The Space Between Things, and Some of the Things Themselves
Yasujiro Ozu began taking up the space between his birth and death on this day in 1903.
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The Supreme Court is going to rule on whether a former president is immune from prosecution for crimes committed while in office. (I think it will be known as President v. King.)
If they rule that a president can do whatever they want, Biden should go key their cars and rob a bank.
December 12, 2023
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Christmastime with a couple of goodies.
December 12, 2020
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We have the Hippocratic Oath which applies to healthcare workers, but we need some sort of oath that applies to the rest of us. They have to care for us, but what oath can we take to show we are worthy of their care?
It seems hypocritical that people who are not even following guidelines end up going to the hospital, helping to overwhelm them. Anybody who gives a good-faith effort to stay well has taken an oath to not be a hypocrite- a Non-Hypocritic Oath. If you aren't going to follow the Non-Hypocritic Oath, consider not going to the hospital if you get sick.
The Hippocratic Oath and the Non-Hypocritic Oath, the yin and yang of the Social Contract.
December 12, 2020
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God dam it, I just got a new fuckinh phone and the piece of shed voice to text doesn't do the bad words like I fucken want. Is there a way to fix this bullship!?
December 12, 2019
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Playing racquetball tonight... I made a great shot and my opponent yelled, "You make that shot every single time against me you cockhead!" If you ever want to give someone the highest form of compliment- scream some good-natured profanity at them! It gets the job done.
December 12, 2019
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The good news- Jones currently leads 601k to 592k. The bad news- several million voted illegally.
Later...
Pedaphilephobes win!
December 12, 2017
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Trump has said that the problem with the Iraq War was that we didn't take their oil, a war crime. Now he seems ready to appoint Exxon Mobil CEO as Secretary of State. And... I believe that's the hundredth red flag.
December 12, 2016
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Shermer- 36% young British Muslims think apostates should be punished by death, 40% Muslim students want Shariah as UK law, 33% religious murder ok.
December 12, 2015
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Although it's been asked many times and many ways... what's the best cell phone company?
December 12, 2012
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The United States Supreme Court released its decision in Bush v. Gore on this day in 2000. Somehow Ruth Bader Ginsburg said it was not a political decision. Total nonsense. Was she kind of an idiot?
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Gustave Flaubert join us on this day in 1821.
"Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world."
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Twain, later on.
"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime."
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Norwegian painter, Edvard Munch, joined us on this day in 1863.
"From the moment of my birth, the angels of anxiety, worry, and death stood at my side, followed me out when I played, followed me in the sun of springtime and in the glories of summer. They stood at my side in the evening when I closed my eyes, and intimidated me with death, hell, and eternal damnation. And I would often wake up at night and stare widely into the room: Am I in Hell?"
I'm sure he was a blast at parties.
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Edward G. Robinson was born on this day in 1893, see? From Little Caesar:
Sgt. Tom Flaherty : [taunting Rico on the phone] Say, why didn't you come to Sam's neck-stretching party, Rico? It was a big success.
Caesar Enrico Bandello : [enraged] Funny guy, ain't ya Flaherty? Well, you ain't got much longer to laugh! I'm comin' after ya see, and I'm gonna put one in your dirty hide for every lyin' crack that you made about me in the papers, see? I'm gonna show ya who's gonna finish up in the gutter, I'll show ya!
Here he is much later dancing with Raquel Welch.
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Frank Sinatra was born on this day in 1915.
Here he is telling Don Rickles' ketchup story:
https://youtu.be/DWvJCYyoDZQ
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Douglas Fairbanks Sr. left us on this day in 1939. His last words were, "Never felt better."
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Joseph Heller, from Catch-22:
"He was going to live forever, or die in the attempt."
On this day in 1999, 25 years ago today, Joseph Heller died in the attempt to live forever.
His friend Kurt Vonnegut wrote this about him:
JOE HELLER
True story, Word of Honor:
Joseph Heller, an important and funny writer
now dead,
and I were at a party given by a billionaire
on Shelter Island.
I said, “Joe, how does it make you feel
to know that our host only yesterday
may have made more money
than your novel ‘Catch-22′
has earned in its entire history?”
And Joe said, “I’ve got something he can never have.”
And I said, “What on earth could that be, Joe?”
And Joe said, “The knowledge that I’ve got enough.”
Not bad! Rest in peace.
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Other notable birthdays- Bob Barker (1923) and Ed Koch (1924)
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Another notable deathday- Tallulah Bankhead (1968)
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New York Times- Dogs in Heaven? Pope Francis Leaves Pearly Gates Open
I thought this was an Onion article.
http://nyti.ms/1Dllgq6
December 12, 2014
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Vox- The 2 key points that climate skeptics miss
https://t.co/qCKF46e9po
December 12, 2015
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George Carlin on Abortion
https://youtu.be/GTyeBQXk8V4
December 12, 2016
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Bad news, Du-Pars is closing. Good place to melt with somebody.
https://youtu.be/FcEchaH6EJk
December 12, 2017
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McSweeney's- TRUMP OR HANUKKAH? by ANDREW PAUL
https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/trump-or-hanukkah
December 12, 2017
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An Onion exclusive: Melania Trump: ‘My Fat Piece-Of-Shit Husband Who Should Go Kill Himself Needs To Stop Bullying People Online’
https://trib.al/OQhDCe2
December 12, 2019
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Gretel saw this meme on my phone before bed tonight so I had to explain it to her. I caught myself wondering why I'm explaining the Donner party to my child, before I'm expecting her to sleep through the night.
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Truman Capote- “You can't blame a writer for what the characters say.”
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Bill Bryson, The Lost Continent- "I mused for a few moments on the question of which was worse, to lead a life so boring that you are easily enchanted, or a life so full of stimulus that you are easily bored."
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Voltaire- "I have chosen to be happy because it is good for my health."
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Woody Allen- "Sex Without love is an empty experience, but as empty experiences go it's one of the best."
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Twain- "I haven't any right to criticize books, and I don't do it except when I hate them. I often want to criticize Jane Austen, but her books madden me so that I can't conceal my frenzy from the reader; and therefore I have to stop every time I begin. Every time I read Pride and Prejudice I want to dig her up and beat her over the skull with her own shin-bone."
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Kinison- "There's always 30 or 40 Christians standing around, saying, "It's a shame that he has to die." And Jesus is saying, "Well, maybe I wouldn't have to if somebody would get a ladder and pair of pliers!!""
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Dickinson- "That it will never come again is what makes life so sweet."
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Sagan- "You can't convince a believer of anything; for their belief is not based on evidence, it's based on a deep seated need to believe."
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Vonnegut- "Freedom of speech isn't something somebody else gives you. That's something you give to yourself."
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Giraldo- "The Virgin Mary... we have a whole religion based on a woman who really stuck to her story."
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Steven Wright:
I'm a part of the Jehovah's Witness Protection Program. I go door-to-door telling people I'm someone else.
I'd kill for a Nobel Peace Prize.
Borrow money from pessimists -- they don't expect it back.
99% of lawyers give the rest a bad name.
Half the people you know are below average.
Addendum
Myspace Blog
December 12, 2006
The Mono-No-Aware of "The Wizard of Oz"
Friends! I want to share something with you, and not only because I've had four amaretto and cokes. (I know, it's a girl's drink.) It's a word that I'd like to share, a Japanese word. It's "mono-no-aware" and if you remember one thing from today until the day you die, I hope this is it. If there's one thing you remember from me after I'm gone, it's the definition of the term mono-no-aware.
Have you ever learned a word that had a profound effect on your life? Perhaps "atonement." Maybe "austerity." You, sir or ma'am, might have seen too many European films from the mid-20th century. Maybe for some of you the word was "doppleganger" or "milf." Either way, today I hope "mono-no-aware" affects you the same way it has affected me.
This is how Christopher J. Moore in "In Other Words: A Language Lover's Guide to the Most Intriguing Words Around the World" defines it:
aware [a-wa-reh] (noun)
An awareness and appreciation of the ephemeral beauty of the world. The seasons change, the cherry blossom gently falls, the crops are planted, grow and die. Aware is that poignant sensation one has of time passing, of the inevitable cycle of life and death. From the noun comes the idiom mono-no-aware. Roughly translated as "enjoying the sadness of life," it's that bittersweet, vaguely poetic feeling you get around dusk, on a long train journey, looking out at the driving rain... a few autumn leaves still clinging to your coat.
For a long time I'd been thinking that the thing I like most about Jim Jarmusch's films is that they perfectly capture the beauty and sadness of life, particularly Down By Law. One night, not long after I learned the word mono-no-aware, I saw Lost in Translation and I was struck at how it captured the same essence of a Jim Jarmusch movie. Then I thought, both of Sofia Coppola's movies (The Virgin Suicides too) captured the same feeling. Until then I didn't think any other films had. What's the similarity between both directors' movies, I wondered. Realization of the beauty and sadness of life... mono-no-aware. And then, then friends, then I realized that both Lost in Translation and Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai were both highly influenced by Japanese culture. Possible both dirctors stumbled upon mono-no-aware in their research?
Anyway, that brings us to tonight. As I watched The Wizard of Oz I was faced with the unfortunately inescapable reality (a reality I stumble upon often) that the people involved with the great movies of the 30's are all dead. I know what you're thinking, and I thought it too. "Nuh uh Ben, there are three Munchkins that are still alive." Yeah, true. But, if you've seen The Wizard of Oz recently and thought "at least several Munchkins are still alive," at the exact moment that hundreds upon hundreds of Munchkins marched out, I guarantee that the last thing you'll be thinking about is that one stagehand that was accidentally hung as Dorothy and the Scarecrow danced by. You'll be thinking about the hundreds upon hundreds (minus three) of Munchkins that have died. The Scarecrow's dead, his brain reduced to hay atoms. The Tin Man's dead. Don't fool yourself, he's now carbon, hydrogen and water. The Lion, well at least he faced death with... you know. The inept man behind the curtain, symbolically he's the president, although physically he's died. Dorothy, beautiful voice, the personification of innocence, gone. Uncle Henry, Auntie Em, fuhgettaboutit. The animals too, Toto and the farm pigs... they're lucky if they saw V-J Day.
But they all created something beautiful, something lasting. They have significance because we are here to appreciate what they've done.
You think Jim Jarmusch and Sofia Coppola were as influenced by Japanese culture as they were by The Wizard of Oz? You think this blog was as influenced by The Wizard of Oz as it was by 5 amaretto and cokes? Any way you cut it, I have to wake up in five hours for work. It's not enough, but it's beautiful.
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