Ephemeris of Miscellany

I'm glad that they're taking down the bad monuments- the ones that loomed over people everyday, a constant reminder of past and present struggles. Where do we draw the line though? Some of the people memorialized are only famous for doing bad things, but some of them did very bad things and very good things.  I hope that my descendants don't knock over my gravestone over because I ate meat, drove a car, or just generally didn't do enough to rid the world of suffering. They might! But I did some good things too didn't I? Future generations could look back and think we were all positively evil, the same way we look back at past generations that wouldn't even recognize the concept of Human Rights. Our descendants could wonder how we all didn't dedicate our lives to the concept of Human Flourishing. Ironically, this is how moral progress works, and their descendants might think the same of them pertaining to concepts we can't even comprehend yet. Virus Righ...

Finding lists like this on the floor of the grocery store is a true joy.  T.P. CUCUBER RAISEN BREAD WATER MELLON At least they spelled T.P. correctly. Sounds like a fun party.  I called that number and it was for one of those help-I've-fallen-and-I-can't-get-up buttons. I told her I had the wrong number but she wouldn't let up her sales pitch until I hung up. I'm sure they'll be calling back, so the joke is on me. June 29, 2024 ... Walnuts are very healthy. Studies of blue zones show that people who eat 15-30 walnuts a day live several extra years on average. I did the math and it came out to 5 extra minutes of life on average per walnut. Now here's the problem- when Gretel just went out to the kitchen, I stole a walnut off her lunch plate. I just stole 5 minutes of life from my own daughter, like some monster! When I realized, I told her she better go out the the kitchen and get an extra walnut. June 29, 2024 ... The Dalai Lama said that if his successor is a w...

Thomas Paine, The American Crisis, 1776- "I love the [women] that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but [s]he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves [her] conduct, will pursue [her] principles..." - (From the Thomas Paine Facebook profile, in the wake of the Cassidy Hutchinson January 6th testimony on Trump flying into a rage when secret service would not let him go join the riot.) ... Jean-Jacques Rousseau's birthday today. He joined this nuthouse in 1712. "To be sane in a world of madman is in itself madness." ... We lost Rod Serling on this day in 1975. He was a guy who knew a bit about madness. "This highway leads to the shadowy tip of reality: you're on a through route to the land of the different, the bizarre, the unexplainable...Go as far as you like on this road. Its limits are only those of mind itself. Ladies and Gentlemen, yo...

Huh, how to sum up this debate? Biden should drop out, and Trump should jump out, a window. June 27, 2024 ... Zuzu asked me a pretty good question today. She asked whether I would rather know science or philosophy. I asked her what the difference was, and told her that I had a philosophy of science class in college. She said that science is what we can know for sure, and philosophy is about interesting questions that maybe don't have answers. It's good she's starting kindergarten in the fall, because maybe the teachers will want to learn something from her. June 27, 2021 ... The Onion, June 27, 2013- Eminem Terrified As Daughter Begins Dating Man Raised On His Music ... The Dalai Lama says that people often ask for him to bless them. He tells them that they can only bless themselves, and they can do that by helping others. June 27, 2020 ... Huh... we are a part of the cosmos that has become self-aware if itself. I wasn't aware of that. "We are the local embodiment ...

I couldn't respect anyone more than I respect the journalist and commentator Bill Moyers, who we lost today at 91 years old.  He was Lyndon Johnson's chief aide, helping provide the idealistic underpinnings of his Great Society, and served as his press secretary until 1966, when they had a falling out over foreign policy.  I consider his 1987 interview with Joseph Campbell the greatest interview in the history of interviews. It changed my psychology. In my last semester in college, a friend told me I should watch it, and I genuinely consider it one of the greatest educational experiences of my life. Walter Cronkite of all people called him "the conscience of the nation." I bet you can't guess what Bill is short for. Wrong, it's short for Billy. When he shortened his name to Bill, he said it sounded more dignified. I think he might be on to something there. He supervised drafting the legislation that became the Peace Corps, and it's leader called him, ...