Perfected Speech In Israel

The gifted and indefatigable Tsipi Keller has recently published two works of translation--Poets on the Edge: An Anthology of Contemporary Hebrew Poetry, and The Hymns of Job and Other Poems by Maya Bejerano, links below, the third a review. The anthology was years in the making and offers a deep plunge into the sea of verse Israeli poets have been creating out of nothing.

Recommended without hesitation, reservation or qualification.

http://www.sunypress.edu/details.asp?id=61737

http://www.boaeditions.org/bookstore/details.php?prodId=192

http://www.jbooks.com/fiction/index/FI_Ostriker_Keller.htm

The Unknowability of Death

Quote of the day, adapted from a maxim of George Butler in David Markson's overwhelming The Last Novel: "Every man who lives knows he will die, but no man lives to know he's dead." Now let's break out the frozen daiquiris and celebrate this gorgeous maxim. And there's another I like from John Osborne: "To ask a practising writer what he thinks about critics is like asking a lamppost what it thinks about dogs." And there's another from someone else that was amusing, I can't remember who: ""He who writes for fools will always have a wide audiendce." And then Brahms leaving a party: "And if there's anyone here I forgot to insult, I apologize."

Bonuses for Wall Street Slugs

Barry has called the bonuses the Wall Street tycoons awarded themselves "disgraceful" but what he should have done is appointed a commission to investigate whether these funds could be confiscated by the federal government--or just executed a signing statement and confiscated them himself. I mean these clowns screw-up on the job, screw the overall economy, and then they get a bonus? Absolutely not. That money should be confiscated by the federal government and used to help deal with the national economic emergency the Wall Street fuck-ups have created. Talk about skeevy people my God.

The fundamental purpose of blogs is to mystify an already deeply confused planet.