The offered me the office, offered me the shop They said I'd better take anything they'd got Do you wanna make tea at the BBC? Do you wanna be, do you really wanna be a cop?
Career opportunities are the ones that never knock Every job they offer you is to keep you out the dock Career opportunity, the ones that never knock
I hate the army and I hate the R.A.F. I don't wanna go fighting in the tropical heat I hate the civil service rules And I won't open letter bombs for you
Career opportunities are the ones that never knock Every job they offer you is to keep you out the dock Career opportunity, the ones that never knock
Bus driver; ambulance man; ticket inspector
They're gonna have to introduce conscription They're gonna have to take away my prescription If they wanna get me making toys If they wanna get me, well, I got no choice
I've been using the phrase "horse trading" a lot lately. I'm thinking of switching to "wife swapping" because, to my mind, they are pretty much the same thing.
In this tidy one-volume history, Pierre Goubert fairly encapsulates the social, political, and economic evolution of France, from the blurry edges of the monarchy in 987 to the present (about 1980). More fluid and narratively organized than a textbook, but too sweeping to fit neatly with most modern nonfiction historical works, The Course of French History maintains enough momentum to avoid drying out, but never approaches being a page-turner. Goubert, who has done his research, tempers and delivers his own informed judgements passively. This volume suits anyone doing independent study of French, European, or
even World History, giving you all the basics with just a taste of the details.
Note Recounting the contents here would be pointless.
I wanna give, I wanna give, I want to give everything up for grabs. I wanna say, I wanna say, I wanna say all the little things. I wanna make, I wanna make, I wanna make all of the good times. I want to shake, I want to shake, I want to shake, I want to shake your hand.
But what I really want to do is dance. I wanna dance. I wanna dance. I wanna dance. I wanna dance. I wanna dance. I wanna dance. I wanna dance. I wanna dance. I wanna dance. I wanna dance.
I wanna feel, I wanna feel, I want to feel lake water. I wanna think, I wanna think, I wanna think, Oh, man, I want to think something fine. I wanna take, I wanna take, I want to such a long long time. I wanna wake, I wanna wake, I want to wake up and see your shoes in the stairwell.
It takes a good friend to say you've got your head up your ass. It takes a good friend to meet you in the park in the dark. It takes an enemy to help you get out of bed. It takes your lover to leave you, to feel loneliness.
I wanna dance. I wanna dance. I wanna dance. I wanna dance. I wanna dance. I wanna dance. I wanna dance. I wanna dance. I wanna dance. I wanna dance.
I want you, I want you, I want you, I want you to sew a button on my shirt. I want you, I want you, I want you, I want you to come home. I want you, I want you, I want you, I want you to help us out. I want you, I want you, I want you, I want you only to love me for my black eyes.
It takes a good friend to say you've got your head up your ass. It takes a good friend to meet you in the park in the dark. It takes and enemy to help you get out of bed. It takes your lover to leave you, to feel loneliness.
Watered, green escape; a little unkempt but altogether perfect. Garden beds along the path hugging in the grass. Clothesline, birdbath, roses and dogwood. The big pecan tree and shade freckled with sun. Even back then this was already a place protected in the warm trust of memory. Greened my hands with the broken skins of unripe pecans smashed against the tree trunk. Grandpa's Lava soap cleaned my hands, and his knowing it would was better than my hands returned unstained
He established himself on the standup circuit, was an original cast member on MADtv, co-starred with Norm MacDonald in the movie "Dirty Work," and sometimes is a guest on late-night talk shows, but most people know Artie Lange from his eight years on Howard Stern's radio show. Too Fat to Fish, Lange's first autobiographical book detailing his (sur)real-life adventures, camped out defiantly on best-seller lists. In Crash and Burn, his latest book, he relives the decent into the drug and alcohol addiction that nearly ruined his career and led him to attempt a violent suicide. Crash and Burn narrates Artie's debauchery and excess. While this sounds juicy, the repeated
confessions of abuse,
blackouts, hiding and lying to family and friends makes for a tale that is far more sad than sidesplitting. Though I'm not a Stern/Artie devotee, I'm familiar with some of the characters in the Stern show world, and easily enjoyed this fast read. When the book ends, Artie is sober, engaged, and hosting a sports and entertainment radio show called "The Artie Lange Show" (originally "The Nick & Artie Show" co-hosted by comedian Nick DiPaolo).
Candide is a novella by Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher Voltaire (1694–1778). The witty, outspoken Voltaire was often at odds with the laws, customs, and institutions of his day. Despite--or perhaps because of--his controversies, Voltaire achieved great fame in his lifetime.
First published in 1759, Candide unfolds the adventures of a naive but bright young man who optimistically emerges from an idyllic upbringing only to meet painfully with a world burdened with wrongs, hardships, and evils that invite his disillusionment.
Initially taught that "all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds," the young Candide concludes after contending with the problem of evil that, in life, one should "cultivate our garden." What this philosophical riddle means is much debated. Voltaire is posing our dilemma: How do we respond faced with the problem of evil? Now, as adults, far, far away from any Garden of Eden, how do we approach the world? This absurd allegory encourages us to be clear-eyed, tireless reformers working toward the good.
I know a seagull. He watches me, uncaring. Sometimes when he flies the sky warms from a restless midnight to a delicate peach speckled heaven blue. He is overhead now. Hello, again, Seagull. I only see his silhouette.
In a Russian a literary journal in 1866, Fyodor Dostoyevsky published Crime and Punishment, a novel that follows a young man named Rodion Raskolnikov immediately before and after he murders an unscrupulous pawnbroker and her feeble sister. The motive, which does not seem fully and explicitly formed even for our protagonist, develops through Dostoyevsky's narrative. It seems altogether an act of desperate poverty, self-empowerment, and destiny.
In those forlorn, guilt-infected postmurder days spent adrift among a diverse cast of emotional string-pulling supporting characters, Raskolnikov remains under suspicion but not arrest. The action turns when a coy police inspector reminds Raskolnikov of an essay the would-be murderer wrote as a college student; the essay suggests a slight perversion of the Great Man theory--that great men use their power, be it charisma, intelligence, political and military wits, what have you, to transcend conventions and change the world. So, we come to understand, Raskolnikov's act of murder is a test of his own greatness (though he simultaneously thinks himself a slug). But, ultimately, crushed with guilt, self-doubt, and facing inevitable arrest, Raskolnikov confesses and begins his sentence in Siberia. Among other things, Crime and Punishment dives into Dostoyevsky's personal philosophy that suffering and degradation bring salvation. The novel turns on our ideas of law, crime, morality, reason, and society and the individual. It asks, What is the difference between the man who transgresses boundaries to achieve his ambitions and the man who defies conventions to achieve greatness? Notes:
One of the most noted events in Fyodor Dostoyevsky's
biography is his 1849 arrest for his association with some liberal
utopians; he was condemned to death, but then spared moments before his
execution and re-sentenced to four years' hard labour in Siberia. He
later traveled through Europe, but developed epilepsy and a nasty
gambling addiction. Hard times followed, but also some great literature.
Besides exploring universal themes, Fyodor Dostoyevsky's novels are also
very Russian, set in 19th-century Russia during the nation's
never-ending, clumsy push to modernize.
