Merkin
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Posts posted by Merkin
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The characterization is a little fishy.
James Merkin
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Google tells us all we need to know about googols: read it here.
BTW, Cole, welcome to the six syllable haiku club. Now I don't feel so bad.
James Merkin
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... Just where would you work in 'turgid member',
Perhaps in stories about the British Parliament or the U.S. Congress.
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I believe art exists when a maker endows a creation with an aesthetic quality, recognizable by others, that surpasses the everyday.
Any human activity can be achieved with this quality.
Pitching a perfect game is an artform, and the pitcher who accomplishes that feat is an artist.
James Merkin
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Made for each other, thanks to modern "chemistry."
Good one, Camy.
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They say that any publicity is good publicity as long as they spell your name correctly. I'm thinking Fred Phelps must be appreciative of this amount of official and media attention to him and his "cause."
James Merkin
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I celebrate that Carol Ann Duffy, woman, mother, and openly gay, has been selected as Britain's next Poet Laureate.
It doesn't hurt that she is Scots, also.
So many barriers broken here.
James Merkin
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This is all the better for not knowing what exactly the suggestion was, for our imaginations lend whatever degree of naughtiness and risk we are willing to subject these two charming boys. Clearly they are children, perhaps barely adolescent, for few clues are given except that one of them knows that something is possible that the other has not yet imagined. The force of this lovely story is its writer's ability to hook us with the sheer delight of young experimentation.
James Merkin
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How Homosexuals Can Save Civilization
Perpetual rut: oh what a mixed blessing;
Once it begins, it grows without lessening!
It somehow controls us beyond understanding,
Thanks to its urging and constant demanding.
Originally intended to prolong our fine race,
It seems to have increased since we've fallen from grace.
Now we can barely remember our aim
To control our own destiny, once sex is our game.
When inserting Part A to another's Part B
Our pleasure takes over without referee,
And instead of tending to selective breeding
We become only intent on continual seeding.
Thus it behooves us, in saving the race
To identify B Parts that breed no disgrace.
Boy to boy bonding, girl to girl love
Will insure our redemption by heaven above.
And guarantee food enough, plus adequate space
So our descendants (more properly paced)
Will have room to grow and to find their true pair:
Though this time around breeders get the ten percent share.
-James Merkin
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It is interesting to note that invasive forces from the Americas were making life difficult for the Aussies even before WWII.
Texans can make belts and boots from their snakeskins. What use have Australians come up with for toad hide?
James Merkin
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I love the way Cole sets up his characters. With just a few sentences for each we gain insight and motivation. Even the coach has become immediately three-dimensional.
James Merkin
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The genius of a story like Find Your Own Way is what it does not give us. The first paragraph is a compelling example of that gift. A novel version would have spelled out these details and given us the backstory. This short story permits us -- if we are willing to become committed as readers -- to write this part of the story on our own. We each may write it in our own individually unique way, but the result is we become drawn in and become more than readers, we participate. By drawing on our own experiences, insights, or knowhow we imagine that town, people it, furnish that sparse room, and flesh those personalities, according to the clues and cues the author offers us. We commit to the success of the story in a way we do not need to do when we sink into a novel. That gives a story like this a resonance in our own hearts that many a novel fails to achieve.
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Although I deny there is a 'wrong' side of fifty, in this poem you have captured the mood wonderfully, Des.
James Merkin
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There seems to be something of an implication running through this discussion that the writing of a novel is somehow a more "heroic" or noteworthy enterprise than the authoring of short stories. For example, the "you can do it if you only try harder" kind of statement. Was this what was intended? I find that view hard to understand --or accept.
James Merkin
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I've found some of the books by Thich Nhat Hanh to be among the most helpful. They are anecdotal, oriented toward the Western reader, and without the Western writer's usual insistence upon rational explanation and footnotes. Hanh is a Vietnamese monk living in France who does not seem to promote any one of the specialist Buddhist doctrines or sects. His simple, succinct description of breath meditation in Touching Peace(Parallax Press, 1992 and many editions) worked for me.
James Merkin
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"I'll ugh two."
"Dug boog."
"Three."
"Gornf snug?"
"Five bink, bonk bang!"
"UGH!"
(translation):
"I'll take two."
"Your bet."
"Three."
"Watcha got?"
"Five alive, straight flush!"
"UGH!"
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How appropriate that you chose a flash to exhibit these glimpses of instant passion we recognize so well.
How sad that the issues you raise can't be dealt with so quickly.
Instead, I suspect they will require many more lines be inscribed into the Book of Life.
James
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This agenda is amazing, and makes my heart soar. Thank you Richard for providing this link.
James
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There are four more chapters up and it's fair to say the story has gotten way beyond sex. It is thoughtful and provocative and well worth your while.
James
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Sometimes it takes a while for someone to figure out that what happened back there really felt good after all...
James
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The best thing about Cole's work is that each piece is completely unlike the others before it, and each one stands on its own merits. I found Rusty a little hard to undertake since I've never had an appreciative ear for dialect but in this instance it was an integral part of the story and it was consistent within itself, plus it made great good sense in the unfolding of the story. That said, I've never yet found a story by Cole that I didn't love upon completing it, and this one is no exception.
James
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For a computer klutz like me, who has absolutely no ability to compare and contrast these OS and platforms, this discussion has been very informative. I thank you all for it. I have affirmed that I am truly a committed black box user, and now I can relax about that.
James
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"One size fits all" is all wrong
When it comes to my avatar's schlong;
I bought the large size
Which was not at all wise
Since all I can drill is King Kong.
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I feel sorry for the Mexicans who climb that fence into Texas seeking a better life.
James
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More constitutional denial
in News & Views
Posted
The priesthood (and the protestant preacherhood) seems by its very nature to attract two types of individuals: The very good person, because it is based on an ideal of serving mankind; and the scoundrel, because it is based on a reality of myth and deception.
There can be no greater evil than abusing the innocent young.
James Merkin