The self needs to be defined before I go out of my mind. Is knowing who I am the key to understanding others? Or is that just self-help rot? Have you ever been in a loud crowd, yelling with everything they've got, every eye flashing more brilliantly than yours? You feel diminished. You can't sing. Despite the world's misery today, the middle class which crushes you is still a thing. It's a funny taste as the crowd roars. You are never as good as them. But it's okay to feel sorry for yourself. I will defend you. Read my poem. Another's racism, another's adultery, is always worse than yours. Self-importance is the only thing that's yours. The self is nothing more than the belief that whatever is wrong with others is far more wrong in you. No embarrassment in the world triumphs like it does in you. The museum is open. Let's kiss. Come on! You can do this.
Could this be your true voice: the Eternal Graduate?
Speaking of The Graduate, there was once a big party for Mike Nichols and Dustin Hoffman didn’t come—Nichols quipped something like “This is like throwing a party for Dr. Frankenstein and the monster doesn’t show.”
Here’s a funny joke at a Mearsheimer lecture about “the two-state solution”:
Scarriet 
noochinator said,
May 18, 2024 at 4:30 pm
Could this be your true voice: the Eternal Graduate?
Speaking of The Graduate, there was once a big party for Mike Nichols and Dustin Hoffman didn’t come—Nichols quipped something like “This is like throwing a party for Dr. Frankenstein and the monster doesn’t show.”
Here’s a funny joke at a Mearsheimer lecture about “the two-state solution”:
Chado said,
May 18, 2024 at 10:06 pm
Mearsheimer is a great modern poet.
noochinator said,
May 19, 2024 at 9:31 am
Mearsheimer says that Ukraine has lost,
And our partnership with Israel’s not worth the cost—
Where else can one find such truthfulness today?
One would have to go back to Drake’s ‘Culprit Fay’.
thomasbrady said,
May 19, 2024 at 5:35 pm
Poe reviewed the Culprit Fay
Somewhat unfavorably.
He compared Drake’s fanciful fairy
To one pictured ingeniously
By a greater spirit: Shelley.
noochinator said,
May 19, 2024 at 5:58 pm
Henry Hadley (born 1871 in Somerville, Mass.) wrote a symphonic poem titled ‘The Culprit Fay’:
thomasbrady said,
May 20, 2024 at 10:58 am
Henry! A Somerville Ravel! I wonder if he’s buried in the beautiful Mt Auburn Cemetery? Funny, I’m on my way to Somerville this morning!