This old saying has been haunting me for years, perhaps since high school. It resurfaced lately, during a conversation with a friend. What were we discussing? I really don't remember, but in the

A few days ago, I came across the story of a Cleombrotus of Ambracia, a Greek who, after allegedly having read Plato's Phaedo, is said to have thrown himself into the sea in order to experience the

As you may have read in my last entry, my home has become a shelter for a battered little dog. I confess at first I didn't feel much confident about her recovery, but fortunately I now see her

Last week I found the dog in the above picture. She was in such bad shape that when my dog turned aside to smell something, I thought it was a dead cat, but then I noticed it was this particular dog

This is the title of a recent article they published in The Financial Times. I came across it on Facebook and shared it on my page as a way of having it on hand for later reading. A few days later,

I came across an English version of this book many years ago, published by Picador. I must still have it somewhere. As a homage to Calvino, one of the authors I most admire, I tried this short

After finishing her novel We Have Always Lived in the Castle, I finally did my homework regarding its author, Shirley Jackson. At first her name didn't ring a bell, but later on I noticed she was

Last week, I began reading a short novel from the beginning of the Sixties, by a US author. It's funny how I'm getting a good deal of useful tips about literature on Twitter lately--not in a few

"What does it mean, right-wing culture?", an interviewer asked Furio Jesi in 1979. It is "this culture in which the past is a sort of homogenized porridge that can be fashioned in the most convenient

Today, I wanted to post a short line on Twitter. Someone had asked which was the last book other users had read about a particular topic, and as I casually happen to be reading a book connected to

I just spotted this on Twitter. Not sure how common this is in Japan, but this short video shows a farewell ceremony they give to a machine about to be retired after years of service at a factory.

I just came across this word in a tweet. This guy (some David Shapiro, who looks like a tech buff or something) was sharing some thoughts about AI, and the supposed imminent arrival of so-called AGI

Hélène, une amie de maintes années, est allée en Cambodge. Aujourd'hui, à l’aube (le décalage horaire est sensible), j'ai reçu les photos d'un voyage qu'elle a fait en montgolfière. Elle dit que

I almost finished now It Lasts Forever and Then It's Over, a short novel by Anne de Marcken. It's a pretty disturbing book I got a hint of on Twitter a few weeks ago. I came across these two guys on

Last week, my friend Jorge came to me asking for help regarding Christmas cards. You know, Jorge's wife runs an import-export office: they take care of the custom's procedures —goods' description and

Today Bimba, my rescue dog, almost excised my middle finger. Well, wait, I'm overdoing things, as usual. However, we were playing on the beach, and at a certain point the rubber ball I threw for her

The realism that follows each flood has opened my eyes: at this point, Europe is a stage devoid of characters. Everybody's vanished: the bearded men, the melodramatic larger-than-life fathers, the

Oggi ho cominciato a leggere un libro in italiano. Sebbene potrei leggerlo in inglese (il che sarebbe piuttosto logico, visto che le citazioni sembrano essere tradotte maggiormente da questa lingua),

One day, Einstein told me that he was seriously concerned about the problem of the Now. He said that the Now experience has a particular meaning for human beings, something essentially different from

Corinto couldn't bear the middle class. He said: "When we are in power, a selection will be mandatory. Someone will come over and say that he wants to be an accountant. 'So,' I'll say, 'you want to