For a few weeks now, I've been mulling the idea of reviving this blog. It's been a while since I put thoughts online in earnest. But I've come to the conclusion that writing a few times a week in a forum I know to be public (although frequented by few) would be a good way of keeping me honest and somewhat productive. I don't plan to do anything terribly radical with the space, as the aim isn't so different from what other bloggers do -- that is, collect things and thoughts that make enough of an impression on me that I have to tell someone else about them. My hope is that they will help me track some of my going interests, but, also, and more importantly, that they may be of some interest to people who stop by.

So, without further ado, the first in a little series of things that stir my admiration --

In early June 1962, while aboard the Queen Elizabeth, Nabakov granted an interview to a handful of journalists. He couldn't remember who asked what. But he remembered the questions and answers (and seems to have done some editing of both). I put an exclamation point next to this one:

"Still there must be things that move you--likes and dislikes.
My loathings are simple: stupidity, oppression, crime, cruelty, soft music. My pleasures are the most intense known to man: writing and butterfly hunting."

- Nabakov, Strong Opinions (New York: McGraw-Hill International, 1973): 3.