Swans sing before they die - 'twere no bad thing
Did certain persons die before they sing.

--- Samuel Taylor Coleridge

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For thee the fates, severely kind, ordain
A cool suspense from pleasure and from pain;
Thy life a long, dead calm of fix'd repose;
No pulse that riots, and no blood that glows.

--- Alexander Pope, Eloisa to Abelard

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Interesting commentary on grown women lusting after the teenage boys in Harry Potter.

For once, it's the other way around :)

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After the rather insipid Empires: Dawn of the Modern World (the lack of a sequel tells you how well received it was), I am now on to Reign of Chaos.

Yes, it's 2 years old. So I'm slow.