Topic: The Culture
Observations of others...
"There's nothing I am worse at than long-term planning. I have never run my life that way. I believe that serendipity or fate or divine intervention has led me to a series of wholly implausible steps in my life. And I've been open to those twists and turns because I didn't have a long-term plan."
- National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice on CNN, December 12, 2003.
"Mens sana in corpore sano is a contradiction in terms, the fantasy of a Mr. Have-your-cake-and-eat-it. No sane man can afford to dispense with debilitating pleasures; no ascetic can be considered reliably sane. Hitler was the archetype of the abstemious man. When the other krauts saw him drink water in the Beer Hall they should have known he was not to be trusted."
- A.J. Liebling, Between Meals: An Appetite for Paris
Yep, that be Greek - "Healthy body, healthy mind." They didn't think it was a contradiction in terms. Well, trust the ancient Greeks on this, and Adolph? Curious."Vegetarians, and their Hezbollah-like splinter-faction, the vegans, are a persistent irritant to any chef worth a damn. To me, life without veal stock, pork fat, sausage, organ meat, demi-glace, or even stinky cheese is a life not worth living. Vegetarians are the enemy of everything good and decent in the human spirit, an affront to all I stand for, the pure enjoyment of food."
Well, Hitler wasn't exactly welcomed in Paris way back when. Not his kind of place. Decent wine everywhere, and stinky cheese too.
- Anthony Bourdain, Kitchen Confidential
Vegans, a Hezbollah-like splinter-faction and the enemy of everything good and decent in the human spirit? Sanctimonious, sure. But the "enemy?" Indeed."Men who are accustomed over a long series of years to supposing that whatever can somehow be squared with the law is right - or if not right then allowable - are not useful members of society; and when they reach positions of power in the state they are noxious. They are people for whom ethics can be summed up by the collected statutes."
- Patrick O'Brian, The Reverse of the Medal
Well, I'll think about that.
Posted by Alan at 08:43 PST | Post Comment | Permalink
Updated: Saturday, 13 December 2003 20:22 PST home