Life in a Northern Virginia suburb of Washington, D.C. B.M.A.T.C., and Etruscan typewriter erasers. Blogged by David Gorsline.
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A more-or-less unrelated post by Brad DeLong spurred me to figure out what the title "Lizards in Jamshyd's Courtyard" is all about. It's a story by William Faulkner, later revised and incorporated into The Hamlet. It turns out that the reference is to a couplet of Omar Khayyam's: "They say the Lion and the Lizard keep/The Courts where Jamshyd gloried and drank deep," which is often read as a remark about civilization reverting to wilderness. It fits: the man-versus-nature wrangle is an awful lot of what Faulkner is up to. Jamshyd, a Persian king, possessed a magical cup in which he could see the whole world. "Lizards" features two of my favorite characters in Faulkner, the sewing machine salesman Ratliff/Suratt and the um, entrepreneur Flem Snopes. And Lieutenant Martin Jung reveals himself as a Faulkner enthusiast. posted: 2:30:34 PM |
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Great story by Andrew Jacobs about missing the last train home from Grand Central Terminal. Latecomers are often inebriated:
Gaits unsteady and faces flushed, the businessmen with ties askew make their
way to the information booth, where Heidy Tejeda doles out track information
and a sympathetic smile. "You can smell the booze through the window," she
says.
...Ms. Tejeda is supposed to close shop at 1 o'clock but says she often feels compelled to stay at her post until 1:25. "I like to help people in need," she says. "And I hate having to tell people the next train is at 5:40." posted: 1:30:32 PM |
 D. Gorsline, Proprietor
   
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