links for 2009-06-25

• Leave me alone by Garrison Keillor
  There is nothing odd about wanting to be alone. It doesn't mean that I am spray-painting Nazi slogans on the walls and fantasizing about getting even with them what done me wrong. It doesn't indicate male menopause. It only means that I am experiencing Personal Male Secrecy Syndrome (PMSS), the urge common to all men to climb a tree and sit on a high limb for a few hours. This is a powerful motive in most literary careers. Yes, John Updike had a great gift, but also John Updike preferred not to spend his life at a conference table but rather in a quiet corner with a yellow legal pad and a rollerball pen and write what he wished, nobody looking over his shoulder and saying, "Could we change that 'me' to 'you'?"
  (tags: GarrisonKeillor Garrison Keillor Salon Alone solitude meditation opinion beingalone lonely social)