Merdre!

As it's his birthday, let's remember that little firecracker Alfred Jarry. Wikipedia's potted biography gets funnier as it goes on - the horizontally divided apartment is a lovely idea. In fact Jarry is probably more amusing and interesting to read about than to read - I don't see myself ever returning to the few works of his I read, years ago when I was young and impressionable. But such figures have their place, and (as the hoary cliche has it) the world would be duller without them. Besides, there's something about his (anti)system of 'Pataphysics that almost makes sense - 'the laws that govern exceptions and will explain the universe supplementary to this one' might well have a place in the crazy world of modern physics.