http://www.jamesgeary.com/blog A blog by James Geary Fri, 29 Aug 2008 15:33:17 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Roads are our oldest artefacts. We create them instinctively, inadvertently, simply by going to and fro upon the earth and walking up and down on it. With every step, wherever we turn, we either find a road or make one. Roads don’t go anywhere, though. Once established, they remain fixed, ... http://www.jamesgeary.com/blog/on-roads-2/ What are they but holes with hinges, lidded interstices? They are almost nothing, a frame around empty space, yet everything swings on them. They stand there indifferent, impenetrable, not caring whether we go out or come in. We hurry through them, never sure in doing so whether we have just ... http://www.jamesgeary.com/blog/on-doors/ The other day I found a signed copy of Thoughts of Chairman Buffett by Warren Buffett at one of the used bookstalls underneath Waterloo Bridge in London. In the introduction, I learned that if I had invested $10,000 with Mr. Buffett in 1956 my money would have grown to $80,000,000 ... http://www.jamesgeary.com/blog/aphorisms-by-warren-buffett/ Mark Vernon's book, 42: Deep Thought on Life, the Universe, and Everything, is a collection of essayistic riffs spinning off from 42 different aphorisms. The book's title is inspired, of course, by the supercomputer Deep Thought in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which comes up with the reply "42" ... http://www.jamesgeary.com/blog/aphorisms-via-mark-vernon/ I first blogged about Joseph F. Conte's aphorisms back in November of 2007. His most recent collection is Maxims for the Millennium, and in it he continues his aphoristic explorations, mostly in the manner of the great French moralists but with a dash of Karl Kraus-like sardonic humor thrown in. ... http://www.jamesgeary.com/blog/more-aphorisms-by-joseph-f-conte/ The inner ear is a flowerbed inside a blacksmith’s shop. Down below the auditory canal—past the hammer, the anvil and the stirrup—sprout the hair cells of the cochlea, planted in tidy rows along the basilar membrane like geraniums in a window box. As the hammer and anvil pound sound waves ... http://www.jamesgeary.com/blog/on-ears/ Les Coleman (page 28 in Geary's Guide) has a new book of aphorisms and drawings, Thunks, published by Red Fox Press. As is his wont, Coleman mixes sayings and sketches in the book and, in some respects, his drawings are as aphoristic as his sayings. The cover, for example, bears ... http://www.jamesgeary.com/blog/aphorisms-by-les-coleman/ In 1991, Irving Weiss and his wife Anne published Reflections on Childhood: A Quotations Dictionary. The book is "a historical collection of observations, opinions, and reminiscences about childhood and children," the authors write in the preface. It is also a rich, wide-ranging compendium that spotlights the many pleasures and pains ... http://www.jamesgeary.com/blog/aphorisms-on-childhood/ In his collection of aphorisms, 222: Aphorisms & Reflections, published by Rowman & Littlefield, Steven Carter writes that many of his sayings are "conversations" with aphorists and thinkers of the past. One aphorist Carter has done a lot of talking to is Ambrose Bierce; Carter penned The New Devil's ... http://www.jamesgeary.com/blog/aphorisms-by-steven-carter/ By day, Alex Auswaks is the mild-mannered manager of the Crimebuff website, which is devoted to all kinds of mystery and crime literature, including but not limited to Agatha Christie, Russian-language mysteries, and Cold War Intrigue & After... The site even has a section on How to Write a ... http://www.jamesgeary.com/blog/aphorisms-by-alex-auswaks/