Worducken

The what of history?

A Different Stripe: Happy Thanksgiving from Jules Renard

nyrbclassics:

From Jules Renard’s Nature Stories, in the chapter named TURKEYS. The illustration is by Pierre Bonard:

I

SHE’S STRUTTING ABOUT THE FARMYARD as if she was living under the monarchy.
The other fowl merely go on eating all the time, anything they can find. She has regular mealtimes and,…

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last line from John Banville’s review of Joan Didion’s new memoir Blue Nights,

“However, it is most profound, and most provocative, at another level, the level at which the author comes fully to realize, and to face squarely, the dismaying fact that against life’s worst onslaughts nothing avails, not even art; especially not art.”

Does Money Affect Election Outcomes in US Politics? A Quick Review of the Literature

“High-quality challengers may be deterred by large war chests, but other factors such as local political conditions and incumbent quality are more important: in most cases, a much-despised incumbent with a lot of money is in a worse position than a much-liked incumbent with very little money.”

Geology: When sand dunes collide

Nature 479, 7371 (2011). doi:10.1038/479009d

‘We have faith in our citizens’ – why?

“Although it is generally seen as desirable that parties in government are both representative and responsible, these two characteristics are now becoming increasingly incompatible.”

Poem of the week

“Let’s go our old way
by the stream, and kick the leaves
as we always did, to make
the rhythm of breaking waves.

This day draws no breath –
shows no colour anywhere
except for the leaves - in their death
brilliant as never before.

Yellow of Brimstone Butterfly,
brown of Oak Eggar Moth –
you’d say. And I’d be wondering why
a summer never seems lost

if two have been together
witnessing the variousness of light,
and the same two in lustreless November
enter the year’s night…

The slow-worm stream - how still!
Above that spider’s unguarded door,
look – dull pearls…Time’s full,
brimming, can hold no more.”

Englishing the Iliad: Grading Four Rival Translations

(Daniel Mendelsohn)