mack, Indulto, DJ--kindred spirits and treasured friends--and everyone else seeing to the "smiling, frivolous duties" of well-wishing: a million thanks.
From Vladimir Nabokov's
Speak Memory:
"The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness. [...]
"I witness with pleasure the supreme achievement of memory, which is the masterly use it makes of innate harmonies when gathering to its fold the suspended and wandering tonalities of the past. [...]
"Through a tremulous prism, I distinguish the features of relatives and familiars, mute lips serenely moving in forgotten speech. [...] And then, suddenly, just when the colors and outlines settle at last to their various duties—smiling, frivolous duties—some knob is touched and a torrent of sounds comes to life: voices speaking all together [...]."
