Choice

Next time you're feeling sorry for yourself, pay a visit to Shorpy ("The hundred-year-old photo blog"). The above is a photo of Shorpy Higginbotham and his co-workers at Bessie Mine near Dora in Jefferson County, Alabama. It was taken in 1910. Look at those faces. I wonder if Shorpy fulfilled himself.

Splash

[T]rying to change what you basically are is like “walking north on the deck of a south-bound ship.”

From John Derbyshire's November Diary (for NRO). He's not sure who to attribute the quote to: Elizabeth Bowen or Rose Macaulay.