53 Brentwood Blog

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

The Third Man

Harry Lime: Don't be so gloomy. After all it's not that awful. Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock. So long Holly.

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

gods are strange

And as the gods are strange, and punish us for what is good and humane in us as much as for what is evil and perverse, I must accept the fact that one is
punished for the good as well as for the evil that one does.
De Profundis, by Oscar Wilde.

Thursday, February 08, 2007

The Ultimate

Before a Super Bowl in the 1970s (the MCMLXXs, for those of you in a Super Bowl frame of mind), Dallas Cowboys running back Duane Thomas asked a subversive question about the game: "If it's the ultimate, how come they're playing it again next year?"

George F. Will, WashingtonPost, February 4, 2007.

Monday, February 05, 2007

Big Mac

As America's car culture spread abroad, the hamburger followed. McDonald's has opened restaurants in 119 countries and serves 52 million people daily; its appeal is inextricably bound up with the appeal of America.
"If we eat hamburgers and potatoes for 1,000 years, we will become taller, our skin will become whiter and our hair blonder," declared the enthusiastic boss of McDonald's in Japan when the first Big Mac was served there 36 years ago.
By Sebastian Mallaby.