Friday, June 22, 2012

Fatal flaw

There are some things which cannot coexist in the same space. Not simply a matter of moving to another table, another apartment or even a new town. It's like anti-matter. One will eventually destroy the other. He was determined to prevail.

He can't recall the exact day his awareness of the problem began, but the date he began planning his retaliation was burned in his mind like the spot where the fly lights on the sherbet.  Carefully, quietly, methodically he toiled in preparation for the event which would free him from his overarching nemesis.  Countless were the days he executed 'dry runs', not allowing a single variable to occur which could scuttle his plans.


Finally, after what seemed an eternity of plotting and waiting, arrived the morning of the day for action.
But, even before he looked out the window; before he got out of bed; before he so much as opened his eyes - he knew he had failed. All his work, lo these many years, was for naught. He had made one minuscule, yet fatal error. One insidiously simple factor, tragically, had escaped him.  

It was raining.

Friday, June 15, 2012

Italy is shaped like a boot

Lovers of things British are called Anglophiles. 
Shouldn't those who are devotees of all that is Italian be called Italics?

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Harsh words

Dear Penelope,

You can have no idea how difficult it is for me to write these words, but we must accept that it is over between us: Swimming naked in the waters of  the old harbor, off the side your family's yacht;  The days at the races; nights at the opera; the long autumn afternoons watching Marx Brother's movies in the media room of your family's winter estate in The Hamptons; the countless visits I made to you at Betty Ford.  
Yes, I'll always cherish the times I imagined we spent together.

Regards,
Anton

First God, then Santa Claus - now THIS?

Most disturbing new email subject line of the week.
From fab.com: 


"Andy Warhol Watches"


Sunday, June 10, 2012

Fun Facts to Know and Share

That Rome wasn't built in a day is common knowledge. What you may not know is that these other cities, any of them equally large, ancient or exotic, were also not built in a day either:


  1. Brisbane
  2. Honolulu
  3. Barcelona
  4. Constantinople
  5. Louisville
  6. Buffalo
  7. Beijing
  8. St Petersburg (Russia or Florida) 
  9. Pittsburgh
  10. San Juan
It is, I think, emblematic of our humanity that - in the 20th Century alone and natural disaster aside, several cities were destroyed in less than a day.