Now its been 4 months since that crazed knife waving urologist worked on me. Last week he told me: "this is progress as expected, come back in 6 months."

BUT WHO CARES!

Tis the day after Christmas, cold and clear. I am going to make a pre-new years resolution. To find interesting quotes and what not and post them often. For now one will do. I ordered the book TIN DRUM by Gunther Grass. He's one of those you should read something by I feel, and I have not. The title came up in a few things as I read, then I was looking for a list of first lines. Can you beat this:

BOOK ONE
The Wide Skirt

Granted: I am an inmate of a mental hospital; my keeper is watching me, he never lets me out of his sight; there's a peephole in the door, and my keeper's eye is the shade of brown that can never see through a blue-eyed type like me.

So you see, my keeper can't be an enemy. I've come to be very fond of him; when he stops looking at me from behind the door and comes into the room, I tell him incidents from my life, so he can get to know me in spite of the peephole between us. He seems to treasure my stories, because every time I tell him some fairy tale, he shows his gratitude by bringing out his latest knot construction. I wouldn't swear that he's an artist. But I am certain that an exhibition of his creations would be well received by the press and attract a few purchasers. He picks up common pieces of string in the patients' rooms after visiting hours, disentangles them, and works them up into elaborate contorted spooks; then he dips them in plaster, lets them harden, and mounts them on knitting needles that he fastens to little wooden pedestals.