The Era of the Closed Fist

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“He has always lived like this'—here the speaker closed the fingers of his left hand to a fist—'never like this'—and he let his open hand hang relaxed from the back of his chair.”


A show of hands please. Who here is easier on themselves than they should be? That’s what I thought. I am here to announce that the annual pre-spring effort at self-transformation has arrived. To forestall any nostalgic holdover from the preceding period, I have jettisoned my early thirties hirsute look for the early twenties recent military recruit look. I’m guessing I weigh about two pounds less now. Two cheers for tenacity and dogged refusals to be bullied by chance.

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Purchased and read:

My War: Killing Time in Iraq
Plainsong
The God of Small Things

Purchased and reading:

Palace Walk
Returning to Earth
Joan Didion, Collected Non-fiction of
Delights and Shadows

Purchased and listened to:

Tanglewood Numbers

Purchased and viewed:

The Departed

Hoping to possess (by means other than purchasing) soon:

Something that transcends the moribund