an undodged bullet

My parents, Powell wrote, "were British subjects, and they named me Colin (KAH-lin). Being British, they knew very well how the name was supposed to be pronounced. But when I was a young boy, there was a famous American World War II hero whose name became very popular in the streets of New York City. He was Capt. Colin P. Kelly Jr. He was called KOH-lin. My friends in the streets of the South Bronx, who heard Captain Kelly's name pronounced in the radio and by their parents and other adults, began to refer to me by the same pronunciation.

To be conscious is to be subject to just such a ping-pong of recurring nervous activities that effect muscle tone on one side and brain discharge on the other.

He was a thing of blood, whose every motion / Was timed with dying cries.