Quote of the Day: from "Winesburg, Ohio"

"Like a thousand other strong men who have come into the world here in America in these later times, Jesse was but half strong. He could master others, but he could not master himself."

That's from the story "Godliness" in Sherwood Anderson's landmark collection of interrelated short stories entitled  "Winesburg, Ohio."  While the book was first published in 1919, the story was set in about 1885, or 20 years after the end of the American Civil War when northern Ohio was emerging from what Anderson described as pioneer life into an age of much higher agricultural output based on the advent of an array of new labor-saving farm machinery.

The "Jesse" in question refers to a farmer who knew how to capitalize on that trend, but failed in his personal life.

These days, of course, it makes one think of men like Harvey Weinstein who once strode atop of the U.S. film industry, but was just sentenced to 23 years in prison as a result of sexual misconduct.

Cold Little Bird, Inept Big Birds

Ben Marcus had a good idea for his story, “Cold Little Bird,” that appeared in the Oct. 19, 2015 edition of The New Yorker: the power a child can come to have over his or her parents, perhaps earlier in life than expected.

Rather than the more typical teenage rebel, Marcus paints a picture of a 10-year old boy who recoils from the need his parents, but particularly his father, feel for frequent physical contact.