A brief history of time

William Carlos Williams thought New Directions publisher James Laughlin spent too much time skiing.

"After publishing her first novel at thirty-nine...[Muriel Spark] completed the next few books astonishingly quickly, at half-year intervals, as though some part of her mind had been readying itself." (Maud Newton)

The Great Red Spot on Jupiter is twice the size of Earth. It is a hurricane that has been raging for 340 years.

I learned these things last week.