Wednesday, June 16, 2004

WOMEN IN PRAISE OF THE SACRED by Poetry of Women

Effortlessly, Love flows from God into man, Like a bird Who rivers the air Without moving her wings. Thus we move in His world, One in body and soul, Though outwardly separate in form. As the Source strikes the note, Humanity sings- The Holy Spirit is our harpist, And all strings Which are touched in Love Must sound. Mechtild of Magdeburg       The Madness of Love Is a blessed fate; And if we understood this We would seek no other: It brings into unity What was divided, And this is the truth: Bitterness it makes sweet, It makes the stranger a neighbor, And what was lowly it raises on high. Hadewijch of Antwerp       The Walls Do Now Fall Amen, Only just now, My heart-shell Breaks open, Though long ago, the phoenix, Your bennu bird Dropped a grain, As of scalding wax; There was a fragrance, burnt incense, Myrtle, aloes, cedar; The Kingdom is a Tree Whose roots bind the heart-husk To earth, After the ultimate grain, Lodged in the heart-core,  Has taken its nourishment. H.D. 203 Posted by WaiSau Sit on 6/16/04; 9:40:58 PM from the dept. Discuss

MAUS I by Art Spiegelman

“Did I tell you the family tragedy about the pillow my family lost at the start of the 1914 war? I was seven… we lived too close to the border… it wasn’t safe… Someone rode past us and told us that we’d dropped a pillow a few miles back. A guy traveling to Amstow picked it up.” 35   “He looked with a light a long time in my eyes and told: ‘Mr. Spiegelman, your left is perfect!’” 40   “They took us to a place near where it was many war prisoners. The Jews they made to stand separate.” 51   “Of course, I only said I got half what I really made. Otherwise they wouldn’t save anything.” 77   “Everyone came very nice dressed. They tried so that they would look young and able to work, in order to get a good stamp on their passport.” 90   “I just thought of something. My father mentioned that Anja used to keep a diary, and I vaguely remember seeing them on his shelves in the den.” 93   “One thing is certain- as bad as things are in the ghetto, being deported is even worse.” 107   “On Wednesday the vans came. Anja and I saw her father at the window. He was tearing his hair and crying.” 115   “He was a millionaire, but even this didn’t save him his life.” 115   “All guests had to pay big polish taxes… so Pesach took bribes to not register them. But if an inspector came, the guests had to hide themselves away.” 120   “ By the end of 1943 the vans went every Wednesday with more and more and more people from Srodula to Auschwitz until it was very few left.” 121   “…Murderer” 159 Posted by WaiSau Sit on 6/16/04; 9:38:36 PM from the dept. Discuss

A HEARTBREAKING WORK OF STAGGERING GENIUS by Dave Eggers

“ We have a house, a sublet for the summer, that overlooks the world, up in the Berkeley hills; it’s owned by people, Scandinavians… who must have some money, because it’s all the way up there, and it’s all windows and lights and decks, and up there we see everything, … all red rooftops and trees and cauliflower and columbine, shaped like rockets and explosions, all those people below us, with humbler views; we see … the blue above, the gleaming white Land of the Lost/Superman’s North Pole Gateway magic crystals that are San Francisco… and at night the whole fucking area is a thousand airstrips… so many blimps this summer- and stars, not too many visible, with the cities and all, but still some, a hundred maybe, enough, how many do you need, after all?” 51   “I find my car and drive across town, all the passing headlights glaring, mocking- that was probably bad, what I just do to Jenna; a therapist would say that was bad- up Ninth, across Market, up Franklin and down to cow hollow, where Therese lives. Down the hill and over a few blocks and her turreted third-floor apartment comes into view. Therese lives in the top floor of a huge light blue house on Gough, a few blocks from Union Street, in an apartment she decorated with her mother, complete with pot holders and curtains and about a hundred overstuffed pillows.” 139   “Then the footsteps started coming up the stairs, which they only did some of the time, the times when he was extraordinarily angry and our mother could not calm him down, and as they thumped up the stairs- why did he go so slow, so maddeningly slow? - I hung up the phone- I didn’t have time now- and devised a plan. I opened the window over my pillow, and then tore the sheet off my bed. The footsteps stopped thumping, meaning he was on the second floor, were just six or seven steps from my door… I twisted the sheet so it look like a rope of however I had seen it look on TV and as I began to tie it around the bed frame there was the trying of the door, then suddenly my name so loud I jumped, then pounding and demands yelled, and if I could just get this thing tied in time… the thumping got louder and louder and then the sheet was tied, twice –over, I  yanked it to test its strength and it seemed okay- it only had to hold for a few second, just until I was far down enough to jump- and so I turned my body on my bed and stated to scoot back, reaching a leg out the window, feeling my bare foot against the coarse wood of the side of the house…and then the pounding stopped.” 232   “Work becomes ever more depressing, routine, improved only by the occasional near-death experience. To wit: It is any day at all when I am at my desk, working on a spread debunking raves, one in a long line of contrarian articles pointing out the falsity of most things the world believes in, holds dear. We have debunked a version of the Bible written for black kids. We have debunked the student loan program. We debunk the idea of college in general, and work in general, and marriage, and makeup, and the Grateful Dead- it is our job to point out all this artifice, everywhere, and the work is rewarding, bringing truth to an unsuspecting-” 304 Posted by WaiSau Sit on 6/16/04; 9:33:26 PM from the dept. Discuss

THE ODYSSEY by Homer

“how to handle a fine polished bow… Philoctetes alone outshot me there at Troy When ranks of Achaean achers bent their bows.” 39   “Many cities of men he saw and learned their minds, many pains he suffered, heartsick on the open sea, fighting to save his life and bring his comrades home.” 77   “Don’t rove from home too long, too far, leaving your own holdings unprotected” 117   “But as for great Odysseus- Hermes could not find him within the cave. Off he sat on a headland, weeping there as always.” 155   “Seven endless years I remained there, always drenching with my tears the immortal clothes Calypso gave me. Then, at last, when the eighth came wheeling round, she insisted that I sail- inspired by warnings…” 187   “From there we sailed on, glad to escape our death yet sick at heart for the dear companions we had lost. But I would not let our rolling ships set sail until the crews had raised the triple cry, saluting each poor comrade cut down by the fierce Cicones on that plain.” 213   “My noble mother answered quickly, she’s still waiting there in your halls, poor woman, suffering so, her life an endless hardship like your own…” 255   “Until then, let it rest in your mother’s room. And may you return in joy- my parting wish- to your own grand house, your native land at last.” 323   “The words were still on his lips when his own son stood in the doorway, there. The swineherd started up, amazed, he dropped the bowls with a clatter- he’d been busy mixing ruddy wine. Straight to the prince he rushed and kissed his face and kissed his shining eyes, both hands, as the tears rolled down his cheeks.” 339   “With that, from under his table he seized the stool that propped his smooth feet as he reveled on- just lifting it from his view…” 367   “I’d give you the rations to last you year-round, clothes for your body, sandals for your feet.” 387   “Now stripping back his rags Odysseus master of craft and battle vaulted onto the great threshold, gripping his bow and quiver bristling arrows, and poured his flashing shafts before him…” 439   “One more labor lies in store- boundless, laden with danger, great and long, and I must brave it out from start to finish.” 463   Posted by WaiSau Sit on 6/16/04; 9:31:26 PM from the dept. Discuss

Wednesday, June 9, 2004

Penis Explodes During Sex

I found an interesting news article and thought you guys may be interested in reading it...   Penis Explodes During Sex Doctors in Romania are treating a 28-year-old whose penis exploded while he was making love to his girlfriend. Ilarie Coroiu was taken to hospital in the Transylvanian town of Cluj after his girlfriend, Magdalena, 18, "felt something strange" and noticed that the bed was covered in blood. Dr Angela Domocos, head of the accident and emergency department at Cluj General Hospital, said: "It is very rare for this to happen. We call it an exploded penis because it happens when the blood cavities in the penis burst. "I don't know what this couple were playing at, but there must have been tremendous pressure inside the penis to make this happen." Mr Coroiu is now recovering after an operation to stop the bleeding.   Posted by WaiSau Sit on 6/9/04; 3:58:41 PM from the dept. Discuss