The Mystery of the Footsteps in the Breezeway

I took Pepper out back tonight and heard someone walking back toward us through the dark breezeway between our house and our neighbors. I kept hearing the footsteps but the person never materialized. Our neighbors have been away for weeks. Step, step, step, step, they just kept going. I remained calm... realized it was our second story air conditioner dripping on a cardboard box. Have any mysteries you need solved?

July 9, 2017

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The Qanon nitwits blowing up the "demonic" Georgia guidestones, are no different in principle than the Taliban blowing up the 100ft Buddhas that were carved into the cliffs in Afghanistan in the 6th century.

Watch out for this cult. If you didn't notice, they also tried to take over the US government during the last transition of power.

July 9, 2022

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On this day in 1776, a statue of King George was melted down in Bowling Green, NY, to make bullets for the Revolution.

July 9, 2020

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Republican Jesus:

Conservatives: BILL CLINTON WAS FRIENDS WITH EPSTEIN TOO!! 

Liberals: ok if it turns out he did that shit lock his ass up too no matter who you are being a pedo is inexcusable 

Conservatives: HAHAHA YOU LIBS LOVE YOUR DOUBLE STANDARDS!!

Just A BIT of an oversimplification! But a good reminder that neither Trump nor Clinton can be excused from their own alleged bad behavior (or crimes) by pointing out that the other one is guilty of the same thing.

July 9, 2020

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Regarding his and Colonel Curtis LeMay's involvement in the bombing of Japan during World War II, Robert McNamara said this:

"LeMay said if we lost the war that we would have all been prosecuted as war criminals. And I think he's right. He... and I'd say I... were behaving as war criminals. LeMay recognized that what he was doing would be thought immoral if his side has lost. But what makes it immoral if you lose and not immoral if you win?"

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A guy in a group I belong to just wrote this about Rumble Fish: 

"Immensely disappointed with this buy. It’s... I’m sorry it’s so fucking angsty. Just like the outsiders. Everyone is so dramatic and over the top. Please prove me wrong and give me some insights into this film that’ll change my mind. P.S. who the fuck goes by “Rusty James”? That’s too much. Why not just Rusty?" 

I posted the first paragraph of Ebert's review and the guy wrote back that it changed his mind! Here it is:

"This is a movie you are likely to hate, unless you can love it for its crazy, feverish charm. It's all style and flash, all emotion and impact, and it doesn't slow down for the usual items of business. It lays a weird-looking, experimental film style on top of a fairly basic story about hoods and street gangs, and if you care how the story turns out, you're in the wrong movie."

July 9, 2019

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I voted for Ross Perot in '92 and '96. Know why? Me neither.

July 9, 2019

Postscript- He died that day.

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I don't see the big deal with the president looking the other way concerning Russia's involvement in our election... I mean it's not like he has to be pro-Russia for four years or they'll throw the next election to his competitor, right?

July 9, 2017

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Clarke Kant- "Instead of bear arms, I'd rather have the right to giraffe legs. Let's move on this one, Obama!"

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The Dalai Lama was asked who have been his biggest influences. He said "every person I meet." That raises the question- who is the worst person the Dalai Lama ever met, and how did they influence him?

July 9, 2014

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Aren't we all, at all times, having a rendezvous with destiny? People just don't put it in those terms when they're making orange custard, watching blind cats try to catch flies, and stumbling around with a hurt back. Yep, a lot of rendezvouses with destiny tonight.

July 9, 2011

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Watching Family Ties... doubt if I got all the William F. Buckley jokes when I was 8.

July 9, 2011

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A good book tip always ends with "read the first chapter and if you don't like it, give it away." How can you argue with that?

July 9, 2011

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General tip- to read quickly, keep your eyes moving using a pencil if necessary, and no sub-vocalization. You can understand things quicker than you can see them out loud.

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President Zachary Taylor died in office on this day in 1850. It might have had something to do with the DC sewage system.

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The Russell–Einstein Manifesto was released in a conference in London on this day in 1955, calling for a reduction of the risk of nuclear warfare. If Bertrand Russell and Albert Einstein put out a joint manifesto, you better be on their side. Russell started the conference by saying this:

"I am bringing the warning pronounced by the signatories to the notice of all the powerful Governments of the world in the earnest hope that they may agree to allow their citizens to survive."

Einstein signed it just before he died a few months prior. 

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Oliver Sacks joined us on this day in 1933. 

"I find myself walking softly on the rich undergrowth beneath the trees, not wanting to crack a twig, to crush or disturb anything in the least — for there is such a sense of stillness and peace that the wrong sort of movement, even one’s very presence, might be felt as an intrusion… The beauty of the forest is extraordinary — but “beauty” is too simple a word, for being here is not just an esthetic experience, but one steeped with mystery, and awe."

I have like five of his books. High time to read one.

Marginalian- Oliver Sacks on Nature’s Beauty as a Gateway into Deep Time and a Lens on the Interconnectedness of the Universe

https://www.themarginalian.org/2018/07/17/oliver-sacks-beauty-deep-time/

Postscript- I did listen to his autobiography. Once he was in his office with a patient, consciously wishing that he could get inside his head and see what was going on. An hour later the patient was hit by a truck and died, an autopsy was done immediately, and Oliver was holding the patient's brain in his hands.

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OJ Simpson was born on this day in 1947.

Norm Macdonald, on Lights Out with David Spade, after Dennis Miller gave Norm accolades for continuing to do OJ jokes after the people who signed the checks at NBC forbid him to tell them.

"With all of this cancel culture now I take a different position on OJ Simpson. He was found not guilty by a jury of his peers. I accept that. The only thing he's guilty of to me is being the greatest rusher in the history of the NFL. Maybe I was the greatest rusher to judgment."

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Horror writer, Thomas Ligotti, was born on this day in 1953.

"The human phenomenon is but the sum of densely coiled layers of illusion each of which winds itself on the supreme insanity that there are persons of any kind when all there can be is mindless mirrors laughing and screaming as they parade about in an endless dream."

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Fred Savage was born on this day in 1976. Don't ever let it be overlooked that he accomplished one of the monumental feats in acting, suspending my disbelief 110% for years on end.

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Earl Warren left us on this day in 1974, when I was just starting to experiment with eating hard foods. He was the 14th Chief Justice of the United States and head of the Warren commission that investigated the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

Damn the conspiracy theories- his commission correctly came to conclusion that Oswald acted alone.

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Rip Torn left us on this day is 2019. He is survived by his son Laceration Slit.

I'm on your side. I'm not standing by that terrible joke. But it crossed my mind, so I wrote it down. Screw it!

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Other notable birthdays Lindsey Graham (1955), Tom Hanks (1956), Courtney Love (1964), Pamela Adlon (1966), Jack White (1975)

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Gretel, July 9, 2014

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LA Times, July 7, 2013- Pope John Paul II and the Trouble With Miracles, by Lawrence Krauss:

David Hume gave me an aneurysm with this quote- "No testimony is sufficient to establish a miracle, unless the testimony be of such a kind that its falsehood would be more miraculous than the fact which it endeavors to establish." I suppose the fact that a dead man gave me an aneurysm is evidence of an anti-miracle?

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-krauss-pope-miracle-sainthood-20130708,0,2706349.story

July 9, 2013

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It's well-known that the president holds loyalty is the highest regard. He doesn't really strike me as a guy worthy of loyalty though, which is likely why he's surrounded himself with family, longtime personal friends, those who seem to be in it for the money (Kellyanne Conway was against before she was for him), and Breitbart far-right idealogues as his political operatives. A recipe for disaster.

July 9, 2017

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For how horrendous Biden was at the debate, I think the worst moment was when Trump was asked if he'd stay in NATO and he just shrugged. Twenty-three of thirty-two countries are hitting their goal of 2% of GDP going toward defense. 

It almost makes you think he doesn't like NATO for its own sake. 

Remember when he said he might encourage Russia to attack NATO countries that didn't contribute enough? Do you get the feeling he doesn't understand the first thing about NATO, or do you think it's that he doesn't care? 

He's willing to throw it all out the window because Luxembourg owes a few thousand more dollars.

July 9, 2024

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Dorothy Dix's Pet Peeves

I love that this fantastic list and ends with, "Otherwise it's a grand old world."

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Kierkegaard, from The Crowd Is Untruth:

"A crowd in its very concept is the untruth, by reason of the fact that it renders the individual completely impenitent and irresponsible, or at least weakens his sense of responsibility by reducing it to a fraction."

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Fyodor Dostoevsky, from Crime and Punishment:

We're always thinking of eternity as an idea that cannot be understood, something immense. But why must it be? What if, instead of all this, you suddenly find just a little room there, something like a village bath-house, grimy, and spiders in every corner, and that's all eternity is. Sometimes, you know, I can't help feeling that that's what it is.

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Albert Camus, Notebooks 1935-1942:

"An intellectual? Yes. And never deny it. An intellectual is someone whose mind watches itself. I like this, because I am happy to be both halves, the watcher and the watched. "Can they be brought together?" This is a practical question. We must get down to it. "I despise intelligence" really means: "I cannot bear my doubts."

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William Faulkner, on editing his writing- "In writing, you must kill all your darlings."

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Milan Kundera from Immortality:

"Just imagine living in a world without mirrors. You'd dream about your face and imagine it as an outer reflection of what is inside you. And then, when you reached forty, someone put a mirror before you for the first time in your life. Imagine your fright! You'd see the face of a stranger. And you'd know quite clearly what you are unable to grasp: your face is not you."

Reminds me what Sam Harris says of identity politics. He says it's detrimental to identify your self with your gender or your race, you shouldn't even identify with your own face. In his case, that means he doesn't identify as Ben Stiller either.

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Vladimir Nabokov, Laughter in the Dark- "A certain man once lost a diamond cuff-link in the wide blue sea, and twenty years later, on the exact day, a Friday apparently, he was eating a large fish - but there was no diamond inside. That’s what I like about coincidence."

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Ernest Hemingway, Death in the Afternoon- "So far, about morals, I know only that what is moral is what you feel good after and what is immoral is what you feel bad after."

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Elie Wiesel- "There are victories of the soul and spirit. Sometimes, even if you lose, you win."

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Salman Rushdie, Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticism 1981-1991- "Go for broke. Always try and do too much. Dispense with safety nets. Take a deep breath before you begin talking. Aim for the stars. Keep grinning. Be bloody-minded. Argue with the world. And never forget that writing is as close as we get to keeping a hold on the thousand and one things--childhood, certainties, cities, doubts, dreams, instants, phrases, parents, loves--that go on slipping , like sand, through our fingers."

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Tom Waits: 

“I don’t have fun. Actually, I had fun once, in 1962. I drank a whole bottle of Robitussin cough medicine and went in the back of a 1961 powder-blue Lincoln Continental to a James Brown concert with some Mexican friends of mine. I haven’t had fun since. It’s just not a word I like. It’s like Volkswagens or bellbottoms, or patchouli oil or bean sprouts. It rubs me up the wrong way. I might go out and have an educational and entertaining evening, but I don’t have fun.”

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Addendum

Brian:

I’ve been sparing you from a lot of the daily UFO news, because I don’t want to be TOO annoying… the news is going in very strange and conspiratorial directions, and I want to be more than just a single issue crank.

Where would you say you are with all this stuff?

1. It’s not real 

2. It’s almost certainly not real

3. It might possibly be real

4. I’m 50/50 on it…

5. I suspect it’s real

6. I completely believe it’s real

7. I know it to be real

My ability to believe in this varies from day to day, from a 1 to a 6… but with all the stuff coming out, I’m probably at a 5 most days…

Even if this all blows over and is revealed to be some sort of psyop or cult-like delusion among Pentagon officials, it’s such an utterly strange place to find ourselves. I love the surreality of this moment…

Me: 

I would say that I'm 50/50 most of the time, but I do tick into number three and number five, probably ticking into five more often. Ticking into 5 seems to be a result of new info being shared, and ticking into 3 seems to be a result of taking a step back and the whole thing just seeming too nuts. I was walking my dog yesterday thinking about what moment aliens would wait for before contacting us, and wondering if they'd even care. It crossed my mind that it's extraordinary that we speculate on how long it may take a civilization to destroy itself, but it's also extraordinary that there's never been a civilization that was able to destroy the universe. Maybe some civilization monitors the civilizations that could possibly mature to the point they could destroy everything, haha.

Brian:

That’s a good point! Is there an alien equivalent of Stanislav Petrov, who averted galactic calamity? Or do advanced intelligences simply never sink into paranoia and nihilism?