Poet Laureate

Can you taste
what I’m saying? It is onions or potatoes, a pinch
of simple salt, the wealth of melting butter, it is obvious,
it stays in the back of your throat like a truth
you never uttered because the time was always wrong ...

-- Philip Levine

Mr. Levine is being named our next poet Laureate.

I have never been able to get into contemporary poetry. Aside from the great epics and some of the choice classics, poetry strikes me as being more a personal communication - a kind of artful tweet - something one writes more for oneself and one's intimate circle of friends and fond acquaintances, rather than something for other, anonymous readers to enjoy.

If time were infinte and death a joke, I'm sure I could enjoy reading the unique formulations of our modern poets, but I have so much I want to read now, and which I won't be able to get to, I'm sure, that I consider such poetry to be a luxury I cannot honestly afford.

Poet Laureate

Can you taste
what I’m saying? It is onions or potatoes, a pinch
of simple salt, the wealth of melting butter, it is obvious,
it stays in the back of your throat like a truth
you never uttered because the time was always wrong ...

-- Philip Levine

Mr. Levine is being named our next poet Laureate.

I have never been able to get into contemporary poetry. Aside from the great epics and some of the choice classics, poetry strikes me as being more a personal communication - a kind of artful tweet - something one writes more for oneself and one's intimate circle of friends and fond acquaintances, rather than something for other, anonymous readers to enjoy.

If time were infinte and death a joke, I'm sure I could enjoy reading the unique formulations of our modern poets, but I have so much I want to read now, and which I won't be able to get to, I'm sure, that I consider such poetry to be a luxury I cannot honestly afford.

Rachel Beckwith

Nicholas Kristof wrote a human-interest column that got even me misty-eyed. Rachel Beckwith went to a good school and learned about Locks of Love at the age of five, and it got her started on a track, taking practical steps to make the world a better place. Evidently, the Lord has some hard plans for our world, because He keeps taking the good when they are still so young.

( Extended excerpt )

Rachel Beckwith

Nicholas Kristof wrote a human-interest column that got even me misty-eyed. Rachel Beckwith went to a good school and learned about Locks of Love at the age of five, and it got her started on a track, taking practical steps to make the world a better place. Evidently, the Lord has some hard plans for our world, because He keeps taking the good when they are still so young.

( Extended excerpt )

1984 (1,7) 2 + 2 = 4

Winston is finally wrapping up his long evening over his diary, a session which began when he related his experience with that elderly prostitute and ruminated over sex and marriage in the highly regimented world of Big Brother, and then went on in reflection over proles and their revolutionary potential, which led to consideration of what the real history must be, before the Party rose to power, which then trailed into the particular episode of Jones, Aaronson, and Rutherford and that scrap of old newspaper that Winston accidentally got a hold of that showed clearly how history is falsified.

He concludes with some metaphysical speculation on the nature of the truth and the Party:

In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it. It was inevitable that they should make that claim sooner or later: the logic of their position demanded it. Not merely the validity of experience, but the very existence of external reality was tacitly denied by their philosophy. The heresy of heresies was common sense. And what was terrifying was not that they would kill you for thinking otherwise, but that they might be right. For, after all, how do we know that two and two make four? Or that the force of gravity works? Or that the past is unchangeable? If both the past and the external world exist only in the mind, and if the mind itself is controllable - what then?

Indeed, what then? What if truth is subjective and spelled with a small ‘t’ rather than objective and spelled with a capital ‘T’. Why should people listen to Winston rather than Big Brother and the Party?

I think we will go into these issues more thoroughly later, in the interrogation and torture scene. Right now, in the comfort of his diary, where a man may think with the mind of God, Winston is confident of his truth:

And yet he was right! They were wrong and he was right. The obvious, the silly, and the true had got to be defended. Truisms are true, hold on to that! The solid world exists, its laws do not change. Stones are hard, water is wet, objects unsupported fall toward the earth’s center. With the feeling that he was speaking to O’Brien, and also that he was setting forth an important axiom, he wrote:

Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.

Yes, but freedom is also the freedom to lose and die. Another axiom is that might makes right, at least in the short term, and sometimes all we have is the short term.

1984 (1,7) 2 + 2 = 4

Winston is finally wrapping up his long evening over his diary, a session which began when he related his experience with that elderly prostitute and ruminated over sex and marriage in the highly regimented world of Big Brother, and then went on in reflection over proles and their revolutionary potential, which led to consideration of what the real history must be, before the Party rose to power, which then trailed into the particular episode of Jones, Aaronson, and Rutherford and that scrap of old newspaper that Winston accidentally got a hold of that showed clearly how history is falsified.

He concludes with some metaphysical speculation on the nature of the truth and the Party:

In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it. It was inevitable that they should make that claim sooner or later: the logic of their position demanded it. Not merely the validity of experience, but the very existence of external reality was tacitly denied by their philosophy. The heresy of heresies was common sense. And what was terrifying was not that they would kill you for thinking otherwise, but that they might be right. For, after all, how do we know that two and two make four? Or that the force of gravity works? Or that the past is unchangeable? If both the past and the external world exist only in the mind, and if the mind itself is controllable - what then?

Indeed, what then? What if truth is subjective and spelled with a small ‘t’ rather than objective and spelled with a capital ‘T’. Why should people listen to Winston rather than Big Brother and the Party?

I think we will go into these issues more thoroughly later, in the interrogation and torture scene. Right now, in the comfort of his diary, where a man may think with the mind of God, Winston is confident of his truth:

And yet he was right! They were wrong and he was right. The obvious, the silly, and the true had got to be defended. Truisms are true, hold on to that! The solid world exists, its laws do not change. Stones are hard, water is wet, objects unsupported fall toward the earth’s center. With the feeling that he was speaking to O’Brien, and also that he was setting forth an important axiom, he wrote:

Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.

Yes, but freedom is also the freedom to lose and die. Another axiom is that might makes right, at least in the short term, and sometimes all we have is the short term.

Mila Kunis

Mila Kunis has revealed how pleased she is with her sex symbol status, saying it is "fantastic" to be considered attractive.

Speaking to Glamour, the Friends with Benefits star said: "It's insane. Listen, I couldn't be happier to get any of this, because I think it's hysterical and it makes all my friends laugh. If somebody finds me attractive, God bless them, I think it's fantastic."

Kunis also praised her family and close friends for keeping her grounded, adding: "My parents are incredible people. I went to work, I went home, my friends weren't in the industry.

"My best friend has been my best friend since I was nine years old. So [as a teenager], I never thought of myself as anything other than a 15, 16 or 17 year old."

Kunis also discussed what qualities she looks for in a potential partner in the interview, saying that she likes "sarcasm, satire [and] self-deprecating humor" in men.

-- ONTD

Remember, too, that Charlie Sheen, that rock star from Mars, gave her pre-approval to be one of his goddesses in bed. She apparently didn't take him up on that. I guess he isn't the self-deprecating type. She'll probably do alright anyway.

Mila Kunis

Mila Kunis has revealed how pleased she is with her sex symbol status, saying it is "fantastic" to be considered attractive.

Speaking to Glamour, the Friends with Benefits star said: "It's insane. Listen, I couldn't be happier to get any of this, because I think it's hysterical and it makes all my friends laugh. If somebody finds me attractive, God bless them, I think it's fantastic."

Kunis also praised her family and close friends for keeping her grounded, adding: "My parents are incredible people. I went to work, I went home, my friends weren't in the industry.

"My best friend has been my best friend since I was nine years old. So [as a teenager], I never thought of myself as anything other than a 15, 16 or 17 year old."

Kunis also discussed what qualities she looks for in a potential partner in the interview, saying that she likes "sarcasm, satire [and] self-deprecating humor" in men.

-- ONTD

Remember, too, that Charlie Sheen, that rock star from Mars, gave her pre-approval to be one of his goddesses in bed. She apparently didn't take him up on that. I guess he isn't the self-deprecating type. She'll probably do alright anyway.