death poem of Moriya Sen’an, who died in 1838
from Japanese Death Poems, edited by Yoel Hoffmann
(via awritersruminations)
Cafe du Dome, Paris, 1920s. (via)
One reason for the influx of artists to Paris at that time was that it was ridiculously affordable, especially for Americans. According to James Hinkle, “The exchange rate for French francs was about twenty-five francs to the dollar. One dollar had approximately forty times its present purchasing power. Hemingway paid 250 francs a month (about ten dollars) for his Paris apartment…For a franc, you could buy breakfast of a brioche and coffee or a drink at a first-class bar. A full dinner with wine at a decent restaurant could be had for five francs—about a quarter. e.e. cummings lived in Paris and traveled for two years on $1,000. Faulkner managed for several months on a dollar a day.” (via)
The above article is an update. Her mother went to appeal to keep her out of the psychiatric ward and lost. She will be institutionalized because of her expression of her gender. She will be held until she conforms to male gender and then released to foster care, not her mother who was supporting her.
Please, if you haven’t signed the petition, sign it, reblog it, ask your friends to sign it. We’ve managed to get 40K signatures for a pageant model, we’ve only gotten 11K for a little girl about to have her life ruined. Lets get on the ball and spread the word.
‘We Are All Silently Judging Him At Every Moment, Just As He Suspects,’ Acquaintances Say
OAKLAND, CA—Friends and colleagues of copywriter Timothy Gibula confirmed Wednesday that the anxiety-ridden 36-year-old is right to feel ashamed of every single thing he does, considering that all his acquaintances are, exactly as he fears, actively judging him at all times.
Validating every feeling of remorse and social anxiety the man has ever felt, sources close to Gibula told reporters his perpetual anguish over his words and actions could not be more justified, as all of his missteps—ranging from minor lapses of politeness to his overall slightly disappointing career trajectory—are immediately perceived by those around him as evidence of his inadequacy as a human being.
“Tim’s the kind of guy who is forever second-guessing his behavior, as if the people in his life are constantly scrutinizing every single move he makes, and he’s completely correct about that—we are,” said Paula Ramirez, a coworker who admitted she can barely look at Gibula without a medley of his most embarrassing moments replaying in her head. “Anytime he’s been petrified at the thought of social interaction or obsessively reexamined something he’s said, his fears have been entirely reasonable, given our nonstop monitoring of his behavior.”
HOUSTON—Marking a momentous leap forward in humankind’s understanding of the universe, NASA scientists announced today they had received a radio transmission confirming the existence of intelligent, extremely condescending life in a galaxy nearly 13.8 billion light-years away.
According to officials at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, the message arrived several days after researchers sent a signal to the recently discovered URFy-32924369 galaxy. Members of a highly arrogant alien species responded, saying it was “nice to finally hear from [our] quaint planet” and that it “certainly took [humanity] long enough.”
The extraterrestrials explained they had intercepted NASA’s transmission using their “far superior technology,” because they did not want to “wait the intervening billions of years to receive a simple message from a species working within the laughable constraints of the speed of light.”
