Dangling men

My cousin Caroline writes, in the "Jerusalem Post": "As we watch and worry as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon dangles between life and death, one thing is absolutely clear. Sharon's massive cerebral hemorrhage on Wednesday night spelled the end of his political career."

In discussing Sharon's current state of being, Caroline uses terminology reminiscent of that used during Yasser Arafat's last days. When normal people go, they kick buckets and such. They become ill and then pass on, or die suddenly. But if you're a Middle Eastern leader, if the future of the world depends on whether or not you make it, you hover. You dangle. You inhabit a liminal space of the sort read about by so many UChicago undergrads during Core social science classes.