The Necklace

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  “SHE WAS one of those pretty, charming young ladies, born, as if through an error of destiny, into a family of clerks. She had no dowry, no hopes, no means of becoming known, appreciated, loved, and married by a man either rich or distinguished; and she allowed herself to marry a petty clerk in the office of the Board of Education. . . .  She had neither frocks nor jewels, nothing. And she loved only those things. She felt that she was made for them. She had such a desire to please, to be sought after, to be clever, and courted.” —THE NECKLACE Guy de Maupassant    France, 1884 (pic by Grok) Read this short story here:  https://americanliterature.com/author/guy-de-maupassant/short-story/the-necklace

Return of the Masque

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The Masque Returns--and Jim Carrey ain't in it, nor his little dog, either.

As the Schaivo case gets kicked under the table, and copy-cat cases are springing up, I could not help but remember this quote:

"With the death of abolutes, the prospects are grim for any lover of justice, freedom and order. Western culture will lurch drunkenly between chaotic lawlessness and countering authoritarianism, in which some particularly abysmal vacuum of confidence could finally issue in a supreme dictatorship, mocking Western aspirations for democracy as ineffective and demonstrating the strong alliance between technology and the state. Until then, violence--blood brother of such a totalitarianism--will play its fateful part, naked or disguised, in an inevitable power struggle on all levels."

Os Guiness, "The Dust of Death" (1973)

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