Kant on the Subway (The Latest Train of Thought)

"Out of the crooked timber of humanity, nothing entirely straight can be built."

--Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), Akademische Ausgabe

Why I Stopped Reading Halfway Through

Why I Stopped Reading Halfway Through

Is it the book
Or is it me?

Is it the quadrant
Of the moon?

Is it the barometric
Pressure,

Or the song
Of the loon?

Is it the constel-
lations in the sky?

Is it the author?

Or,

Is it

I

?



Manhattan, January 27, 2009

Train of Thought - William Shakespeare

First spotted on the B85 bus in Brooklyn, Valentine's Day, 2009:

"O wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world
That has such people in't!"

--William Shakespeare (1564-1616), The Tempest

Cool Stuff People Send Me: Metallikazoo

My friend Brent sent me this YouTube video:

Cool Stuff People Send Me: Banking in Turkey

My Aunt Lee see me this cool video:

That Must Have Been a Memorable Staff Retreat

Just another random mental image from the subway...

Coming home on the subway, I was sitting across from a guy who could have passed for Paul McCartney. Seriously. The only thing that made me realize that it wasn't the ex-Beatle, was that I was on the subway, and he was headed to Bay Ridge.

He was reading Carl Hiassen's Nature Girl.

But what struck me most was his tote bag, issued by the Office of English Language Learners, which bore the inscription:

"There is no I in Team"
OELL Staff Retreat
September 10-11, 2001

That just struck me as a heck of a memento from what must have been a very memorable retreat.

Bookpeeping Snapshot

Chasing Lincoln's Killer by James L. Swanson

Spotted on the C train, 3:27 PM, February 10, 2009

More Boyle on the Train

I love sharing T.C. Boyle's work with others.

Today I read "Swept Away," the second story in "Tooth and Claw".

In an interview, Boyle described the impetus of the story:

"A very whimsical piece based on the notion, I had read about the windiest
town on earth, it's in the Shetland Islands and cats blow by, so I wrote my
flying cat story called 'Swept Away' ".

The story won the O.Henry Award in 2003 (an award he has been honored with five times, and counting...).

Of course, I can't find this on the web to share with everyone.

You'll have to buy the book!

Just Another Day in New York City

What a day Monday was! Woke up and, on the way to work, saw another classic cover from the New York Post:


Then, at lunch, met Hooter, an English Mastiff, outside the Garden:


What a face!


I always love working where I work this time of year, as we get to see a whole slew of amazing show dogs.

Of course, some people don't love the Westminster Dog Show. The Peta protesters were out with their latest shock-and-appall campaign:


What the hell are they doing? Offending most passers-by. Then again, they got me to blog about it, didn't they? Check out the article in USA Today here. The article features this photo:


I reprinted it here just to show the readers that, in the background is a big neon sign for Madison Square Garden, right behind that is a building. That's where I work.

Reading on the Train....

There's been a lot of press lately about the new novel from T. C. Boyle called The Women, based loosely around the life or architect Frank Lloyd Wright.

Over the weekend, I picked up one of Boyle's short story collections, Tooth and Claw.

I read the first story in this book this morning on the way to work.

"When I Woke Up This Morning, Everything I Had Was Gone" is classic Boyle, who excels not only at the novel, but is equally adept, if not more so, at the short story.

Check out the story here.

Cool Stuff People Send Me: Inaugural Edition

Check out this amazing camera view of the Presidential Inauguration.