The Diamonds And The Shit

      Ah, this blog is slowly returning to its former self, the days of wine and hosers finally subsiding. New Year's Eve proved moreorless uneventful (read in: sober) and unmemorable (read in: too sober), which may or may not bode well for 2005, of which the pervasive thought among my group of friends is "may she be a damned sight better than the last one."   2004 surely had to be one of the worst years in recent memory, for which the horrifying events in South East Asia and East Africa were devastating coups de grace. The turn of a year inevitably involves contemplating where we've been and speculating about where the hell we're going, and so it's interesting to note Jared Diamond's article in today's NYT, which frankly gives this blog more reason for despair than for hope. Herakleitos once suggested that the way up and the way down are the same thing, but I'm not so sure, that itching in the back of my head reminding me about the crucial duosyllable in the name of Janus. Ah, time passes-- sometimes quite runnily. Churning and churning in the widening gyre....