragments of the genetic material of those very early reptiles — and [...]
21 March 2007 – 12:01 am +0800
The greatest number of questions arise between the ages of four and six. After school entrance, questions recede gradually until by the ninth, tenth, or eleventh year children have reached what is called the questionless age. This is not an indifferent age—quite the opposite—but spontaneous questions are less frequent. Possibly they are crowded out by [...]
20 March 2007 – 12:01 am +0800
The novelist not only works on more various elements, he appeals to more ordinary minds than the poet. This indeed is the strongest practical proof of his essential inferiority as an artist. All who are capable of an interest in incidents of life which do not affect themselves, may feel the same interest more keenly [...]
19 March 2007 – 12:01 am +0800
We know there is life on Mars, and we know that the Martians are driving 4×4s and taking budget flights. We know that because the planet is heating up.
— Aeon McNulty, Adam Smith Institute Blog, 18 March 2007
16 March 2007 – 12:01 am +0800
“You simply do not understand the human condition,” said the robot.
“Hah! Do you think you do, you conceited hunk of animated tin?”
“Yes, I believe so, thanks ot my study of the authors, poets, and critics who devote their lives to teh exploration and description of Man. Your Miss Forelle is a noble soul. [...]
15 March 2007 – 12:01 am +0800
Hannibal Rising is the funniest movie of the year — a true laugh riot. Viewers will be holding their sides to contain the laughter. Forget Borat — if you’re looking for something hilarious, this is the movie to see. What’s that? It’s not supposed to be a comedy. Oops.
— James Berardinelli, review of Hannibal Rising, [...]
14 March 2007 – 12:01 am +0800
“Thank you for waiting for it.”
My brows went up. “What’s the matter? Bugs on the orchids?”
“No. But I saw your bag in the hall, and I note your finery. Straining as you are to be gone, it is gracious of you to wait for this pittance, this meager return for your [...]
13 March 2007 – 12:01 am +0800
“Craigengelt, you are either an honest fellow in right good earnest, and I scarce know how to believe that; or you are cleverer than I took you for, and I scarce know how to believe that either.”
— Sir Walter Scott, The Bride of Lammermoor
12 March 2007 – 12:01 am +0800
He located the newspaper building on B Street next to the red-light district, which was the typical locale of most papers and rightly so. Journalism was one of the less reputable professions. Reporters could be bought with a drink.
— Richard S. Wheeler, From Hell to Midnight
9 March 2007 – 12:01 am +0800
Fuck you, Marvel. I’m done. I no longer give a damn what you do in your comic books. Which is just fine, because you no longer give a damn about people like me anyway.
— Eric Burns, Websnark, on Marvel Comics’ decision to kill off Captain America for the worst of all possible reasons. (þShumate)
9 March 2007 – 12:01 am +0800
COSMO
Talking pictures? That means I’m out of a job. At last — I can start suffering and write that symphony.
R.F. SIMPSON
You’re not out of job, we’re putting you in as head of our new music department.
COSMO
Oh, thanks, R.F.! At last — I can stop suffering and write that symphony
— Betty Comden and Adolph Green, [...]