Today’s WORK is part 2 of the triptych from Michael Garriga’s The Book of Duels. Part 3 tomorrow!

WORK

“Sasaki Kojiro, 27,
Samurai & Founder of the Kenjutsu School”

The heavy rain has soaked my robes and it weighs down my body and my blood is leaving me and so I sit in the moist sand and watch my footprints fill with water, my life being erased one drop at a time, and when I am gone who will remember the things I’ve seen—as a child in my father’s orchard, an albino fox in the branches of a cherry tree, its pink blossoms hiding all but his eyes and we stared at each other motionless till the sun quit the sky; in a still body of water, two snakes gripping a carp in their mouths, one by its tail and one by its head, the three joined into a new self-devouring creature; in Master Toda Seigen’s dojo, him tossing, like a sumo, a handful of purifying salt and catching each grain on the flat blade of his nodachi—and I know I will die now on this island and I try to stay calm, relax my mind, and let my spirit leave this crude vessel, but we all in our folly think we will live more years—even an old man on his deathbed can believe he has ten more—but my days are through and only my foolish pride, and the many years preceding this very last day, have allowed me to believe that tomorrow was ever offered, because there is, of course, no tomorrow—there is only this moment—I recline to my elbow and, with my last strength, lower myself flat and cross my hands over my chest, listen to my own breath become the crashing waves, open my mouth to catch one last drop of this world, acknowledge the weak and thankless sun, a dull white hole burned in the gray sky, and close my eyes forever.

—Michael Garriga
—from The Book of Duels

WORD(S)

donnybrook. noun. A brawl, fracas, uproar, riotous interaction or heated argument. Derived from the notoriously rowdy Donnybrook Fair, held in Donnybrook (home of Flann O’Brien, W. B. Yeats’ brother, Anthony Trollope and that Michael Williams), Ireland from the 13th century until it was banned in 1855. The Donnybrook Fair has also lent its name to an upscale supermarket chain, a classic jig and one of Ireland’s popular ballads.

“Of course you’ve heard of Donnybrook Fair, close to the city of Dublin. What a strange scene it was, to be sure, of uproar and wild confusion—of quarrelling and fighting from beginning to end—of broken heads, of black eyes, and bruised shins—of shouting, of shrieking and swearing—of blasphemy and drunkenness in all its forms of brutality.” (W. H. G. Kingston)

“It is stated that the day of the disgraceful Donnybrook in the House of Commons has been nicknamed ”Collar Day,“ because Mr. Hayes Fisher seized Mr. Logan by the collar, and Mr. Chamberlain ”collared“ Mr. O’Brien’s table in the dining-room. This is all very well in its way, but would not ”Choler Day“ be more appropriate and intelligible?” (Punch magazine)

“It’s not the large tragedies that moil us to pieces—we are fucking well ready for those, it’s the little scratchings and drippings, the continuous stubbing of the toes and elbows, the car that won’t start, the piece of tooth that breaks off as you are biting into a peach, dirty stockings, a sudden face in the market goring your peace like a bull, a ring in the bathtub, constipation, insomnia, a dirty newspaper, toothpaste too sweet, a fingernail flipping back and ripping from the finger … these things again and again, the similar small biting donnybrook continuous hail … these tear us to the final pieces, ah ha.” (Charles Bukowski)

“His brother janitors and sanitation workers were already overburdened cleaning up after the donnybrooks in which the super-beings regularly indulged.” (Michael Chabon)

WEB

1. Ice books laced with seeds: “Ecological artist Basia Irland, from Albuquerque, carves the books out of frozen river water … then leaves them on the bank side to melt and repopulate the land.”

2. Love Is All You Need: Insights from the Longest Longitudinal Study on Men Ever Conducted.

3. An Inside Look at Anonymous, the Radical Hacking Collective. A fascinating account that actually does get inside the group.

4. A quick watch: ► rare footage of a large dumbo octopus.

5. Today in 1813, Commander Oliver H. Perry won a brutal, decisive naval victory in the Battle of Lake Erie, a turning point in the War of 1812. After the victory Perry issued a famously brief battle report (now often corrupted): “We have met the enemy and they are ours; two ships, two brigs, one schooner and one sloop.”

REPRISES/RESPONSES/REJOINDERS/RIPOSTES

• Reader K. shares the “Snail Mail Ideas” site, noting that you can “find some swell ideas for creative correspondence and even pick up a pen pal or two.”

I welcome comments, suggestions, thoughts, feedback and all manner of what-have-you. Just press ‘Reply’ or email to: clippings@katexic.com.

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