Openings

Tin

2010-06-17T04:29:00.000-07:00

Granted: I am an inmate of a mental hospital; my keeper is watching me, he never lets me out of his sight; there's a peephole in the door, and my keeper's eye is the shade of brown that can never see through a blue-eyed type like me.
--Günter Grass, "The Tin Drum"

Gigantic

2010-05-09T11:55:00.000-07:00

There was once a Giant who was too big to be seen. --Eleanor Farjeon, "The Giant and the Mite" (a tale from "The Little Bookroom")

Before the snow

2010-05-04T06:41:00.000-07:00

We started dying before the snow, and like the snow, we continued to fall. --Louise Erdrich, "Tracks"

Good night, Veronica

2010-04-25T13:18:00.000-07:00

A hundred thousand good-nights, dearly loved daughter Veronica. --Johannes Junius, the opening of a letter written in 1628 on the eve of Junius' execution by burning

Brillig

2010-04-18T15:11:00.001-07:00

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe; all mimsy were the borogoves,and the mome raths outgrabe.
-- Lewis Carrol, "Jabberwocky"

To begin

2010-04-11T15:16:00.000-07:00

To begin at the beginning: It is spring, moonless night in the small town, starless and bible-black...
--Dylan Thomas, "Under Milk Wood"

Slavishly

2010-04-05T16:58:00.000-07:00

124 was spiteful.
--Toni Morrison, "Beloved"

The Noble Knight

2009-09-09T05:06:00.000-07:00

In a place at La Mancha, which name I do not want to remember, not very long ago lived a country hidalgo, one of those gentlemen or hidalgos who keep a lance in the lance-rack, an ancient shield, a skinny old horse, and a fast greyhound.
--Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, "The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha"

The sea-swept hero

2009-09-03T05:32:00.000-07:00

Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed.
--James Joyce, "Ulysses"

25 years ago

2009-08-13T06:39:00.000-07:00

It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. --George Orwell, "Nineteen Eighty-Four"

Distant lands

2009-08-04T05:14:00.000-07:00

The Emperor of China is a Chinaman, as you most likely know, and everyone around him is a Chinaman too. --Hans Christian Andersen, "The Nightingale"

Because the moon landing was 40 years ago

2009-07-20T16:41:00.000-07:00

Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. --Douglas Adams, "The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy"

Innocence

2009-07-14T18:00:00.000-07:00

Someone must have been telling lies about Josef K., he knew he had done nothing wrong but, one morning, he was arrested.
--Franz Kafka, "The Trial"  ("Der Prozeß")

In the End

2009-06-21T00:05:00.000-07:00

Marley was dead, to begin with. -Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol.

In the Middle

2009-06-15T16:05:00.000-07:00

Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita mi ritrovai per una selva oscura, ché la diritta via era smarrita.
In the middle of the road of our life I found myself in a dark forest, so that the straight way was lost.
Dante Alighieri, La Divina Commedia, 1308

In the Beginning

2009-06-08T15:39:00.000-07:00

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." The Gospel According to John, Chapter 1, Verse 1; also, Umberto Eco, "The Name of the Rose".