I’ve reached a stage of life where I think about mortality almost as often as about sex.
Well, maybe not that often, but still, more than I used to. As Dr. Johnson noted, an unappealable deadline concentrates the mind wonderfully.

I’m not cut out to be a pundit — I don’t trust my own instant opinions. But I had to say something. I think what I said was that the aggression of Sept. 11 had been so extreme, that it called for an extreme response, and I was not prepared to condemn the attacks [bombing of Afghanistan] without knowing a lot more about them. (2001.10.07)