In memory ofJohn Gregory Dunne,who died
onDec. 30, 2003:
For further details, clickon the black monolith.
See, too, last year's entriesfor Dec. 30 and 31:
"... he might add under his breath,like the professor in The L…
Personal Jesus
Columnist Cal Thomason Politician Howard Dean: What exactly does Dean
believe about Jesus, and how is it relevant to his presidential
candidacy? "Christ was someone who sought out people who wer…
Toy
"If little else, the brain is an educational toy. While it may be a
frustrating plaything -- one whose finer points recede just when you
think you are mastering them -- it is nonetheless perpetually
fascinating, fr…
ART WARS, St. Stephen's Day:
The Magdalene Code
Got The Da Vinci Code for Xmas.
From page 262:
When Langdon had first seen The Little Mermaid, he had actually gasped
aloud when he noticed that the painting in Ariel…
Sequel to previous 4 entries:
A Christmas Carolby Dylan Thomas
Current phase of the moon,from the U.S. Naval Observatory:
And I remember that we went singing carols once, a night or two before
Ch…
California EarthquakeRang Planet 'Like a
Bell'
By Peter Henderson December 22, 2003 07:06 PM ET
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - California's largest earthquake in four years
struck on Monday, causing Planet Earth to ring "li…
Cambria Cambria, California (AP) --
An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.5 rocked the California
coast from Los Angeles to San Francisco on Monday.
"Would you like something to read?"
-- Dylan Th…
After the Long Night
The Longest Night
Tonight will bethe longest nightof 2003. AlsoSprachZarathustra
Time Magazine, current issue --"In Memoriam...Mr. Rogers,Carney,Cash,
Kazan,and Kate"
"My God, it's full of stars!"
White, Geometric, and Eternal
This afternoon's surfing:
Prompted by Edward Rothstein's own Fides et Ratio encyclical in today's
NY Times, I googled him.
At the New York Review of Books, I came across the following by …
Quarter to Three
"You've got to be true to your code."-- Frank Sinatra
In memory of Webster Young,who died on Saint Lucia's day,December 13,
2003 --
From my entry of 12/16/03,Jazz on St. Lucia's Day: "Now you has…
For St. Emil's Day
On this date in 1962, Emil Artin died.
He was, in his way, a priest of Apollo, god of music, light, and
reason.
The previous entry dealt with permutation groups, in the context of a
Jan. 2004 AMS No…
Happy Birthday, Helmut Wielandt(wherever you
may be)
Cover illustration,AMS Notices, January 2004
In light of my entry on change-ringing of this date last year, the
above AMS Notices cover may serve to illustrate what …
Christmas Concert
"And now what you've allbeen waiting for... Wagner!"
-- Conclusion of the film "Cosi"
Related material:
The Ring and the Rings: Wagner vs. Tolkien, by Alex Ross, in The New
Yorker, current (Dec. 2…
Saint Louis
Today is the feast day of Saint Louis Untermeyer, who died on December
18, 1977. Here are some links in his memory:
His anthology, Modern British Poetry,
his anthology, Modern American Poetry,
and
a bri…
Fighting Chance
"Give faith a fighting chance." -- Lee Ann Womack
On this date in 1959, the film "On the Beach" opened worldwide.
From a site on Nevil Shute, author of the book on which the film was
based:
The New…
Moulin Bleu Kaleidoscope turning...Shifting
patternwithin unalterable structure...-- Roger Zelazny, Eye of Cat See,
too, Blue Matrices, anda link for Beethoven's birthday:
Song for theUnification of Europe(B…
Jazz on St. Lucia's Day
December 13, Saturday, wasthe feast day of St. Lucia.
Lauryn Hillat St. Lucia
Log24 entry for December 13:
Kaleidoscope turning...Shifting patternwithin unalterable structure...
Was it a mis…
Hell to Heaven
From Hotel Point:
On a novel, Dow Mossman'sThe Stones of Summer --
Evidence of Malcolm Lowry’s Under the Volcano. The Dow Mossman
character (Dawes Williams) sitting in the Rio Grande tearing pages out
o…
Riddle
From Robert Stone's Damascus Gate:
"God... that Great F---ing Thing, the Lord of Sacrifices, the setter of
riddles."
(See the Web site "Stone, not Wood.")
Christianity may be a religion of lies, but it sometim…
We Are the Key:The Shining of December 13
For James and Lucia Joyce
In the Orbit of Genius --TIME, Dec. 1, 2003:
"Once, when her mother asked if Joyce should visit her in the
sanatorium, Lucia said, 'Tell him I am a c…
For Sinatra's Birthday
Sinatra made as good use as anyone in the past century of the 12-note
tempered scale, so the above seems a reasonably apt tribute on this,
his 12/12 birthday.
Rough Beast
The title is a reference to the horse in yesterday's entry of 6:13 PM.
The time of that entry, 6:13, is a deliberate reference* to the date of
a June 13, 2003, entry, for the birthday of W. B. Yeats.
That …
Putting Descartes Before Dehors "Descartes
déclare que c'est en moi,
non hors de moi, en moi, non dans le monde, que je pourrais voir si
quelque chose existe hors de moi."
-- ATRIUM, Philosophie
For further…
Tru Story
From the Internet Broadway Database entry on the play Tru, starring
Robert Morse: "Setting: Truman Capote'sNew York apartment at870 United
Nations Plaza.One week before Christmas, 1975."
For Lewis Allen, pr…
Street of the Fathers
From Bruce Wagner's Wild Palms --
Robert Morse sings in Kyotoas negotiators discussthe Go chip:
"In My Room"
Coordinates for a 4x4 space:
A Small Go Board Study: A 4x4Go Board
…
Dream of Youth
Today is the feast day of Saint Hermann Weyl.
In his honor, here are two links:
The Jugendtraum and
Langlands on the Jugendtraum.
Dead Poets Society
On Friday, December 5, 2003, I picked up a copy of An Introduction to
Poetry, by X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia, 8th ed., at a used book sale
for 50 cents.
The previous entry concerns a poem by Buson I…
Happy Rohatsu
"The Buddha was enlightened on the eighth of December when he looked up
at the morning star, the planet we call Venus."
-- Shodo Harada Roshi, Dharma Talk
A poem for Rohatsu:
On the one-ton temple bel…
The Last SamuraiGrandmother
"The 'Samurai Grandmother'Margaret Singer has passed away…"
Singer was the author ofCults in Our Midst. For some background
onSinger and Scientology,see The Anti-Cult Movement.
" 'I mig…
Annals of Education:
Eyes on the Prize
Dialogue from "Good Will Hunting" --
Will: He used to just put a belt, a stick, and a wrench on the kitchen
table and say, "Choose." Sean: Gotta go …
Number 61 For Joan Didion on her birthday
From "On Keeping a Notebook" (1966)in Slouching Towards Bethlehem:
How it felt to me: that is getting closer to the truth about a
notebook. I sometimes delude my…