I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors. I thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.
Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath. The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because We the People have remained faithful to the ideals of our forbearers, and true to our founding documents.
So it has been. So it must be with this generation of Americans.
Both critics are good friends of mine and both have undeniably tremendous appetites, but both are rather hamstrung, I guess you could say, by working for a newspaper group whose business model turns on the certainty that schoolteachers, social workers and angry jobless graduates will always need a newspaper, so it might as well be theirs. Thus any restaurant (or indeed anything) that reeks of frivolity, extravagance, bourgeois aspiration or pretentiousness must be flattened with the cold hammer of Socialist Realism.
上星期 BBC Radio 4 上一位女主持顺口说，目前的经济危机，已经到了“Darling, do something!”的地步。这里的 Darling，当然是英国财相 Alistair Darling，他的这个奇妙的姓，是标题党们梦寐以求的。当然英语中还有许多奇妙的姓，Love 已是很普通，还有姓 Kiss 的。上次把一架忽然失去动力的英航班机安全滑翔到西思罗机场的驾驶员姓 Coward。
Daily Mail: A hero called Coward. BA pilot declares it was his deputy who landed stricken flight.
《时代》杂志记者 Platon 向 Leo Benedictus 回忆他在2007年底前往莫斯科拍摄俄罗斯总统普京肖像的过程。Platon 说普京肖像是他最好的作品。
Platon’s best shot
‘There were snipers everywhere. Putin saw my tears and said: I’ll do it’
* Leo Benedictus
* The Guardian, Thursday November 13 2008
Vladimir Putin hates having his portrait taken. But when Time magazine made him its Man of the Year for 2007 he said he would grant an interview. So then there was this big question: would he pose for a photograph?
英国作家 JK Rowling 在《生日图册》(The Birthday Book)中介绍她最喜欢的生日故事，选择她自己的作品《哈利·波特与致命圣灵》(Harry Potter and Deathly Hollows)中的一段：哈利·波特即将独自面对伏地魔(Voldemort)。
JK Rowling on Harry Potter’s last, long walk
The author introduces her favourite scene from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in this extract from The Birthday Book, a treasury of children’s stories and poems
* JK Rowling
* guardian.co.uk, Thursday November 13 2008 11.19 GMT
I admit that, at first glance, the extract I’ve chosen for The Birthday Book might not seem particularly celebratory, given that it has for its subject my hero walking to what he believes will be certain death. But when Harry takes his last, long walk into the heart of the Dark Forest, he is choosing to accept a burden that fell on him when still a tiny child, in spite of the fact that he never sought the role for which he has been cast, never wanted the scar with which he has been marked. As his mentor, Albus Dumbledore, has tried to make clear to Harry, he could have refused to follow the path marked out for him. In spite of the weight of opinion and expectation that singles him out as the “Chosen One”, it is Harry’s own will that takes him into the Forest to meet Voldemort, prepared to suffer the fate that he escaped sixteen years before.
Networking is easy if you’re beautiful, rich or the prime minister. Fulfil any of those criteria and you can leave the active bit to other people while you sit back and net whoever takes your fancy. If, on the other hand, you’re none of these things, you’ll need to work at it.
The iconic image of the US presidential election is a screenprint measuring 85x55cm on woven paper showing Barack Obama above the word “HOPE”. Created by street artist Shepard Fairey, it has cropped up across America and, though not officially commissioned by the Obama campaign, on November 5 it hung around Chicago accompanied by the message “Congratulations Chicago’s Own Barack Obama, President-Elect of the United States of America.”
“Go enjoy yourself,” said President Bush in his congratulatory telephone call to Barack Obama on election night. It was like a child who has just smashed up all his toys inviting another to come and play in his nursery. To inherit two wars and a broken economy would not be most people’s idea of fun. But that’s pig-headed Bush for you.
