Shook the Spot

In this refulgent winter, it has been a luxury to draw the breath of life. Okaaaaaay, so here goes.

There's a Ralph Waldo Emerson quote on one of the gates to Harvard Yard that I would recount here if I had ever bothered to read it. There is also an Emerson quote—"Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you"—on the box of Twinings Early Grey tea above our refrigerator. So where does that leave Harvard? A bag of wind, a memory of words?

A hustler, who sleeps next to a latex balloon effigy of myself, passed along the pretentious, third-person wisdom of Henry Adams today . . .

Self-possession was the strongest part of Harvard College, which certainly taught men to stand alone, so that nothing seemed stranger to its graduates than the paroxysms of terror before the public which often overcame the graduates of European universities. Whether this was, or was not, education, Henry Adams never knew. He was ready to stand up before any audience in America or Europe, with nerves rather steadier for the excitement, but whether he should ever have anything to say, remained to be proved. As yet he knew nothing. Education had not begun.

This is education . . .

PENSACOLA — An Escambia County middle school gym teacher let children sit out his class if they paid a $1 bribe daily, netting him perhaps thousands of dollars, officials said Thursday.

And this is the first post on Shook the Spot, which owes its name to Mike Jones. Who? More is sure to come, but I have no idea what. Until then, hustle hard on the block (below, at right) to comment. Everything's relatively anonymous, lest the laws get hot.