Ephemeris of Miscellany

Patricia Highsmith, New Year's Eve, 1947- “My New Year’s Eve Toast: to all the devils, lusts, passions, greeds, envies, loves, hates, strange desires, enemies ghostly and real, the army of memories, with which I do battle — may they never give me peace." ... Not only did Zuzu really like West Side Story, she pointed out that one of Spielberg's shots was an homage to the French New Wave, haha. December 31, 2021 ... May your New Year be filled with children riding bats. ... And Monkey Brand Soap. ... Those still clinging to the absurd notion that Trump won the election are victims of the Tinkerbell Cognitive Bias. They believe that if they wish hard enough they can make something come true.  Incidentally this is the same way that Trump tried to control the Coronavirus, wishing it away.  Sure, they can go ahead and wish, but reality will still be reality after they are done. December 31, 2020 Later on: Oh man, the Tinkerbell Cognitive Bias... I thought I made it up but it exi...

Sandy Koufax was born on this day in 1935. Bob Uecker- "Career highlights? I had two. I got an intentional walk from Sandy Koufax and I got out of a rundown against the Mets." Willie Stargell- "Trying to hit him was like trying to drink coffee with a fork."  Al Campanis- "There are two times in my life the hair on my arms has stood up: The first time I saw the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and the first time I saw Sandy Koufax throw a fastball" 7× All-Star (1961–1962, 1963–1966), 4× World Series Champion (1955, 1959, 1963, 1965), NL MVP (1963), 3× Cy Young Award (1963, 1965, 1966), 2× World Series MVP (1963, 1965), 3× Triple Crown (1963, 1965, 1966), 3× MLB wins leader (1963, 1965, 1966), 5× NL ERA leader (1962–1966), 4× MLB strikeout leader (1961, 1963, 1965, 1966), Pitched a perfect game on September 9, 1965, Pitched four no-hitters. Los Angeles Dodgers No. 32 retired, Major League Baseball All-Century Team, Major League Baseball All-Time Team.  Wow! ......

Pelé left us today. Andy Warhol- “Pelé is one of the few who contradicted my theory. Instead of 15 minutes of fame, he will have 15 centuries.” He was born Edson Arantes do Nascimento, after Thomas Edison. Shortly before he was born, electricity had just come to his town. Nobody is sure how he got the name Pele.  He grew up in poverty, using makeshift soccer balls out of wadded up paper stuffed in socks, or grapefruits. He was declared a national treasure by the president of Brazil when he was 20. A goalkeeper who played against him in the 1962 International cup said, “I arrived hoping to stop a great man, but I went away convinced I had been undone by someone who was not born on the same planet as the rest of us.” From The Washington Post obituary- "The genius of Pelé’s play prompted a 48-hour cease-fire in at least one civil war as Nigerians put their arms down to behold his mastery during a 1969 exhibition in Lagos." He said in a 2001 interview- “Wherever you go, there are...

We all have our individual fries at the pier. Reminds me of the Black Elk thing, the provinciality of all religions. ... Excellent. Wow. Yes, who remembers the night before Wounded Knee? The lesson: "One of the curses of history is that we cannot go back and change the course leading to disasters, no matter how much we might wish to. The past has its own terrible inevitability. But it is never too late to change the future." Heather Cox Richardson on the night before wounded knee: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid02DdeuLgFzeJP8nzv9iCDpvDhwXeDCkiC1o6AiwDvWQbMFVGUn1A6Tm9UmgT9bEpahl&id=241446929332714&mibextid=Nif5oz December 28, 2020 ... Lemmy died 5 years ago. I just did some quick math and I'm not sure what Jack Daniels did with the eight and a half 55 gallon drums he would have drank in the meantime, but I'm glad I sold my stock. December 28, 2020 ... Here's Gretel, posing a bit too casually at the grave of her 4th great-grandparents at We...

Biden declared that the national bird is the bald eagle. Another landmark achievement in the long struggle of bald rights.  December 27, 2024 ... I've thought about Trump too much in my life, I knew it was going to happen the second he won. If he wins again, he won't but if he does, I'm going to think about him the way that the Acoma people of New Mexico think about tribal members who get too uppity. They all share the water, and once in awhile there's a guy who decides that he needs a nice lawn out in front of his. They're no real laws, but people just kind of scoff at it. If Trump runs again, he's driven by money, and his idea of status, so let him have some money, who cares. December 27, 2022 Postscript- He won. And this is good advice. ... The Onion- Crowd Roars In Approval As Makeup-Smeared Trump Begs Rally To Tell Him He’s Beautiful The Onion really nailed it this year. Can't be shared enough. https://trib.al/Su44jZU December 27, 2019 ... I only watche...