Found this black & white treasure hanging on the fence in K’s driveway after our hike through the suburbs of San Jose to Dawson Loop. Click on the image to see M’s colorization.
Here’s a black & white line drawing for contrast:
Truly to enjoy bodily warmth, some small part of you must be cold, for there is no quality in this world that is not what it is merely by contrast.
Nothing exists in itself.
If you flatter yourself that you are all over comfortable, and have been so a long time, then you cannot be said to be comfortable any more. But if the tip of your nose or the crown of your head be slightly chilled, why then, indeed, in the general consciousness you feel most delightfully and unmistakably warm.
For this reason a sleeping apartment should never be furnished with a fire, which is one of the luxurious discomforts of the rich. For the height of this sort of deliciousness is to have nothing but the blanket between you and your snugness and the cold of the outer air.
Then there you lie like the one warm spark in the heart of an arctic crystal.
Chapter 11, Nightgown – Moby Dick by Herman Melville
* Thank you Will Henry for Wallace-the-Brave
There are so many high-tech specialists in Silicon Valley that few speak the same language.
You can call this the common room.
Architectural wisdom and design philosophy reflect how our indoor spaces serve as the backdrop for our lives, shaping our moods, behaviors, and overall well-being.
“Whoever you are: step out of doors tonight,
Out of the room that lets you feel secure.
Infinity is open to your sight.
Whoever you are.”Dana Gioia, Interrogations at Noon: Poems
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is a wholly remarkable book. It has been compiled and recompiled many times over many years and under many different editorships. It contains contributions from countless numbers of travellers and researchers.
The introduction begins like this:
“Space,” it says, “is big. Really big. You just won’t believe how vastly hugely mindboggingly big it is. I mean you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist, but that’s just peanuts to space. Listen…”
and so on.
Arthur Dent & Ford Prefect flee from the destruction of the Earth by escaping onto an enemy spaceship:
“This is your captain speaking, so stop whatever you’re doing and pay attention.
“First of all I see from our instruments that we have a couple of hitchhikers aboard. Hello, wherever you are.
“I just want to make it totally clear that you are not at all welcome. I worked hard to get where I am today, and I didn’t become captain of a Vogon constructor ship simply so I could turn it into a taxi service for a load of degenerate freeloaders. I have sent out a search party, and as soon that they find you I will put you off the ship.
“If you’re very lucky I might read you some of my poetry first.”
Chapter 5 – Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Putty. Putty. Putty.
Green Putty – Grutty Peen.
Grarmpitutty – Morning!
Pridsummer – Grorning Utty!
Discovery….. Oh.
Putty?….. Armpit?
Armpit….. Putty.
Not even a particularly
Nice shade of green.
As I lick my armpit and shall agree,
That this putty is very well green.
What if you got this wish: to re-live the good years of your life all over again. Would that make you a better person?
Maybe not, because where are the lessons then?
[At least TRY to remain upright!]
It seemed as if this were the Loom of Time, and I myself were a shuttle mechanically weaving & weaving away at the Fates; and here, thought I, with my own hand I ply my own shuttle and weave my own destiny into these unalterable threads.
Moby Dick (1851) by Herman Melville