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November 20, 2004

Friday night...and Saturday morning

Nothing, my aging Flaccus

Nothing, my aging Flaccus, looks so happy next to your ranch
as your grape arbor, like many other domestic vineyards
here in suburban Rhode Island.  Gentlemen who neglect grapes
in their daily diets, not to say fermented cereals
(our actual favorites), live depressing lives unrelieved
by vomiting, hallucination, hangover, or passing
out.  In your rumpus room let us celebrate moderation
in all things.  If we do not contain or control addiction,
we will not after all survive to ruin our middle age
in a continual drunken stupor, which deadens the pain
of daily depression.  Let us assemble to celebrate
whiskey, wine, beer, ale, gin, rum, and the middle way.  Vitamins
carefully administered will help us evade the anguish
of aging without undue attention to the suffering
we inflict (mostly upon devoted families) except
for a few alert moments before we are granted to die.

--Donald Hall

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