JRR Tolkien

“I have claimed that Escape is one of the main functions of fairy-stories, and since I do not disapprove of them, it is plain that I do not accept the tone of scorn or pity with which ‘Escape’ is now so often used. Why should a man be scorned if, finding himself in prison, he tries to get out and go home? Or if he cannot do so, he thinks and talks about other topics than jailers and prison-walls?”

— JRR Tolkien

“It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door. You step into the Road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to.”

— Bilbo Baggins

All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by frost.

— JRR Tolkien

Tolkien’s birthday

Happy eleventy-first birthday, Mr. Tolkien

Oxford professor J.R.R. Tolkien, author of the Rings trilogy, died in 1973 at 81, but today he would have been 111, which means extremely magical things to devotees. Tolkien begins the Rings tale with a 111th birthday party for the character Bilbo Baggins, calling it an eleventy-first birthday … a very curious number and a very respectable age for a Hobbit.

Gibson’s latest novel

William Gibson’s Latest Novel

crumbz writes “It looks like the grand master of cyberpunk has a new novel coming out entitled Pattern Recognition. Apparently, reviewer copies have been making the rounds on ebay and the word on the street is that it is his best work in years. (Slashdot)

Doctors considered amputating Renberg’s hand

Toronto Maple Leafs forward Mikael Renberg’s left hand became so infected this week that doctors considered amputating it to save his life…’It could have been a lot worse, amputation to save my life, I guess,’ Renberg told the Toronto Star on Thursday. Renberg aggravated a blister on his hand while trying to tie his skates in Edmonton on Saturday. The hand became infected and landed him in a Vancouver hospital with a 104-degree fever.