Word of the day:

verbigeration: an obsessive repetition of meaningless words and phrases, especially as a symptom of mental illness.

Robert Wilson

First Voice:--A game of checkers?

Second Voice:--Well, I don't mind.

First Voice:--I move the Will.

Second Voice:--You're playing it blind.

First Voice:--Then here's the Soul.

Second Voice:--Checked by the Will.

First Voice:--Eternal Good!

Second Voice:--And Eternal Ill.

First Voice:--I haste for the King row.

Second Voice:--Save your breath.

First Voice:--I was moving Life.

Second Voice:--You're checked by Death.

First Voice:--Very good, here's Moses.

Second Voice:--And here's the Jew.

First Voice:--My next move is Jesus.

Second Voice:--St. Paul for you!

First Voice:--Yes, but St. Peter--

Second Voice:--You might have foreseen--

First Voice:--You're in the King row--

Second Voice:--With Constantine!

First Voice:--I'll go back to Athens.

Second Voice:--Well, here's the Persian.

First Voice:--All right, the Bible.

Second Voice:--Pray now, what version?

First Voice:--I take up Buddha.

Second Voice:--It never will work.

First Voice:--From the corner Mahomet.

Second Voice:--I move the Turk.

First Voice:--The game is tangled; where are we now?

Second Voice:--You're dreaming worlds. I'm in the King row.
Move as you will, if I can't wreck you
I'll thwart you, harry you, rout you, check you.

First Voice:--I'm tired. I'll send for my Son to play.
I think he can beat you finally--

Second Voice:--Eh?

First Voice:--I must preside at the stars' convention.

Second Voice:--Very well, my lord, but I beg to mention
I'll give this game my direct attention.

First Voice:--A game indeed! But Truth is my quest.

Second Voice:--Beaten, you walk away with a jest.
I strike the table, I scatter the checkers.
[A rattle of a falling table and checkers flying over a floor.]
Aha! You armies and iron deckers,
Races and states in a cataclysm--
Now for a day of atheism!

[The screen vanishes and Beelzebub steps forward carrying a trumpet, which he blows faintly. Immediately Loki and Yogarindra start up from the shadows of night.]

Beelzebub:--Good evening, Loki!

Loki:--The same to you!

Beelzebub:--And Yogarindra!

Yogarindra:--My greetings, too.

Loki:--Whence came you, comrade?

Beelzebub:--From yonder screen.

Yogarindra:--And what were you doing?

Beelzebub:--Stirring His spleen.

Loki:--How did you do it?

Beelzebub:--I made it rough
In a game of checkers.

Loki:--Good enough!

Yogarindra:--I thought I heard the sounds of a battle.

Beelzebub:--No doubt! I made the checkers rattle,
Turning the table over and strewing
The bits of wood like an army pursuing.

Yogarindra:--I have a game! Let us make a man.

Loki:--My net is waiting him, if you can.

Yogarindra:--And here's my mirror to fool him with--

Beelzebub:--Mystery, falsehood, creed and myth.

Loki:--But no one can mold him, friend, but you.

Beelzebub:--Then to the sport without more ado..."

--Edgar Lee Masters "Epilogue" (excerpt)

"It is something from a surrealist still life—a hat, glasses, moustache and toilet seat. This is the collection of belongings that forensic scientist Michael Rieders was offered when he put the word out that he was trying to track down Salvador Dalí’s DNA."

Jose Hernandez

St. Pancras Chambers

Tomb of Edvard Grieg

"Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better."

Samuel Beckett