vagantes
07-10-2009, 10:18 AM
1. In the early days of World War II it was found that a great many pilots were making errors because of their fear of sharks. The US Navy issued some cannisters full of a liquid which they said was shark repellent. Despite the fact the liquid was mostly water it gave confidence to pilots and the instances of errors reduced.
The invention of shark repellent is like reading a poem.
2. This year is the centenary of Swinburne's death. He wrote these lines as a farewell to Baudelaire:
Take at my hands this garland and farewell
Thin is the leaf, and chill the wintry smell
And chill the solemn earth [...]
Content these, howsoe'er whose days are done
There lies not any troublous thing before,
Nor sight nor sound to war against thee more
For whom all winds are quiet as the sun,
All waters as the shore.
This is my farewell to Judith who lies dying in a hospital bed suffering from illnesses to numerous to mention; not knowing even that she is ill because of dementia and Downs syndrome.
I have no flowers to say farewell.
Though summer's perfume fills the air
The thin smell of winter jags my nerves.
But reflect that your pain is done
No disease, nor hurt will trouble you no more.
The wind that chilled you is stilled and quiet.
Gently sleep and go forward to your death.
The invention of shark repellent is like reading a poem.
2. This year is the centenary of Swinburne's death. He wrote these lines as a farewell to Baudelaire:
Take at my hands this garland and farewell
Thin is the leaf, and chill the wintry smell
And chill the solemn earth [...]
Content these, howsoe'er whose days are done
There lies not any troublous thing before,
Nor sight nor sound to war against thee more
For whom all winds are quiet as the sun,
All waters as the shore.
This is my farewell to Judith who lies dying in a hospital bed suffering from illnesses to numerous to mention; not knowing even that she is ill because of dementia and Downs syndrome.
I have no flowers to say farewell.
Though summer's perfume fills the air
The thin smell of winter jags my nerves.
But reflect that your pain is done
No disease, nor hurt will trouble you no more.
The wind that chilled you is stilled and quiet.
Gently sleep and go forward to your death.