Deep in the ocean there are treasures beyond compare;
but if you seek safety, it is on the shore.
--a Sufi saying

In the morning, the whole world had a strange new smell. It was the smell of the aftermath, a green smell, a smell of shredded leaves and oozing resin, of crushed wood and splashed sap, a tart smell, which bore some relation to the smell of bitter apples. It was the smell of death and destruction and it smelled fresh and lively and hopeful.
--A.S. Byatt's "Possession: A Romance" (last paragraph, last chapter)

best o' my nodes:

• Sufi
• Faustian bargain
• too much bad poetry on E2
• The Shaggs
• August 14, 2001 (aka "Five Memories of J")
• James Jamerson
• GNAP!
• Teenage Jesus and the Jerks