Luke's Commonplace Book

"This was not the most brutal or cold-blooded case I had ever prosecuted,” she told me. “But when you..."

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:39:22 -0600

““This was not the most brutal or cold-blooded case I had ever prosecuted,” she told me. “But when you took all the different factors and put them together—how young and seemingly normal the perpetrators were; how ruthless they were; how stupid they were; how cavalier they were; how utterly undeserving this family was—it was, without question, the most disturbing case I’d ever dealt with.””

- Flesh and Blood, Pamela Colloff

"… in order to solve the problem of the polluted river which runs through Bucharest, he wanted..."

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 23:22:08 -0600

“… in order to solve the problem of the polluted river which runs through Bucharest, he wanted to dig beneath the existing river bed another wide channel beneath the earth in which all the dirt will be directed, so that there would have been two rivers, the deep one with all the pollution, and the surface one for the happy citizens to enjoy it…”

- the end of My Own Private Austria, Slavoj Zizek

“This is a metaphor for something.”

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 23:06:41 -0600

“This is a metaphor for something.”

"If we accept all the Star Wars films as the same canon, then a lot that happens in the original..."

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 23:04:00 -0600

“If we accept all the Star Wars films as the same canon, then a lot that happens in the original films has to be reinterpreted in the light of the prequels. As we now know, the rebel Alliance was founded by Yoda, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Bail Organa. What can readily be deduced is that their first recruit, who soon became their top field agent, was R2-D2.”

- A New Sith, or Revenge of the Hope, Reconsidering Star Wars IV in the light of I-III . I think I’ve posted this before, but if you have spent anytime really thinking about Star Wars, this is mind-blowing.

"High test scores are not the same thing as intelligence; getting good grades is not the same as..."

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:51:38 -0600

“High test scores are not the same thing as intelligence; getting good grades is not the same as learning; and the American system of higher education is far from egalitarian, despite its reigning pretense of diversity. I don’t know of an educated person who would disagree with these statements. But nor at this point in time is academic achievement entirely divorced from intellectual merit. From what I have observed, academic opportunism, the ability to con the system and the openness of the system to cons, has never outgunned a passion for, say, literature, history, mathematics, science, or complexity itself.”

- Grade Grubber, Christian Lorentzen

"I explained that “pathetic” was a term used in rhetoric, the ancient art of argument. I had happened..."

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:41:42 -0600

“I explained that “pathetic” was a term used in rhetoric, the ancient art of argument. I had happened across the subject one rainy day in a library and become instantly obsessed. As a result Dorothy had learned almost from birth that a good persuader doesn’t merely express her own emotions; she manipulates her audience. Me, in other words.”

- Teach a Kid to Argue, Jay Heinrichs

Moments, by Will Hoffman, via McSweeneys

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:35:23 -0600

Moments, by Will Hoffman, via McSweeneys

“Sports are physical.” - Elizabeth Lambert

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:47:37 -0600

“Sports are physical.” - Elizabeth Lambert

"Excuse me,” he said, worriedly eyeing the dark ice-covered plains of his new American home...."

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:22:11 -0600

“”Excuse me,” he said, worriedly eyeing the dark ice-covered plains of his new American home. ”Can you tell me, please, is it now night or day?””

- The Lost Boys of Sudan; The Long, Long, Long Road to Fargo

"Open this,” I said. He looked at me blankly, and it dawned on me that in a lifetime of cooking..."

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:21:36 -0600

“”Open this,” I said. He looked at me blankly, and it dawned on me that in a lifetime of cooking maize and beans over a fire pit, he had never before opened a box.”

- The Lost Boys of Sudan; The Long, Long, Long Road to Fargo

"So what does this blsht metric tell you about your appeal, compared with the appeal of the baby..."

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:18:29 -0600

“

So what does this blsht metric tell you about your appeal, compared with the appeal of the baby Jesus?

It tells you this: he was special.

And—here’s another thing—you are not.

”

- Malcolm Gladwell explains Christmas to Craig Brown.

"The Body of Christ has an enormous head atop a weak, flabby body."

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 20:41:59 -0600

“The Body of Christ has an enormous head atop a weak, flabby body.”

- Stephen Simpson

"In Paris, enthusiasm is considered a mild form of retardation. If you are happy, you must be stupid...."

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 18:59:00 -0600

“In Paris, enthusiasm is considered a mild form of retardation. If you are happy, you must be stupid. On the other hand, if you complain, you must be smart.”

- Stuff Parisians like by Olivier Magny (via pegobry)

"I think sometimes that being overly type-sensitive is like an allergy…. My font nerdiness..."

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 18:57:36 -0600

“I think sometimes that being overly type-sensitive is like an allergy…. My font nerdiness makes me have bad reactions to things that spoil otherwise pleasant moments.”

- Michael Bierut, via Daring Fireball

"We like lists because we don’t want to die."

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 00:13:11 -0600

“We like lists because we don’t want to die.”

- Umberto Eco, via Arts & Letters Daily

"I have the same letter from about six different people. One from Australia, one from Germany, one..."

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:08:03 -0600

“I have the same letter from about six different people. One from Australia, one from Germany, one from England, but they all said the same thing. They said, “I started reading your book after dinner and I finished it 3:45 the next morning, and I got up and went upstairs and I got my kids up and I just sat there in the bed and held them.””

- Cormac McCarthy, answering the question of what sort of responses his novel The Road has received from fathers (via @epjohnson) (via wesleyhill)

Lego Howl’s Moving Castle. (Via BoingBoing) It’s...

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:16:36 -0600

Lego Howl’s Moving Castle. (Via BoingBoing) It’s even got Calcifer inside. This is wonderful.

Joshua Scott, via

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 12:03:04 -0600

Joshua Scott, via

"Not enough gets said about the importance of abandoning crap."

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:42:44 -0600

“Not enough gets said about the importance of abandoning crap.”

- Ira Glass

"Since the world began, we have gone about our work quietly, resisting the urge to generalize,..."

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:34:00 -0600

“Since the world began, we have gone about our work quietly, resisting the urge to generalize, valuing the individual over the group, the actual over the conceptual, the inherent sweetness of the present moment over the theoretically peaceful future to be obtained via murder. Many of us have trouble sleeping and lie awake at night, worrying about something catastrophic befalling someone we love. We rise in the morning with no plans to convert anyone via beating, humiliation, or invasion. To tell the truth, we are tired. We work. We would just like some peace and quiet. When wrong, we think about it awhile, then apologize. We stand under awnings during urban thunderstorms, moved to thoughtfulness by the troubled, umbrella-tinged faces rushing by. In moments of crisis, we pat one another awkwardly on the back, mumbling shy truisms. Rushing to an appointment, remembering a friend who has passed away, our eyes well with tears and we think: Well, my God, he could be a pain, but still I’m lucky to have known him.”

- Manifesto: People Reluctant to Kill for an Abstraction, George Saunders