potatoes

"Recently the camp received potatoes for the winter. Eighty percent rotten. Nevertheless, the camp came to life. In the camp, mountains of potatoes are heaped up, and everyone can pick them. But the potatoes stink of rot, are reshuffled by hundreds of hands. The selected potatoes are hidden in bunkers and people cannot use them freely anymore. The resignation of the Advisory Committee and the prevention of the free use of potatoes again aggravate the situation of supplies in the camp. Nevertheless, recently there has been no starvation in the camp."

~~ from The Last Days of the Jerusalem of Lithuania: Chronicles from the Vilna Ghetto and the Camps, 1939—1944 by Herman Kruk

the Journey

"What's all the fuss about . . . It's the Journey that got me into all this . . . My most relentless persecutors date from the Journey . . . Nobody's forgiven me for the Journey . . .  It was the Journey that cooked my goose . . ."

~~ from Castle to Castle by Louis-Ferdinand Celine

Nobel Prize?

"I've got an idea! . . . suppose they gave me the Nobel Prize? . . . It would help me fine with the gas bill, my taxes, my carrots . . . but those cocksuckers up there won't give it to me! or their King! . . . they give it to every conceivable nance . . . to the worst vaseline-asses on the planet . . . naturally!"

~~ from Castle to Castle by Louis-Ferdinand Celine

I'm ending in total bankruptcy

 "I'm ending in total bankruptcy . . . it shames me . . ."

~~ from Castle to Castle by Louis-Ferdinand Celine

Knife will arrive next spring

Salmon Rushdie will publish a memoir, Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder. It's due in April of 2024.

All that is left are the books

"The Jews of Ukmerge have been dead for a long time. All that is left are the books from the local Jewish library. Recently the books have also been taken out of there and brought to a 'Jewish grave' to the RR [Rosenberg] Task Force in Vilna, which does Judenforschung ohne Juden with Jewish brains . . .

"Seven cartons of books were brought here."

~~ from The Last Days of the Jerusalem of Lithuania: Chronicles from the Vilna Ghetto and the Camps, 1939—1944 by Herman Kruk

Kloc City

I've recently enjoyed Joe Kloc's "The Golden Fleece" and both The Band and Bruce on "Atlantic City."