Well I'll waltz
Through the wilderness with nothin'
But a compass and a canteen
Settin' the scenes


Kenneth Patchen, All At Once

* From Harper's August 2010:

-- Factor by which BP's 2010 first-quarter profits exceed its $75-million liability cap for the Gulf oil spill: 75

-- Percentage of "willful" violations by U.S. oil refiners since 2007 that occurred at BP plants, according to OSHA: 97

-- Number of states where it is legal for employers to discriminate on the basis of physical appearance: 49

-- Chance that a sexually active U.S. teenage boy would be "pleased" if he "got a female pregnant": 1 in 5

-- Number of states that have eased restrictions on Sunday alcohol sales since the beginning of the recession: 5

* Reading: Love in the age of the pickup artist.

* Check out the Christian United National Tour van.

* "The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways every day." -- David Foster Wallace