This painting (Judith Beheading Holofernes, above) gets mentioned twice. The first time is in Chapter 18 on page 162 during an exam in Western Civ at BYU:
The second time is in chapter 31, bottom of page 268, when she is in Rome:
"At the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, I stood before Caravaggio's Judith Beheading Holofernes and did not once think about chickens."
"Narcissistic personality disorder" has popped up a couple of times in conversation recently. This picture shows up on Wikipedia's article on the subject. The painting was done by Caravaggio. I spent a few hours reading about this guy a while back, and since I spent more than five seconds on him that should have produced a blog post, but I can find nothing. And then I remember hearing a long joke / story / pun that confused Caravaggio with Ragtime Cowboy Joe, but I can't find anything about it either.
Ragtime Cowboy Joe - The Sons of the Pioneers with Tommy Doss 1960
When I read the lines from 1 Corinthians that are so beloved of marriage celebrants, I do not form the impression that humans are lovely creatures. Instead, I ask myself why patience, kindness and perseverance are necessary. And the only answers that occur to me are that love is patient because men and women are exasperating, that love is kind because men and women are repellent, and love perseveres because love is very often a dull and unrewarding grind. When Paul tells me that love “is not easily angered,” I take him to mean that the man who loves puts up with a lot because life hands him lots to put up with. - JMSmith
