In My World

Martin Sheen - The West Wing - Cathedral Speech

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FScv89J6rro&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1] President Bartlet (Martin Sheen): You’re a son of a bitch you know that? She bought her first new car and you hit her with a drunk driver. What, is that supposed to be funny? “You can’t conceive nor can I the strangeness of the mercy of God,” says Graham Greene. I think I know who’s ass he was kissing there, ’cause I think your’re just vindictive. What was Josh Lyman, the warning shot? That was my son, what did I ever do to yours but praise his glory and praise his name? There’s a tropical storm that’s gaining speed and power. They say we haven’t had a storm this bad since you took out that Tender ship of mine in the North Atlantic last year, sixty-eight crew. You know what a Tender ship does? It fixes the other ships, and, delivers the mail, that’s all it can do. Gracias Tibiago Domine. Yes, I lied. It was a sin, I’ve committed many sins. Have I displeased you, you feckless thug? Three point eight billion new jobs that wasn’t good? Bailed out Mexico, Increased foreign trade, 30 million new acres of land for conservation, put Mendoza on the bench, we’re not fighting a war, I’ve raised 3 children. That’s not enough to buy me out of the doghouse? Hace credam a deo pio? A deo iusto, a deo scico? Cruciatus in crucem. Tuus in terra sertvus, nuntius fui. Officium perfecti. Cruciatus in crucem. Eas in crucem. (Translation: Am I really to believe that these are the acts of a loving God? A just God? A wise God? To hell with your punishments. I was your servant here on Earth. And I spread your word and I did your work. To hell with your punishments. To hell with you.)

A bomb in her bosom: Emily Dickinson ' s secret life

This will be a must-buy. I have every biography of Dickinson, and thought I knew everything about her life. Some of her poetry I am still trying to understand. The Guardian: A bomb in her bosom: Emily Dickinson's secret life

Beneath the still surface of the poet's life lay a fiercely passionate nature and a closely guarded secret, argues her lastest biographer

I remember J D Salinger - dead at 91

A personal note:

I was in college at St John's University in 1951 when Catcher in the Rye was first published. It was the freshest, most original work I had ever read. I don't remember if our professors used it in class, but I know for sure that most of us of college age read it, quoted it, and relished every word of dialogue. Later, when I read Franny and Zooey , Franny's use of the Jesus prayer led me to the wandering Russian monks, and to the study of meditation. I still try to meditate each day, and I credit Ms. Glass with starting me on that journey.

The New Yorker this week (2/2/2010) on Salinger Lillian Ross - The New Yorker - My long friendship with J.D. Salinger NY Times: Cornish Journal: A recluse? Well, not to J.D. Salinger's neighbors The NY Times obit The Guardian: Salinger's new-look oeuvre

The Guardian: From 2002 by Anne Roiphe: The dawning of mourning -- He introduced us to phoneys - but teaching us about loss was Salinger's main aim, says Anne Roiphe

The NY Times: Of Teen Angst and an Author’s Alienation - An appraisal By MICHIKO KAKUTANI About.com: The Catcher in the Rye vocabulary The original review in the NY Times Salinger at The New Yorker And, of course, his perfect book of short stories - Nine Stories - It includes what many consider his finest work, For Esme With Love and Squalor.

Taking a Walk Through J.D. Salinger ’s New York

The NY Times: Taking a Walk Through J.D. Salinger’s New York

J.D. Salinger

J.D. Salinger is dead at 91. (The NY Times obit) He and his books were such a part of my young adult reading. I came to love Holden Caulfield and the whole Glass family. I became a silent prayer person thanks to Franny Glass, who recited the Jesus prayer over and over: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner." That exhortation has comforted me during many stressful moments in my life.

Jeff Bridges - Vanity Fair interview

Vanity Fair Movie Blog

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Jeff Bridges: The Vanity Fair Interview

Jennifer Jones has died at 90

AP: Jennifer Jones has died -- Loved her in most everything

Happy Birthday Griffin!!! You are 5!!

Make a Smilebox greeting

Happy Thanksgiving....

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL!!!!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Shaw and Campbell

From The Writer's Almanac Today: On this day in 1912, George Bernard Shaw (books by this author) wrote the following letter to English actress Stella Campbell: Stella, Stella Shut your ears tight against this blarneying Irish liar and actor. Read no more of his letters. He will fill his fountain pen with your heart's blood, and sell your most sacred emotions on the stage. … He is treacherous as only an Irishman can be: he adores you with one eye and sees you with the other as a calculated utility. He has been recklessly trying to please you, to delight you, to persuade you to carry him up to heaven for a moment (he is trying to do it now); and when you have done it, he will run away and give it all to the mob. … Oh dont, dont, DONT fall in love with him; but dont grudge him the joy he finds in being in love with you, and writing all sorts of wild but heartfelt exquisite lies — lies, lies, lies, lies — to you, his adoredest. G.B.S. In 1914, Stella Campbell played the role of Eliza Doolittle in Shaw's play Pygmalion when it made its London debut. He'd written the play several years earlier — for her, specifically — but the London production was held up due to injuries she sustained in a car accident. So Pygmalion first opened in Vienna in 1913, in a German version that Shaw translated himself. When Campbell played Eliza Doolittle on opening night in London, she was 49 years old. The correspondence between Stella (Mrs. Patrick Campbell) and Shaw lasted for 40 years, from 1899 to 1939.