"Pheidippides" Robert Browning, 1879

So, when Persia was dust, all cried, "To Acropolis!

Run, Pheidippides, one race more! the meed is thy due!

Athens is saved, thank Pan, go shout!" He flung down his shield

Ran like fire once more: and the space 'twixt the fennel-field

And Athens was stubble again, a field which a fire runs through,

Till in he broke: "Rejoice, we conquer!" Like wine through clay,

Joy in his blood bursting his heart, - the bliss!






4 hours, 50 minutes

_Decline and Fall_ , Evelyn Waugh, 1928

"Frankly," said the Doctor, "I am at a loss to understand my own emotions. I can think of no entertainment that fills me with greater detestation than a display of competitive athletics, none--except possibly folk dancing."



9 hours

_The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner_ Alan Sillitoe, 1959

"Off like the wind along the cobbled footpath and rutted lane, smoother than the flat grass track on the field and better for thinking because it's not too smooth, and I was in my element that afternoon knowing that nobody could beat me at running but intending to beat myself before the day was over."




31 hours

What's up? A minor rant in the key of tired.

This is maybe the busiest week of my life. I haven't had a single day off in weeks and weeks, and my first one will be this Saturday, when I will leave the Jewish Educators' Conference I'm attending to run 20 miles and then go back to the conference. It'll be another full week before I get another "slow" day. This week, in addition to my multiple other jobs and appointments, I'm basically running 5 Israeli dance sessions in 8 days.

I'd love to write a real post, but I'm exhausted. In the meantime, thank you so much if you have donated to my fundraiser for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, and if you haven't donated yet but are still considering it, please donate to me on my friend Brandon's page. Please. You get double the appreciation!

Thank you.

DFW, JDS. RIP. l,l,l, RDB

Right before J D Salinger died, I tweeted about still mourning the loss of David Foster Wallace. With JDS, though, the probability of reading more stuff he wrote *increases* with his death, while with DFW it's the other way 'round. Still, the silence is deafening.

And I just re-read Franny and Zooey, on the occasion of recommending it to a friend, and finally read both The Way of a Pilgrim and The Pilgrim Continues His Way.

And just happened across my own posting of the Spot-the-Salinger game we used to play. Read it.