Saturday, April 17, 2004

Hoist the Blog Flag

My old friend Stu Sjouerman of Sunbelt Software publishes the W2Knews newsletter, which I get because I like Stu's ramblings, not because I use Windows 2000. Today he sent out a quote from H. L. Mencken that I think reverberates well in today's world:
"There comes a time when every man feels the urge to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and start slitting throats."

Stu and his wife, Rebecca Weiss, make a great couple. Rebecca recently published a book called Journeys in Darkness and Light, which I read through in one sitting, staying up most of the night to do it. Rebecca is an internationally renowned applique artist (she makes museum quality work and has won many awards) as well as a good writer with a strong sense of what's right and wrong in the world. The pictures and incidents from her book haunt one long after reading it. The description of her time spent in a kibbutz in Israel, in various schools all over Europe, with her parents, neither of whom appeared to want to actually take time out of their own busy lives to raise a child--these things stick with you months after you finish the book. Her mother was Helga Henschen, a well-known Swedish artist, and her father was the playright and painter, Peter Weiss.

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