Perfect and Not-So-Perfect Murders, Among Other Things

Born on this day in 1911- the inimitable Johnny Eck! Circus performer, billed as billed as "The Amazing Half-Boy", "King of the Freaks" and "The Most Remarkable Man Alive," and best known as the star of Tod Browning's Freaks.

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Well now I know that Trump has lost his mind. He just admitted that he lost the 2020 election. Explaining the chart that he said saved his life, he said this:

"This was the last week in office for me because of a horrible, horrible election where I got many millions more votes than I did the first time, but didn’t quite make it, just a little bit short."

As an aside, I thought that he thought that God saved his life, but I guess it was a chart.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/wait-did-donald-trump-just-admit-he-lost-the-2020-election

August 27, 2024

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Strangers on a Train. This scene crosses my mind often. What a provocative line- "Want to hear one of my ideas for a perfect murder?"

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I imagine Trump as a method actor, building himself up in private, getting himself into character, preparing for the performance. But what's his motivation?

He's the best at everything, and he knows more than everybody about everything. He's all-powerful (or at least yearns to be.) He's supremely good, and incapable of error. Watch his speech tonight and recognize that his motivation is that he is GOD! 

An Old Testament wash-the-filth-off-the-streets-type God. (It's as if Travis Bickle decided to run for president instead of assassinate a Senator. Or maybe Trump is DeNiro in that metaphor. Maybe that's why DeNiro hates him... because Trump's the better actor.)

It's not so much that he thinks what he says IS the truth... it's that he knows that what he says DEFINES the truth. And for some, it does. God/Trump says it's true, thus it is true.

Unfortunately this psychological trick has no effect on pandemics, or much else really beyond the believer's brain. But what a performance, right?!

I think there's a screenplay in here somewhere.

August 27, 2020

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Today is Hegel's 250th birthday. He said, "We learn from history that we do not learn from history."

And he also said, "Only one man ever understood me, and he didn't understand me."

Maybe because he also had this to say about history:

"History, is a conscious, self-meditating process — Spirit emptied out into Time; but this externalization, this kenosis, is equally an externalization of itself; the negative is the negative of itself. This Becoming presents a slow-moving succession of Spirits, a gallery of images, each of which, endowed with all the riches of Spirit, moves thus slowly just because the Self has to penetrate and digest this entire wealth of its substance. As its fulfilment consists in perfectly knowing what it is, in knowing its substance, this knowing is that withdrawal into itself in which it abandons its outer existence and gives its existential shape over to recollection. Thus absorbed in itself, it is sunk in the night of its self-consciousness; but in that night its vanished outer existence is perserved, and this transformed existence — the former one, but now reborn of the Spirit's knowledge — is the new existence, a new world and a new shape of Spirit. In the immediacy of this new existence the Spirit has to start afresh to bring itself to maturity as if, for it, all that preceded were lost and it had learned nothing from the experience of the earlier Spirits. But recollection, the inwardizing, of that experience, has perserved it and is the inner-being, and in fact the higher form of the substance. So although to bring itself to maturity, it is none the less on a higher level that it starts. The realm of Spirits which is formed in this way in the outer world constitutes a succession in Time in which one Spirit relieved another of its charge and each took over the empire of the world from its predecessor."

Nobody likes Hegel.

August 27, 2020

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Kite-flying Zuzu.

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If you have hatches, consider battening them down. Except you hoity-toity types with the fancy hatches, you'll want to batten yours up.

August 27, 2011

Postscript- Storm was a'brewin'.

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A round of applause to the 1st Maryland Regiment that repeatedly charged British force on this day in 1776 during the Revolutionary War's Battle of Long Island. Their bravery allowed General Washington and the rest of the American troops to escape.

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The Black Hawk War came to an end on this day and 1832, when Black Hawk, leader of the Sauk tribe, surrendered to U.S. authorities.

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Four enormous explosions almost completely destroyed the island of Krakatoa on this day in 1883, causing years of climate change. Somehow 32,000 people died, and the sound of the blast traveled the whole way around the world seven times.

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Theodore Dreiser was born on this day in 1871. From The Genius:

"If I were personally to define religion, I would say that it is a bandage that man has invented to protect a soul made bloody by circumstance."

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Japanese author and poet, Kenji Miyazawa, was born on this day in 1896. Some words to live by, if possible.

Be not defeated by the rain, Nor let the wind prove your better.

Succumb not to the snows of winter. Nor be bested by the heat of summer.

Be strong in body. Unfettered by desire. Not enticed to anger. Cultivate a quiet joy.

Count yourself last in everything. Put others before you.

Watch well and listen closely. Hold the learned lessons dear.

A thatch-roof house, in a meadow, nestled in a pine grove's shade.

A handful of rice, some miso, and a few vegetables to suffice for the day.

If, to the East, a child lies sick: Go forth and nurse him to health.

If, to the West, an old lady stands exhausted: Go forth, and relieve her of burden.

If, to the South, a man lies dying: Go forth with words of courage to dispel his fear.

If, to the North, an argument or fight ensues:

Go forth and beg them stop such a waste of effort and of spirit.

In times of drought, shed tears of sympathy.

In summers cold, walk in concern and empathy.

Stand aloof of the unknowing masses:

Better dismissed as useless than flattered as a "Great Man".

This is my goal, the person I strive to become.

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The Butcher of Plainfield, Ed Gein, was born on this day in 1906. Say what you want about the modern world but at least body snatching is a thing of the past, at least among the circles I run with.

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Lyndon B. Johnson was born on this day in 1908. I admit I don't quite know what to think about the guy. Great Society, Voting Rights, Vietnam, whipping out his ding ding in front of reporters, etc.

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Quite a day for Pee-wees. Pee-wee Herman turns 70, and Pee-wee Butts would have turned 103.

August 27, 2022

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Can I suggest that you read Blue Highways? It's author, William Least Heat-Moon, was born on this day in 1939. 

"What you've done becomes the judge of what you're going to do - especially in other people's minds. When you're traveling, you are what you are right there and then. People don't have your past to hold against you. No yesterdays on the road."

I take it back. I don't suggested you read it. I just suggest you read the first 10 or 20 pages and then decide if you want to continue.

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Tuesday Weld was born on this day in 1943. That's where I graduated high school I became strangely obsessed with dobie gillis, which was on Nick at Night at midnight. I had a crush on Tuesday Weld, which is a strange thing when the object of your affection is really just an image of her from 30-plus years prior, and not even her, but a character she played. Nevertheless, Thalia Menninger, what a knockout. 

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Another notable birthday- Jim Thome (1970)

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I went clay shooting yesterday, hit 41 out of 100. Not too shabby for my second time ever and the first time in seven years. I think I would have done okay in the wild west.

*Sidenote, the one guy I was with wasn't doing so good. Guess what his excuse was. Infected trigger finger!

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W. E. B. Du Bois left us on this day in 1963.

Herein lies the tragedy of the age: not that men are poor, — all men know something of poverty; not that men are wicked, — who is good? not that men are ignorant, — what is Truth? Nay, but that men know so little of men.

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Brian Epstein left us on this day in 1967. Apparently our lives wouldn't have been the same if he never existed.

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Backboard-amasher, Darryl Dawkins, left us on this day in 2015. Certainly he's in heaven now, smashing backboards with Jesus.

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Apparently two percent of Floridians on welfare use illegal drugs, while 8% of the general population does. Could that be true?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1CA1gLR7KQ

August 27, 2011

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Film-making at its best, Down By Law, I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rK3s_BP9kE

August 27, 2013

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Heart of Glass- Vintage 40's "Old Hollywood" Style Blondie Cover, featuring Addie Hamilton

https://youtu.be/DTMoipsvGNc

August 27, 2016

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I just heard someone say to look up narcissistic personality disorder on the Mayo Clinic website. Pretty eye-opening. Check these symptoms:

-Have an exaggerated sense of self-importance

-Have a sense of entitlement and require constant, excessive admiration

-Expect to be recognized as superior even without achievements that warrant it

-Exaggerate achievements and talents

-Be preoccupied with fantasies about success, power, brilliance, beauty or the perfect mate

-Believe they are superior and can only associate with equally special people

-Monopolize conversations and belittle or look down on people they perceive as inferior

-Expect special favors and unquestioning compliance with their expectations

-Take advantage of others to get what they want

-Have an inability or unwillingness to recognize the needs and feelings of others

-Be envious of others and believe others envy them

-Behave in an arrogant or haughty manner, coming across as conceited, boastful and pretentious

-Insist on having the best of everything — for instance, the best car or office

At the same time, people with narcissistic personality disorder have trouble handling anything they perceive as criticism, and they can:

-Become impatient or angry when they don't receive special treatment

-Have significant interpersonal problems and easily feel slighted

-React with rage or contempt and try to belittle the other person to make themselves appear superior

-Have difficulty regulating emotions and behavior

-Experience major problems dealing with stress and adapting to change

-Feel depressed and moody because they fall short of perfection

-Have secret feelings of insecurity, shame, vulnerability and humiliation

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/narcissistic-personality-disorder/symptoms-causes/syc-20366662

August 27, 2019

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The Hill- Biden tears into Trump ahead of GOP convention speech

I see, but Biden is the crazy one, right?

Biden- “His proof? The violence you’re seeing is in Donald Trump’s America. Is Donald Trump even aware he’s president? These are not images from some imagined ‘Joe Biden’s America’ in the future. These are images from Donald Trump’s America today. The violence we’re witnessing is happening under Donald Trump. Not me. It’s getting worse, and we know why.”

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/514033-biden-tears-into-trump-ahead-of-gop-convention-speech/

August 27, 2020

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Dorothy Parker- "This wasn't just plain terrible, this was fancy terrible. This was terrible with raisins in it."

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Bertrand Russell, from A History of Western Philosophy:

“A stupid man's report of what a clever man says can never be accurate, because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something he can understand.”

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H.P. Lovecraft- "Pleasure to me is wonder—the unexplored, the unexpected, the thing that is hidden and the changeless thing that lurks behind superficial mutability. To trace the remote in the immediate; the eternal in the ephemeral; the past in the present; the infinite in the finite; these are to me the springs of delight and beauty."

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Howard Zinn- "We don't have to engage in grand, heroic actions to participate in the process of change. Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world."

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Stephen Fry- "The short answer to that is 'no.' The long answer is 'fuck no.'"

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Truman Capote, Breakfast at Tiffany's- "You call yourself a free spirit, a "wild thing," and you're terrified somebody's gonna stick you in a cage. Well baby, you're already in that cage. You built it yourself. And it's not bounded in the west by Tulip, Texas, or in the east by Somali-land. It's wherever you go. Because no matter where you run, you just end up running into yourself."

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William James- "Damn the Absolute!"

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Steve Martin- "Comedy is a distortion of what is happening, and there will always be something happening."

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Neil Simon- "Money brings some happiness. But after a certain point, it just brings more money."

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Ending on some baseball stats: