Monday, June 21, 2021
Even in Cleopatra's day there was such a thing as ancient history... At the same time, the centuries felt closer than they do to us today. Alexander the Great was further from Cleopatra than 1776 is to our century, yet Alexander remained always vividly, urgently present. While 1,120 years separated Cleopatra from the greatest story of her time, the fall of Troy remained a steadfast point of reference. The past was at all times within reach, a nearly religious awe aimed in its direction. This was especially true in Egypt, which had a passion for history, and which for two millennia already had kept a written record. For the bulk of those years the insular, inaccessible country had changed little, its art barely at all.
— Stacy Schiff, Cleopatra
Sunday, June 20, 2021
What music do you listen to?
— Kevin to Dad
Saturday, June 19, 2021
Like Mark Twain in the overwhelming, overstuffed Vatican, we sometimes prefer the copies to the origional. So did the classical authors.
— Stacy Schiff, Cleopatra
Friday, June 18, 2021
You little humm dinger you.
— Sheila half joking half serious on my youth
Thursday, June 17, 2021
from The Wedding as a Funeral series
— Saul Leiter wall text at the Jewish Museum
Wednesday, June 16, 2021
Back at the office, Drake had to lay down the law. "Mr. President, you can't sign everything people put in front of you. I've been told by the Secret Service you may not sign your name on a piece of currency. It's against the law."
— Bob Spitz, Reagan
Tuesday, June 15, 2021
A few months back my house was robbed and they took my copy of your 192 One Dollar Bills book.
— Email
Monday, June 14, 2021
So each time the plane took off, Nancy Reagan bowled an orange down the isle, trying not to hit any of the seats, while the cabin cheered her on.
— Bob Spitz, Reagan
Sunday, June 13, 2021
He had a framework that enabled him to answer questions, even when he didn't know much about the details.
— Bob Spitz, Reagan
Saturday, June 12, 2021
This is the other half they don't show you on TV.
— Massage Envy guy on painful deep tissue massages
Friday, June 11, 2021
Maybe every bird just goes and dies in Canada.
— Lily wondering where all the dead birds are
Thursday, June 10, 2021
NORMALIZE PURE INDIVIDUALISM BY VIEWING GESTURES OF COMMONALITY AS ERASURES OF DIFFERENCE
— @bradtroemel
Wednesday, June 9, 2021
The only thing Carter liked less than fundraising was the prospect of being forgotten.
— Jonathan Alter, His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, A Life
Tuesday, June 8, 2021
He reassured Carter in a memo that he had not failed to provide leadership, he had only failed to "look like you are providing leadership."
— Jonathan Alter, His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, A Life
Monday, June 7, 2021
The Justice Department said that it had seized 63.7 Bitcoins, currently valued at about $2.3 million. (The value of a Bitcoin has dropped over the past month.)
— Katie Benner and Nicole Perlroth, "U.S. Seizes Share of Ransom From Hackers in Colonial Pipeline Attack," The New York Times
Sunday, June 6, 2021
IM STARTING A PEANUTS RELIGION ALL THE GOOD TENNETS OF CHRISTIANITY (AT LEAST) ARE BETTER TOLD AND UNDERSTOOD IN PEANUTS
— @no_goodny
Saturday, June 5, 2021
Making him the first American president to be born in a hospital.
— Jonathan Alter, His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, A Life
Friday, June 4, 2021
You should start a trash can company and sell them, and then decide that they're art and say that they've been collected by every institution that bought them.
— Lily
Thursday, June 3, 2021
I AM STILL ALIVE
— On Kawara
Wednesday, June 2, 2021
Baptism for the dead united the human family. Joseph himself underscored its value in turning the hearts of the children to their fathers. Something had to bond all the generations from the first to the last going back through time as the prophet Malachi had written or the Earth would be wasted. Locating names and baptizing vicariously created the welding link. Nothing in his later life excited Joseph more than the idea of joining together the generations of humanity from start to finish.
— Richard Lyman Bushman, Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling
