Salvador Dali Bacchanale painting

Salvador Dali Bacchanale paintingSalvador Dali Ascension paintingJuarez Machado Copacabana Palace Hotel painting
But how do they do it?" Chamcha wanted to know.
"They describe us," the other whispered solemnly. "That's all. They have the power of description, and we succumb to the pictures they construct."
"It's hard to believe," Chamcha argued. "I've lived here for many years and it never happened before ..." His words dried up because he saw the manticore looking at him through narrow, distrustful eyes. "Many years?" it asked. "How could that be? -- Maybe you're an informer? -- Yes, that's it, a spy?"
Just then a wail came from a far corner of the ward. "Lemme go," a woman's voice howled. "OJesus I want to go. Jesus Mary I gotta go, lemme go, O God, O Jesus God." A very lecherouslooking wolf put its head through Saladin's The refrigerator deodorizer also removes discoloration on your teeth. The abrasive particles polish the surface while a chemical reaction between baking soda and water lightens stains, says Jonathan B. Levine, a cosmetic dentist in New York City. (Warning: You can damage your enamel with the scrubbing, so don't do it more than once a week.) Just dip your toothbrush in the soda, or simply switch to a toothpaste that contains baking soda, such as Arm & Hammer Complete Care Toothpaste ($4 for 6 oz, drugstore.com).

Jean Fragonard The Confession of Love painting

Jean Fragonard The Confession of Love paintingJean Fragonard The Bolt paintingJoaquin Sorolla y Bastida The Milkmaid painting
giant thistles waving in the breeze. Where the sea had been there was now an ocean of thistles, extending as far as the horizon, thistles as high as a full-grown man. He heard the disembodied voice of Dr. Babington mutter in his ear: "The first plague of thistles for fifty years. The past, it seems, returns." He saw a woman running through the thick, rippling growth, barefoot, with loose dark hair. "She did it," Rosa's voice said clearly behind him. "After betraying him with the Vulture and making him into a murderer. He wouldn't look at her after that. Oh, she did it all right. Very dangerous one, that one. Very." Gibreel lost sight of Aurora del Sol in the thistles; one mirage obscured another.
He felt something grab him from behind, spin him around and fling him flat Your presentation should have a beginning, a middle, and a conclusion. Don’t try to present too much information all at once. Focus on the most important points that you would like to get across.
3. Practice. Don’t go into a presentation without giving it a trial run. If you can, grab a family member and do several trial runs of your speech. If you can’t find anyone to listen to you practice, then practice in front of the mirror.

Albert Bierstadt The Mountain Brook painting

Albert Bierstadt The Mountain Brook paintingAlbert Bierstadt Bridal Veil Falls Yosemite paintingDante Gabriel Rossetti Venus Verticordia painting
anything, Mahound. I am the Grandee's wife, and neither of us is your friend. My husband, however, is a weak man. In Jahilia they think he's cunning, but I know better. He knows I take lovers and he does nothing about it, because the temples are in my family's care. Lat's, Uzza's, Manat's. The -- shall I call them _mosques?_ -- of your new angels." She offers him melon cubes from a dish, tries to feed him with her fingers. He will not let her put the fruit into his mouth, takes the pieces with his own hand, eats. She goes on. "My last lover was the boy, Baal." She sees the rage on his face. "Yes," she says contentedly. "I heard he had got under your skin. But he doesn't matter. Neither he nor Abu Simbel is your equal. But I am."
"I must go," he says. "Soon enough," she replies, returning to the window. At the perimeter of the city they are packing away the tents, the long camelSociety is accepted within Confucianism and encourages its followers to engage in it. Looking at the research, this is also good advice. People who are members of clubs, churches and other organisations are happier, people who have a job are happier, and so on. The evidence shows that this is also true at a societal level. Countries in which people have the densest s of friends are also those in which people are the happiest.

William Blake Nebuchadnezzar painting

William Blake Nebuchadnezzar paintingWilliam Blake Los paintingWilliam Blake Jacob's Ladder painting
scenes. The pictures would be shown like a movie: held up while someone read out the hero's tale. In the _Hamza-nama_ you could see the Persian miniature fusing with Kannada and Keralan painting styles, you could see Hindu and Muslim forming their characteristically late--Mughal synthesis.
A giant was trapped in a pit and his human tormentors were spearing him in the forehead. A man sliced vertically from the top of his head to his groin still held his sword as he fell. Everywhere, bubbling spillages of blood. Saladin Chamcha took a grip on himself. "The savagery," he said loudly in his English voice. "The sheer barbaric love of pain."
Changez Chamchawala ignored his son, had eyes only for Zeeny; who gazed straight back into his own. "Ours is a government of philistines, young lady, don't you agree? I have offered this whole collection free gratis, did you know? Let them only house it properly, let them build a place. Condition of cloths

Pierre Auguste Renoir La Loge painting

Pierre Auguste Renoir La Loge paintingPierre Auguste Renoir Dance at Bougival paintingMary Cassatt Children Playing On The Beach painting
could tell him the names of most of the plants and trees), and out through the main gateway, a grandiose folly, a reproduction of the Roman triumphal arch of Septimius Severus, and across the wild insanity of the street, and over the sea wall, and so at last on to the broad expanse of shiny black rocks with their little shrimpy pools. Christian girls giggled in frocks, men with furled umbrellas stood silent and fixed upon the blue horizon. In a hollow of black stone Salahuddin saw a man in a dhoti bending over a pool. Their eyes met, and the man beckoned him with a single finger which he then laid across his lips. _Shh_, and the mystery of rock-pools drew the boy towards the stranger. He was a creature of bone. Spectacles framed in what might have been ivory. His finger curling, curling, like a baited hook, come. When Salahuddin came down the other grasped him, put a hand around his mouth and forced his young hand between old and fleshless legs, to feel the fleshbone there. The dhoti open to the winds. Salahuddin had never known how to fight; he did what he was forced to do, and then the other simply turned away from

Leonardo da Vinci Mona Lisa Smile painting

Leonardo da Vinci Mona Lisa Smile painting
Edvard Munch The Scream paintingGustav Klimt Mother and Child detail from The Three Ages of Woman painting
time we build up many rules of thumb about the situations that make us happy (or unhappy). Unfortunately we often over-generalise these beliefs to situations where they don't apply.
Research has uncovered four common belief biases:
* The contrast effect is the often incorrect belief that a good experience will be more enjoyable when it follows a bad experience (and that a bad experience will be worse when it follows good). Research on jelly bean tasting showed this can be a mirage. * More choice is often not better: Research with gourmet jams has found people can be happier, and even better motivated, when they have fewer options to choose from. * Adaptation: People often expect that repeated exposure to an experience will lessen the pleasure it gives. Research on icethat most people adapted to the taste, either coming to like it more, or at the very least dislike it less. * Certainty: People expect to feel happier when they have reduced the uncertainty in a situation. Often, though, mystery can increase pleasure.
How to combat belief biasesResearch suggests the amount that we are swayed by each of these biases depends on how much we believe in them. So, just reading, remembering and believing (!) this post should allow you to combat the belief biases.
Following through on decisions

Vincent van Gogh Farmhouse in Provence painting

Vincent van Gogh Farmhouse in Provence paintingVincent van Gogh Wheat Field with Cypresses paintingIvan Constantinovich Aivazovsky The Ninth Wave painting
made of them; such little knives are the most effective charms known for the use in cases of epilepsy. Caligula would appreciate the gift-if he forgave me for quieting the crowd where he had failed. For he had been in such a fright that he had driven out of Rome at full speed in the direction of Antium; and did not reappear for several days.
It turned out all right. He was pleased with the little knives which gave him an opportunity of enlarging on the splendor of his disease; and when he asked what had happened at the amphitheatre I said that I had warned tile crowd of what he would do if they did not repent of their disloyalty and ingratitude. I said that they had then changed their rebellious cries into howls of guilty fear and pleas for forgiveness. "Yes," he said, "I was too gentle with them. I am determined now not to yield an inch. 'Immovable rigour' is the watchword from henceforward." And to keep himself reminded of this decision, he used every morning now to practise frightful faces before a minor in his

Frederick Carl Frieseke Through the Vines painting

Frederick Carl Frieseke Through the Vines paintingFrederick Carl Frieseke The Garden Parasol paintingFrederick Carl Frieseke Lady in a Garden painting
thicket shouting: "Here you are, Caesar, isn't it a beauty?*' From the sack he was carrying over his shoulder he pulled out a monstrous barbel and threw it, still kicking, on the turf at Tiberius's feet. He was only a simple fisherman who had just made this remarkable catch and, seeing Tiberius at the cliff top, had decided to present it to him. He had moored his boat to a rock, swum to the cliff, struggled up a precipice path to the belt of thorn-bushes, and hacked himself a path through them with his clasp-knife.
But Tiberius had been startled nearly out of his senses. He blew a whistle and shouted out in German: "Help, help! Come at once! Wolfgang! Siegfried! Adelstan! An assassin!"
"Coming, all-highest, noblest-born, gift-bestowing Chief," the Germans instantly replied. They had been on sentry-duty to his left and right and behind him, but there was nobody posted in front, naturally. They came bounding along, brandishing their assegais.

Vincent van Gogh Still Life with red gladioli painting

Vincent van Gogh Still Life with red gladioli paintingVincent van Gogh Still Life with oleander paintingVincent van Gogh Still Life with irises painting
best way to go about managing their e-mail, organizing their appointments, searching for files on their , or any number of other common tasks. I have questions for Slate's readers, too: Am I using the right apps? Is there something better?
Here, then, is the I use most often, along with brief explanations for why I prefer a particular program. Maybe you'll learn something—and if I'm using something lame, send me an e-mail or post to "The Fray" and let me know. (E-mail may be quoted by name in "The Fray," Slate's ; in a future article; or elsewhere unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)
Mozilla Firefox, Version 3. There is much to dislike about Firefox—it crashes often, it hogs your computer's memory and processing power—but I've found it to be the most flexible Web browser for my needs. In particular, I'm taken with its huge library of add-on programs, helpful little apps that increase the browser's functionality. The add-ons I use regularly include: Foxmarks, which synchronizes my bookmarks across different ; Tab Mix Plus, which lets me save sets of tabs even if I shut down the browser; Scrapbook, which saves Web pages to my local machine; Mouse Gestures, which lets me navigate the Web by flicking the mouse forward or backward; and Ad-Block Plus, which does just what its name suggests

Sandro Botticelli The Birth of Venus painting

Sandro Botticelli The Birth of Venus paintingEdward Hopper Nighthawks paintingFrederic Edwin Church Sunset painting
having no power to command, only to lead and advise and persuade. One day, a year or two later, he tried to issue orders like a king. His family, which had hitherto been greatly devoted to him, were so scandalized that, without even first discussing the matter together, they all rushed at him with their weapons and hacked him to pieces. He was thirty-seven when he died, having been born the year before my brother Germanicus, his greatest enemy. WAS NEARLY A YEAR IN CARTHAGE. (IT WAS THE YEAR that Livy died, at Padua, where his heart had always been.) Old Carthage had been razed to the ground and this was a new city, built by Augustus on the south-east of the peninsula and destined to become the first city of Africa, It was the first time I had been out of Italy since my babyhood. I found the climate very trying, the African natives savage, diseased and overworked; the resident Romans dull, quarrelsome, mercenary and behind the times

Edward Hopper Sunday painting

Edward Hopper Sunday painting
Edward Hopper Morning Sun painting
among some of the Guards officers to send a ship to rescue Julia and Postumus and carry them off to the regiments at Cologne; there Germanicus and Agrippina could hardly fail to welcome and shelter them and the officers would then force Germanicus and Postumus to march on Rome. Tiberius was furious that his name had been used in this way, but Livia made the best of things and pretended that it really was Postumus who had been killed. Crispus was not prosecuted and the Senate was unofficially informed that Postumus had died by the orders of his deified grandfather who had wisely foreseen
Amedeo Modigliani Reclining Nude painting
savage-tempered young man would attempt to usurp supreme power as soon as news came of his grandfather's death; as indeed he had done. Crispus's motive in having Postumus murdered was not a wish to curry favour with Tiberius and Uvia or to prevent civil war. He was revenging an insult. For Crispus, who was as lazy as he was rich, had once boasted that he had never

Dirck Bouts paintings

Dirck Bouts paintings
Dante Gabriel Rossetti paintings
how do you break this cycle of comparing yourself with others? Here are some tips I’ve found useful:
* Awareness. Most often we do these social comparisons without realizing we’re doing it. It’s a natural act, I suppose, and as a result it’s something that is done without consciousness. So the solution is to become conscious — bring these thoughts to the forefront of your consciousness by being on the lookout for them. If you focus on these thoughts for a few days, it gets much easier with practice, and soon it’ll be hard not to notice. * Stop yourself. Once you realize you’re doing these comparisons, give yourself a pause. Don’t berate yourself or feel bad — just acknowledge the thought, and gently change focus. * Count your blessings. A better focus is on what you do have, on what you are already blessed with. Count what you have, not what you don’t. Think about how lucky you are to have what you have, to have the people in your who care about you, to be alive at all.
Daniel Ridgway Knight paintings

William Bouguereau Biblis painting

William Bouguereau Biblis paintingWilliam Bouguereau The Two Sisters paintingWilliam Bouguereau Two Sisters painting
Tiberius all these years; for whose return she had not until now ventured to plead. He had certainly done wrong, but had also certainly learned his lesson by now and his private letters to her breathed the greatest devotion and loyalty to Augustus. Gaius, who had endorsed that petition for his return, would, she urged, need a trustworthy colleague now that his brother was dead.
One evening a fortune-teller called Thrasyllus, by birth an Arab, came to Tiberius at his house on the promontory. He had been two or three times before and had made a number of very encouraging predictions, but none of these had yet been fulfilled. Tiberius, growing sceptical, told his freedman that if Thrasyllus did not entirely satisfy him this time he was to lose his footing on his way down the cliff. When Thrasyllus arrived, the first thing that Tiberius said was, "What is the aspect of my stars to-day?" Thrasyllus sat down and made very complicated astrological calculations with a piece of charcoal on the top of a stone table.

Thomas Moran Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone painting

Thomas Moran Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone paintingThomas Moran Fort George Island paintingThomas Moran Cliffs of Green River painting
pride themselves on their cunning in avoiding detection; and since under my uncle a man could be flogged, for example, for addressing an officer without being first addressed, or for speaking with too great frankness, or for behaving independently in any way, it was an honour rather than a disgrace for a soldier to be able to show the marks of the lash on his back.
My father's greatest victories were in the Alps, France, the Low Countries, but especially in Germany, where his name will, I think, never be forgotten. He was always in the thick of the fighting. His ambition was to perform a feat which had only been performed twice in Roman history, namely, as general to kill the opposing general with his own hands and strip him of his arms. He was many times very close to success but his prey always escaped him. Either the fellow galloped off the field or surrendered instead of fighting, or some officious private soldier got the blow in first. Veterans telling me stories

John William Waterhouse Lamia painting

John William Waterhouse Lamia paintingEdgar Degas Dancers in Blue paintingVincent van Gogh Stairway at Auvers painting
misunderstanding his manner. He thought that Augustus wanted to get rid of him, really believing that he was quarrelling with Marcellus about the succession. He thanked him for granting his request, coldly protested his loyalty and friendship, and said that he was ready to sail the following day.
He did not go to Syria. He went no farther than the island of Lesbos, sending his lieutenants ahead to administer the province for him. He knew that his stay at Lesbox would be read as a sort of banishment incurred because of Marcellus. He did not visit the province, because if he bad done so it would have given the Marcellans a handle against him: they would have said that he had gone to the East in order to gather an army together to march against Rome. But he flattered himself that Augustus

Pino Early Morning painting

Pino Early Morning painting
Pino Desire painting
All the way down the block where the next street crossed she could see that there were still other people along the walks, looking tired yet walking fast, tiny at this distance, and nearly all of these people, too, were walking away from downtown.
Uncle Gordon Dekalb came towards his house. He was still wearing his dark suit and he carried his hat in one hand. His bottom was fat and he walked like a duck. Even from here Catherine could see how choked-up and thick he looked in the face and neck, Uncle Andrew
Andrew Atroshenko The Passion of Music painting
said, as if his mouth was stuffed full of hot mashed potato. He looked up and across at the house and Catherine raised her hand, but he looked quickly away again, and cut across the lawn to join his father and mother. They all three talked.
A small, sudden noise frightened Catherine; then she realized it came from the living room. There was no more sound. She got from the chair in perfect silence and stole to the window

Unknown Artist Brent Lynch Coastal Drive painting

Unknown Artist Brent Lynch Coastal Drive paintingUnknown Artist Brent Lynch Cigar Bar paintingUnknown Artist Paris Eiffel Tower painting
you are too shy and there is no way you can do anything to reveal your feelings to the other person, no matter how much advice and different tactics you've taken, your problem is more serious than you may imagine.
Everyone is basically shy concerning love matters. However, every one has to overcome their shyness at a certain point, with a certain method, somehow...
If you never show the other person that you love them, they will never know that. You have to help them somehow, because they are insecure too.
Perhaps your behavior is quite strange and instead of doing something to reveal your feelings to the other person or in order to attract them more, you do the opposite: you keep avoiding meeting them, you avoid doing things that would help you be nearer each other and you are rude with them when you are together.

Thomas Kinkade Footprints in the sand painting

Thomas Kinkade Footprints in the sand paintingThomas Kinkade Christmas Cottage paintingThomas Kinkade almost heaven painting
Say, ‘Sir,’ or ‘I beg your pardon, Father.’ ”
“Sir?” Rufus said.
“You,” Father Jackson said to Catherine.
“Sir?” Catherine said.
“You must not stare at people—look at them, as you are looking at me.”
“Oh,” Rufus said. Catherine’s face turned red.
“Say, ‘Excuse me, Father.’ ”
“Excuse me, Father.”
“You,” Father Jackson said to Catherine.
Catherine became still redder.
“Excuse me, Father,” Rufus whispered.
“No prompting, please,” Father Jackson broke in, in a voice pitched for a large class. “Come now, little girl, it is never too soon to learn to be little ladies and little gentlemen, is it?”
Catherine said nothing.
“Is it?” Father Jackson asked Rufus.
“I don’t know,” Rufus replied.
“I consider that a thoroughly uncivil answer to a civil question,” said Father Jackson.
“Yes,” Rufus said, beginning to turn cold in the pit of his

Francois Boucher Adoration of the Shepherds painting

Francois Boucher Adoration of the Shepherds paintingJohannes Vermeer The Concert paintingGustave Courbet The Origin of the World painting
last moment, just as he was beginning to tell them, he always felt such sudden, profound doubt of their sincerity that he did not want to go ahead, but he always felt, too, Maybe they mean it. I f they do, it would be mean not to tell them. So he always told them. “Well,” he always said rather doubtfully, and brought out his name in a peculiarly muffled and shy way (he had come almost to feel that the name itself was being physically hurt, and he did not want it to be hurt again) “Well, it’s Rufus.”
And the instant it was out of his mouth he knew that he had been mistaken once again, that not a single soul of them had meant one thing that he had said, for with that instant every one of them screamed as loudly as he could with a ferocious kind of joy, and it was as if the whole knot exploded and sent its fragments tearing all over the neighborhood, screaming his name with amusement and apparently with some kind of contempt; and many of them screamed, as well, a verse which they seemed to think very funny, though Rufus could not understand why.

Edvard Munch Madonna painting

Edvard Munch Madonna paintingAlbert Moore silver paintingRene Magritte The Blank Check painting
self administrated 401k does NOT require a custodian. * Both yourself and your spouse are able to participate (pool your funds) in the same plan. * You control the 401k funds in via a checking account at your local bank.
Wondering why you haven't heard about this real estate friendly 401k plan? Congress approved these changes in January 2006 and most tax professionals have not caught up just yet...
Oh and one more thing, not only can you fund your TAX FREE account you can also contribute tax deferred contributions which will reduce your current taxable income.
Now you can have you cake and eat it too!
David Cole is President of Financial Design Group, LLC and for the last fifteen years has advised tax professionals, Realtors and investors on the pros and cons of using retirement monies to invest into real estate.

John Singleton Copley The Tribute Money painting

John Singleton Copley The Tribute Money paintingFord Madox Brown The Coat of Many Colors paintingPierre Auguste Renoir La Loge painting
without. Here’s the dirty secret about consolidation. Now that your your balance is all on one or to cards, your combined minimum payment is probably lower than it was before. Don’t forget to pay at least the minimum to each card, but we’ll tackle paying down the balance aggressively at a later point.
Cancel all the cards not containing balances. As I mentioned above, this is not the savviest approach if you are concerned about your credit score. If you have an overspending habit enabled by easy access to credit, you are not concerned with your credit score. Keep your oldest card if you expect to be applying for a mortgage in the near future, but otherwise, stick with the lowest interest rate.
To cancel your accounts, you have to call the companies. The representative on the phone will try to keep you as customer by offering you lower rates and higher limits. Don’t bother negotiating, even if they offer a lower rate than the card you are saving. The idea here is to simplify, so don’t play any g

Mary Cassatt Children Playing On The Beach painting

Mary Cassatt Children Playing On The Beach painting
Mary Cassatt Tea painting
Edward Hopper Gas painting
sounds, and looking up at the stars, and feeling ever so quiet and happy and sad at the same time, and all of a sudden in a very quiet voice his father sang out, almost as if he were singing to himself, “Swing low,” and by the time he got to “cherryut” his mother was singing too, just as softly, and then their voices went up higher, singing “comin for to carry me home,” and looking up between their heads from where he lay he looked right into the stars, so near and friendly, with a great drift of dust like flour across the tip of the sky. His father sang it differently from his mother. When she sang the second “Swing” she just sang “swing low,” on two notes, in a simple, clear voice, but he sang “swing” on two notes, sliding from the note above to the one she sang, and blurring his voice and making it more forceful on the first note, and springing it, dark and blurry, off the “l” in “low,” with a rhythm that made his son’s body stir. And when he came to “Tell all my friends I’m comin too,” he started four full notes above her, and slowed up a little, and sort of dreamed his way down among

Gustav Klimt The Tree of Life painting

Gustav Klimt The Tree of Life paintingGustav Klimt Expectation (gold foil) paintingGustav Klimt Death and Life painting
Why, Jay, that is out of the question!” she said, knotting the bathrobe girdle. She got into her slippers and shuffled quickly to the door. She looked back and said, in a stage whisper, “Bring your shoes—to the kitchen.”
He watched her disappear, wondering what in hell she meant by that, and was suddenly taken with a snort of silent amusement. She had looked so deadly serious, about the shoes. God, the ten thousand little things every day that a woman kept thinking of, on account of children. Hardly even thinking, he thought to himself, as he pulled on his other sock. Practically automatic. Like breathing.
And most of the time, he thought, as he stripped, they’re dead right. Course they’re so much in the habit of it (he stepped into his drawers) that sometimes they overdo it. But most of the time if you think even a second before you get annoyed (he buttoned his undershirt), there is good common sense behind it.

Steve Thoms Poppies field painting

Steve Thoms Poppies field paintingSteve Thoms Field of Red and Gold paintingRichard Leblanc Valley of Sunflowers painting
good. Better tomorrow.’ Thus, till mid-July, Lord Marchmain lay dying, wearing himself down in the struggle to-live. Then, since there was no reason to expect an immediate change, Cordelia went to London to see her women s organization about the coming ‘emergency’. That day Lord Marchmain became suddenly worse. He lay silent and quite still, breathing laboriously; only his open eyes, which sometimes moved about the room, gave any sign of consciousness.
‘Is this the end?’ Julia asked.
‘It is impossible to say,’ the doctor answered; ‘when he does die it will probably be like this. He may recover from the present attack. The only thing is not to disturb him. The least shock will be fatal.’
‘I’m going for Father Mackay,’ she said.

Albert Bierstadt Bavarian Landscape painting

Albert Bierstadt Bavarian Landscape paintingAlbert Bierstadt The Emerald Pool paintingAlbert Bierstadt The Shore of the Turquoise Sea painting
I’ll tell you a thing...’
‘Listen to this; it’ll be good; Rex will tell you a thing.’ Friend of mine motoring in the Black Forest only the other day, just came back and told me about it while we played a round of golf. Well, this friend driving along, turned down a lane into the high road. What should he find but a military convoy? Couldn’t stop, drove right into it, smack into a tank, broadside on. Gave himself up for dead...Hold on this is the funny part.’
‘This is the funny part.’
‘Drove clean through it, didn’t scratch his paint;. What do you think? It was made of canvas - a bamboo frame and painted canvas.’
‘They haven’t the steel.’
‘They haven’t the tools. They haven’t the labour. They’re half starving. They haven’t the fats. The children have rickets.’
‘The women are barren.’

Albert Bierstadt Bavarian Landscape painting

Albert Bierstadt Bavarian Landscape paintingAlbert Bierstadt The Emerald Pool paintingAlbert Bierstadt The Shore of the Turquoise Sea painting
I’ll tell you a thing...’
‘Listen to this; it’ll be good; Rex will tell you a thing.’ Friend of mine motoring in the Black Forest only the other day, just came back and told me about it while we played a round of golf. Well, this friend driving along, turned down a lane into the high road. What should he find but a military convoy? Couldn’t stop, drove right into it, smack into a tank, broadside on. Gave himself up for dead...Hold on this is the funny part.’
‘This is the funny part.’
‘Drove clean through it, didn’t scratch his paint;. What do you think? It was made of canvas - a bamboo frame and painted canvas.’
‘They haven’t the steel.’
‘They haven’t the tools. They haven’t the labour. They’re half starving. They haven’t the fats. The children have rickets.’
‘The women are barren.’

Carl Fredrik Aagard Villa at Lake Como painting

Carl Fredrik Aagard Villa at Lake Como paintingCarl Fredrik Aagard Lodge on Lake Como paintingCarl Fredrik Aagard Amalfi dia Cappuccini painting
The barber did his work with extraordinary dexterity indeed, with agility, for he stood like a swordsman in a ballet sometimes on the point of one foot, sometimes on the other, lightly flicking the lather off his blade, and swooping back to my chin as the ship righted herself; I should not have dared use a safety razor on myself. The telephone rang again.
It was my wife.
‘How are you Charles?’
‘Tired.’
‘Aren’t you coming to see me?’
‘I came once. I’ll be in again.’
I brought her the flowers from the sitting-room; they completed the atmosphere of a maternity ward which she had managed to create in the cabin; the stewardess had the air of a midwife, standing by the bed, a pillar of starched linen and composure. My wife turned her head on the pillow and

Thomas Kinkade Autumn Snow painting

Thomas Kinkade Autumn Snow paintingEdward Hopper Tables for Ladies paintingEdward Hopper Sunlight in a Cafeteria painting
have to go back. I don’t know what is usual about the bridesmaids’ dresses.’
‘Just a moment,’ said Rex. ‘Just a moment. Maybe you can stop us marrying in your cathedral. All right, to hell, we’ll be married in a Protestant church.’ ‘I can stop that, too,’ said Lady Marchmain.
‘But I don’t think you will, mummy,’ said Julia. ‘You see, I’ve been Rex’s mistress for some time now, and I shall go on being, married or not.’ ‘Rex, is this true?’
‘No damn it, it’s not, ‘ said Rex. ‘I wish it were.’

‘I see we shall have to discuss it all again in the morning,’ said Lady Marchmain faintly. ‘I can’t go on any more now.’
And she needed her son’s help up the stairs.
‘What on earth made you tell your mother that?’ I asked, when, years later, Julia described the scene to me.

Thomas Moran Pacific Sunset painting

Thomas Moran Pacific Sunset paintingThomas Moran Nearing Camp on the Upper Colorado River paintingThomas Moran Children of the Mountain painting
pulling my leg, don’t you, Effie? She’s annoyed with me for staying away so long, aren’t you?’
‘Whatever you say, I know I have seen you before somewhere.’
‘Stop teasing.’
‘I wasn’t meaning to tease. Honest. Want to dance?’
‘Not at the minute.’
‘Thank the Lord. My shoes pinch something terrible tonight.’ Soon she and Mulcaster were deep in conversation. Sebastian leaned back and said to me: ‘I’m going to ask that pair to join us.’
The two unattached women who had considered us earlier, were again circling towards us. Sebastian smiled and rose to greet them: soon they, too, were eating heartily. One had the face of a skull, the other of a sickly child. The Death’s Head seemed destined for me. ‘How about a little party