Ses purs ongles

Ses purs ongles très-haut dédiant leur onyx,
L’Angoisse, ce minuit, soutient, lampadophore,
Maint rêve vespéral brûlé par le Phénix
Que ne recueille pas de cinéraire amphore
Sur les crédences, au salon vide: nul ptyx,
Aboli bibelot d’inanité sonore,
(Car le Maître est allé puiser des pleurs au Styx
Avec ce seul objet dont le Néant s’honore.)
Mais proche la croisée au nord vacante, [...]

Kairouan (Tunisia), 1920s

It is the weekend, and this video is what we are singing. At 10 AM EST on Saturday, however, HURRICANE PALOMA was leaving the Cayman Islands as a CATEGORY FOUR STORM and heading to Cuba, where it is expected to make landfall at CATEGORY THREE. C’est fatigant.
Axé.

Election Time

I love the blog Mudflats, which is so funny that it actually manages to distract me from my concern about Hurricane Ike. I love the forecasters at the National Hurricane Center, especially forecasters AVILA and BEVEN, but their forecasts on Hurricane Ike have been making me nervous.
Hurricane Ike made landfall in northeastern Cuba around 11 [...]

On Ecology. On Competence. On Cities

1. I am so woefully ill prepared for a serious emergency that I would really like to take a few days off and learn – and practice a few things like turning all the utilities on and off, purifying water, and so on. I do not have time to practice all of these things now, [...]