Robert E. O'Connor, RIP

Bob O'Connor, Pittsburgh's 61-year-old mayor, was buried today. He had run for that office since 1997, finally winning last year, and he was sworn in as mayor on January 3, 2006. He was diagnosed with primary central nervous system lymphoma on July 10th. 53 days later, September 1st, he was dead.

Dirge in Woods

A wind sways the pines,
            And below
Not a breath of wild air;
Still as the mosses that glow
On the flooring and over the lines
Of the roots here and there.
The pine-tree drops its dead;
They are quiet, as under the sea.
Overhead, overhead
Rushes life in a race,
As the clouds the clouds chase;
            And we go,
And we drop like the fruits of the tree,
            Even we,
            Even so.

George Meredith (1828-1909)

The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse (1913) # 333; The Oxford Book of English Verse (1940) # 787.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 09/07/06 06:14:03 PM
Categorized as Literary.

What Kind of Psychotic Do You Have To Be...

... to actually think ABC/Disney would broadcast a hatchet job on Democrats?

ABC! Disney!

The Path to 9/11.

I'm just saying.

P.S. Well, lookee here.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 09/07/06 06:04:55 PM
Categorized as Political.

"The Fixer And The Fixed"

By the blogger @ MaxedOutMama:

.... If, when I was a teenager, anyone had come to me and said, "Look, here are two doors marked 1 and 2. They represent the course of your future life. If you walk through door 1, you will end up in this condition: You will become paralyzed. You will be so damaged that you will experience long intervals of unconsciousness. When you wake you will not know your name, you will not have any moment-to-moment memory, you will be unable to speak, to read, to remember long-term memories, to understand that you have a family. You will be mostly blind. You will be unable to breathe or swallow, because the nervous tissue controlling those functions will have failed. The only thing left to you will be severe physical pain and distress, and the pervasive reality of God's love, and you will experience the absolute reality of God's love in proportion to your deprivation of every other human experience other than pain" — I would have unhesitatingly walked through the other door. I wouldn't even have bothered to ask what door 2 held for me.

And now — now I am so glad that I did not have that choice. I would have made the wrong choice, because I wouldn't have understood at all what the experience of God's love meant. My ignorance was my blessing. Now if I were sent back in time I would be afraid to walk through door 2....

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 09/07/06 08:29:21 AM
Categorized as More Than Blogworthy.

The Abolition of Man

A book by C. S. Lewis.

On line at the Augustine Club.

• Men Without Chests
• The Way
• The Abolition of Man
• Illustrations of the Tao

(Thanks, Mark.)

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 09/07/06 07:35:57 AM
Categorized as Literary & Social/Cultural.