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

Mark Henson

Jacek Yerka

Tom Uttech

More...

"History repeats itself [twice], first as tragedy, second as farce." --Karl Marx

Wisdom Goddesses - Mahavidyas and the Assertion of Femininity in Indian Thought

More...

Ruth Gwily

Scott Eagle

Dressing the Wounded during a Gas Attack by Austin Osman Spare

Why Blue Green Algae Makes Me Tired

"Actually, the algae isn't tiring me. I'm tired of the people trying to sell it to me. Most blue-green algae is sold in a multi-level marketing scheme through Cell Tech. Sellers see me, a physician, as a potentially lucrative franchise to sell algae for them. So I get two or three sales calls every week (once as many as twenty). Never mind that selling algae to make myself money is a conflict-of-interest and an unethical ploy already encouraged by pharmaceutical companies ("The only solution I see for your diagnosis, Mr. Smith, is blue-green algae, which I happen to have right here..."). I've tried the algae and it doesn't do much for me. The cost/benefit ratio is poor. Nevertheless, in the past three years I've received over 400 phone calls, dozens of tapes in the mail, and had people barge into my office and home, all selling algae...

Blue green algae is a lot like the Kombucha tea - of dubious benefit and full of potential danger. But while most Kombucha is distributed free as an act of caring and love, Cell Tech made $50 million off its algae last year, and 54¢ of every dollar's worth of algae goes to sellers as a commission. I realize this article may anger some people distributing blue-green algae. I'm sorry. But I hope they'll stop asking me to buy and sell the stuff..."

Brain Diseases I Wish I Had

"The vast majority of mp3 enthusiasts - the millions of people who transfer mp3 files around the Internet via Napster-style file sharing software, or via IRC, or Usenet, or whatever - are probably blissfully unaware of all the arguments which take place concerning lame v Fraunhofer, 128k v 192k, CBR v VBR, stereo v joint stereo - and good luck to them! However, once people start to acquire a basic level of knowledge concerning the mechanics of audio compression, they almost inevitably gravitate towards the opinion that "Joint Stereo Is BAD"..." But is it?

William Burroughs Book Covers

This land like a mirror turns you inward
And you become a forest in a furtive lake;
The dark pines of your mind reach downward,
You dream in the green of your time,
Your memory is a row of sinking pines.

Explorer, you tell yourself this is not what you came for
Although it is good here, and green;
You had meant to move with a kind of largeness,
You had planned a heavy grace, an anguished dream.

But the dark pines of your mind dip deeper
And you are sinking, sinking, sleeper
In an elementary world;
There is something down there and you want it told.

Dark Pines Under Water by Gwendolyn MacEwen