* Dan has pointed out to me that perhaps Bush did not voice anything other than concern and compassion when he spoke to Europe; perhaps he only discussed homeland security with the American media. I hope so. I suppose I'll give the President the benefit of the doubt.
*My favorite quote so far (in other words, one that I wish I could have written):
No one has suggested that we stop playing cricket because of events in London. No one has said, 'Of course this game fades into insignificance compared to events in the real world.' Nor has anyone offered up the inane idea that if we stop playing cricket the terrorists will have won. The idea of stopping the game appears not to have occurred to anyone, which I think is wonderful and yet another example of the British stoicism of which you write.
*My poor timing to have just begun reading Paddington Bear stories to Simon a week ago. He is talking constantly about going to London, riding on the Underground, seeing Paddington Station - and he wants a Mind the Gap T-shirt. Of course I want to keep recent events from him, which in our house entails hiding the newspaper.
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Ed McBain/Evan Hunter died Wednesday at the age of 78. I spent my first maternity leave reading every McBain mystery I could get my hands on, it helped pass those first three awful months when I was sure I was losing my mind. Thanks, Ed. RIP.
1 comment:
This prose isn't as elegant, but here's my favorite of those quotes:
From the London News Review, an alternative weekly: "What the (expletive) do you think you're doing? This is London. We've dealt with your sort before. Do you have any idea how many times our city has been attacked? Whatever you're trying to do, it's not going to work. All you've done is end some of our lives and ruin some more. How is that going to help you? And if, as your MO indicates, you're an al-Qaeda group, then you're out of your tiny minds. Because if this is a message to Tony Blair, we've got news for you. We don't much like our government ourselves, or what they do in our name. But, listen very clearly. We'll deal with that ourselves. We're London, and we've got our own way of doing things, and it doesn't involve tossing bombs around where innocent people are going about their lives. And that's because we're better than you. Everyone is better than you. Our city works. We rather like it. And we're going to go about our lives. We're going to take care of the lives you ruined. And then we're going to work. And we're going down to the pub. So you can pack up your bombs, put them in your (bodily parts) and get the (expletive) out of our city."
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