Words in a Time of War
Taking the Measure of the First Rhetoric-Major President
By Mark Danner

[Note: This commencement address was given to graduates of the Department of Rhetoric at Zellerbach Hall, University of California, Berkeley, on May 10, 2007]

The Origin of Consciousness
-Porges, et al. "Thinking About Thought"

How does consciousness arise? It is a widespread belief that we, as individuals, are not born conscious, and life, as a natural phenomenon, was not originally conscious. If these beliefs are correct, when and how does consciousness arise?

i remember all the different kinds of years.
angry, or brokenhearted, or afraid.
i remember feeling like that
walking up the mountain along the dirt path
to my broken house on the island.
and long years of waiting in massachusetts.
the winter walking and hot summer walking.
i finally fell in love with all of it:
dirt, night, rock and far views.
it's strange that my heart is as full
now as my desire was then.

-linda gregg

i'm standing at another crossroads. my boss thinks i'm selling myself short, settling, but she doesn't realize that i have no other options, or that i do not want to make the effort to compete for the sake of ego. her vision of my life does not take into consideration all my emotional baggage. after talking to the people at the pinnacle of their profession at work, i recognize their quality of life is horrible. i've reached a point where i have committed to a zip code, and do not wish to trav

I guess i'm on some sort of deer kick.

Buck Breaks Into Okla. School, Flunks Math

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: November 22, 2005

Filed at 7:11 p.m. ET

YUKON, Okla. (AP) -- Officials at Yukon High School say a 100 to 150 pound deer broke into the school and caused extensive damage to computer equipment.

The buck apparently jumped through a glass window into a math classroom at the 9th and 10th grade building and spent the weekend in the room.

Robert Delaunay, letter to August Macke, 1912

Direct observation of the luminous essence of nature is for me indispensable. I do not necessarily mean observation with palette in hand, although I am not opposed to notations taken from nature itself. I do much of my work from nature, "before the subject," as it is commonly called. But what is of great importance to me is observation of the movement of colors.

Of all the scribbled sentences that have converged to create the Valerie Plame affair, the most remarkable, in literary terms, may belong to Scooter Libby, Dick Cheney's recently deposed chief of staff. "Out West, where you vacation, the aspens will already be turning. They turn in clusters, because their roots connect them. Come back to work--and life," he wrote in a jailhouse note to Judith Miller. Meant as a waiver of confidentiality, the letter touched off the sort of fevered exegesis mor

Man Kills Buck With Bare Hands in Bedroom
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 5:45 p.m. ET

BENTONVILLE, Ark. (AP) -- It looked like a crime scene, but no charges will be filed after Wayne Goldsberry killed a buck with his bare hands in his daughter's bedroom. The engagement lasted an exhausting 40 minutes, but Goldsberry finally subdued the five-point whitetail deer that crashed through a bedroom window at his daughter's home Friday.

if there were a word that meant
thought, mind, spirit
and wish, desire,
appetite.

and memory,
and recall. and finally also
will, purpose, intention,

we might have it down:
the impatient child
filled without being filled,
filled despite

bunion surgery (BS) log (aka, my right foot):

things you learn at the doctor's office-
1. how it is to be a hermaphrodite
2. how to pick up britney spears
3. byos (bring your own starbucks) for after surgery, a very good thing

Artists themselves tend to take absolutist and unhelpful positions
when addressing themselves to questions of content, pretending with
Degas that the work has nothing to do with ballet dancers, or
pretending with James Agee that it has nothing to do with artifice.
Both positions have the virtue of neatness, and allow the artist to
answer unanswerable questions briefly and then get back to work. If an
artist were to admit that he was uncertain as to what part of the
conten

alan lightman and richard colton in SEED magazine

herein are kurt vonnegut's rules for creative writing 101:

1. use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.

2. give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.

3. every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.

4. every sentence must do one of two things--reveal character or advance action.

5. start as close to the end as possible.