A Year of Memoranda

Here is a selection of quotations and links, which I've been copying and pasting into my word processor, from the past twelve months of online reading:

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June 2006

Underwater Volcano Discovered Off Sicily

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December 2006

Sir Jonathan Sacks, chief rabbi of the British Commonwealth:

Those who are confident of their faith are not threatened but enlarged by the different faiths of others. ... There are, surely, many ways of arriving at this generosity of spirit and each faith may need to find its own.

Quoted in: "The Peaceful Crusader," Thomas Cahill, New York Times

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"When after the opening chorus, she came first upon the stage, and stood watching the baton of the leader, a bum of admiration rose from the audience."

A quotation from Infelice, a most romantic online novel; the "she" is the heroine, and the "bum" (which should be "hum") is a typographical error.

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February 2007

Restaurant Reviews:

1. "A pumpkin napoleon with cardamom ice cream was more intriguing to behold than to ingest."

Source: "Knowing Their Place and Aiming to Fill It", Frank Bruni, New York Times

2.
The Ambience:
"There was a funereal air to the deserted entrance hall at L***'s. When I received my starter, I understood why. The whole place was in mourning for the wasted lives of the Morecambe Bay brown shrimps that had been sacrificed to make it."

A Prawn Cocktail:

What arrived was a highball glass piled with hot battered prawns, their delicate flavour mislaid in the deep-fat fryer. Underneath that was a cloyingly sweet marie rose sauce ice-cream - there are good reasons for not making ice-cream out of mayonnaise and tomato ketchup, not least politeness - then a layer of avocado cream, and finally, a plug of underpowered shellfish jelly. From this I can tell you L***'s does indeed celebrate British food, but only in the way a murderer might dance upon its victim's grave.

Source: "One is not amused," Jay Rayner, The Observer
Asterisks added by me.

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Cacophonous Names:

Aubertine, Brainerd, Egbert

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April 2007

Letter of Mozart: Milan, Jan. 26, 1770

"I know nothing new except that Herr Gellert, the Leipzig poet, [. . .] is dead, and has written no more poetry since his death."

Source: The Letters of Mozart, Vol. I, Transl. by Lady Wallace (Project Gutenberg)

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An Affectionate Traveller:

Where'er I roam, whatever realms I see,
My heart untravell'd fondly turns to thee.

-- Oliver Goldsmith, "The Traveller"

Quoted in: The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, 1996, p. 311

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June 2007

An Ideal Newspaper:

The Tribune set a new standard in American journalism by its combination of energy in news gathering with good taste, high moral standards, and intellectual appeal. Police reports, scandals, dubious medical advertisements, and flippant personalities were barred from its pages; the editorials were vigorous but usually temperate; the political news was the most exact in the city; book reviews and book-extracts were numerous; and as an inveterate lecturer Greeley gave generous space to lectures. The paper appealed to substantial and thoughtful people. [Nevins in Dictionary of American Biography (1931)]

Quoted in "Horace Greeley," Wikipedia
(But I fear I'd probably still be too lazy to read such a newspaper.)