Friday, October 22, 2010
Thought for the day ...
For the last third of life there remains only work. It alone is always stimulating, rejuvenating, exciting and satisfying.- Doris Lessing, born on this date in 1919
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Anniversary ...
... Coltrane's "My Favorite Things": Recorded 50 Years Ago Today. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Disgraceful ...
... NPR Fires Juan Williams After O'Reilly Appearance.
I don't always agree with Juan Williams, but I have always respected him. And I sure in hell don't think he's a bigot.
I don't always agree with Juan Williams, but I have always respected him. And I sure in hell don't think he's a bigot.
Thought for the day ...
A poet ought not to pick nature's pocket. Let him borrow, and so borrow as to repay by the very act of borrowing. Examine nature accurately, but write from recollection, and trust more to the imagination than the memory.- Samuel Taylor Coleridge, born on this date in 1772
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Peculiar ...
... Nagel on Evolutionary Naturalism and the Fear of Religion. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Nagel makes it clear that he is talking about the fear of religion as such, and not merely fear of certain of its excesses and aberrations, and confesses that he himself is subject to this fear:I speak from experience, being strongly subject to this fear myself: I want atheism to be true and am made uneasy by the fact that some of the most intelligent and well-informed people I know are religious believers. It isn't just that I don't believe in God and, naturally, hope there is no God! I don't want there to be a God; I don't want the universe to be like that. (130, emphasis added)
Nagel goes on to say that he may have what he calls a "cosmic authority problem." This seems to me to suggest that he also has a very primitive notion of God. Maybe he should see if he has, say, a "cosmic artist problem." The view of God as a kind of everlasting Hammurabi is an old one, but its longevity does not make it true. Subjects may genuinely love their king because he is genuinely lovable. But if he is not lovable -- if, indeed, he is hateful -- their expressions of love are purely self-protective. This is perhaps a greater problem with believers than with unbelievers. One often gets the impression that the faithful talk about God's loving us because they are afraid of saying otherwise. But the God they really believe in seems to be a stern authoritarian just waiting to catch them in some infraction of the law and punish them accordingly. But, as Jesus noted, "the law was made for man, not man for the law." A good bit of it also seems to have been made by man.
Thought for the day ...
We carry within us the wonders we seek without us.- Sir Thomas Browne, born on this date in 1605
Monday, October 18, 2010
Sage and scourge ...
... BOOK REVIEW: 'Mencken'. (Hat tip, Paul Davis.)
I have these volumes and found that after a while the vaunted style becomes tiresomely repetitive. Also, the review makes me wonder if the reviewer's acquaintance with the Scopes trial extends beyond Inherit the Wind. I have never been much of a fan of William Jennings Bryan, but he was possibly the only one of the principals in the trial who had actually read Darwin's One the Origin of Species, and Civic Biology, the textbook that Scopes used, certainly had some dubious features.
Tomorrow ...
A reading by Richard Burgin
6:00 PM in the Arts Cafe
introduced by: Greg Djanikian
co-sponsored by: The Creative Writing Program
Richard Burgin is a fiction writer, editor, and critic. He is the author of twelve books, including the story collections Fear of Blue Skies, The Spirit Returns, Private Fame, Man Without Memory (each of which was listed by The Philadelphia Inquireras one of the Notable Books of the Year), the novel Ghost Quartet, Conversations with Isaac Bashevis Singer (translated thus far into four foreign languages), and Conversations with Jorge Luis Borges (published to date in seven foreign editions). He has won five Pushcart Prizes for his stories and had ten others listed in the Pushcart Prize Anthology as among the year's best stories. He is the founder and editor of the internationally distributed literary journal Boulevard (now published by Saint Louis University), which has won numerous national grants, awards and honors in its 18 years of existence. His criticism has been published in literary journals such as Partisan Review, Boston Review, and Chicago Review and his book reviews have been published frequently in the New York Times Book Review and the Washington Post, among other newspapers. His book The Identity Club: New and Selected Stories was chosen as one of the Best Books of 2006 by The Times Literary Supplement.
Well worth reading ...
... William James, part 1: A religious man for our times. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Thought for the day ...
Religion is to mysticism what popularization is to science.- Henri Bergson, born on this date in 1859
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Sad news ...
... Benoit Mandelbrot, 1924-2010. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Dave also sends along: Benoît Mandelbrot, Novel Mathematician, Dies at 85.
(Bumped.)
Dave also sends along: Benoît Mandelbrot, Novel Mathematician, Dies at 85.
(Bumped.)
Salvation in the kitchen ...
... The sustaining power of the ordinary. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Cooking and gardening -- partners in joy.
Cooking and gardening -- partners in joy.
Always interesting ...
... Elmore Leonard On Books, E-Books, Movies and Where the Great Crime Writer Picks Up His Snappy Dialogue.
Well, I prefer books, too, but often the Kindle is more convenient, especially if you're traveling.
Well, I prefer books, too, but often the Kindle is more convenient, especially if you're traveling.
Backyard salvation ...
... Gardening against the odds awards winner: Andrew Barnett. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
How could I doubt a judge named Frank Wilson?
How could I doubt a judge named Frank Wilson?
Thought for the day ...
The imagination is not an escape, but a return to the richness of our true selves; a return to reality.- George Mackay Brown, born on ths date in 1921
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Thought for the day ...
A man who does not think for himself does not think at all.- Oscar Wilde, born on this date in 1854
Friday, October 15, 2010
Not sure I get ...
... why the poems are printed in mirror images, but take a look: Eva Holubk Week.
Good news ...
... Unforgettable in More Than One Way. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I have vivid memories of the King Cole Trio dating back to the '40s, when I was very young. I remember playing in the living room while my grandmother did the ironing. The radio would be tuned in to a guy named Doug Arthur. The Cole Trio was standard fare. No little kid could fail to remember Cole's wondrously deft piano playing.
It often surprises people when I say that Mr. Cole is my favorite jazz pianist. The reason for their surprise is, alas, all too easy to understand: Most of the King Cole Trio's studio recordings for Capitol, cut between 1943 and 1950, have been out of print for years. But Hep Records, a Scottish label whose releases are readily available in this country, has just put out a CD called "Nat King Cole and His Trio: The Forgotten 1949 Carnegie Hall Concert" in which Mr. Cole's gleaming, darting pianism can be heard to good advantage.
I have vivid memories of the King Cole Trio dating back to the '40s, when I was very young. I remember playing in the living room while my grandmother did the ironing. The radio would be tuned in to a guy named Doug Arthur. The Cole Trio was standard fare. No little kid could fail to remember Cole's wondrously deft piano playing.
Thought for the day ...
Readers are what it's all about, aren't they? If not, why am I writing?- Evan Hunter (a.k.a., Ed McBain), born on this date in 1926
Thursday, October 14, 2010
The latest batch ...
... of TLS Letters: Heidegger and barbarism, Buddhism, Claire Clairmont, and more!
More on Stefan Zweig
Once again ...
... science vs. religion: Science and religion aren't friends. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Dave also sends along this: Walls of Mush. I'm afraid I have to agree with Brandon that Coyne's "has to be one of the worst arguments I've seen on the subject, ever."
More from Dave: Investigating Atheism and atheistdelusion.
Dave also sends along this: Walls of Mush. I'm afraid I have to agree with Brandon that Coyne's "has to be one of the worst arguments I've seen on the subject, ever."
More from Dave: Investigating Atheism and atheistdelusion.
Thought for the day ...
In order to go on living one must try to escape the death involved in perfectionism.- Hannah Arendt, born on this date in 1906
Anticipation ..
In just a few hours I will enter upon my 70th year. I am still awake because I cannot keep myself from pondering this and wondering how it could possibly have come about. On Saturday I was at my eldest nephew's house to celebrate my brother and sister-in-law's 50th wedding anniversary. I was the best man at their wedding. I was only 18 and having to speak in public , to toast them, was a horrible experience. I could never have imagined then that I would end up earning a good bit of my income from ... public speaking -- but that is anther story. Pat, my nephew, toward the end of the celebration, told me I did not look old. Nor do I feel old. A few infirmities, true, but nothing serious. Still, I simply cannot reconcile my sense of myself with being old. I am a Peter Pan type. I suspect that Gwen, my stepdaughter, whom I love as if she were my own daughter, probably could say more about this than I can possibly bring myself to, because I think she knows me better than anyone. But why go on about this, when Jacques Brel said it all years ago.
P.S. I should have been clearer - or less elliptical, or whatever. I turned 69 today -- meaning that I have entered upon my 70th year, at the end of which I will have reached 70. But thanks to everyone for the kind thoughts.
P.S. I should have been clearer - or less elliptical, or whatever. I turned 69 today -- meaning that I have entered upon my 70th year, at the end of which I will have reached 70. But thanks to everyone for the kind thoughts.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
My favorite bird ...
... `There's Nothing Crows Won't Eat from the Menu'. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
They fly into South Philly every day fro who knows where. I would love to have one -- though I would want him to be free to go his way. When I die, if there's anything to metempsychosis, I would want to come back as a crow.
They fly into South Philly every day fro who knows where. I would love to have one -- though I would want him to be free to go his way. When I die, if there's anything to metempsychosis, I would want to come back as a crow.
Good news ...
... at least for me: Walking could protect brain against shrinking, US research says. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
The study suggest that nine miles a week – or in the urban US terms of the data, 72 Pittsburgh city blocks – is the optimum distance for "neurological exercise".
Well, I've walked more than 10 miles in the past two days. And I've been walking like that all my life. I just love to walk. I am never more myself than when I am walking by myself. I don't care much about living long, but I do care about living well. And I say this on the eve of entering my 70th year. (I had to write that, in order to bring the reality home to myself. Oh my.)
The study suggest that nine miles a week – or in the urban US terms of the data, 72 Pittsburgh city blocks – is the optimum distance for "neurological exercise".
Well, I've walked more than 10 miles in the past two days. And I've been walking like that all my life. I just love to walk. I am never more myself than when I am walking by myself. I don't care much about living long, but I do care about living well. And I say this on the eve of entering my 70th year. (I had to write that, in order to bring the reality home to myself. Oh my.)
The power of tunes ...
... How Broadway Conquered the World. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
This is something many contemporary composers of classical music might want to, well, take note of.
This is something many contemporary composers of classical music might want to, well, take note of.
Thought for the day ...
The mind is like the stomach. It is not how much you put into it that counts, but how much it digests.- Albert Jay Nock, born on this date in 1870
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