I

“Geburtsakt der Philosophie”

Erschrocken schaut der Heide Schaf mich an,
als säh's in mir den ersten Menschenmann.
Sein Blick steckt an; wir stehen wie im Schlaf;
mir ist, ich säh zum ersten Mal ein Schaf.

—Christian Morgenstern

This is basically Rilke's Archaic Torso of Apollo mixed with Ausländer's In Wonder, shaken, stirred, and shat out as an aphorism masquerading as verse.

I like it, actually.

II

A. Necco Wafers
It's been a long time since I've thought about NECCO® Wafers, the oldest continuously produced candy in the United States. Oh my ISG are they a bad memory. The only comparably bad candy from that stage in my life would have to be the chalkier of the the two Valentine's Day candy hearts. You know the ones. There were the good ones, with crisp edges and strong colors, tart on the tongue, and then there were the chalky almost pastel ones with rounded edges. Yep, also by NECCO—Sweethearts.

B. Links

• Rising Crime: The Triumphof the Thriller by Patrick Anderson (Random House). “Older readers may remember a time when there existed something called “mainstream” fiction. It consisted of realist novels of varying literary quality but solid 19th-century roots: family chronicles, historical sagas, imperiled-marriage studies, medical dramas, war stories. Those sorts of works, by common accord, made up the broad center of fiction; they dominated the best-seller lists, swept the prizes, were accorded respectful reviews in publications like this one. Mainstream fiction was, so to speak, the city, while beyond lay the outskirts: the suburbs and mill towns and trailer parks of genre.” I still want to go back and read a Romanian socialist-realist historical Bildungsroman of sorts I found decaying a few years ago in the library, the title to which, in English, would be something like A Transylvanian-Saxon Family Chronicle.
• Man sues IBM over firing, says he's an Internet addict: “A man who was fired by IBM for visiting an adult chat room at work is suing the company for $5 million, claiming he is an Internet addict who deserves treatment and sympathy rather than dismissal.” No, he needs to take responsibility for his actions; if he's supposedly smart enough to know he has an addiction, he should be smart enough to get treated. Yeah yeah, I know, but addiction adschmiction, though; the transformation to a legal system influenced not by the concept of free will by my medicine and psychology goes back to the 1800s, and plays, novels, and early movies dealt with the topic. See b&w pictures about murderers, serial killers, and the like.
• Psst! Ask for Donor 1913: “In the old days, nearly two decades ago, when Jeffrey Harrison was selling his sperm to California Cryobank, sperm banks did not tell clients much. Women learned that Donor 150 (Mr. Harrison, who was one of the bank’s most-requested donors) was six feet tall, had blue eyes and was interested in philosophy, music and drama.” Hey, I'm tall, have blue eyes, and am interested in philosophy, music, and drama. Perhaps I could have had a career as a sperm donor. I love the graphic at the top of the story.
• A Mysterious St. John, Found in the Attic: “Rustici worked alongside the young Michelangelo in Lorenzo de’ Medici’s famous sculpture garden, but while Michelangelo preferred to carve in marble, Rustici, like Leonardo, preferred to model in clay. If the attribution of the St. John to Rustici is correct, this work provides insights into Leonardo’s lesser-known career as a sculptor because Rustici is known to have been influenced by him.” My favorite Michelangelo statue in Rome on my last visit was not the Pietà but rather his Moses in the Church of St Peter in Chains.
• Dadaistic Poems: German texts by a variety of authors.

C. Franck
I don't suppose anybody here has a recording recommendation for César Franck's (1822–1890) Violin Sonata in A (1886). I used to have a recording on cassette, which went along with a cassette recording I had of the Sibelius violin concerto. A former student, the very hot LS, gave me a cassette recording of the sonata as performed by piano and flute, but that cassette is in Idaho. I never got the sonata on CD. I've always wanted to play it.

My favorite local music store, the Exclusive Company, which has an amazing classical and jazz selection in the basement, didn't have a Naxos recording in stock when I stopped by last week; nor did they have a recording by a different label under Franck. A crime, really.

Asking here whether anyone has a favorite performance/recording came to mind because of riceowlguy's diary about the Brahms requiem. I don't expect to get an answer, so surprise me ...

III

“Birth of Philosophy”

The heath sheep glares at me with frightened awe
as though I were the first of men it saw.
Contagious glare! We stand as though asleep;
it seems the first time that I see a sheep.

Translated by Max Knight