From the
NY Times obituary of the great Yvonne Loriod -
For Messiaen, birdsong provided intimation of the music of heaven, unclouded by human egotism. He and Ms. Loriod would often go off in search of these natural singers, with Messiaen notating their melodies in the field and later incorporating them into his music.
In Ms. Loriod he found a musician who could provide avian qualities of agility and spectacle. "I have", he once said, "an extraordinary, marvelous, inspired interpreter whose brilliant technique and playing — in turn powerful, light, moving and colored — suit my works exactly."
It delighted him that her name was homophonous with that of a singing bird: the loriot, or golden oriole, which duly has its place in Catalogue d'Oiseaux.
From the ABC site quoting footballer Brett Kirk on his imminent retirement (I have no idea who he is, tho presumably he's a living national treasure, such as the teenager who's just sailed around the world) -
I want to be the dog that sticks its head out the window and lets the wind fly through its hair.
Vasily Rozanov (shortly before dying of cold and starvation in 1919), on an "iron curtain" coming down "with a clang, thud and bang" at the 'end of Russian history' -
The performance is over and the members of the audience, who have stood up saying "It's time to put on our overcoats and go home" look around to find neither their overcoats nor their homes exist any more.
