Cogito, Ergo Sumana for 2005 November 9

# 09 Nov 2005, 02:07PM: Limitations Of The Form, or, "There shall be grief.": The webcomic Cat And Girl hits it out of the ballpark nearly every time. The author admits to ripping off Calvin and Hobbes but I don't mind; she gets her nuggets of wisdom across very effectively in the form she's chosen. I've been thinking about certain topics that I want to write about yet are really hard to address in a newspaper column. Jon Carroll made some fine hay of this problem:

However, a flamenco piece crying out for limiting subsidies to agribusiness would probably be unsuccessful no matter how talented the performers, and a newspaper column seeking to tap the deepest reservoirs of pity and terror and hopeless love has a probable failure rate of close to 100 percent.

My current "how could I do that in 750 words?" topics include:

• I only really regret a few things I've done, where I hurt others, not the many times I've hurt myself
• When good fortune arrives, the disillusioned find it bewildering and long-absorbed suspicions make enjoyment impossible
• The role of booze in my life
• The tight smile of the despairing fool

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# 09 Nov 2005, 05:44PM: Predictable Praise: Last night, to soothe my angst, Leonard played me some Leonard tunes on the gee-tar. Man, his recent stuff is incredibly awesome. I hope he can record it soon.

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