Recommended: An Inspector Richard Jury Mystery

The second in the series from Martha Grimes.

The Old Fox Deceiv'd's Arnold is probably my favorite character -- next to Richard Jury himself, of course -- in the entire series.

Feet Of Clay

"What can I tell you, Carson," I had to say aloud, "that you don't already know?" The pottery wheel slowed to a full stop. I set both feet squarely on the floor. Before me, the clay glistened, a wet lump.  I spoke again to the shadows, to the clay masks I’d hung on every wall. Empty eyeholes stared back at me.  I had to raise my voice. "Omniscience, you know, being the purview of the dead?"

--draft sentences, stepping into a new story

Waiting For Macbeth

Seyton: sculpture mix; dark green, transparent brown, and celadon glazing.

"Hooked, Slimed, and Gutted"

SONG: "CABIN'D, CRIBB'D, CONFIN'D"

There's a hammer in the head
And a pounding at the door.
You'll never sleep soft
Till you even out the score.
There's a question on the table
And a cupboard full of woes,
But your sole occupation's
Shooting blanks of Old Crow.

The innkeeper said,
It never fails, never fails.
Just make yourself at home:
Bed of nails, bed of nails.

Our ghosts just doze at dawn
In a soul-bin "Lost and Found."
Though hooked, slimed, and gutted,
Sorrows rarely ever drown.
(At every bottle's bottom,
Every sinner floats.
On this fishing trip to hell
You're still bailing out the boat.)

Opportunity's not knocking,
But Misery's banging pails;
You've made yourself at home:
Bed of nails, bed of nails.

--MD

Shakespeare: "Cabined, Cribbed, Confined"

MACBETH:
Then comes my fit again. I had else been perfect,
Whole as the marble, founded as the rock,
As broad and general as the casing air.
But now I am cabined, cribbed, confined, bound in
To saucy doubts and fears.—But Banquo’s safe?

--Shakespeare's Macbeth 3.4. . . .

Me: Scotch On The Rocks. You?

Thinking about Macbeth and Macbeth.

Shakespeare: "If It Were Done When 'Tis Done"

Light -- and dark -- reading.