We may never understand …

• what happened and why.
• why dogs whine on car rides when they're the ones who begged to go.
• the senseless violence.
• if love just happens or is planned.
• the ultimate action of this or that agent.
• the religious and philosophical significance of the Japanese flowering cherries.
• all the details.
• the principle of universal love.
• the private logic behind Judy's behavior.
• how we will be changed by our long travels.
• why others treat us unfairly.
• how we arrived at our present condition.
• the deeper story, yet we know there is one.

The truth is that …

• even granite changes over time.
• if it were easy, everyone would do it.
• life itself is music.
• I was never that girl in the hallway.
• learning to laugh at yourself can help you.
• there is no "right" age for being who you are.
• there are so few who know where Burma is.
• a journey is an extension of the human personality.
• our body is in many ways like a robot.
• none of us has reached that exalted position of perfection.
• mind and matter are complementary to each other.
• sometimes what is supposed to be observable is lost in our focus on the flame.
• there is nothing noble in being superior to somebody else.
• your death would be something to fear only if you could survive it.
• teams often create negative synergy.
• it is okay for one or a few people to pee in a river, as the river's ecosystem can cope with that amount of pollution quite easily.
• the horse may be thirsty but not have the will to drink.
• everyone who trusted Jesus in the first century A.D. died.
• no one has a clue.
• love is the greatest thing upon this earth.
• there never is just one truth.

[Tidbits gathered through the course of our research.  See the remarkable collection, entitled Bullet Lists.]

The best thing to do right now is to:

• get yourself a cookie
• proceed antisystematically and aphoristically, or lyrically, or musically
• keep together
• turn to page 8 and get an idea
• lay low for a bit and let the heat die down
• hold the nerves in, keep cool and let the fish take the line for a run
• bite the bullet and show up
• rest for a little bit
• keep quiet
• get away from the monkeys
• sit down, relax, have some lunch
• go for a swim
• build a fort
• give these people a chance
• get out there as quickly as possible
• just watch what he does
• learn how to cope on your own

[Tidbits gathered through the course of our research.  See the remarkable collection, entitled Bullet Lists.]

There's a precursor to the TV show phenomenon of "Jumping the Shark" (of course named after the Season 5 episode of Happy Days in which Fonzie waterskied over a shark and thus outed the writers as having run out of ideas).  It's what we might call "Unchaining the Monkey."  Of the classic sitcoms we revisit, Bewitched lasted the very longest before throwing in the towel amd ushering in a chimp.  That show made it deep into Season 5 before giving up.  The worst offender, though the one show with the very best excuse, was Gilligan's Island, which made it only two episodes before going ape.  But at least the jungle island setting made the casting seem less desperate.  Frankly, the most painful offender of this bunch is Hogan's Heroes: a chimp supposedly having escaped from a zoo nearby the German prisoner of war camp is dressed up and becomes history's most reliable courier of the Underground resistance movement.  It's tearfully unfunny.

Classic sitcoms in order of ability to delay the monkey:

1. Gilligan's Island - "Voodoo Something to Me," Season 1, Episode 3
2. The Addams Family - "Morticia Joins the Ladies League," Season 1, Episode 6
3. The Munsters - "Come Back, Little Googie," Season 1, Episode 25
4. Green Acres - "Horse, What Horse?" Season 1, Episode 29
5. I Dream of Jeannie - "Fly Me to the Moon," Season 3, Episode 1
6. Hogan's Heroes - "Monkey Business," Season 3, Episode 29
7. The Beverly Hillbillies - "The Gorilla," Season 5, Episode 6
8. Bewitched - "Going Ape," Season 5, Episode 22

Nothing can go wrong if:

• there are backup systems.
• you don't get caught.
• you do it right.
• the eternal truths are stated loudly.
• you figure things out carefully.
• gold is near.
• you keep your head and listen to me.
• fate is on your side.
• you don't panic.
• you devise a strategy.
• we all stick together.
• you just treat X and Y as constants.
• we operate strictly according to plan.
• you practice what you have learned.
• your harness is sound.
• these people don't get elected.
• everything goes right.
• you just return to Paradise Island.

[Tidbits gathered through the course of our research.  See the remarkable collection, entitled Bullet Lists.]

There is comfort in …

• having a good bed in a fireproof hotel.
• reflecting that it might have been worse.
• knowing we are not alone in our anonymity.
• a mother's caress.
• a stranger.
• the strength of love.
• the knowledge that evil is but temporary.
• the perception that we are all in this chaos together.
• using a procedure that gives definitive answers from confusing data.
• business as usual.
• the womb.
• being with those with whom we have spent pleasant and meaningful days.
• knowing the impermanence of all these conditions.
• church light, which is star light incarnate.
• the knowledge that the other shore has already been reached.
• a circumscribed life.
• numbers.
• a hermetic, tidy account of the past, and comfort too in a measured and recognizable voice, leading us through those long ago and lost intricacies.

The thing to do is …

• once you've bloomed, hold on. 
• change the course.
• keep up your spirits in spite of everybody and everything.
• get rid of the poison while it is still only on the surface.
• just laugh it off.
• begin while the infestation is slight.
• go back to doing what you do best.
• accept this madness of yours as a basic fact.
• keep occupied.
• face the worst with serenity.
• heed them both.
• be forever losing yourself in the enjoyment of embracing life.
• find a house and wait for Santa.
• play this game simply for the pleasure of playing it.
• accept this fact and try to utilize it.
• start before it's too late.
• the thing that can be done.

[Tidbits gathered through the course of our research.  See the remarkable collection, entitled Bullet Lists.]

We can get through this if we:

• don't pass out
• stay in the moment
• tough out the next few days
• tell ourselves we can
• stay here and focus
• don't panic
• take risks
• trust each other enough
• do it together
• talk to each other
• keep our minds clear
• put up a united front
• follow simple precautions
• rely on the Lord
• vote on an amendment
• keep it light
• hold onto our patience
• stand up for one another
• can forgive
• are determined to grow
• don't start screaming

[Tidbits gathered through the course of our research.  See the remarkable collection, entitled Bullet Lists.]

The only way to survive is to:

• write and read big fat books
• make fun of yourself
• pretend you're not there
• embrace the madness
• run forward as fast as you can go
• be merciless
• work until the wee hours of the morning
• set yourself in perpetual opposition to the system
• gird your heart
• fight back
• become strong
• prevent
• join the side that's winning
• live underground and eat worms
• muster the aid of magic
• laugh
• hunker down
• become more efficient
• be one step ahead
• keep moving
• stay resilient in your suffering
• be totally self-seeking
• stick together
• climb out of the ring
• have a protest strategy from day one
• remove the brain implant
• actually be optimistic and make the best of everything
• stay connected

[Tidbits gathered through the course of our research.  See the remarkable collection, entitled Bullet Lists.]

Books are alive and have souls.  We found these proofs:

"Undoubtedly books have souls" (Joseph Jewell Barton).

"Literature … is alive—not in a vague complementary sense, but alive tenaciously" (E. M. Forster).

"Only an honest book can live" (John Burroughs).

"Literature is alive.  I am literature; it's not merely dead authors with beards.  It's alive" (Azouz Begag).

"Words have souls, and books have souls, and books, indeed, contain the most valuable essence of human souls" (The Open Court, 1894).

It's been said that "it's an author's passion, whatever its form … that makes a pulse beat in the printed page and keeps a book alive through its readers long after the writer is dust" ("The Book" by Barbara W. Tuchman).

It's been said that "the jumping out of planes, car chases and evil people in general is what I think keeps a book alive" (Scorpia, in a book review).

It's been said that "richness and impact characterize the lasting works" so that fifty years after their first appearance they still grip the human mind, immersing it in a rich created world.  (Kathryn Cave.)

It's been said that "It is the revelation that keeps a book alive to the reader" (Adrianne, "The Book and the Real World").

It's been said that references to famous quotations, events, and artworks is what keeps a book alive (Christchurch City Libraries).

It's been said that "It's the critical culture that keeps a book alive" (Yamini Deenadayalan).

It's been said that "it's word of mouth that really keeps a book alive" (Laura Lam).

It's been said that "What keeps a book alive is future books talking about it" (Tom Vanderbilt , "Why Is Literary Fame So Unpredictable?").

It's been said that "What keeps a book alive is not the judgment of critics, not the label of 'classic' attached to it in school-rooms, but the unaffected delight it continues to give to the hearts of men" (H. W. Boynton, "Reading New Books").

It's been said that "it is teaching that keeps a book alive" (Nicholas Birns).

It's been said that "It is only the good opinion of the few that keeps a book alive" (Max Beerbohm).

It has been said that it is the "calling for fresh copies of it after the old copies are worn out" that keeps a book alive (Leon Henry Vincent, The Bibliotaph).

It's been said that "humor that survives from other days" keeps a book alive beyond its own generation (Ladies' Home Journal).

It's been said that "credibility among [the author's] scientific peers" is what keeps a book alive in the minds of readers (Cheryl Knott).

It's been said that "a popular adaptation keeps a book alive" (Thomas S. Hischak).

Previously, we saw that the moment a work is published it appears in another world (either heavenly or hellish.  Bad books are tormented in Hell.)

At autumn's edge ...

• you bear a progeny of dust for nine months (Ricardo Pau-Llosa)
• leaves are still green yet curled and tired (Alastair Macdonald)
• we are unaware of the most significant moments (Linda Faltin)
• is a broken stretch of tussocky grass (Tom Pow)
• dreams slow to the bell and sheep cold-nibble the sun (Walter E. Kidd)
• the hunter time looms (Ironwood)
• old lord winter waits (Triskell Tales)
• a flaming pen comes into view (The Improvement Era)
• literary people are waiting for payment (Sŏ Chŏngju)

A book is a cactus.

"There ain't a lighter hand at a pudden, though I say that shouldn't."  From Lettice Lisle by Lady Verney, 1870.

So the lighter the hand, the lighter the pudding.  But also:

• "The more devastating the criticism, the lighter the hand has to be." (Lester B. Lave, quoted in "A Life that Mattered")
• "The lighter the hand, the more berries in the pan." (Fedco Seeds)
• "The lighter the hand, the lighter the biscuit." (Convivial)
• "The lighter the hand of the sawyer, the better the saw operates." (Luke Miner, "Sawing Lessons: Kierkegaard's Concluding Unscientific Postcript")
• "The lighter the hand, the flakier the crust." (Food Network)
• "The lighter the hand of the [tattoo] artist on the needle, the less pain you'll have during the procedure." (Beth Asaff, "Pain of Getting a Tattoo in Different Places")
• "When applying a concealing makeup, the lighter the hand, the better." (The Sturge-Weber Foundation)
• "The lighter the hand of the guiding adult, the more motivated and spontaneous the play is likely to be."  (Anne Burke, Ready to Learn: Using Play to Build Literacy Skills in Young Learners)
• "The lighter the hand, the closer you can wear [perfume] to your nose." (Perfume Interview with Judith of Unseen Censer, Part I)
• "For the lighter the hand becomes, the deeper you will go." (Marjor Mark Cunningham, "Intro to Hypnosis")