Only great pain is the ultimate liberator of the spirit […] I doubt that such pain makes us ‘better’; but I know that it makes us more profound.”
— Friedrich Nietzsche
Author: Neal Ross Attinson
Neal Ross Attinson is one of those text-compulsives who feels naked without a keyboard, or at least a a pad and pen. He is unafraid of adverbs, loves astronomy and gastronomy with equally unabashed passion, and lives with/in an eclectic library in Sonoma, California.
Prosatio Silban and the Purloined Eyebrows
(A sequel to Prosatio Silban and the Revealer of Secrets.) CLOTHES DO NOT ALWAYS MAKE the man. However, they, or at least their concomitants, can certainly help. Prosatio Silban rolled out of his galleywagon’s sleeping-berth, yawned, scratched, and stood up…
Words To Bring Back: “Badinage”
– Definition: n. humorous or witty conversation – Used in a sentence: One thing I miss about Sputnik and Wheels is our frequent and good-natured badinage. – Why: Not sure whether it’s the word or the concept that needs resurrecting.…
Prosatio Silban and the Sentimental Voyage
CASTING AN APPREHENSIVE BACKWARD GLANCE, Prosatio Silban flicked the plaited yak-hair reins to hurry his quaint lumbering dray-beast. He was passing through rough and rocky countryside, and wanted to reach his destination at speed – as befitted a pursued man…
5 Thoughts: 32x
1. IT’S THE MAGNIFICATION THAT CHANGED history. 2. When Galileo Galilei first-lighted* his telescope more than four hundred years ago, he didn’t know that simple act would begin a new era for humanity. He certainly didn’t know that by deducing…
Prosatio Silban and the Revealer of Secrets
PROSATIO SILBAN SIPPED AT HIS glass of white duliac, savoring the wine’s herbal essence, and continued to enjoy the Arrow-and-Wheel’s boisterous patrons. Rustic farmers occupied most of the plank tables, discussing the weather, the prospects, whose cows were ill and…
Pithyism #12a
ANYTHING CAN BE LEARNED, BUT not everything can be taught.
Prosatio Silban and the Ersatz Indigene
“A CHANGE OF CLOTHES IS not a change of man,” goes the old Uulian proverb – and neither is it a change of cultures. Prosatio Silban wiped the copious sweat from his hairless brow and sighed. He and his quaint…
What Maimonides (Or Was It Lao-tse?) Really Meant
“THOSE WHO KNOW, CHUCKLE.”
Prosatio Silban and the Proportional Mystery
SOMETIMES, EVEN AN ENCHANTER NEEDS a bit of mundane help. Prosatio Silban was sitting, chin in hand, at one of his galleywagon’s two tables-and-chairs in cosmopolitan Soharis’ eastern marketplace, watching potential customers walk by and wondering what he could do…
Keep It Under Your Hat
IT PAINS ME ON SEVERAL levels to do this, but I am currently wearing a tweed cabbie cap over my kippah. The reason is simple — a dear friend sincerely and greatly fears for my safety in an era where…
Prosatio Silban and the Evasive Death
STARLESS DARKNESS FILLED THE OBSERVABLE universe. Where am I? Prosatio Silban thought. He tried to make his voice work, but couldn’t find or even feel his throat. In fact, his entire body seemed to be missing. What am I? Only…