Bill Murray's Blog, page 72
December 31, 2017
Quotes: At the New Year
[image error]Anniversaries like today help you think more broadly.
Swedish author Henning Mankell’s settling of accounts, a book called Quicksand, was his written reckoning with a cancer diagnosis. He ranged widely, and lamented that not many of us are remembered for long. His example:
Construction of the Great Wall lasted 1800 years.
“If you think of the work being handed down from father to son that means there were over sixty generations who never saw the end of the work they and their forefathers had been engaged on.”
This makes me less apt to stand in a queue for iPhone version x.xxx.
Cheers, and may 2018 treat us all well.
December 25, 2017
East Asheville Hardware
Only thing I know about this fellow this that is the sweetest little paean to anti-corporatism you’ll ever hear. And it’s only a couple minutes long. Like, two. You too busy for that?
He’s just a couple hours up the road, so I know what he means, because there are dwindling few places you can go around here, before you go to Lowe’s.
December 24, 2017
Quotes: Happy, Content Holidays
I believe I know the only cure, which is to make one’s center of life inside of one’s self, not selfishly or excludingly, but with a kind of unassailable serenity – to decorate one’s inner house so richly that one is content there, glad to welcome anyone who wants to come and stay, but happy all the same when one is inevitably alone.
Edith Wharton
December 23, 2017
Quotes: Americans Abroad
This from Suzy Hansen:
“Here’s the thing: no one ever tells Americans that when they move abroad, even if they are empathetic and sensitive humans-even if they come clean about their genetic inability to learn languages, even if they consider themselves leftist critics of their own government-that they will inevitably, and unconsciously, spend those first months in a foreign country feeling superior to everyone around them and to the nation in which they now have the privilege to live.”
She doesn’t mean it as a compliment.
December 22, 2017
Amazon Rank
It is a pleasure to find Out in the Cold alongside Gretel Erlich’s great book This Cold Heaven in this Amazon ranking. Top five! Thanks everybody!
Weekend Reading
Chances are most of us will be busy with other activities this weekend, so here are just a few suggestions for fine weekend reading:
Journey toward the Island by Laila Stien at wordswithoutborders.org
The Trolley Problem Will Tell You Nothing Useful About Morality by Brianna Rennix & Nathan J. Robinson at Current Affairs
Why Democracy Didn’t Work in Russia by Christian Caryl in The New Republic
The Case for Reading Quebec’s Most Reclusive Author by Dimitri Nasrallah in The Walrus
Citizens of anywhere by Matthew Valencia at 1843magazine.com
Merry Christmas everybody. Thanks for spending time with me here this year.
From Today, the Return of the Light
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December 20, 2017
Enjoyable Series on Europe
Have a look at the British journalist Matthew Engel’s current series of travelogues in The New Statesman
The most recent is Slovenia – the happy country that should be even happier. The previous two in the series are
Travels in Belgium, the dysfunctional, fractured state at the heart of the EU and The slow train to Tallinn, about Estonia.
(Photo is Tallinn, capital of Estonia. Click to enlarge.)
The Curious, Artificial Capital of Burma
A story from Burma not from Rakhine. Have a look at the curious artificial capital of Naipiydaw.
December 16, 2017
Markets – Other than Christmas
At this time of shopping frenzy across America, it does the heart good to remember that people aren’t shopping for useless things everywhere in the world. From my other website, EarthPhotos.com, here is a selection of photos showing how they do it elsewhere in the world. Click ’em to enlarge.
Cho Cu ‘Old’ Market, Saigon, Vietnam.
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Tailor shop, Likoma Island, Malawi.
Fishmonger, Howth, Ireland.
The Grand Bazaar, Cairo, Egypt.
Vendor at the morning produce market, Hoi An, Vietnam.
This lady sells and repairs utensils at a market south of Quito, Ecuador.
The Mercado open air market, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia – HDR.
Croquetas, Old Havana, Cuba.
Detail of lamp shop, Grand Bazaar, Istanbul.
Cold drink shop, Rangoon, Burma.
Lal Market Road, Gangtok, Sikkim, India.
This lady is selling yak cheese on Barkhor Street around Jokhang Temple, Lhasa, Tibet.
Floating Market, Thailand.
Gun shop underground in Galata, Istanbul.
Parilla, Montevideo, Uruguay.
Herb trader, village in Atlas mountains, Morocco.
Painter from Vladikavkaz, North Ossetia, Russia, and his work, in Kazbegi town, Republic of Georgia.
Strawberry girl, Saturday market, Savonlinna, Finland.
God’s Glory Salon and shopping area, Kampala, Uganda.
The Supermarket on Lenin Street, on the central square, inside the 30-kilometer Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, Pripyat, Ukraine.
If you’d fancy any of these for yourself, you can buy them, and any of around 20,000 other photos, in a range of sizes and shapes, mounted or not, printed on gift boxes and shirts and more, at EarthPhotos.com. Click any photo to see it larger at EarthPhotos.com. See the entire EarthPhotos Markets Gallery here. Continue reading for twenty more photos.
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Shopkeeper, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Dried fish for sale along the Trans-Siberian railroad, Russia.
Food souk, Nizwa, Oman.
Roma market, Sighisoara, Romania.
Dogs in Hanoi, Vietnam food market.
Butcher shop, Dali, China.
After Friday prayers, old city of Jerusalem.
Rice, Sa Dec, Vietnam.
Drug Store on M G Marg, Gangtok, India.
Jewelry traders on Goree Island, Senegal.
Fish for sale, roadside in Armenia.
Butcher shop, Brasov, Romania.
A Nap at the Meat Market in Sa Dec, Vietnam.
Souvenirs, Hanga Roa, Easter Island (Rapa Nui).
Oyster Bar, Havana, Cuba – HDR.
Ice cream boy, Warsaw, Poland.
Currency exchange, eastern Rwanda.
Animal Market, Ecuador.
The Zoma, the Friday market in Antananarivo, capital of Madagascar.
Ethnic Uzbek shop, flea market outside Moscow, Russia.
