A Beautiful Mind

Tonight in a 15-minute period:

I polished my French vocab -- Suivez-moi jeune homme (Follow me, young man) -- courtesy of an interview with Christian Louboutin at Hint.

A curious stranger sent me a Myspace message asking if I know the specific poem number that corresponds with E Cosi Desio Me Mena (And So Desire Carries Me Along) in Petrarch's Canzoniere. I'm thinking maybe it's #235:

Alas, Love carries me where I do not wish,
and I know my journey is towards her
so that I’m more annoying than before
to her who is the queen of my heart:

no skilful sailor ever guided his boat
through reefs, with thanks for his precious cargo,
as often as I have done my frail craft,
through the battering received from her harsh pride.

And then someone used "sprezzatura" in an email, so I had to go and read about that for awhile.