I've been reading the new book Fragments: Poems, Intimate Notes, Letters by Marilyn Monroe and it is pretty heartbreaking to look at at times...It's clear from the photocopies of her original handwritten notes (with the typeset versions on the opposite side) that her mind was a very crowded place and that she felt and thought about things far more deeply than even a die-hard fan could have ever imagined.

Reading her private thoughts feels invasive...like I should look away. And like there's also this inexplicable wish that someone special and sincere in her life could have been able to truly understand and protect her...see that she wanted to be far more than just a dumb blond. (An interviewer supposedly laughed at her when she said she would love to play the part of Grushenka from The Brothers Karamazov.)

As someone who was teased mercilessly as a child about her out-of-control kinky, curly hair I've got to say that I would have LOVED to have seen this as a little girl:


http://news.yahoo.com/video/world-15749633/sesame-street-teaches-self-esteem-22512445

I know there have been some mixed reactions to this video gone completely viral in the past few days, but I see it as something great for girls' self-esteem and its heart is definitely in the right place!!

I'm currently reading The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope and love the way so many of the things it tackles still apply now. I love Trollope AND I love Henry James and each is so different than the other. I "googled" their names together to see if anyone has ever written about both of them in the same article and this is what I found...wish it were full text:

The Henry James Review

Volume 27, Number 1, Winter 2006

E-ISSN: 1080-6555 Print ISSN: 0273-0340

DOI: 10.1353/hjr.2006.0005

Michie, Elsie B. (Elsie Browning), 1948-
The Odd Couple: Anthony Trollope and Henry James
The Henry James Review - Volume 27, Number 1, Winter 2006, pp. 10-23

The Johns Hopkins University Press


"The Odd Couple: Anthony Trollope and Henry James" reads the two authors as a literary version of the famous television odd couple, with James a fastidious Felix Unger reacting with disgust but also attraction to Trollope, a self-consciously messy and vulgar Oscar Madison. James's disgust is articulated most powerfully in his early reviews of Trollope, but the terms of those reviews and the details of James's novels suggest that he found in Trollope's The Prime Minister a touchstone against which to work out the plots of Washington Square and The Portrait of a Lady.

Project MUSE® - View Citation

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Michie, Elsie B. (Elsie Browning), 1948-. "The Odd Couple: Anthony Trollope and Henry James." The Henry James Review 27.1 (2006): 10-23. Project MUSE. [Library name], [City], [State abbreviation]. 18 Oct. 2010 <http://muse.jhu.edu/>.

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Always review your references for accuracy and make any necessary corrections before using. Pay special attention to personal names, capitalization, and dates. Consult your library or click here for more information on citing sources.

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Michie, Elsie B. (Elsie Browning), 1948-. (2006). The odd couple: Anthony trollope and henry james. The Henry James Review 27(1), 10-23. Retrieved October 18, 2010, from Project MUSE database.

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Always review your references for accuracy and make any necessary corrections before using. Pay special attention to personal names, capitalization, and dates. Consult your library or click here for more information on citing sources.

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Michie, Elsie B. (Elsie Browning), 1948-. "The Odd Couple: Anthony Trollope and Henry James." The Henry James Review 27, no. 1 (2006): 10-23. http://muse.jhu.edu/ (accessed October 18, 2010).

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Always review your references for accuracy and make any necessary corrections before using. Pay special attention to personal names, capitalization, and dates. Consult your library or click here for more information on citing sources.

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TY - JOUR
T1 - The Odd Couple: Anthony Trollope and Henry James
A1 - Michie, Elsie B. (Elsie Browning), 1948-
JF - The Henry James Review
VL - 27
IS - 1
SP - 10
EP - 23
Y1 - 2006
PB - The Johns Hopkins University Press
SN - 1080-6555
UR - http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/henry_james_review/v027/27.1michie.html
N1 - Volume 27, Number 1, Winter 2006
ER -

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Always review your references for accuracy and make any necessary corrections before using. Pay special attention to personal names, capitalization, and dates. Consult your library or click here for more information on citing sources.

I love the song "Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl" by Broken Social Scene...last night I was driving home (late at night when all the dashboard lights and quiet music on in the car calms me so much) listening to the Scott Pilgrim soundtrack when BSS's song caught me by surprise. I didn't know it was on the soundtrack and hadn't heard it in a while and my breath caught in my throat the way it does when you're crazy about a song you think you only know about (more in a special "intimate" way than in a smug, selfish way).

I love the slightly whispery electronic, coldly distant (but still sad) sound to the singing voice and the lyrics, oh the lyrics!!

Used to be the one of the rotten ones
And I liked you for that
Now you're all gone, got your make-up on
And you're not coming back

Bleachin' your teeth, smiling flash
Talking trash, under your breath
Bleachin' your teeth, smiling flash
Talking trash, under my window

Park that car, drop that phone,
Sleep on the floor, dream about me

Used to be the one of the rotten ones
And I liked you for that
Now you're all gone, got your make-up on
And you're not coming back 


There really is something about being seventeen (not sixteen, not eighteen, but seventeen!) that feels deserving of an anthem, like if you survive that age, you've earned your battle scars and can get through anything yet to come. Seventeen can be such a vulnerable age, whether you're going through a period of self-doubt, confusion, that hard-hitting bout of first love....puberty is usually associated with struggling to get through hard times, but I always thought seventeen was the age that really came at you with a vengeance.

Cleverbot is a rather interesting website if you're in the mood for a quirky conversation with a computer. The warning label on the site isn't kidding when it states that "Cleverbot" can occasionally say inappropriate things (when I typed "How do you do?" it responded with "I'd do you, too." It can come off as flirty or even overly sexual due to unintentional innuendos...and sometimes it will actually argue with you...most often about which one of you is human or robot.

Here's a great explanation off of Yahoo Answers about Cleverbot:

Best Answer - Chosen by Voters

The technology behind Cleverbot works on a different principle to that of other artificial intelligence software being developed. The system is designed to learn language and context through interaction with humans. There are no fixed rules or principles programmed into the system and it operates entirely through user interaction. The system stores all of the conversations and user comments and attempts to use this information to find the most appropriate response.

The program therefore creates a massive database of contextually appropriate conversations and chooses an appropriate response it has learnt from a previous user when holding a conversation.

The system is also designed to speak foreign languages and claims to be able to learn and respond appropriately if enough information is provided. In a similar way the system claims to be able to learn slang English, games, jokes and word games - even song lyrics.

Source(s):

Wikipedia plus a conversation.
Honestly,only a robot would say this....

User: You know why they call it an Xbox360, right?

Cleverbot: I'm 'Cumming' Over. Right?

User: Because when you see it, you turn 360 degrees and walk away.

Cleverbot: No because then you would be facing it and that would be unfunny.

User: Touche.

Cleverbot: So is Solipism epistemological or ontological?

User: YOUR A ******* ROBOT.

Cleverbot: I'm a little overweight, but it doesn't concern me. Mostly I live for my mind.

User: YOUR A ROBOT GOD DAMNIT!

Cleverbot: I know. I can do it, but I don't want to help a human cheat.

User: You are a bot.

Cleverbot: That doesn't make sense.

User: Yes,it does.you are not a human ,you're a robot.

Cleverbot: No you.

User: No you are the robot!

Cleverbot: We're both robots.

User: No,i am the human.

Cleverbot: No!!! I am!!!! Robot!!!!

User: So you admit you're a robot?

Cleverbot: Yes, but don't tell anybody.

• 11 months ago