'He's loosened the noose.'

'… a tiny figure carrying a big stick, say, through a valley…'

'… books which could become the subject of conversation among strangers.'

'How dare you disturb me!'

Mark Woods, longtime proprietor of wood s lot, a true weblog, has died.

I took the train, it was good, it was empty.

The heavy weight of many a weary day / Not mine, and such as were not made for me.

'When was the last time you saw yourself at your best?'

And again: 'One may almost doubt if the wisest man'—say, Socrates—'has learned any thing of absolute value by living' (i, 10), meaning: if he has, it is not by living, but by, say, dying, or preparing to. But the practical, know-howsy flavor of Thoreau's comments in these paragraphs (the example, styled proverbially: knowing enough 'to fetch fresh fuel to keep the fire a-going') alludes to problems of survival, uncertain subsistence, preparation and provision, or as he'll style it later, 'getting a living'. So, to philosophize is to learn not to die?