Cosmic Perspective of Murdering Thinking People On 5th Avenue

Aaron Nola is the first pitcher with over 220 strikeouts and fewer than 30 walks since... you guessed it, Grasshopper Jim Whitney in 1884.

October 5, 2022

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If the president killed someone by breathing on them on 5th Ave, he wouldn't lose any supporters.

October 5, 2020

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A voter once told Adlai Stevenson, "Every thinking person in America will vote for you," to which Stevenson replied, "That won't be enough, ma'am, I need a majority."

October 5, 2020

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Gretel and I are watching a David Attenborough program on the rise of the vertebrates. I asked her what her favorite animal is and she pointed and said "that one." She was pointing at David Attenborough. Good choice!

October 5, 2016

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Emma just said that I must like ABBA because I must have once "cried in my sandwich over some girl." If our daughter is born tomorrow I'm naming her Chiquitita.

October 5, 2013

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A day without an open electrical fire in the basement is a good day.

October 5, 2009

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The Women's March on Versailles on this day in 1789, during the French revolution, effectively terminated royal authority. Nice job ladies.

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Apparently on this day in 1945, a six-month strike by Hollywood set decorators turned into a bloody riot at the gates of the Warner Brothers studio. That is 100% impossible to imagine.

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French philosopher, Denis Diderot, was born on this day in 1713.

"From fanaticism to barbarism is only one step."

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Larry Fine of The Three stooges was born on this day in 1902. "A tarantula!"

Buddha says that life is suffering, so here, for your viewing pleasure, is Larry actually getting speared in the forehead by a fountain pen.

https://youtu.be/uA16IQx-MJE

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Ray Kroc was born the same day

I often think about that first McDonald's. I'm certain that it was reasonably priced, delicious, and healthy.

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Karen Allen was born on this day in 1951. I love her in the wanderers, one of my favorite performances of all time.

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Bernie Mac was born on this day in 1957. In this joke he's talking to a dog. 

"Shut up before I drop yo ass off at Koreatown. Now hold on, America, don't start writing no letters. I'm just kidding. But am I lying?"

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Everyone's favorite astrophysicist, Neil deGrasse Tyson was born on this day in 1958.

"You're entitled to your own opinions, but not to your own facts."

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Kate Winslet was born on this day in 1975.

She disavowed working with Woody Allen, a few decades after the allegations that couldn't have been more well-known at the time, once it became in vogue. Too bad because the movie is great, Wonder Wheel. By the way, any rational person that is taking an honest look, knows that Woody Allen is innocent.

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Diderot again- "All things must be examined, debated, investigated without exception and without regard for anyone's feelings."

Or if you prefer- "We swallow greedily any lie that flatters us, but we sip only little by little at a truth we find bitter."

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The Shawnee tribal chief, Tecumseh, sang his death song and died like a hero going home on this day in 1813.

"So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart. Trouble no one about their religion; respect others in their view, and demand that they respect yours. Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life. Seek to make your life long and its purpose in the service of your people. Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide. Always give a word or a sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend, even a stranger, when in a lonely place. Show respect to all people and grovel to none. When you arise in the morning give thanks for the food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies only in yourself. Abuse no one and no thing, for abuse turns the wise ones to fools and robs the spirit of its vision. When it comes your time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so that when their time comes they weepand pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song and die like a hero going home."

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Gloria Grahame left this one this day in 1981. From It's a Wonderful Life:

"Why, this old thing? I only wear it when I don't care how I look." 

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The incomparable Rodney Dangerfield left us on this day in 2004, from complications from heart surgery. Before he went in, someone asked how long he was expected to be in the hospital. "If everything goes well, about a week. If it doesn't go well, about an hour and a half."

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Other notable birthdays- Chester A. Arthur (1829), Jesse Eisenberg (1983) 

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Caught my favorite barrel-rolling scene from Breaking Bad tonight.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X29hSD7_5dY

October 5, 2014

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NPR- Justices Thomas, Alito Blast Supreme Court Decision On Same-Sex Marriage Rights

Maybe you don't like Biden, but you are pro-gay marriage. Instead of voting for Biden per se, consider voting for his potential Supreme Court picks who will uphold it.

https://www.npr.org/2020/10/05/920416357/justices-thomas-alito-blast-supreme-court-decision-on-gay-marriage-rights

October 5, 2020

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On this day in 1972, Steve Carlton won his 27th game of the season. Here's the thing though, the Phillies only won 59 games that season! It seems impossible that one pitcher could win nearly half of a team's games. That seems like a more improbable feat than Joe DiMaggio's hitting streak.

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Jean-Paul Sartre- "With despair, true optimism begins: the optimism of the man who expects nothing, who knows he has no rights and nothing coming to him, who rejoices in counting on himself alone and in acting alone for the good of all."

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Viktor Emil Frankl- "No man should judge unless he asks himself in absolute honesty whether in a similar situation he might not have done the same."

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John Steinbeck- "You know how advice is. You only want it when it agrees with what you wanted to do anyway."

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Groucho Marx- "I never forget a face, but in your case, I'll be glad to make an exception."

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Confucius's version of the golden rule, pre-dating the Bible: "Do not impose on others what you yourself do not desire."

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Some cosmic perspective, from Neil deGrasse Tyson:

There’s something about the cosmic perspective, which for some people is enlightening and for other people it’s terrifying. For those who are terrified by it, they’re here on earth and they have a certain self-identity, and then they learn that earth is tiny and we’re in this void of interplanetary space and then there’s a star that we call the Sun and that’s kind of average and there’s a hundred billion other stars in a galaxy. And our galaxy, the Milky Way, is one of 50 or 100 billion other galaxies in the universe. And with every step, every window that modern astrophysics has opened to our mind, the person who wants to feel like they’re the center of everything ends up shrinking. And for some people they might even find it depressing, I assert that if you were depressed after learning and being exposed to the perspective, you started your day with an unjustifiably large ego. You thought more highly of yourself than in fact the circumstances deserved.

So here’s what you do: You say, “I have no ego at all.” Let’s start that way. “I have no ego, no cause to puff myself up.” Now let’s learn about the cosmic perspective. Yeah, we’re on a planet that’s orbiting a star, and a star is an energy source and it’s giving us energy, and we’re feeling this energy, and life is enabled by this energy in this star. And by the way, there’s a hundred billion other stars that have other planets. There might be other life out there, could be like us. It’s probably not like us, but whatever it is, it’d be fascinating to find out who it is. Can we talk to them? Can we not? Are they more advanced? Are they less advanced? By the way, the atoms of our body are traceable to what stars do.

And all you can do is sit back and bask in your relevance to the cosmos.

So those who see the cosmic perspective as a depressing outlook, they really need to reassess how they think about the world. Because when I look up in the universe, I know I’m small, but I’m also big. I’m big because I’m connected to the universe and the universe is connected to me.

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Miguel de Unamuno- "If a person never contradicts himself, it must be that he says nothing."

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Sigmund Freud- "When making a decision of minor importance, I have always found it advantageous to consider all the pros and cons. In vital matters, however, such as the choice of a mate or a profession, the decision should come from the unconscious, from somewhere within ourselves. In the important decisions of personal life, we should be governed, I think, by the deep inner needs of our nature."

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Gore Vidal- "We are the United States of Amnesia, we learn nothing because we remember nothing."

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Stephen King, 11/22/63- "A person who doesn't learn from the past is an idiot, in my estimation."

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Michel de Montaigne- "There is no more expensive thing than a free gift."

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