From the ESPRIT DE L'ESCALIER DEPARTMENT

My friend and noted author Alan Dean Foster bunged this one over to me, and I couldn't in a million years put it as well. So much so, that I want to pass it on.

 

Quoted in Maureen Dowd's column from todays NY Times: 

Leon Wieseltier, literary editor of The New Republic, recalled that when he started his online book review he forbade comments, wary of high-tech sociopaths.

“I’m not interested in having the sewer appear on my site,” he said. “Why would I engage with people digitally whom I would never engage with actually? Why does the technology exonerate the kind of foul expression that you would not tolerate anywhere else?”

Why must the common denominator be so common?

EDIE AND KIESL IN CAMERA

"Edie Ernst, USO Singer - Allied Spy" contains new art, exclusively drawn for the book.

A detail of a private moment between Edie and Kiesl.  If you are interested in the new book wherein the rest of this illustration tastefully appears, contact Pib Press for information.

THE IMPLICIT MORAL VIRTUE LEXICON: SMILE

Noun:  In politics, an incongruous centerpiece for the face; a promise that, no matter what is said, you are in no danger of hearing the truth.

THE IMPLICIT MORAL VIRTUE LEXICON: ATTENTIVE

Adjective:  Mentally undressing you while you speak.

THE IMPLICIT MORAL VIRTUE LEXICON: FAITH

Noun: Belief unfettered by carbon dating.

Historically, faith is the fuel without which contrary conviction would never combust.

THE IMPLICIT MORAL VIRTUE LEXICON: SINCERITY

"Sincerity" is a word that comes plump with implicit moral virtue.  That would be a good thing, except that history's most horrific tyrants terrorized and warred and scourged the landscape with nothing if not relentless sincerity. It has always been one of the perks of despotism.  Only in less efficient forms of government does the word become desecrated and down at heel.  The very first casualty in the political conduct of any republic is sincerity.

EDIE and KIESL

The time draws near.  The very first 9 Chickweed Lane book is in the finishing stages of layout and triple proofreading (actually, it's the second, if you count "Hallmarks of Felinity," but I'm not very good at counting).  It will be.......oh, what the heck.  Here's a preview of the cover:

The release date is not firm yet, but it is in the offing.  I'll post it here and elsewhere when I know.

Be glad.  I am.

THAT OLD GANG OF MINE

Insanity is the exception in individuals.  In groups, parties, peoples, and times it is the rule.

                                                                    ---Friedrich Nietzsche

YOU ARE KNOWN BY THE COMPANY WHO WANTS TO KEEP YOUR COMPANY

Beware the man who seeks out and consorts with people he considers his inferiors. Greatness by dint of contrast is not all that great.

And if he rejects your company, don't forget to thank him.

From the THAT WHICH WE PUBLICLY REVERE, BUT WOULDN'T BE SEEN WITH IN POLITE SOCIETY department: TRUTH

Truth has a cosmetic reputation. It is never acceptable until it soothes, and it is never soothing until it perjures.

There is nothing so tasteful as to ask for the truth, nothing so arrogant as to comply.

From the THE OTHER THING THAT WE WOULDN'T BE SEEN WITH IN POLITE SOCIETY department: LAUGHTER

Truth observes the facts.  Laughter observes the truth.


Horror observes everything left over.

DO SOMEBODY A WRONG WEEK

There is no gift half so gratifying as the bestowal of a wrong, a slight, an injurious comment – the more footling, the better.  People may love their pets and adore their children (in that order), but they consecrate their lives to the glory of their grievances.