On the Nature of Being, Becoming, and Became, Plus Miscellany

Roy Orbison was born on this day in 1936. This song is from another planet, in a class all its own.

"I close my eyes, then I drift away, into the magic night I softly say. A silent prayer, like dreamers do, then I fall asleep to dream my dreams of you."

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New Coke was released on this day in 1985. 

My relatives used to play poker at get-togethers. After each game, the person to the left would deal and pick the next poker variety. If my grandma won and then it was her turn to pick the game, she would keep it the same. You know what she used to say? "Never quit a winner." 

My grandparents were farmers and then restauranteers, and every census I've seen listed my grandmother as a housewife. She lived to be 95, but apparently even in her mid-70's she could have excelled as the Marketing Director for the Coca-Cola Corporation. Coke quit a winner. 

Never quit a winner. That crosses my mind often. 

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What a story from Ken Burns' Hemingway! I never heard about him getting into a plane crash in Africa, then taking another plane to a hospital, and that plane crashed too. And that crash was worse! Someone flying overhead saw the wreckage and he was presumed dead, but he had flagged down a boat and got to another hospital. While recovering he had the pleasure of reading his own obituaries. Wow.

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A friend of mine texted me something today about Toby Soprano. 

You read that right, Toby Soprano. What a great typo!

Toby Soprano!!!

If Tony Soprano's name was Toby Soprano, the show wouldn't have lasted through the first episodes opening credits.

Side note, my friend and I were discussing Rick and Morty's Mr. Poopy Butthole when he mentioned Toby Soprano 

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Gretel got a mohawk 3 days ago and today she wants to throw a 96th birthday party for Queen Elizabeth. That seems somehow blasphemous! She did a bunch of research on what the queen would like... hamburgers, spinach, strawberries, peaches, tea, chocolate cake. I think we're eating the hamburgers with a fork. Should be a nice party.

April 23, 2022

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That puts me in mind of a classic limerick.

There was a young Royal Marine

Who tried to fart, "God Save the Queen."

When he reached the soprano

Out came the guano,

And his breeches weren't fit to be seen.

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Pretty good deal at Aldi. They have English muffins for 58 cents, and a coupon to get a dollar back at checkout. I think I'm going to quit my job and start a new job just buying English muffins at Aldi.

April 23, 2022

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George Carlin- "Have you ever noticed, when you're driving, that anyone driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone driving faster than you is a maniac?

The Concensus Bias: people see their own behavioral choices and judgments as relatively common and appropriate to existing circumstances.

BTW, that's a perfect joke.

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Did you ever notice we brush the bottoms of our top teeth and the tops of our bottom teeth?

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Why didn't anybody warn me about this? When I decided to have kids I didn't realize they were going to make disgusting concoctions for me to try, with all the hope, pride and expectations in the world. It might have affected my decision. I need to know these things. 

I felt like one of those archeologists who visited the Yanomamo and was forced to try their alcoholic drink made by all the women spitting chewed up fruit in a vat and letting it ferment. No thanks!

Black Like Me is one of my very favorite books. Back in the 60's a white writer darkened his skin and went undercover in the south as a black person. A black family welcomed them into their home at one point. I remember him mentioning something sweet running out of the child's mouth, like maybe she was eating a chocolate bar or something, and the mom wiped it off with her finger and licked it. Yuck!!! My God, such a great book, and that's the one thing that really stuck with me. Visceral! Gut churning! Of course I remember doing something very similar once with one of my kids.

Maybe the concoction wasn't as bad as I'm remembering- water, milk, a Starburst, bay leaves, chocolate syrup... but what were those chunks? Maybe shark chum??? Second thought I think I might prefer some chocolate bar saliva or booze from chewed up fermented fruit. Make it a double.

I wish I didn't dive into this one. Some things are not worth being examined.

April 23, 2020

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A new Washington Post poll shows that 53% think Trump is a strong leader, but nearly 60% doubt his honestly, temperment, empathy and judgement. Since 40% evidently don't doubt those qualities... there's an overlap of 13% of us who think he's a strong leader in spite of their doubts about those qualities. 

Maybe those people are right... maybe the strongest leader can lead you right off a cliff.

Only 25% consider Trump honest and trustworthy, but 42% support him. So 17% support him without trusting what they support, so perhaps those people only trust themselves 83% max? 

I don't like Jim Jones' Kool-Aid policy, but I'm not sure I trust my own Kool-Aid policy more than his, and I can't just run off into the woods can I?

April 23, 2017

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So get this...between 1900 and 2006, non-violent resistors (of groups of 1000 more) were twice as likely than violent ones to overthrow an incumbent government or create a new territory. Unbelievable, but supported by data.

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"We'll rebuild the Death Star. It'll be amazing, believe me. So luxurious. And the Rebels are going to pay for it."

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Did David Foster Wallace really expect us to read all of his footnotes in Consider the Lobster? It would be like watching a tv show with commercials every 30 seconds.

April 23, 2011

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I just ate an egg that would have grown up to be Siamese chicken twins.

April 23, 2011

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Fight like a girl.

https://45.media.tumblr.com/13ed8bb6d15c2ade2584f8bed7ca6fa7/tumblr_n73wc8qZ9b1sjz7a3o1_400.gif

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Emma's drunk. She just referred to our cat Sam as "Ben."

April 23, 2011

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Talking to Emma's mom tonight: 

MJ- Your parents were very quiet. What did you tell them about me? 

Ben- I told them that once you served us bones for a holiday meal. 

MJ- It was for the marrow. 

Ben- Bones are a meal for an animal. Or an ogre. MJ- I got the recipe from a BOOK. 

Ben- Mein Kampf is a book. Do you believe all its information is reputable? 

She changed the subject pretty quickly.

April 23, 2010

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On this day in 1999, Fernando Tatis Sr. somehow hit two grand slams in the same inning.

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The first YouTube video what's up loaded on this day in 2005, by co-founder Jawed Karim, titled "Me at the zoo." That's a good reminder that at any point, the lives humans live 15 years in the future will be totally unrecognizable to us now. That was not true for the first 300,000 years we walked the earth.

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Clouds above the Blue Swallow Hotel in Tucumcari, on this night in 2021.

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German physicist and Nobel prize laureate, Max Planck, was born on this day in 1858. A powerhouse quote, something I try to remember as often as I can: 

"A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it."

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Roger Sterling- "Maybe every generation thinks the next one is the end of it all."

I think so, and I also think one of those generations is going to be right.

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The poet Williams Wordsworth died on this day in 1850.

"Life is divided into three terms - that which was, which is, and which will be. Let us learn from the past to profit by the present, and from the present, to live better in the future."

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James Buchanan was born on this day in 1791, and lived in a mansion named Wheatland, several blocks from mine. You hear nothing but bad things about James Buchanan, so I'll offer one good thing. He supported Lincoln during the Civil War.

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Actress and diplomat, Shirley Temple, was born on this day in 1928, and left us about 86 years later. In the thirties she said:

"Any star can be devoured by human adoration, sparkle by sparkle."

Decades later she reflected on her time as a diplomat.

"Dr. Kissinger was surprised that I knew where Ghana was."

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Michael Moore was born on this day in 1954. His films take some real poetic liberties, but there is no denying the perfection of the Wouldn't It Be Nice montage from Roger & Me. That's filmmaking at its absolute finest.

https://youtu.be/hM43KvSsJeQ

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Jan Hooks was born on this day in 1957. "I’ve learned one thing in my life; never fry chicken when you are naked."

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Phillies reliever Rhéal Cormier was born on this day in 1967. I was at a game once and saw him do something amazing. I remember it like I'm still there. Batter is up, there's a guy on first. Cormier gets the sign, attempts a pick off. Safe. Gets back on the mound, gets ready to pitch, another pickoff attempt. Safe again. The crowd rumbles with irritation. Gets back on the mound, gets ready to pitch, ANOTHER PICK OFF ATTEMPT! Safe a third time! The crowd started booing like crazy, yelling, calling him names. He gets back on the mound and everybody in the stadium is thinking exact one thing- it would be impossible for him to try a fourth pick off attempt after getting booed like that by his own crowd. Correction, everybody except one person was thinking that. He got back on the mound and got ready to pitch. A pregnant pause, then an impossible fourth pick off attempt. HE GETS HIM! The place erupts in cheers. That might have been the single-greatest display of confidence I've ever witnessed first-hand.

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John Oliver was born on this day in 1977. He asked Steven Hawking since he believes in parallel universes, does that mean that there's one in which John is smarter than him. Hawking said, "Yes, and one in which you are funny."

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Japanese Samurai Minamoto no Tametomo died on this day in 1170. He was a powerful archer and is said to have sunk a ship with a single arrow by puncturing the hull under the water line. He is possibly the first samurai to commit seppuku.

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Confucian scholar and Chinese philosopher, Zhu Xi, died on this day in 1200. A student asked him what could be done about him being confused by different theories he's read. He answered, “Start with an open mind, then read one theory. Read one view before reading another. After you have read them again and again, what is right and wrong, useful and useless, will become apparent of itself. The process can be compared to trying to discover whether a person is good or bad. You observe him wherever he goes, notice what he says or does, and then know if he is good or bad. Wash away your old opinions to let new ideas in.”

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William Shakespeare died on this day in 1616. There's a 361 page glossary titled Shakespeare's Sexual Language.

Othello: Act 1, Scene 1

IAGO: I am one, sir, that comes to tell you your daughter and the Moor are now making the beast with two backs.

Mercution in Romeo & Juliet:

If love be blind, love cannot hit the mark.

Now will he sit under a medlar tree

And wish his mistress were that kind of fruit

As maids call medlars when they laugh alone.

O Romeo, that she were! Oh, that she were

An open arse, and thou a poperin pear

From Venus and Adonis:

"Graze on my lips, and if those hills be dry

Stray lower, where the pleasant fountains lie."

It was a simpler time.

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Paulette Goddard left us on this day in 1990.

"You live in the present and you eliminate things that don't matter. You don't carry the burden of the past. I'm not impressed by the past very much. The past bores me, to tell you the truth; it really bores me."

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Indian director Satyajit Ray left us on this day in 1992. He wrote this dialogue for the old woman to sing in Panther Panchali:

“Those who came before have passed on. And I'm left behind. A penniless beggar. Not a cowrie to my name. Look, my purse is empty... Lord, the day is done and evening falls. Ferry me across to the other shore...”

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Cesar Chavez left us on this day in 1993.

"We learned many years ago that the rich may have money, but the poor have time."

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Other notable deathdays- Otto Preminger (1986), David Halberstam (2007)

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Anybody looking for the meaning of life needs to watch this clip of the ending of Manhattan and substitute their own list for his. I don't think anybody is looking for the meaning of life, but rather the experience of being alive.

https://youtu.be/VIugrczLUl0

April 23, 2011

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An all-time favorite scene- Siam vs Mexico, from The Saddest Music in the World

https://youtu.be/v6S6TPVLuYw

April 23, 2011

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The Onion- Hubble Kaleidoscope Finds Evidence Of Space Looking All Crazy

http://onion.com/1HslWeB

April 23, 2015

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Slate- Trump Says “Congratulations … Tremendous” to Purple Heart Recipient

"Congratulations" for getting your leg amputated. Straight-talker Trump should have told it like it is, like he did with McCain... "I like troops that don't get their legs amputated." He's selling out.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/04/22/trump_says_congratulations_tremendous_to_purple_heart_recipient.html

April 23, 2017

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I can't get this out of my head... Jack dips his bacon in his egg yolk like several hundred times. I've probably seen this 50 times and it never rose into my consciousness... now I'm haunted by it.

April 23, 2020

Postscript- Can't find the link.

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Alternet- Trump horrifies viewers by rambling off a string of baffling and dangerous ideas to treat COVID-19

I don't know... if they seem like reasonable cures, maybe try them? With a medical doctor's approval of course. Medical doctors should definitely be involved in some way. Let me repeat that, make sure a medical doctor prescribes the bleach or alcohol you are considering injecting into your veins. No, not a doctor of philosophy or some other fake doctor, a MEDICAL doctor. At least run it by them first. Now it's the president's brainchild, and he certainly deserves all the credit for coming up with it... that disinfectants clean surfaces quickly, so why not the insides of bodies too??? Maybe a little wouldn't hurt? What do you have to lose? If that makes sense, MAYBE try it??? No, see a doctor first. Or at least a chiropractor.

https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/trump-horrifies-viewers-by-rambling-off-a-string-of-baffling-and-dangerous-ideas-to-treat-covid-19

April 23, 2020

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Washington Post Opinion by Fareed Zakaria Welcome to Donald Trump’s reelection strategy

"Welcome to Donald Trump’s reelection strategy, where he is both the government and the opposition to that government... Trump’s solution is to play insider and outsider simultaneously. One day he announces a careful plan, devised by public health officials, that outlines a step-by-step process for opening up. The next day, he sides with street protesters against governors who are following those very guidelines. It’s a complicated dance."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trump-knows-only-one-reelection-dance--the-populism-hustle/2020/04/23/82fc26e6-859d-11ea-878a-86477a724bdb_story.html

April 23, 2020

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The father of a victim of Oklahoma City bombing visited Bill McVeigh to tell him that he did not blame him for what his son did. That sentiment goes back to the Magna Carta. We are our own entities, our sins only reflect on us. 

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Stanley Kubrick's NY Street Pictures

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Richard Dawkins- "We admit that we are like apes, but we seldom realize that we are apes."

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John Gotti- "I never lie because I don't fear anyone. You only lie when you're afraid."

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David Lynch- "I don't know why people expect art to make sense. Life doesn't make sense."

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Voltaire- “Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do.”

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Alejandro Jordorowski- "Birds born in a cage think flying is an illness."

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Joseph Campbell, A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living:

Nietzsche was the one who did the job for me. At a certain moment in his life,the idea came to him of what he called 'the love of your fate.' Whatever your fate is, whatever the hell happens, you say, 'This is what I need.' It may look like a wreck, but go at it as though it were an opportunity, a challenge. If you bring love to that moment--not discouragement--you will find the strength is there. Any disaster you can survive is an improvement in your character, your stature, and your life. What a privilege! This is when the spontaneity of your own nature will have a chance to flow.

Then, when looking back at your life, you will see that the moments which seemed to be great failures followed by wreckage were the incidents that shaped the life you have now. You’ll see that this is really true. Nothing can happen to you that is not positive. Even though it looks and feels at the moment like a negative crisis, it is not. The crisis throws you back, and when you are required to exhibit strength, it comes.

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John Waters- "My idea of an interesting person is someone who is quite proud of their seemingly abnormal life and turns their disadvantage into a career."

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Einstein- "What a sad era when it is easier to smash an atom than a prejudice."

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Sam Harris, The End of Faith- "The men who committed the atrocities of September 11 were certainly not 'cowards,' as they were repeatedly described in the Western media, nor were they lunatics in any ordinary sense. They were men of faith—perfect faith, as it turns out—and this, it must finally be acknowledged, is a terrible thing to be."

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Jean-Paul Sartre- "Smooth and smiling faces everywhere, but ruin in their eyes."

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John Muir, The Mountains of California- "We all travel the Milky Way together, trees and men."

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https://youtu.be/UTR2IlAJEyQ

Orbison again- "Only the lonely know the way I feel tonight."