6:43

♠
"Whoa, 6:43!"

Monk had gotten up a few minutes before six for a bathroom run, but he was feeling sleepy enough that he wanted another fifteen or twenty minutes of sack time. In that quasi-dozing and quasi-masturbatory drizzling of sleep, he... obviously lost track of time.

"No worries, though. Sleep, sweet sleep. I don't mind extending the news harvesting more throughout the day. I will take the sleep whenever I can get her."

xXx

6:43

♠
"Whoa, 6:43!"

Monk had gotten up a few minutes before six for a bathroom run, but he was feeling sleepy enough that he wanted another fifteen or twenty minutes of sack time. In that quasi-dozing and quasi-masturbatory drizzling of sleep, he... obviously lost track of time.

"No worries, though. Sleep, sweet sleep. I don't mind extending the news harvesting more throughout the day. I will take the sleep whenever I can get her."

xXx

The Silly Head Wears the Crown

♠
W. never seems as alarmed about the devastation in Iraq as he should be. He told People magazine, “I must tell you, I’m sleeping a lot better than people would assume,” and he told Brit Hume that his presidency was “a joyful experience.”

-- Maureen Dowd for The New York Times

Maybe I was wrong to think that Dubya's was the weary head that wears the crown. Maybe the better interpretation is to regard him in that shot to be like a schoolboy who resents having to do some homework before he can go out and play and hit the gym. As I have said, Monk is not without his fanicful notions and hopes.

xXx

The Silly Head Wears the Crown

♠
W. never seems as alarmed about the devastation in Iraq as he should be. He told People magazine, “I must tell you, I’m sleeping a lot better than people would assume,” and he told Brit Hume that his presidency was “a joyful experience.”

-- Maureen Dowd for The New York Times

Maybe I was wrong to think that Dubya's was the weary head that wears the crown. Maybe the better interpretation is to regard him in that shot to be like a schoolboy who resents having to do some homework before he can go out and play and hit the gym. As I have said, Monk is not without his fanicful notions and hopes.

xXx

O on a Foggy Morning

♠
Taking Bo out on the post-breakfast rounds to another lightly foggy morning, Monk loves how he easily gets absorbed reading "O." He also feels some regret that he can not have some of this natural joy in reading narrative histories. And I am afraid that more serious literature, such as Dickens and Maugham, probably would not work, either. One would think that Monk should be beyond the prod of intellectual ambitions by now. At least it does not bother him as much any more. We are just happy to find something that feels as good as this.

xXx

O on a Foggy Morning

♠
Taking Bo out on the post-breakfast rounds to another lightly foggy morning, Monk loves how he easily gets absorbed reading "O." He also feels some regret that he can not have some of this natural joy in reading narrative histories. And I am afraid that more serious literature, such as Dickens and Maugham, probably would not work, either. One would think that Monk should be beyond the prod of intellectual ambitions by now. At least it does not bother him as much any more. We are just happy to find something that feels as good as this.

xXx

Electronic Dictionaries

♠
Reading "The Road" on this heavenly peaceful, autumnal Saturday morning, Monk goes to the computer to look up 'catamites,' and his appetite for electronic dictionaries is reawakened and he browses through Amazon's stock. Yahoo's simple dictionary serves his purposes well enough, even providing audio pronunciations, and Monk does not have enough money for his books, but the heart is a covetous creature. Like the dick.

xXx

Electronic Dictionaries

♠
Reading "The Road" on this heavenly peaceful, autumnal Saturday morning, Monk goes to the computer to look up 'catamites,' and his appetite for electronic dictionaries is reawakened and he browses through Amazon's stock. Yahoo's simple dictionary serves his purposes well enough, even providing audio pronunciations, and Monk does not have enough money for his books, but the heart is a covetous creature. Like the dick.

xXx

The Old Boy

♠
Bill is raking leaves. Bo actually perches his front paws on the window sill to bark at him. But Bo misses the first time and it is a shaky and short-lived effort, and he is content to sit down facing the window. God, I love the old boy!

xXx

The Old Boy

♠
Bill is raking leaves. Bo actually perches his front paws on the window sill to bark at him. But Bo misses the first time and it is a shaky and short-lived effort, and he is content to sit down facing the window. God, I love the old boy!

xXx

The Black Jeans

♠
Monk got around to washing his black clothes today. The black jeans did it. After mowing up the leaves last week, those pants were too disgusting to leave alone. He should throw them away, since there is almost as much hole as there is crotch. He ought to start using his sweats for mowing instead. But old habits die hard. He wants to see if he can get another year out of those jeans.

At least Monk now has a few more T-shirts and undies to use, taking off some of the strain on the colored ones.

xXx

The Black Jeans

♠
Monk got around to washing his black clothes today. The black jeans did it. After mowing up the leaves last week, those pants were too disgusting to leave alone. He should throw them away, since there is almost as much hole as there is crotch. He ought to start using his sweats for mowing instead. But old habits die hard. He wants to see if he can get another year out of those jeans.

At least Monk now has a few more T-shirts and undies to use, taking off some of the strain on the colored ones.

xXx

Those Damn Jews!

♠
In his column, "Israel Did It!", Victor Davis Hanson discusses the idea that all solutions to the problems and backwardness of the Middle East lead through Israel. He quotes from a telling interview between Palestinian-born Al-Jazeera editor-in-chief, Ahmed Sheikh, and Pierre Heumann, the Middle East correspondent of the Swiss weekly Die Weltwoche. This obsession with Israel certainly sounds bizzare to me, as I am more sympathetic to Mr. Hanson's conclusion:

This is utter nonsense, precisely because Arab detestation of Israel is a symptom, not the malady, of the current Arab crisis of the spirit. Ahmed Sheikh himself stumbles onto that truth. To gain the necessary maturity and self-confidence that would mitigate scapegoating Israel, the Arab Middle East would have to make vast structural changes in traditional Islamic society that would usher in freedom, prosperity, and security.

It seems insane to think that it is the other way around, that all these good things can only come with the liquidation of Israel. Surely, if Israel disappeared today in a mushroom cloud, the Muslim Middle East would still be as fucked up as ever.

( The interview excerpt )

xXx

Those Damn Jews!

♠
In his column, "Israel Did It!", Victor Davis Hanson discusses the idea that all solutions to the problems and backwardness of the Middle East lead through Israel. He quotes from a telling interview between Palestinian-born Al-Jazeera editor-in-chief, Ahmed Sheikh, and Pierre Heumann, the Middle East correspondent of the Swiss weekly Die Weltwoche. This obsession with Israel certainly sounds bizzare to me, as I am more sympathetic to Mr. Hanson's conclusion:

This is utter nonsense, precisely because Arab detestation of Israel is a symptom, not the malady, of the current Arab crisis of the spirit. Ahmed Sheikh himself stumbles onto that truth. To gain the necessary maturity and self-confidence that would mitigate scapegoating Israel, the Arab Middle East would have to make vast structural changes in traditional Islamic society that would usher in freedom, prosperity, and security.

It seems insane to think that it is the other way around, that all these good things can only come with the liquidation of Israel. Surely, if Israel disappeared today in a mushroom cloud, the Muslim Middle East would still be as fucked up as ever.

( The interview excerpt )

xXx

All-American Girl

♠
It looks like Ms. Tara Conner is going to be deprived of her recently won Miss USA crown:

Miss USA Tara Conner is on the verge of losing her crown after testing positive for cocaine, lustily kissing Miss Teen USA in public and sneaking men into their Trump Place apartment, sources tell the Daily News.
"Tara was a party animal," said a source who knows Conner, 20, and Miss Teen USA Katie Blair, 18, from some of the city's top nightspots. "I've seen them kiss before. They always dance all sexy on the tables. ... They definitely get close."

Is it really just me, or does she not sound like the very soul of the all-American girl? I suppose they are going for more of a Norman Rockwell cartoon of the American ideal. Too bad.

(Source: Jo Piazza for The NY Daily News)

xXx

All-American Girl

♠
It looks like Ms. Tara Conner is going to be deprived of her recently won Miss USA crown:

Miss USA Tara Conner is on the verge of losing her crown after testing positive for cocaine, lustily kissing Miss Teen USA in public and sneaking men into their Trump Place apartment, sources tell the Daily News.
"Tara was a party animal," said a source who knows Conner, 20, and Miss Teen USA Katie Blair, 18, from some of the city's top nightspots. "I've seen them kiss before. They always dance all sexy on the tables. ... They definitely get close."

Is it really just me, or does she not sound like the very soul of the all-American girl? I suppose they are going for more of a Norman Rockwell cartoon of the American ideal. Too bad.

(Source: Jo Piazza for The NY Daily News)

xXx

O for Dessert

♠
After all that "Road" today, Monk is able to enjoy a good late evening session with "O," following Swanson's Mexican dinner, fast and easy, freeing up more of the evening. A little steamy romance in one's day is always good.

xXx

O for Dessert

♠
After all that "Road" today, Monk is able to enjoy a good late evening session with "O," following Swanson's Mexican dinner, fast and easy, freeing up more of the evening. A little steamy romance in one's day is always good.

xXx

Little Intimacies

♠
One of the special things that the "Story of O" gives the faithful reader (as opposed to the reader who is only racing through for the hottest parts), is that the narrative sometimes goes deeper than the sensational sex, touching upon the more intimate aspects of interpersonal relations, as in the scene when Jacqueline has moved in with O and joins her in bed:

O drew the covers over her and turned out the light. Two hours later, when she took Jacqueline again, in the darkness, Jacqueline acquiesced, but murmured: “Don't tire me out too much, I have to get up early tomorrow.”

Coming across a passage like that is one of the great treats of this reading life, and it brings a tender smile to Monk's ravaged face, but it is a smile weighed down by the poignantly bittersweet regret that this should be experienced between the pages rather than between the sheets.

xXx

Little Intimacies

♠
One of the special things that the "Story of O" gives the faithful reader (as opposed to the reader who is only racing through for the hottest parts), is that the narrative sometimes goes deeper than the sensational sex, touching upon the more intimate aspects of interpersonal relations, as in the scene when Jacqueline has moved in with O and joins her in bed:

O drew the covers over her and turned out the light. Two hours later, when she took Jacqueline again, in the darkness, Jacqueline acquiesced, but murmured: “Don't tire me out too much, I have to get up early tomorrow.”

Coming across a passage like that is one of the great treats of this reading life, and it brings a tender smile to Monk's ravaged face, but it is a smile weighed down by the poignantly bittersweet regret that this should be experienced between the pages rather than between the sheets.

xXx

The Lure of the Ancient World

♠
Leaving C-SPAN2's BookTV running in the background, as he reads "O," Monk catches a presentation by an author, Adrian Goldsworthy, who has written a biography on Julius Caesar. He does some checking on Amazon, and in spite of the mistake of having gotten those two volumes from H. H. Scullard on ancient Rome, Monk comes upon a spate of books from the period that he is tempted to try.

Monk thinks the best bet to start out with is Robin Fox Lane's "The Classical World: An Epic History from Homer to Hadrian." He remembers enjoying Lane's work on Alexander the Great. And an emphasis on Homer sounds like a winning approach to him.

But Monk is still wincing from those Scullard texts, which cost him around seventy or eighty dollars, which is pretty expensive for a paper weight and a luxury that he can ill-afford. He feels more than a little wariness, still healing from that burn.

xXx

The Lure of the Ancient World

♠
Leaving C-SPAN2's BookTV running in the background, as he reads "O," Monk catches a presentation by an author, Adrian Goldsworthy, who has written a biography on Julius Caesar. He does some checking on Amazon, and in spite of the mistake of having gotten those two volumes from H. H. Scullard on ancient Rome, Monk comes upon a spate of books from the period that he is tempted to try.

Monk thinks the best bet to start out with is Robin Fox Lane's "The Classical World: An Epic History from Homer to Hadrian." He remembers enjoying Lane's work on Alexander the Great. And an emphasis on Homer sounds like a winning approach to him.

But Monk is still wincing from those Scullard texts, which cost him around seventy or eighty dollars, which is pretty expensive for a paper weight and a luxury that he can ill-afford. He feels more than a little wariness, still healing from that burn.

xXx