Entheos, and the Illusion of the Obvious
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!
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Do you know whose opinion I hold in greater regard than Newt Gingrich's? Literally any other newt.
December 30, 2020
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I come across this brief snippet from the paper every so often when I'm doing genealogy work. Sometime in the early 1900's my great-great grandma and her siblings had a party for my great-great-great grandparents. Apparently a lot of people brought "baskets laden with good things," and they gave them a clock. It was such a nice time that they wanted to tell the paper. This is just such a heartwarming little slice, yet completely bizarre. I can't believe we're only a hundred years removed from this sort of thing.
December 30, 2020
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Big Think- Half of evangelicals believe Trump is anointed by God
"A recent survey also found that political messaging from the pulpit increased the likelihood of believing presidents to be ordained by God."
Let me know if I'm off base here, but they believe then that Trump should be president even if more people voted against him, and that it would be evil to stand in the way of his God-appointed second term. Our votes don't count, even those for him- the only vote that counts is God's. Once you accept that they believe this, their absurd claims of fraud all of the sudden make sense. Even in the absence of proof, there MUST be fraud, because that's the only thing that could explain why God didn't get his way. And let's be clear, they don't have a direct line to God's consciousness. This is just something they thought of in their own heads. (There's no other place that they could have thought of it.) Sounds to me a little bit more like the theocracy that many of our ancestors fled, mine included, than the Democratic Republic we actually live in. If the founding fathers had one guiding principle it was that we live in a country of laws, not of people. This Cult of Personality is against everything that they stood for.
https://bigthink.com/the-present/was-trump-anointed-by-god
December 30, 2020
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Trump, on the Howard Stern Show:
"I had an idiot come into my office the other day. He says to me, "Mr. Trump I'm a great negotiator." I'm making the deal with this guy, right? "I read all your books. I can really negotiate too." Now, I've never met a good negotiator that tells you he's a good negotiator."
It's a good thing that Trump never claimed to be a good negotiator, or that he never wrote multiple books about how great a negotiator he is, because to do so would be to admit to himself that he's an idiot.
December 30, 2019
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Finally watched Paterson, Jim Jarmusch's newest film. I loved it, I can't begin to explain why though. Most of his films resonate with me, but the ones I don't like have the same flaws that anybody could use against the ones that I do like. I don't get it. There are 50 reasons I love Paterson, all would sound ridiculous. I'll give you a smattering to prove my point.
-The bartender said he was having a rough game of chess. Patterson asked him who he's playing. The bartender said he's playing himself.
-Paterson's inappropriate uncontrolled laughter after his friend pours out his heart.
-The fact that Paterson's mailbox it's always pushed over at an angle everyday he gets home from work, and his repeated half-assed attempts to fix it.
-The confusion between William Carlos Williams and Carlos William Carlos.
-The tension at the thought of his dog getting stolen (dogjacked) repeatedly assuaged by clever editing.
-His lunch box.
-Language differences of the interlocutors, and oddball friendships.
-My favorite films of his are black and white, but this one's in color, but he plays with black and white motifs throughout.
Should somebody see this film? Probably not, but I loved it, and it's upper to mid 90's on Rotten Tomatoes. So if any of that means anything to you, go for it. It's free on Amazon Prime.
December 30, 2018
Postscript- I'm disturbed that I watched this film 4 years ago. It feels like I watched it recently, like maybe 1 or 2 years ago. I can't believe that if I was in twelfth grade I would have watched it in 8th!
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Why there was only on set of footprints:
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Siphonaptera, a nursery rhyme
Big fleas have little fleas,
Upon their backs to bite 'em,
And little fleas have lesser fleas,
and so, ad infinitum.
And the great fleas, themselves, in turn
Have greater fleas to go on;
While these again have greater still,
And greater still, and so on.
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Someone head-butted me as I slept last night. The most likely culprit is my baby who was sleeping next to me at the time. If it wasn't her though, it's likely that some professional wrestler broke into my house, probably George "The Animal" Steele.
December 30, 2014
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Michael Shermer- Another family of 5 who missed Air Asia flight: "Thank you Jesus. Your plan is so beautiful. Our family avoided awful danger." Beautiful? Theodicy/Problem of Evil: If God gets the credit for survivors he gets the blame for the dead. Believers can't have it both ways.
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I wore this argyle sweater today and Emma said it looked "nice," and "normal," and if she keeps putting me down like that I'm going to throw it in the trash!
December 30, 2014
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I'll bet everybody gets sick around the holidays because everyone eats more garbage than normal.
December 30, 2010
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Cat ear medicine in my mouth! If I die in my sleep, tell the coroner to look there first.....
December 30, 2009
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Came out of the shower tonight to find "DIE!" written in the steam on the mirror. If I'd lived with anyone other than Emma I would have shat my ancestor's pants.
December 30, 2009
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On this day in 1952, Albert Gunter was driving a double decker bus across The London Tower Bridge when it unexpectedly started opening for a ship to pass under. He had a split second decision to make- slam on the brakes or gun it. He decided it was too late to stop, much less back up, so he dropped two gears and gunned it! He jumped the gap and everyone on board lived to tell the tale.
Sure, there was a broken leg, and a broken collarbone, and one lady was so distraught that she walked home versus waiting for another bus... but come on, they all lived! Gunter even became good friends with one of the passengers and attended her wedding.
He got a £10 bonus and a day off. At the ceremony where he got the £10, he was asked what he was going to do with the money. "Five for me, and five for the missus."
Just after the incident, he told one of the passengers that he was a tank driver during the war, and knew that he could have jumped the gap in a tank.
He later said, "I'd always wanted to jump the bus over the gap! And I got a day off and a tenner for it, to boot!"
So many World War II soldiers came back after the war and felt that they had no purpose. Everyday life just didn't have the same spark. I get it. Imagine flipping a pancake or fighting Hitler, and ask yourself which would give you more joie de vivre.
The bridge authority swore that all the warning signals were operating properly, but Gunter said the lights were green. I can't help but wonder if there was a little intentionality from somewhere in his subconscious. I guarantee he flipped his pancakes with gusto the next morning.
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Rudyard Kipling joined us on this day in 1865.
"Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind."
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Del Shannon joined us on this day in 1934.
RUNAWAY
As I walk along, I wonder
What went wrong with our love
A love that was so strong
And as I still walk on, I think of
The things we've done together
While our hearts were young
I'ma walkin' in the rain
Tears are fallin' and I feel the pain
Wishin' you were here by me
To end this misery
I wonder
I wo-wo-wo wonder
Why... why-why-why-why-why
She ran away
And I wonder where she will stay
My little runaway
I run-run-run-run runaway
I'ma walkin' in the rain
Tears are fallin' and I feel the pain
Wishin' you were here by me
To end this misery
I wonder
I wo-wo-wo wonder
Why... why-why-why-why-why
She ran away
And I wonder where she will stay
My little runaway
I run-run-run-run runaway
I run-run-run-run runaway
I run-run-run-run runaway
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Russ Tamblyn joined us the same day. He's distoibed!
https://youtu.be/j7TT4jnnWys
He's sang Officer Krupke in 1961, and was in Twin Peaks': The Return in 2017. Quite a career.
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Patti Smith joined us on this day in 1946.
"Well I haven't fucked much with the past,
But I've fucked plenty with the future."
Wonder if she made it to that show on fucking time.
Tennessee Williams on Patti Smith- "Some of our best poets--our best artists--are angry and wild, and she has honed her anger into a sharp, glistening blade, and it tears into things."
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Other notable birthdays- Bo Diddley (1928), Skeeter Davis (1931), Tracy Ullman (1959), LeBron James (1984)
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Alfred North Whitehead left us on this day in 1947. He collaborated with Bertrand Russell on Mathematica Principia, in which they set forth to undeniably prove everything in math. It wasn't until page 378 that they were able to prove that 1+1=2.
He later said, "It requires a very unusual mind to undertake the analysis of the obvious."
We can all agree!
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Dawn Wells left us on this day in 2020. I love this snippet from her Washington Post obituary.
“As a matter of fact, I’ve got a T-shirt that’s a ballot that says ‘Ginger or Mary Ann, the ultimate dilemma,’ ” she told the Vancouver Sun in 2014. “You can go anywhere and say ‘Ginger or Mary Ann?’ You don’t have to say what show it is. Everybody gets it. And I always win.”
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Other notable deathdays- Sonny Liston (1970), Saddam Hussein (2006)
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Have you noticed how this "socialist" health care plan mandates that you have to buy insurance, apparently from monsterously large capitalist corporations?
December 30, 2009
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I might have to get John Waters' new book... Ebert compares him to Henry Miller.
http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/movies-1/john-waters-unplugged-the-tran.html
December 30, 2010
Postscript- Shoot, broken link and can't find it!
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Buzzfeed- Apparently Dolphins Like To Get High Off Puffer Fish Toxins
So that's why they're always smiling.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/catesevilla/apparently-dolphins-like-to-get-high-off-puffer-fish-toxins
December 30, 2013
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Vox- It may have seemed like the world fell apart in 2016. Steven Pinker is here to tell you it didn’t.
"Public opinion polls in almost every country show steady declines in racial and religious prejudice — and more importantly for the future, that younger cohorts are less prejudiced than older ones. As my own cohort of baby boomers (who helped elect Trump) dies off and is replaced by millennials (who rejected him in droves), the world will become more tolerant."
http://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2016/12/22/14042506/steven-pinker-optimistic-future-2016
December 30, 2016
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Monty Python, Bad Shave (can't be shared enough)
https://youtu.be/57IVDuhAX-Y
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NPR- Even If It's 'Bonkers,' Poll Finds Many Believe QAnon And Other Conspiracy Theories
Disturbing-17% agree with the statement, "A group of Satan-worshipping elites who run a child sex ring are trying to control our politics and media."
Perhaps more disturbing- 37% "don't know." Makes you wonder what they do know.
https://trib.al/yfvIMoV
December 30, 2020
Postscript- Not sure if you heard, but a week later they took over the Capitol.
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Liam Lynch- United States of Whatever
https://youtu.be/KEjHJXd8bpU
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Norm MacDonald- The King of Old-Time Phrases
https://youtu.be/Qu00H2ZLY24
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Cracked- 6 Things That Secretly Make You Act Like a Jerk
I love this weird brain stuff!
6. Just Looking at Alcohol Makes You More Racist
5. Wearing Knockoff Products Leads to Immoral Decisions
4. Having a Bitter Taste in Your Mouth Makes You Judgmental
3. Being Creative Makes You Dishonest
2. Happiness Makes You Selfish
1. Everyone Will Cheat As Long As It's Easy
http://www.cracked.com/article_20132_6-things-that-secretly-make-you-act-like-jerk.html
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Joan Didion knows how to start an essay! This opening paragraph knocked me out, from In the Islands, from the book, The White Album:
"1969: I had better tell you where I am, and why. I am sitting in a high-ceilinged room in the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Honolulu watching the long translucent curtains billow in the trade wind and trying to put my life back together. My husband is here, and our daughter, age three. She is blonde and barefoot, a child of paradise in a frangipani lei, and she does not understand why she cannot go to the beach. She cannot go to the beach because there has been an earthquake in the Aleutians, 7.5 on the Richter scale, and a tidal wave is expected. In two or three minutes the wave, if there is one, will hit Midway Island, and we are awaiting word from Midway. My husband watches the television screen. I watch the curtains, and imagine the swell of the water."
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Shel Silverstein, Voices
There is a voice inside of you
That whispers all day long.
“I feel that this is right for me.
I know that this is wrong.”
No teacher, preacher, parent, friend
Or wise man can decide
What’s right for you –just listen to
The voice that speaks inside.
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Susan Sontag- "The truth is always something that is told, not something that is known. If there were no speaking or writing there would be no truth about anything. There would only be what is."
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Vincent van Gogh- “The more I think about it, the more I realize there is nothing more artistic than to love others.”
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Thomas Paine- “A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody.”
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Sarah Vowell, Partly Cloudy Patriot- "The true American patriot is by definition skeptical of the government."
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David Sedaris, Dress Your Family In Cordoruy and Denim- "Hugh and I have been together for so long that in order to arouse extraordinary passion, we need to engage in physical combat. Once, he hit me on the back of the head with a broken wineglass, and I fell to the floor pretending to be unconscious. That was romantic, or would have been had he rushed to my side rather than stepping over my body to fetch the dustpan."
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Vonnegut, The Idea Killers- "And how should we behave during this Apocalypse? We should be unusually kind to one another, certainly. But we should also stop being so serious. Jokes help a lot. And get a dog, if you don’t already have one."
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Hitchens- "Alcohol makes other people less tedious, and food less bland, and can help provide what the Greeks called entheos, or the slight buzz of inspiration when reading or writing. The only worthwhile miracle in the New Testament—the transmutation of water into wine during the wedding at Cana—is a tribute to the persistence of Hellenism in an otherwise austere Judaea. The same applies to the seder at Passover, which is obviously modeled on the Platonic symposium: questions are asked (especially of the young) while wine is circulated. No better form of sodality has ever been devised: at Oxford one was positively expected to take wine during tutorials. The tongue must be untied. It's not a coincidence that Omar Khayyam, rebuking and ridiculing the stone-faced Iranian mullahs of his time, pointed to the value of the grape as a mockery of their joyless and sterile regime. Visiting today's Iran, I was delighted to find that citizens made a point of defying the clerical ban on booze, keeping it in their homes for visitors even if they didn't particularly take to it themselves, and bootlegging it with great brio and ingenuity. These small revolutions affirm the human."
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Susan Sontag- "Read a lot. Expect something big, something exalting or deepening from a book. No book is worth reading that isn't worth re-reading."
Do it in the spirit of entheos!
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Henry Miller, Tropic of Cancer- "I have found God, but he is insufficient."
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There once was a jolly old bloke
Who picked up a girl for a poke.
He took down her pants,
Fucked her into a trance,
And then shit on her shoe for a joke.
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