Author: rri

May 1, 2004

Mission Accomplished

“There are no longer torture chambers or rape rooms or mass graves in Iraq.” “Free societies do not use weapsons of mass destruction.” “Life for the Iraqi people is a world away from the cruelty and corruption of Saddam’s regime.” President George W. Bush’s faith that there is no truth so unfortunate that it cannot be dispelled with barefaced denial and indifferent neglect is simply staggering. More staggering is the percentage of Americans who apparently approve this method of governance.
March 17, 2004

Love Songs (2)

Her own dreams were tame. She had domesticated them long ago and eventually she noticed that they were just gone, dried husks of themselves that she must have swept out unnoticing one day.
March 3, 2004

Love Songs

Perfumed in moonlight and rain she approached. “Come, waltz with me” she whispered and her breath trailed like warm silk across my skin.
January 30, 2004

A latecomer to an embassy ball…

…arrives at the top of the stairs and surveys the scene below. The room below is circular. There are 360 doors. On each door is an inscription. What is on the door the latecomer has arrived through? What is on the door directly opposite?
January 26, 2004

Data Has No Right to Integrity

Data has no right to “integrity” independent of our human interest, however individually or collectively we may care to negotiate that.
January 16, 2004

a gift

A single grain would have sufficed. As the last grains trickled through her fingers she perceived the mystery hidden in the broken glass.
November 16, 2003

Malificent

It was my prerogative and I let it pass, as if it were of no greater essence than the mist, thinking it no more than a lost dream and forgetting it was no less.
November 11, 2003

Hannah

When I saw the flat, I knew that this would be the place where I would live for years to come. It just had a certain feel to it. The rooms were spacious and bright. The kitchen was quite large. It had a utility room and hookups for a washer and dryer. There was also…
October 30, 2003

A Village

He sat by the side of the school, waiting. He and the clusters of other students that milled around, some raucous, some aimless, some like him carefully timing their entry into the line of students waiting for a parent to pick them up. He had learned to time the line. Sometimes it worked. Sometimes he…
September 12, 2003

Too Many Notes

It sucked me right in, an article by Scott Timberg for the LA Times. “Discouraging words are seldom heard against Frank Gehry’s Disney Hall. Here are a few.” I like modern architecture in general; specifically I like the sculptural work that emerged from the demise of the “post-modern” and “deconstructivist” trends of the seventies and…