"A devoted father, Smith passes on his philosophy of life to his children through chess, among other things.

'My
father taught me how to play chess at seven and introduced beautiful
concepts that I try to pass on to my kids. The elements and concepts of
life are so perfectly illustrated on a chess board. The ability to
accurately assess your position is the key to chess, which I also think
is the key to life.'

He pauses, searching for an example.
'Everything you do in your life is a move. You wake up in the morning,
you strap on a gun, and you walk out on the street-- that's a move.
You've made a move and the universe is going to respond with its move.

'Whatever
move you're going to make in your life to be successful, you have to
accurately access the next couple of moves-- like what's going to
happen if you do this? Because once you've made your move, you can't
take it back. The universe is going to respond.'

Smith has just finished reading The Alchemist, by the Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho: 'It says the entire world is
contained in one grain of sand, and you can learn everything you need
to learn about the entire universe from that one grain of sand. That is
the kind of concept I'm teaching my kids.'"

Line 678 of The Bacchae --

From a Brandeis class's translation (2006):

Messenger:

[677] Our feeding herds of cattle were just climbing
[678] above the treeline when the sun
[679] sent forth its rays to warm the earth.

Related review by Charles Isherwood in today's New York Times:

"A god deserves a great entrance. And Dionysus, the god of wine and
party boy of Mount Olympus, whose celebratory rituals got the whole
drama thing rolling in the first place, surely merits a spectacular one...."

Line 506 of The Bacchae --

From a 1988 translation (pdf) by Matthew A. Neuburg--

Dionysus:

[506] You don’t know what you’re saying, what you’re doing, who you are.

Translator's note:

506 The state of this line in the MSS has driven editors to despair; in particular, the first of the things Pentheus is said not to know is, in Greek, “what you are living,” which seems doubtful Greek. Many emendations have been proposed; I accept here DODDS’s emendation, but I have a feeling we’re missing something.

In memory of
Senator Jesse Helms, R-NC:

"I'm a church beside the highway
       where the ditches never drain,
I'm a Baptist like my daddy,
       and Jesus knows my name."

-- Mary Chapin Carpenter

From today's New York Times:

This week, we the people of North America are staging two
celebrations. The Fourth of July is the 232nd birthday of the United
States....

In Canada,
today, another ceremony will mark the 400th anniversary of Quebec City,
the first permanent settlement in New France.

Commonweal on Gopnik on Chesterton:

"Gopnik thinks Chesterton’s aphorisms are better than any but Oscar
Wilde’s, and he describes some of them as 'genuine Catholic koans,
pregnant and profound.' For example: 'Blasphemy depends on belief, and
is fading with it. If anyone doubts this, let him sit down seriously
and try to think blasphemous thoughts about Thor.'"

Kate felt quite dizzy. She didn't know exactly what it was that had just happened, but she felt pretty damn certain that it was the sort of experience that her mother would not have approved of on a first date.

"Is this all part of what we have to do to go to Asgard?" she said. "Or are you just fooling around?"

"We will go to Asgard... now," he said.

At that moment he raised his hand as if to pluck an apple, but instead of plucking he made a tiny, sharp turning movement.The effect was as if he had twisted the entire world through a billionth part of a billionth part of a degree. Everything shifted, was for a moment minutely out of focus, and then snapped back again as a suddenly different world.

-- The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul