The journal Works in Progress (WIPs) has published the Prologue of my novel, a selfstanding piece entitled “Downpour.” Along with it appears an interview with the Editor. Have a look: http://www.wipsjournal.com/?p=1039 (A link to the story is found at the end of the interview).
. I boarded the Amtrak train number 69 after waiting in the confines of Penn Station, which has been compared by a very perceptive journalist to a roach motel. Train number 63 boarded at the same time and was bound for Toronto. The crowd waiting for trains # 63 and 69 was large and disorganized. … Continue reading
Two are dead and one is alive, and that is one distinction of significance. But what these people have in common is an undeserved upward mobility in esteem, partially because of amnesia, and partially because of incessant efforts of Republicans to rewrite history. I despise Ronald Reagan exactly as much as I despised him when … Continue reading
The sound the sight of my dog invokes in some women as she totters along, half-blind and aimless, yet still as beautiful as when she was a puppy, is difficult to render in writing. It is a sound of motherly compassion, otherwise reserved for helpless babies. It starts high-pitched, with a sound like uuu then … Continue reading
Everything that is is a permutation of what was there before. (This pronouncement is deliberately modeled after a famous pronouncement of Ludwig Wittgenstein). It is as if we were sitting in a box along with other people and things, and every now and then somone shakes the box, and everything tumbles around, and a new order … Continue reading
I’m a pessimistic optimist — pessimistic in the long run, optimistic in the short. There is a man, an artist by the name of Hirst, who created an artwork entitled The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living. He rendered it as a giant dead shark immersed in a tank of formaldehyde. … Continue reading
. As I was falling asleep, suspended in a half-awake state, I had a vision, perhaps inspired by being in Japan right then. This was the vision: Two men determined to fight each other tooth and nail, both armed with a weapon, follow a sudden inspiration and decide to empty their guns to retrieve the … Continue reading
Lion walk to waterhole. Found Zebra drink all water in waterhole. Impala say no water left in waterhole. Elephant say fucking scandal this be. Rhino say there never been waterhole. Lion try eat Zebra but Zebra run away. Zebra spill all water in grass. Lioness wake up. Lioness say where my Lion be? Lioness need … Continue reading
“COMPANY SETS PLAN TO MINE ASTEROIDS — A Washington company intends, within a decade or so, to have an unmanned robotic mining mission to the asteroid belt.”Watch Cyberbully (2015) Full Movie Online Streaming Online and Download — New York Times, December 25, 2012 Mining asteroids is going to be fun. But the mass of … Continue reading
The volume of frozen water NASA discovered on Mercury is sufficient, according to the New York Times article today, to encase all of Washington, DC in a block of ice one and a half miles thick. I admire the creative, constructive use of the material. Boehner’ s face — frozen along with his tears. Ryan’s … Continue reading
. Voting in the United States is a tedious business. My vote yesterday took one and a half hours. It took place in the lobby of an apartment building, one of the Lincoln Towers. It was a different place from the one I was used to, a school next to my own apartment building. The … Continue reading
Here is a message that I sent out to a listserv of my area of science, reaching approximately 1000 people. It speaks for itself. “I have become aware of the fact that some inferior copies of my book are still being shipped out. This is a problem that I brought to the attention of Oxford … Continue reading
This man, the man I seem to see, is an extrapolation from fragments we believe belong to a man, or a woman. This is the decisive experiment to tell an extraterrestrial from a human earthling: the extraterrestrial will have no clue on what is inside the wall, whereas we postulate — how could we … Continue reading
. I was able to watch Sandy from the comfort of my 11th floor apartment. I saw rain move horizontally, trees being tossed in the intense wind, birds struggling to keep their balance in flight, dogs in fast-pasted poop-and-pee performances as their owners struggled to stay dry, umbrellas being turned upside down, but nothing really … Continue reading
Well, I admit I didn’t go to Shanghai merely for the purpose of taking this picture, but among all my pictures of power lines in urban settings, this is a pretty good catch. Connoisseurs appreciate the elements of looping, the multiplicity of lines, the crude attempts to mimic birds sitting on the wires, the harmonious … Continue reading
. Mice and rats are difficult to spot. They have developed the gray color as camouflage so they cannot be made out easily in subways. Genetically engineered, glowing mutants have been developed, thanks to the invention of GFP, green fluorescent protein. My recommendation would be to breed ten thousand glowing mice and the same number … Continue reading
Columbus, it is true, has been out of reach for as long as he stood on Columbus Circle. The Penthouse erected around him, complete with Americana wallpaper, TV set running CNN, bookshelf with Richard Ford and other chronicles of current and past America, brings Christopher for once closer to our eyes. And what do … Continue reading
I went to Chelsea on Sunday afternoon, looking for Concordia, Concordia! — the exhibit about the Italian cruise ship in disarray — and found all galleries closed. I’m not sure why Sunday afternoon is not considered a time for art lovers to make their final decision, to buy a Rauschenberg or a Lichtenstein, since … Continue reading
Yesterday we learned that Jesus was married according to the inscriptions on a 4th century Coptic papyrus fragment. I was interested to read that the color of the handbag in which the owner of the fragment carried it to the specialist who examined it for authenticity was red. What is the significance of the color … Continue reading
. I recently came across Mark Tansey’s painting in the Contemporary Art wing of the Metropolitan Museum. I cannot remember the title, but I don’t believe it gave a clue, so I’m left with my own interpretation. Here we see, I believe, an attempt by a circle of art specialists (or patrons?) to authenticate a … Continue reading
