I've Never Seen Anyone So Beautiful...

On this day in 1962, Marilyn Monroe sang Happy Birthday to John F. Kennedy at Madison Square Gardens. At the time she was having intermittent affairs with him, AND his brother. 

Ambassador to the United Nations, and former presidential candidate, Adlai Stevenson, remembered later, "I don't think I had ever seen anyone so beautiful as Marilyn Monroe that night." 

She had just over two more months with us.

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"The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam. That's not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace." -Barack Obama*

*actually George W. Bush, Sept 17, 2001

Obama would have been killed by Bush supporters for saying such a thing.

May 19, 2011

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Oh my god, why is George W. Bush in the news again with another gaffe??? It's a real showstopper.

From ABC News:

"The result is an absence of checks and balances in Russia, and the decision of one man to launch a wholly unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq," said Bush, before catching himself and shaking his head. "I mean -- of Ukraine."

May 19, 2022

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Paul Mooney on the Iraq War:

[As George Bush] “Weapons of Mass Destruction. I’m so sure they have them.” Yeah, you and your daddy because you got the receipt.

Paul Mooney left us on this day in 2021.

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Ironic that this Oz ordeal perfectly exposes the man behind the curtain!

Trump told Oz to just declare victory before all the votes are counted in order to gain advantage. It's just like that time he started crying about voter fraud in his own election. 

No, not that time. I'm talking about when he lost the Iowa caucus to Ted Cruz in 2016 and cried about Cruz committing voter fraud. What else could explain the perfect Trump losing? 

Or is there a chance he tries to change people's percention of reality to protect his brand? He couldn't be that vain, could he?

Wait a second though, before he decided to become a politician, he was universally known for chincy surface gloss and unbounded vanity. 

People compare him to PT Barnum, but when PT Barnum devised some trick, he didn't simultaneously tell people the trick. He can't tell someone to simply declare victory in the absence of evidence, and pretend he isn't doing the same thing 

Actually he can do it, but someone would have to be insane to believe him! It would be like Dorothy continuing to trust that the blustery old windbag Wizard of Oz was capable of magic after he told her that he wasn't.

May 19, 2022

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The New York Post Sunday Magazine published Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail on this day in 1963. It needs to be required reading for all high school students.

"I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season." Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection."

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Ho Chi Minh, the first President of Vietnam, was born on this day in 1890. "You will kill ten of us, we will kill one of you, but in the end, you will tire of it first."

On his 35th birthday, Pol Pot and Malcolm X were born.

On his 45th birthday, T.E. Lawrence left us. "All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake up in the day to find it was vanity, but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible."

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Malcolm X- "It's just like when you've got some coffee that's too black, which means it's too strong. What do you do? You integrate it with cream, you make it weak. But if you pour too much cream in it, you won't even know you ever had coffee. It used to be hot, it becomes cool. It used to be strong, it becomes weak. It used to wake you up, now it puts you to sleep."

Apparently he was some leader in constructing racist analogies or something.

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Nora Ephron was born on this day in 1941. From When Harry Met Sally:

"When I buy a new book, I always read the last page first, that way in case I die before I finish, I know how it ends. That, my friend, is a dark side."

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Today, on "This Is Impeachable, Right?"

"President Trump attempted to use the power of his office and the federal government to financially injure Amazon, a company owned by a man who publishes journalism Trump doesn't like."

May 19, 2018

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The Wanderers- Peewee and Terror

https://youtu.be/qCgg-LVBSGc

"Don't go, Terror." Linda Manz...great actress or greatest actress?

May 19, 2018

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Prince Harry and Meghan Markle wed at St. George's Chapel, Windsor, on this day in 2018, with an estimated global audience of 1.9 billion. The Onion joked that he had his old Nazi outfit re-tailored for the event.

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On this day in 1536, Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII of England, is beheaded for adultery, treason, and incest. Not a great combo! Great recipe for a ghost that will stick around 500 years or more.

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I read lots of comments on pro-Trump articles, which might count as a form of self-harm. Granted these comments must be from the 20% that would indeed stand by Trump after his 5th Avenue executions. I don't want to say a majority of pro-Trump debates (if you can call them debates) follow this logic, but a significant number do:

Opening: Trump did X, X is bad.

Rebuttal: Obama did X too, and Hillary would have done Y which is worse.

You'd think the best thing about their infallible leader is that he's not worse than the two people they hate the most. Meanwhile if either of them did one of Trump's worst 100 things they'd be pressuring him to execute them as traitors... probably on 5th Avenue, come to think of it.

May 19, 2018

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Can someone please start a Kickstarter for Sean Spicer to resign and write his memoirs? If we all chip in 10 cents he'll get $30 million. I think it will be worth it. He'll gain the upper hand, be a national hero, and Trump will be so proud of him for not being a loser by getting demoted or fired.

May 19, 2017

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Letter From a Birmingham Jail, again: "One has not only a legal, but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws."

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Dave Letterman- "At first I thought 'I screwed up the Academy Awards, they could arrest me.' A few days passed and I thought, 'I screwed up the Academy Awards, and I don't care.' Now I think, 'I screwed up the Academy Awards and I couldn't be more proud.'"

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IFL Science: Five Biggest Threats To Human Existence

1. Nuclear War

2. Bioengineered Pandemic

3. Superintelligence

4. Nanotechnology

5. Unknown Unknowns

I love that #5 is- unknown unknowns!

"The most unsettling possibility is that there is something out there that is very deadly, and we have no clue about it. The silence in the sky might be evidence for this. Is the absence of aliens due to that life or intelligence is extremely rare, or that intelligent life tends to get wiped out?

May 19, 2017

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What's going to happen on the next Mad Men??? Big things, no question. Stonewall Riots. Return of Sal? Manson murders... with a mention of Don visiting Megan exactly where they happen, exactly when they will happen. I think it will be a backdrop, but I'm hopeful they are victims of some creepy-crawling. And it's all setting up the final season when we go to the moon, literally and somehow metaphorically.

May 19, 2014

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Kenny confused his mom with his girlfriend... Draper has mom vs. girlfriend issues... both prostitutes. Lot of heartbeat themes. Emma reminded me Chevy is the heartbeat of America. Some reference to the song on the phone in Sylvia's apartment. Every one of them are prostituting themselves. What the hell is going on here? Emma's a genius. Best Mad Men of the season. I'm not on speed.

May 19, 2013

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Concerning last week's Mad Men- it's bothered me all week why Ginsburg included a pig in the things getting hit in the face with a snowball. It just seemed so weird. I was just rewatching it and saw in his preliminary sketches that he had an early tag line "Snowball- it's something to name your pig." Snowball was a pig from Animal Farm... a story about the Nazis... Ginsburg was born in a concentration camp... the other things getting hit in the face in his ad campaign are Hitler and a cop (a pig), both authority figures... and the whole Snowball thing is used to set the stage for conflict between Ginsburg and Don, his boss. So now that's established...

May 19, 2012

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Buffalo Bill's 1st Buffalo Bill's Wild West opened in Omaha, Nebraska on this day in 1883.

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The great André the Giant was born on this day in 1946. He seemed like a normal little baby. On is 5th birthday, Joey Ramone was born. I bet he seemed like a normal little baby too.

Good day for strangely shaped people I suppose.

"I don't think I had ever seen anyone so beautiful..."

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Other notable birthdays- Peter Mayhew (1944), Pete Townshend (1945)

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I'm watching PBS's This Emotional Life... the episode on happiness. Know what studies have shown- money tends to cause happiness, children do not, marriage probably does. Thoughts?

May 19, 2010

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Booth Tarkington left us on this day in 1946.

"It is love in old age, no longer blind, that is true love. For the love's highest intensity doesn't necessarily mean it's highest quality."

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Stanislav Petrov left us on this day in 2017

"The Man Who Saved the World," quite possibly not an exaggeration. I have a post-it note on my desk that says "Vasili Arkhipov" on it, and I'm adding Stanislav Petrov to it. The lesson: Do not blindly follow orders and protocol, use your brain instead, and you too could one day save the world.

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/09/18/551792129/stanislav-petrov-the-man-who-saved-the-world-dies-at-77

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Premakes- The Empire Strikes Back (1950)

https://youtu.be/KmTpOQrqoO0

May 19, 2010

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NPR- One Couple, Nearly 20 Years, All 'Before Midnight'

Oh my. Several of you might be interested in this- not more interested than me, but maybe as interested as me.

http://www.npr.org/2013/05/19/184818250/one-couple-nearly-20-years-all-before-midnight

May 19, 2013

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Pew Social Trends- Gun Homicide Rate Down 49% Since 1993 Peak; Public Unaware

http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2013/05/07/gun-homicide-rate-down-49-since-1993-peak-public-unaware/

Interesting article, particularly the possible causes.

May 19, 2013

Postscript- That must have come up, right?

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Science Blogs- Op-ed piece on swimming pools vs. guns as the most dangerous weapon

Spoiler alert: swimming pools are 100 times more dangerous than guns. I need to add that the author says, "Don’t get me wrong. My goal is not to promote guns, but rather, to focus parents on an even greater threat to their children. People are well aware of the danger of guns and, by and large, gun owners take the appropriate steps to keep guns away from children. Public attitudes towards pools, however, are much more cavalier because people simply do not know the facts."

http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2001/07/27/levittpoolsvsguns/

May 19, 2013

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The Onion- Prince Harry Gets Old Suit Tailored To Wear To Wedding

Haha!

https://trib.al/jSDWUpL

May 19, 2018

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Tim Urban, Wait But Why: 

In what other aspects of your life do you apply the rationale you use to avoid a Vegan/Vegetarian lifestyle? (i.e. “This action/choice is indefensible but I’ll do it anyway since it’s 1. enjoyable, and 2. socially permissible.”) – Ndi S. (New York, NY)

If I’m understanding correctly, the question is: “You’ve admitted that despite knowing how wrong it is to support the torture and brutal slaughter of helpless animals, you do it anyway because you’re kind of a dick. Where else in your life are you kind of a dick in a similar way?”

Good question. Let’s see…

I’m typing this on a MacBook Pro made in a Chinese factory of nightmares and suicide.

I buy plastic things a lot and only recycle them if it’s easy.

I’m wearing clothes most likely sewn by a melancholy 11-year-old somewhere far away in “Let’s just not think about that!” land.

I sometimes leave the water running while I’m brushing my teeth even though lack of clean water is destroying like 50% of the world’s happiness.

I hire unpaid interns sometimes.

I walk by 15 homeless people a day and give them money only when I have change in my pocket and then walk into a coffee shop and tip the barista a dollar or two even though they definitely have a bed.

If I walk by someone’s house and a mean-looking dog is in the yard behind a fence, I bark at him to get him worked up because it’s funny and he doesn’t know how to open the gate.

I leave my phone on LTE until the plane gets too high to get a signal.

I sneak down to better seats at the Red Sox game.

I sometimes sign Andrew up for the mailing lists of fortune tellers and other mystics when I have a few minutes to kill on the internet.

I cohabitate with a tortoise in a small apartment even though he belongs in the desert.

Thanks Ndi.

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Emerson- "You have just dined, and however scrupulously the slaughterhouse is concealed in the graceful distance of miles, there is complicity."

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Bertrand Russell- “Those who say that God is beyond the human mind profess to know a great deal about God. They do not really mean God is beyond comprehension, only partly beyond comprehension. And generally they mean that He is beyond the comprehension of your mind and not beyond the comprehension of theirs.“

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Letter From a Birmingham Jail, yet again: "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly."

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Sam Harris- "To me this is the true horror of religion: it allows perfectly decent and seen people to believe, by the billions, what only lunatics would believe on their own."

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Carl Sagan, Contact- “We all have a thirst for wonder. It's a deeply human quality. Science and religion are both bound up with it. What I'm saying is, you don't have to make stories up, you don't have to exaggerate. There's wonder and awe enough in the real world. Nature's a lot better at inventing wonders than we are.”

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Hume- "Liberty of any kind is never lost all at once."

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Einstein- "The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed."

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Lemmy- “Apparently people don't like the truth, but I do like it; I like it because it upsets a lot of people. If you show them enough times that their arguments are bullshit, then maybe just once, one of them will say, 'Oh! Wait a minute - I was wrong.' I live for that happening. Rare, I assure you.” 

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Henry David Thoreau, Walden- "Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth."

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Hunter S. Thompson, The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955-1967- "In San Francisco - life goes on. Hope rises and dreams flicker and die. Love plans for tomorrow and loneliness thinks of yesterday. Life is beautiful and living is pain. The sound of music floats down a dark street. A young girl looks out a window and wishes she were married. A drunk sleeps under a bridge. It is tomorrow."

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God- "How can I convince people that Jesus is real? I know, I'll put his face on a crab's ass!"