America #55

[T]he only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars...

Jack Kerouac, On the Road (1951/1957)

Aphorisms #9, Food #15

The tragedy of English cooking is that “plain” cooking cannot be entrusted to “plain” cooks.

Countess Morphy, English Recipes (1935)

War #13, Age of Print #21

Art #20, Entrails of Finance #3, Manhattan #44,

Think of it, ye millionaires of many markets, what glory may yet be yours if you only listen to our advice, to convert pork into porcelain, grain and produce into priceless pottery, the rude ores of commerce into sculptured marble, and railroad shares and mining stocks—things which perish without the using, and which in the next financial panic shall surely shrivel like parched scrolls—into the glorified canvases of the world’s masters, that shall adorn these walls for centuries. The rage of Wall Street is to hunt the Philosopher’s Stone, to convert all baser things into gold, which is but dross; but ours is the higher ambition to convert your useless gold into things of living beauty that shall be a joy to a whole people for a thousand years.

Joseph H. Choate, to the Trustees of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, upon the opening of the museum. (1880)

Founders' Promissory Notes #2, Age of Print #20

Book Titles Without Context #12

Future Arterial Program, New York City

Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority (1963)