The idea of a personal God is quite alien to me and seems even naive. However, I am also not a "Freethinker" in the usual sense of the word because I find that this is in the main an attitude nourished exclusively by an opposition against naive superstition. My feeling is insofar religious as I am imbued with the consciousness of the insuffiency of the human mind to understand deeply the harmony of the Universe which we try to formulate as "laws of nature." It is this consciousness and humility I miss in the Freethinker mentality. –Albert Einstein, Letter to A. Chapple, Australia, February 23, 1954; Einstein Archive 59-405; also quoted in Nathan and Norden, Einstein on Peace P. 510

Ignorant, in the sense she ate monotonous food and thought the world was flat, and pagan, in the sense she knew the things that moved all night were neither dogs or cats but hobgoblin and darkfaced men she nevertheless had fierce pride. But sentenced in the end to eat thin diminishing porridge in a stone-cold kitchen she clenched her brittle hands around a world she could not understand. I loved her from the day she died. She was a summer dance at the crossroads. She was a cardgame where a nose was broken. She was a song that nobody sings. She was a house ransacked by soldiers. She was a language seldom spoken. She was a child's purse, full of useless things. –"Death of an Irishwoman" by Michael Hartnett

[ed: this poem has not much to do with the musical piece, i was just reading it around the same time.]

i just found this sigfile in my document folder. it’s from around 1995, when i was a sysadmin for channel thirteen in new york, and finishing up my music degree. this probably says way too much about me, and, apparently, i am not too ashamed to post it here and now.

                ~~~~~~~~~           b@
               |  |  |  |           |-   -O-
 ||–-|`–––-|–|–|–|–––––-|–|-|–- Michael J. Talarczyk
 ||–-|/–4––|–|–|b@–L7@––#@-|–|-|–– Thirteen/WNET - Learning Link
 ||–/|–-/––|–|–|––-|––-|–|–|-|––- Educational Resource Center
 ||-|-(`–4––|–|#@–––|-L7@-|–|–|-|––– New York, New York
 ||-`\|/–––-|-@––––-|–|–|–|–|––––- michaelt@llwnet.ll.pbs.org
      |      –|           |  |  |  |
      '      -@-           ~~~~~~~~~

Louie: They's throwing robots! Linguo: They are throwing robots. Legs: He's disrespecting us. Shuttupa you face! Linguo: Shut up your face! Legs: Wassamatta you? Louie: You aint so big. Legs: Me and him are gonna whack you in the Labonza! Linguo: Bad... grammar... overload. Error! Error! *blows up and lands near Homer* Homer: *gasp* Linguo..... dead!? Linguo: Linguo is dead. *shuts down*

too bad this last, best line is omitted from the video; another exchange not featured:

Lisa: Just lay still. Linguo: Lie still! Lisa: I knew that. Just testing. Linguo: Sentence fragment. Lisa: "Sentence fragment," is also a sentence fragment! Linguo: *glances from side to side* Must conserve battery. *shuts down* – transcription from Everything2

4. Like dice. That's plural. Singular is die. (which I already did). Now I'm plural. And so is the note. – Text and image from David Mack, text from "KABUKI: The Alchemy"