What's with today, today?

"Did you move to Scotland for a woman?" "No, for money" "Oh, I understand. It's hard in Turkey. Everyone's wearing burqas!" - American tourists to owner of Turkish restaurant in Inverness Rowley died in 1806, leaving the estate in trust for his 5 natural children 'begotten on the body of Elizabeth Selwyn' and one sixth for his wife 'so long as she does not live in a state of co-habitation or marriage with any man and continues to take care of my said children'. -From an article on early Stanmore history- a little cold "He's at a funeral" "Who died now?" "Oh no, he's been dead two years" -Overheard In many cases, fiction over the last 35 years has eschewed the novel's traditional attempt to render depth, preferring to tell a story, which, instead of seeking to offer truth, deep meaning or philosophical belief, depicts particular aspects of the modern world refracted...

Daydreamer by trade "No more dreaming like a girl, so in love with the wrong one" - Florence and the Machine (although I later found out it's actually 'wrong world', which is even better) "There's always a bit of a tug-o-war between the sexes, there's always a bit of tension when there's romance involved." - Overheard in a cafe, older woman giving advice to younger woman "All of that filthy empathy for the way we're feeling" - Bright Eyes What the preacher wants to show him is that the real basis of wisdom is a frank acknowledgement that much of what happens is quite inexplicable to us, and that most occurrences 'under the sun' bear no outward sign of a rational, moral God ordering them at all - JI Packer, 'Knowing God', on Ecclesiastes We were all struts in a rickety scaffold, holding each other up. We were all falling down. "He is as delighted as he is wet" - Soccer commentary, rai...

A full bottle of wine next to the public phone - Pitt St Bree and Adam Locked 2gether in hatred as it's the closest to love- we're forever - sad toilet graffiti at The Annandale "When the dog that you tattoo on your arse turns into a shark" - Overheard on a train Though contrived, this little story might as well exemplify the mischief that involves us all who take on the job of turning real life into words. Always the essential thing gets lost. That's one rule holds true of every inspiration. - 'The Moon', Jorge Luis Borges "His dad's a novelist" "What, writes books and stuff?" - Overheard Graffiti on a train seen on the morning commute: "Be not a man of success, but a man of value"- Einstein "I just want to go live in Europe... I want to do everything and I want to do it now." (other person says something) "But when? What's the plan? How will it all fit in?" - Overheard o...

There's an age-old debate about the importance or usefulness of art- why do we bother with it? This last week I happened across a couple of quotes that talk about that in different ways: " One remark that I remember in particular had to do with his identity as a craftsman: he wanted to make solid objects that were concretely useful to the people who knew them. As a craftsperson myself, I love this outlook on art: it's not some enervated "extra" of no real value to life, but a solid, utilitarian object, like a chair or a toilet. It's not that people "can't live without" art; people can live without chairs and toilets, too. But the presence of art has a concrete benefit; I appreciated Bergman's reminder of that." - Evening All Afternoon, on an interview with Ingmar Bergman "These, with keen edges and smooth curves, were forms in modern prose which the lichened colleges presented in old poetry. Even some of those antiques migh...

Skimming through the internet the other day I came across a reference to a line of startling familiarity, a line that made me realise some first lines stick in your head forever: "Sing Goddess, the rage of Peleus' son Achilles" (funnily enough,  I can never remember the first line proper until I see it, as my friend and I spent much of year 12 Ancient History misquoting it as "rage Achilles, rage on Agamemnon". We were also amused by the fact that 'Xerxes' backwards spelt 'Sexrex'. Yeah, mature I know.) From Homer, The Illiad Ironically, a first line that I find impossible to remember is one of the most recognisable for me. I'm not usually very good at first lines, but there are a few I'd know anywhere... "Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote" My English classes at university drummed this one into me- the first line of Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales'. I think Chaucer is a genius, but this first line is not quite ...