Extra Brain Folds in David Hume's Gulliver

"It is an absurdity to believe that the deity has human passions, and one of the lowest of human passions, a restless appetite for applause." 

Happy birthday, David Hume, born on this day in 1711. Right there's a guy who had some extra folds in his brain.

He's got a few extra folds in his hat too, come to think of it 

...

I get to see Ken Burns speak tomorrow in Gettysburg. I just found out he's going to show a preview of this upcoming documentary on the American Revolution. That is exactly as excited as I can be for a film.

How many hours of my life have I spent watching Ken Burns films? A few hundred? I've watched the Civil War several times, and Baseball, and The West, and Country Music, and they are each something like 12 to 18 hours long. Everybody always forgets about his other films. He has 4 to 6 hour documentaries on Ben Franklin, Mark Twain, Muhammad Ali, tons of others. They're all great, I love them all. 

There's one thing that bugs me about him though, he doesn't drink coffee! It's said that the great art of different generations was inspired by the new drugs of the time. I don't know about that, but I'm thinking about heroin in the jazz age, and psychedelics in the rock and roll age. It's like Ken Burns reached the highest echelon of filmmaking, and the drug responsible was no coffee. That's certainly sets him apart from most of us. He doesn't drink alcohol either. My assumption is that he doesn't do heroin or psychedelics either. It turns out that combo can result in the finest art the country has ever known.

His films are so calm, so authoritative, so definitive. If somebody who knew nothing about our country sat down and watched all of his films, I believe they would understand exactly who we are.

May 7, 2025

...

Here's a good poll- 56% think that Trump should face charges over his attempts to overturn the 2020 election, and 18% of them would still vote for him. Doesn't say anything good about Biden.

...

Roger Sterling, on Don vomiting- "He was just saying what everybody else was thinking.”

...

Thinking about Trump losing a billion dollars over a decade, reminds me what Anthony Jeselnik said about his Comedy Central Roast. They were forbidden to joke about him not being as rich as he said he was.

May 7, 2018

...

Funny thing is... if Trump would put his political capital behind universal health care (if not like the current junk bill will pass the Senate anyway) he could still be remembered for something great and lasting that would save money and improve everyone's lives, and he will have came through on his campaign pledge of repealing Obamacare. Of course tons of health insurance employees would lose their jobs... but that's why we have strong unemployment programs, and their own insurance plans are probably crap too.

May 6, 2017

...

Benjamin Franklin- "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

...

Argentinian actress, 25th First Lady of Argentina, Eva Perón, was born on this thing in 1919.

"Shadows cannot see themselves in the mirror of the sun."

...

I guarantee you'd be surprised by how good the Amish are at volleyball.

May 7, 2011

...

When people can't find something sometimes they say "It's always in the last place you look." Of course it is. That's because you found it. What kind of maniac would keep looking? Beware if you ever hear someone say, "I found something in the third to last place I looked."

May 7, 2010

...

My quote of the day at work, so far: "I don't know how typle peep so fast."

May 7, 2010

...

George Carlin- "Well, that’s my job, thinking up goofy shit. You guys are busy all week."

He had an extra fold or two as well.

...

On this day in 1824 was the world premiere of Ludwig van Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in Vienna, Austria. Beethoven famously never heard it, must have been torture. Look at any picture of the guy. Doesn't seem like he's having a lot of fun. it strikes me now that Alex, from A Clockwork Orange, was having the time of his life. No question that Kubrick intended that as an ironic counterpoint.

See addendum.

...

Johann Brahms was born 9 years later to the day after the premiere of Beethoven's Ninth. "The idea comes to me from outside of me - and is like a gift. I then take the idea and make it my own - that is where the skill lies."

That's really a great quote. I think about those ideas a lot- how ideas emerge, to what extent are we responsible, is creation simply the combining of ideas, or is there more to it? Some of the key themes of A Clockwork Orange.

...

On this day in 1965, the opening of The Rolling Stones' Satisfaction came to Keith Richards in a dream. He woke up, recorded a little bit, fell back asleep and is recorded snoring for about 45 minutes. Later in the day he shared it with Mick Jagger, and as they say, the rest is history.

...

On this day in 2017, my kids danced by the anteater statue at the DC Zoo.

...

The poet Robert Browning was born on this day in 1812. 

"Who hears music, feels his solitude

Peopled at once."

...

Rabindranath Tagore joined us on May 7th, 1861.

“While God waits for His temple to be built of love, men bring stones.”

...

Archibald McLeish joined us on this day in 1892.

"Religion is at its best when it makes us ask hard questions of ourselves. It is at its worst when it deludes us into thinking we have all the answers for everybody else."

...

Deathday for serial killer, H. H. Holmes, on this day in 1896. 

“I could not help the fact that I was a murderer, no more than the poet can help the inspiration to sing.”

...

Tim Russert was born on this day in 1950. He was our generation's Walter Cronkite but he died at 58. Unfair. The previous generation's Walter Cronkite was Walter Cronkite, and he lived to almost 100. Universally respected, he was a critical missing voice during the Trump years. He didn't even live to see Obama become president. A tragedy.

...

Director of Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Clueless, Amy Heckerling, was born on this day in 1954.

"Sometimes people say, 'Oh you did one of my favorite movies,' and I will ask them what the other one is, and it's always something that I totally hate."

Haha, I bet! Those movies are so perfectly awesome, and you can see how they would each appeal to people for the exact wrong reasons. Most people would overlook the depth of each of those movies contain. Someone who loves the Fast Times at Ridgemont High might also love Porky's. If I told her I love Fast Times Ridgemont High, and she asked what else, I'd tell her Valley Girl, Citizen Kane, the Graduate, the Before Trilogy, the entire Stanley Kubrick, Herzog and Ken Burns oeurves, and then I suppose we'd write each other postcards for the rest of our lives.

...

The last known cool guy? Valley Girl excerpts.

https://youtu.be/GD6M5m2hNKM

May 7, 2011

...

Hypnotic.

http://66.media.tumblr.com/1caaa28b3f7d987ae0e0654eb77dd461/tumblr_o6m2sq6YVE1s01qkyo1_400.gif

May 7, 2016

...

Alternet- Watch: Donald Trump's Philosophy on Success Was Inspired by a 'Twilight Zone' Episode

"What are your goals?” he [Trump] was once asked in a television interview when he was at the peak of his success. “Goals?” he repeated, apparently taken aback by this foreign concept, unable to imagine a sense of purpose grander than a scorecard. “You keep winning and you win and you win,” he said in the midst of the crisis, reflecting on his better days. “You keep hitting and hitting. And then somehow it doesn’t mean as much as it used to.”

Donald liked to recall his favorite “Twilight Zone” episode, which featured a venal man who died in an accident, was offered any wish he wanted, and declared: “I want to win, win, win. Everything I want. I went to get. I want to get the most beautiful women. I want to get the beautiful this and that. I want to never lose again.” Then, as Donald recounted the story, the man was shown playing pool, winning every time. “Everything he did, he won,” said Donald, until the godlike figure who’d granted his wish came back to the man. “And the man said, ‘If this is Heaven, let me go to Hell.’ And the person said, ‘You are in Hell.' (pp. 31-32)

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.alternet.org/amp/watch-donald-trumps-philosophy-success-was-inspired-twilight-zone-episode-2647294876

May 7, 2016

...

New York Times- Decade in the Red: Trump Tax Figures Show Over $1 Billion in Business Losses

Oof. What's a good nickname for a guy who loses $1 billion over a decade? In other words... if Trump hated Trump, what would his nickname be for Trump?

"The numbers show that in 1985, Mr. Trump reported losses of $46.1 million from his core businesses — largely casinos, hotels and retail space in apartment buildings. They continued to lose money every year, totaling $1.17 billion in losses for the decade. In fact, year after year, Mr. Trump appears to have lost more money than nearly any other individual American taxpayer."

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/05/07/us/politics/donald-trump-taxes.html

May 7, 2019

...

MSNBC- Trump: 'We make ourselves look bad' through coronavirus testing

Hear that, everybody who needs a test? Take one for the team and remain untested. And those people you were around, no need to test them either. It's true that the more "confirmed cases" make us look bad. The more confirmed cases we have also IS bad. He seems to think not testing keeps the "actual cases" down. But everyone knows in their heart of hearts that the worst sin to Trump is looking bad.

You know something else that makes us look bad- not testing, the virus spreading more unnecessarily, and more people dying!

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/trump-we-make-ourselves-look-bad-through-coronavirus-testing-n1202191

May 7, 2020

...

David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding- "When men are most sure and arrogant they are commonly most mistaken."

...

Homer, The Iliad- “Any moment might be our last. Everything is more beautiful because we're doomed. You will never be lovelier than you are now. We will never be here again.”

...

Einstein- "We all know that light travels faster than sound. That's why certain people appear bright until you hear them speak."

...

Emerson- "Be not the slave of your own past - plunge into the sublime seas, dive deep, and swim far, so you shall come back with new self-respect, with new power, and with an advanced experience that shall explain and overlook the old."

...

Aleister Crowley- "You can only accomplish your object in life by complete disregard of the opinions of other people."

...

Irvin Yalom- “The more unlived your life, the greater your death anxiety. The more you fail to experience your life fully, the more you will fear death.”

...

Norm Macdonald, Based on a True Story- "And you’d correct him, but the thing is, you’re not sure you remember it a hundred percent accurately yourself. It turns out your memory isn’t the precise court stenographer you think it is, getting every word down just so. It’s more like the sketch artist way at the back of the courtroom who is doing his level best to capture images that no longer are."

...

Henry David Thoreau, Walden- "Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify."

A simpler, and therefore better, Thoreau quote- "Simplify, simplify."

I had that on a bumper sticker, "Simplify, simplify." Maybe my life would have been simpler without it.

...

Hume again, “Beauty is no quality in things themselves: It exists merely in the mind which contemplates them; and each mind perceives a different beauty.”

Our friends are those who perceive some of the same types of beauty.

Addendum

1.

Picked up from somewhere:

Helen Keller wrote the following letter to the New York Symphony Orchestra in March 1924.  Here's how she describes listening to Beethoven's "Ninth Symphony" over the radio:

“Dear Friends:

I have the joy of being able to tell you that, though deaf and blind, I spent a glorious hour last night listening over the radio to Beethoven’s “Ninth Symphony.” I do not mean to say that I “heard” the music in the sense that other people heard it; and I do not know whether I can make you understand how it was possible for me to derive pleasure from the symphony. It was a great surprise to myself. I had been reading in my magazine for the blind of the happiness that the radio was bringing to the sightless everywhere. I was delighted to know that the blind had gained a new source of enjoyment; but I did not dream that I could have any part in their joy. Last night, when the family was listening to your wonderful rendering of the immortal symphony someone suggested that I put my hand on the receiver and see if I could get any of the vibrations. He unscrewed the cap, and I lightly touched the sensitive diaphragm. What was my amazement to discover that I could feel, not only the vibration, but also the impassioned rhythm, the throb and the urge of the music! The intertwined and intermingling vibrations from different instruments enchanted me. I could actually distinguish the cornets, the roil of the drums, deep-toned violas and violins singing in exquisite unison. How the lovely speech of the violins flowed and plowed over the deepest tones of the other instruments!  When the human voices leaped up thrilling from the surge of harmony, I recognized them instantly as voices more ecstatic, upcurving swift and flame-like, until my heart almost stood still. The women’s voices seemed an embodiment of all the angelic voices rushing in a harmonious flood of beautiful and inspiring sound. The great chorus throbbed against my fingers with poignant pause and flow. Then all the instruments and voices together burst forth – an ocean of heavenly vibration – and died away like winds when the atom is spent, ending in a delicate shower of sweet notes.

Of course this was not “hearing,” but I do know that the tones and harmonies conveyed to me moods of great beauty and majesty. I also sense, or thought I did, the tender sounds of nature that sing into my hand-swaying reeds and winds and the murmur of streams. I have never been so enraptured before by a multitude of tone-vibrations.

As I listened, with darkness and melody, shadow and sound filling all the room, I could not help remembering that the great composer who poured forth such a flood of sweetness into the world was deaf like myself. I marveled at the power of his quenchless spirit by which out of his pain he wrought such joy for others – and there I sat, feeling with my hand the magnificent symphony which broke like a sea upon the silent shores of his soul and mine.”

...

2. 

Myspace Blog

May 7, 2007

The Gobbler of Vernon, Florida, Pennsylvania

About 5 times in the past year I've missed golden opportunities to record long janitor monologues that in a roundabout way reveal every last detail of their lives. Simply transcribing them would make someone seem like a genius… kind of like Errol Morris, when in Gates of Heaven he just let an old lady rant for several minutes about her ungrateful son. Errol seems like a genius for getting her to reveal her hopes, her regrets, her worries, her life's intents- but he's only indirectly involved. Whenever I bring my recorder into a rest area it ends up falling out of my pocket time after time with nothing to show for it. Then when I leave it in the truck to protect it, of course I need it. Today I missed another golden opportunity, so my memory will have to do…

…………………………

Someone stole a few plastic rods from our display at the Montour County rest area- rods that keep the brochures from falling out. Immediately a janitor, the so-called "spitting image" of Tom Waits, came over and asked me about the rods- what they were made out of, and so forth. I figured he was the one who stole them, but then he offered to buy some from me. After two seconds of conversation, it was clear he wasn't smart enough to be trying reverse psychology (asking about them so I'd think he didn't steal them.) I told him we sell them for a dollar each but I'd have to check to be sure. They are probably worth two cents. He said that he'd probably buy them for a dollar. I felt bad for him, but who am I to say he should or shouldn't buy them?

Let me be clear- I'm certain his regular IQ is very low, but his… let's call it a "turkey IQ," was off the charts. This guy was something of a turkey genius, a true turkey-calling virtuoso.

He wanted to cut the rods into quarters to make "turkey strikers." I didn't know what he was talking about- imagining some sort of contraption used to strike turkeys to death. It turns out a turkey striker is a contraption used to call turkeys. Amazing what us people with low turkey IQs don't know.

He planned to cut these rods into 6 inch sections and glue the one end into a piece of deer antler. Macabre! He told me about all kinds of things he used for turkey strikers. Once at some sort of hunting show nobody could figure out how to appeal to a couple of turkeys. He looked around quickly and saw two rocks being used for paperweights. He picked them up and started banging them together trying to imitate a turkey gobble- and he got them to run over to him in a wild passion! (History doesn't record whether their relationship was consummated.) He said "I don't know how I do it. I can't believe half of the things my brain comes up with." I love that he made his brain seem separate from himself. Have you ever known anybody that passionate about anything? He was truly a genius, by any definition.

And hell, I can help out a genius. I gave him a few rods. He said I couldn't tell the boss though because he might get in trouble. He said that just last week one of the soda machines was giving free sodas so at the end of the day he tried to take a bunch home but his boss caught him. "What I do after work is MY business," he said. I had to stash the rods so he wouldn't get in trouble.

He told me that he'd make a striker for me out of appreciation, and added "but I don't want you to give it to your friends or anything. I'll make it for you to keep- from me to you." I thanked him. No doubt that at some point in his past he gave someone something special that went unappreciated.

He asked me if I ever go turkey hunting.

"Uh, no."

"Do you hunt at all?"

"Uh, not too often." Not too often indeed!

"We should go sometime. I have a beagle for hunting rabbits. We'd have a good time."

That might be a great time! I'd have to bring my video camera.

Mid-conversation he tore off, leaping onto all-fours looking intently at something on the ground. "Damn it, three tails." He picked up the three pennies and put them in his pocket. "I found a heads earlier so I can keep them."

He got up and grabbed one of my NASCAR brochures and told me he was at a race last year. His voice became joyful when he told me about the wreck that happened near him. He said I wouldn't believe what goes on at those places-"Girls take off all their clothes and", he got really quiet, "I had my binoculars and I saw a girl giving a guy a blow job!"

Me- "What? Right there in plain sight?"

Him- "Well it's a long time until the cars come around again."

A nice old lady with a big blue bruise on her arm came in and asked me if the next exit was closed. I asked my new buddy and he said it was open. She thanked us politely, and left. The second she was gone he blasted, "Man, people around here ask the stupidest questions!!! They think Penn DOT knows everything. I'll tell you- Penn DOT doesn't know anything! We don't know anything! People ask- what's the weather up the road? That is the stupidest question!!! I don't know!!! Look outside. Like the weather up ahead would be any different than it is here!!! Stupid questions! We don't know anything."

I didn't point out that he had helped her out by giving the answer she needed.

I put out some brochures for Potter County and he said he went turkey hunting there last year. He had a chance at a big one, but missed it because he rushed. Then he quietly hung his head, slowly shaking it with remorse. He glanced at me and waited for me to ask what he wanted me to ask. I obliged- "Why did you rush?" He said he was going to have an operation that week and wanted to make sure he got one last turkey. I asked what he meant. He said they found a tumor and a cyst that went up into his brain (really?) and he wasn't sure if he'd live or not. I'd think that would make someone take their time getting that last turkey, but maybe having a brain tumor reverses what would ordinarily make sense.

I almost said "yeah, but if you would have died it wouldn't have mattered if you got one last one or not, would've it?" That sounds like a smart-ass question but I was going to ask it as though I was confused. I really wanted to hear what he'd say but I didn't get the chance- he kept the conversation bouncing.

He'd got some sour-dough mustard pretzels out of the machine and walked over to me, munching away. He offered the bag to me. "Try it."

"No thanks." His fingers were just in there. No way am I going to try them. Besides, 9AM is no time to eat pretzels for some reason.

"Try it."

"No thanks, I had them before."

"Try it."

"No, really, thanks anyway."

"Try it."

"I just had breakfast. I'm not really hungry."

"No, try it."

He wasn't becoming more emphatic, persistence sufficed. I tried it. Yep, just what I thought. It tasted like dirty hands. Did I detect the remnants of turkey blood?

I'm glad he wasn't this persistent when asking me to go turkey hunting with him. Really though, it might be fun. I could try out my new turkey striker. I think I'd really capture something special on camera too. Of course it's already been done by Errol Morris in Vernon, FL.

People criticize him for making fun of his subjects. Trying to record this experience with my new buddy makes me feel what Errol must have felt. I think in his case people take their own prejudices and apply them to him. He has said that he genuinely likes his subjects and I genuinely like this guy. No doubt that there's humor in the situation, but does recording humor that might be over the subject's head constitute "making fun" or "exploitation?" Nah, I don't feel anything negative toward him so how could recording what I feel be negative?

Same goes for Tod Browning and Freaks.

https://youtu.be/39Bnk6VU53Y

One of us. One of us.

Errol Morris, by the way, has taken a break from documentaries to work on some feature films. The one he's making now is Nub City, a film about a town with a subculture of people who cut off their joints to get the insurance money. When he made Vernon, FL, the original intent was to make a documentary about people who participate in this, but nobody would talk about it on camera. Makes sense. I'm going to look on imdb.com and if Tom Waits is starring in Nub City, consider my mind blown. They'll have to operate to remove the cysts and tumors.

As I was leaving he asked what my name was.

"Ben."

He giggled. I asked what was funny.

"Well it'll be easy to remember."

"Why?"

"My name is Ray… so you know, Ben-Gay, Ray-Gay," and he smiled, his teeth cemented with sour dough pretzel goo.

"OK."

He immediately associates the name Ben with his name- two of the names that, to him, get made fun of for being associated with "gay." Like I said, OK.

He added, "Everybody calls me Gobbler though."

(Esprit d'escalier alert- I should have said "Dick Gobbler?" No, no I shouldn't have. I'll settle with my actual response.)

"Gobbler, I get it."

"No you don't. Not yet."

And with that he started strutting around belting out world-class gobbles, gobbles of all varieties… clucks, purrs, riki-tikis, yelps, he ran the gamut of everything he just taught me. These were gobbles, Dear Reader, that Jesus Christ couldn't have improved upon.

A lady came out of the bathroom and saw us- him gobbling and me taking in the show. A couple of freaks all right.

As I shook his hand and left I might have heard the rustle of turkey feathers coming from all over the surrounding hills. Gobble, gobble. Gobble, gobble.