How You Found Quotidian Quintilian III

Although I doubt 65.205.67.# (Cable TV of Belzoni) from Missippi found exactly what he was looking for, let´s hope he enjoyed one of the Saints pages, and perhaps an excerpt or two from Karl Adam.

St. Richrudis

Benedictine abbess. A member of a noble family from Gascony, France, she wed the Frankish nobleman St. Adalbald despite family objections, and the couple had four children — Eusebia, Clotsind, Adalsind, and Mauront — all of whom became saints. After Adalbald was murdered by relatives in Gascony, she refused royal pressure to remarry and instead, with the help of St. Amandus, she became a nun at Marchiennes, Flanders, Belgium, a double monastery that she had founded. Rictrudis served as abbess for some forty years until her death. Adalsind and Clotsind joined her, and Mauront became a monk there too.

How You Found Quotidian Quintilian II

The hits we gits. One has to wonder about poor 70.19.80.# from Verizon Internet Services. But we hope he enjoyed that excerpt from Walker Percy's Lost in the Cosmos, the funniest book since funny books were first written.

Franz Sez

One is alone, a total stranger and only an object of curiosity. And so long as you say “one” instead of “I,” there’s nothing in it and one can easily tell the story; but as soon as you admit to yourself that it is you yourself, you feel as though transfixed and are horrified.

Bom yeoreum gaeul gyeoul geurigo bom

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring is a pretty decent movie about the life of a Buddhist monk from the age of a toddler to his own old age. The imagery, which consistes almost entirely of scenes from nature, is pretty stunning. The story is pretty thin stuff, and I have to wonder if this isn't a direct result of the Buddhist idealization of non-attachment.

St. Echa

(c. 767) Anglo-Saxon priest hermit, also called Etha. He was a Benedictine who lived at Crayk, near York, England. Hermits such as Echa served as a link to the early Desert Fathers of Egypt.

What I'm Reading Now

is Paradise News by David Lodge. It starts off pretty well, I can tell you that:

"What do they see in it, eh? What do they see in it?"

Leslie Pearson, Senior Representative (Airport Reception) of Travelwise Tours plc, surveys the passenger swarming in the Departures Concourse of Heathrow's Terminal Four with an expression of mingled pity and contempt. It is mid-morning in the high summer season and, adding to the normal congestion, there is a security alert in operation, because of a recent plane crash thought to have been caused by sabotage. (Three different terrorist organizations have claimed responsibility, which means that at least two of them are trying to obtain a reputation for indiscriminate murder without exerting themselves. That's the modern world for you: the more Leslie Pearson sees of it, the less he understands or likes it.) Passengers are being closely questioned at the check-in desks about the provenance of their luggage, this morning, and their persons and handbaggage scrutinized with more than usual zeal by the security staff. Long, slow-moving lines stretch from the check-in desks nearly to the opposite wall of the concourse, crosshatched by two longer lines converging upon the narrow gate that leads to Passport Control, the Security gates, and the Departures Lounge. The queueing passengers shift their weight from one foot to another, or lean on the handles of their heaped baggage trolleys, or squat on their suitcases. Their expressions are variously anxious, impatient, bored, stoical - but not yet weary. They are still relatively fresh: their bright casual clothes are clean and pressed, their cheeks smooth from the recent application of razor or make-up, their hair groomed and glossy.

No one writes good old-fashioned, realistic prose better than David Lodge. Not only are descriptions of swarming passengers and heaped bagged trolleys pleasing in themselves, but it is just this sort of attention to detail that helps launch observations such as the one about three different terrorist organizations claiming responsibility. Brings to mind Stevens' dictum that accuracy of thought is equal to the accuracy of observation. I may not have that entirely correct, but it's something like that.

Franz Sez

So if you find nothing in the corridors open the doors, if you find nothing behind these doors there are more floors, and if you find nothing up there, don’t worry, just leap up another flight of stairs. As long as you don’t stop climbing, the stairs won’t end, under your climbing feet they will go on growing upwards.
~ Advocates