Conclusion

At year's end a passionate thanks to my friends for all they do for me. Without Won Sun, Nitzan, Howard, Michael, Liz, 美足, Scott, Hannah, Steven, 平一, Nell, Pam, Gina, Dani, Jennifer, Levon, Joe, my sister, my mother, my father, Eloise and Lucy, life would be hollow.

This year's writings are dedicated to Cuchulain.

R.I.P. Saddam Hussein

The coverage I've seen of the slaying of Saddam has been vile. Every word seems calculated to justify his death, with no room for the remotest possibility that he was a human being for whom we might feel compassion. There is no justice in killing people, only sometimes, under certain conditions, a reason that can't be ignored. The reason here is something called revenge, and revenge is bestial. We are not at our best when we hang people, shoot people in the head, put poison in people's veins, send large amounts of electricity through people's bodies. Some people are guiltier than others. Some people have more blood on their hands. But we have a great deal of blood on our hands, we solemn executioners.

Invitation

The cat needs to be able to come and go as the whim strikes her. I leave the back door ajar. This makes it fairly cold at night. It also invites homeless people, possums and lunar moths to visit me. So far none has accepted the invitation but it's only a matter of time, right?

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.

The reflection of one who has given up on a great deal, this sentiment is, even for the most determined, deeply attractive. We have Oscar Wilde to thank for it.

Authorial fixations

Zadie Smith is really into sweat. In "On Beauty," all of her characters sweat and often quite copiously. Weather has nothing to do with it. Does she think sweat is beautiful?

Cuchulain

On Saturday, December 9, Cuchulain died in his sleep. He was not the shrewdest dog but he was gentle and good. I loved him.

Filth

Rain does not make things cleaner. Witness Sam. He arrived at work, after cycling only three miles, covered from nose to toes in filth. The rain did that. With each revolution of the pedals I saw great gobbets of filthy fluid leap up at me and into them I dove.

I eat lots of nuts

Macadamia, cashew, peanut, almond. I do not eat them raw. I have eaten more macadamia nuts in the last three months than in the first forty-two years of my life. I have also been eating great heaps of banana chips. Has my complexion been affected? My whiskers seems stubblier and fall away in little pale nubbins.

Reading

"The Marquise of O— and Other Stories" Heinrich von Kleist
"Elephant Bill" J. H. Williams
"On Beauty" Zadie Smith