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The Rubaiyat
By Omar Khayyam

XII
A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,
A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread–and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness–
Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow!

The time has passed, I think, when one could assume that a common literary culture among people with at least a good high school education, would bring this verse to mind, one of the most quoted and famous in the English language, the epitome of middlebrow culture since the 1850’s.

A Siamese connection or splitter in fire protection engineering is a pipe fitting that allows two or more fire hoses to be connected to a single standpipe riser at the same general location.

It is so-called due to the visual similarity to Siamese twins.

The Spawn of Evil is summoning from the vast demon hordes that live underground new hordes of zombies to end man’s reign on earth.   Hipsters, the demons call them.  And they are forged by force and by guile.  Where is Buffy when you need her?   The end is approaching.

At the Union Square Greenmarket I was struck by this lady in a wheelchair wearing a floral dress and gazing avidly at the annuals on sale. Although her body is compromised, the same spirit that makes the flowers bloom in so much beauty seems perhaps to connect with something inside her.