Corrections to the blogosphere, the consensus, and the world

Friday, April 29, 2005

Commonplace book - Kipling, AOTF

Arithmetic on the Frontier

A great and glorious thing it is
To learn, for seven years or so,
The Lord knows what of that and this,
Ere reckoned fit to face the foe--
The flying bullet down the Pass,
That whistles clear: "All flesh is grass."

Three hundred pounds per annum spent
On making brain and body meeter
For all the murderous intent
Comprised in "villainous saltpetre!"
And after--ask the Yusufzaies
What comes of all our 'ologies.

A scrimmage in a Border Station--
A canter down some dark defile--
Two thousand pounds of education
Drops to a ten-rupee jezail--
The Crammer's boast, the Squadron's pride,
Shot like a rabbit in a ride!

No proposition Euclid wrote,
No formulae the text-books know,
Will turn the bullet from your coat,
Or ward the tulwar's downward blow
Strike hard who cares--shoot straight who can--
The odds are on the cheaper man.

One sword-knot stolen from the camp
Will pay for all the school expenses
Of any Kurrum Valley scamp
Who knows no word of moods and tenses,
But, being blessed with perfect sight,
Picks off our messmates left and right.

With home-bred hordes the hillsides teem,
The troop-ships bring us one by one,
At vast expense of time and steam,
To slay Afridis where they run.

The "captives of our bow and spear"
Are cheap--alas! as we are dear.

`

Wednesday, April 27, 2005

Job

I've spent my life in working hours doing a consistent, capable, thoughtful first draft and passing it to bosses with the literacy of Barbary apes so that they can rip out bits, daub shit on other parts to indicate 'put in something else there', and in general degrade my work to the frankly embarassing. It doesn't pay badly, but it is humiliating.

`

Bill

OK, this is just a placeholder until I check it out. The CIA seems to have killed my uncle.

`

Blog Archive

Search This Blog

Followers

Total Pageviews