Dead On: A Triple Play
For more background, see the Log24.net entry of 3 AM Friday, the date of Meader's death. See also a Boston Globe obituary that quotes John F. Kennedy: "Vaughn Meader was busy tonight, so I came myself." Note that Rousmaniere was John F. Kennedy's roommate at Harvard. Note, too, that Kennedy's daughter Caroline attended Sister Salisbury's school. A memorial Mass for Sister Salisbury will be held on Monday, November 22, 2004, at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola, 980 Park Avenue, at 5:30 pm. What does all this Camelot portend? I do not know, but the following quote seems appropriate. "Flores, flores para los muertos."
-- Tennessee Williams, 1947 Posted 10/31/2004 at 12:12 PM |
Song "Each epoch has its singer." "Anything
but the void. And so we keep hoping to luck into a winning combination,
to tap into a subtle harmony, trying like lock pickers to negotiate a
compromise with the 'mystery tramp,' as Bob Dylan put it...." "You said you'd never compromise "About
a century ago scientists began to realize that beneath the too, too
solid veneer of what had passed for reality for 2,000 years there was
some pretty funny and fuzzy business going on.... Most of us, I suspect, would rather believe that the devil is running things than that no one is in charge, that our lives, our loves, World Series victories, hang on the whims of fate and chains of coincidences, on God throwing dice, as Einstein once referred to quantum randomness.... [But] we are people, with desires and memories and a sense of humor - not Ping-Pong balls."
"You can be replaced by some ping-pong balls and a dictionary."
Posted 10/29/2004 at 12:12 PM |
Posted 10/29/2004 at 3:00 AM |
Tasteful Tunes, continued: "On Monday The Wall Street Journal confirmed an earlier report that in 2002 the military drew up plans for a strike on the base of the terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in an area of Iraq not under Saddam's control. But civilian officials vetoed the attack - probably because they thought it might undermine political support for the war against Saddam. So Mr. Zarqawi, like Osama, was given the chance to kill another day."
Posted 10/29/2004 at 1:48 AM |
Hell Freezes Over
In honor of this event, here is a recording of Sinatra singing "Sweet Caroline" (RealAudio, 782K) on the Fourth of July, 1974, aboard the U.S.S. Midway at the U.S. naval base in Yokosuka, Japan. Posted 10/28/2004 at 7:11 PM |
Iraqi Soldiers Found Dead Nearly 50 bodies were found, many killed execution style with gunshots to the back of the head. Why America Is Losing Fallouja Misjudgment, disagreement and shifting strategy fan the flames. -- Today's LA Times Posted 10/24/2004 at 4:00 PM |
Date of Infamy, Today's New York Times Sports: "The weapons were bought by the police department for the Democratic National Convention this summer but were not used then." Photos of
Posted 10/23/2004 at 4:15 PM |
A Date Which Will
Today's saint's day: Today's birthday:
Today's Scripture: Zen and the
Art "Then, on impulse, Phædrus went over to his bookshelf and picked out a small, blue, cardboard-bound book. He'd hand-copied this book and bound it himself years before, when he couldn't find a copy for sale anywhere. It was the 2,400-year-old Tao Te Ching of Lao Tzu. He began to read.... Phædrus read on through line after line, verse after verse of this, watched them match, fit, slip into place. Exactly. This was what he meant. This was what he'd been saying all along, only poorly, mechanistically. There was nothing vague or inexact about this book. It was as precise and definite as it could be. It was what he had been saying, only in a different language with different roots and origins. He was from another valley seeing what was in this valley, not now as a story told by strangers but as a part of the valley he was from. He was seeing it all. He had broken the code. He read on. Line after line. Page after page. Not a discrepancy.
What he had been talking about all the time as Quality was here the Tao, the
great central generating force of all religions, Oriental and Occidental, past
and present, all knowledge, everything." Posted 10/21/2004 at 2:00 PM |
Wooing "Cheering from Red Sox fans could be heard in the ninth, and when pinch-hitter Ruben Sierra grounded to second baseman Pokey Reese for the final out at 12:01 a.m., Boston players ran onto the field and jumped together in a mass huddle. 'The greatest comeback in baseball history,' Red Sox owner John Henry proclaimed." -- Boston Red Sox Make History,
See also the previous entry, Posted 10/21/2004 at 3:28 AM |
Today's birthdays:
See Oct. 21, 2002. Posted 10/21/2004 at 12:00 AM |
Counting Crows -- Francis Crick, who was awarded "She went to the men on the ground and looked at them and then she found Inman apart from them. She sat and held him in her lap. He tried to talk, but she hushed him. He drifted in and out and dreamed a bright dream of a home. It had a coldwater spring rising out of a rock, black dirt fields, old trees. In his dream, the year seemed to be happening all at one time, all the seasons blending together. Apple trees hanging heavy with fruit but yet unaccountably blossoming, ice rimming the spring, okra plants blooming yellow and maroon, maple leaves red as October, corn crops tasseling, a stuffed chair pulled up to the glowing parlor hearth, pumpkins shining in the fields, laurels blooming on the hillsides, ditch banks full of orange jewelweed, white blossoms on dogwood, purple on redbud. Everything coming around at once. And there were white oaks, and a great number of crows, or at least the spirits of crows, dancing and singing in the upper limbs. There was something he wanted to say." -- Charles Frazier, Cold Mountain Posted 10/18/2004 at 3:33 PM |
Last Bell And there is always one last light to turn out and one last bell to ring And the last one out of the circus has to lock up everything. -- Mrs. Potter's Lullaby No se puede vivir sin amar. Posted 10/17/2004 at 1:00 AM |
Up the River
The careful reader will note that the previous entry has two parts. Part I, "Spain," links to the home page of a Spaniard named Jesús. Part II, "Take This Cup," links to a page about a poet named César. I found Jesús in a search for images of "Apocalypse Now" prompted in turn by earlier entries. I knew of César from library browsing. This afternoon, I looked at the home page of the site where I found the essay on César; this in turn led to another essay:
For what it's worth, the birthday of Jesús is April 9... See the entry of April 9, 2003, "Hearts of Darkness." The birthday of César is March 16. See the entry of March 16, 2003, on the letter A... Here is the logo of the site where I found both César and "The Necessity For Story"-- Posted 10/16/2004 at 3:09 PM |
Posted 10/16/2004 at 5:24 AM |
4:09 AM: Posted 10/16/2004 at 4:09 AM |
Bruce Palmer, who played bass guitar for Buffalo Springfield... in the 1960's, died on Oct. 1 in Belleville, Ontario. He was 58. "Stop, children, what's that sound?" 3:09:00 AM. "... y el no estar del todo en una acción" -- Homero Aridjis Posted 10/16/2004 at 3:09 AM |
Midnight in the
Garden
"Of African origin, and made of jacarandá wood in a conical shape. A calfskin head covers the top of the drum. It is used a lot in capoeria and candomblé and umbanda rituals all over Brazil. There are three kinds of atabaques: Rum, Rumpi, and Lê. Rum has the deepest sound and is a solo drum; Rumpi has a medium sound, and Lê is the highest. These three hold the beat." Like the beat, beat, beat of the tom-tom.... --- Cole Porter, "Night and Day"
Posted 10/16/2004 at 12:00 AM |
The Eight and the Six (See yesterday's entry) Today's lottery numbers in Pennsylvania (State of Grace): Nite and Day.... with an apology to St. Cole Porter, whose feast is today. Posted 10/15/2004 at 8:48 PM |
Snow Jobs
In memory of C. P. Snow, whose birthday is today "Without the narrative prop of High Table dinner conversation at Cambridge, Snow would be lost." -- Roger Kimball* "It was a perfectly ordinary night at Christ's high table, except that Hardy was dining as a guest." -- C. P. Snow** "666=2.3.3.37, and there is no other decomposition." -- G. H. Hardy*** * The Two Cultures Today ** Foreword to A Mathematician's Apology *** A Mathematician's Apology Oct. 15, 2004, 7:11:37 PM Posted 10/15/2004 at 7:11 PM |
Star Wars, The Eight Lest the reader of the previous entry mistakenly take Katherine Neville's book The Eight
more seriously than Fritz Leiber's greatly superior writings on
eightness, here are two classic interpretations of Leiber's "spider" or
"double cross" symbol:
This symbol consists of For some deeper properties Posted 10/14/2004 at 5:14 PM |
Show Business From the Changewar story Even little things are "I've had this idea-- it's just a sort of fancy,
remember-- that if you wanted to time-travel and, well, do things, you
could hardly pick a more practical machine than a dressing-room and a
sort of stage and half-theater attached, with actors to man it...." For the remainder of this section Related material: Posted 10/13/2004 at 2:56 PM |
Posted 10/13/2004 at 2:23 AM |
Narrative Theory
Posted 10/13/2004 at 12:07 AM |
Time and Chance Today's winning lottery numbers in Pennsylvania (State of Grace): Midday: 373 Evening: 816. Posted 10/12/2004 at 11:11 PM |
Urn "Almost every famous chess game is a well-wrought urn in Cleanth Brooks’ sense." -- John Holbo, Now We See Wherein Lies the Pleasure, July 12, 2004 "The well-wrought urn contained mortal ashes." -- Geoffrey Hartman (See previous entry.) Posted 10/12/2004 at 10:10 PM |
The Last Enemy
"I was also impressed... by the intensity
of Continental modes of literary-critical thought.... On the Continent, studies of Hölderlin and Rousseau, of Poe,
Baudelaire, Mallarmé and Rilke, of Rabelais, Nietzsche, Kafka, and
Joyce, challenged not only received ideas on the unity of the work of art
but many aspects of western thought itself. Derrida, at the same
time, who for nearly a decade found a home in Yale's
Comparative Literature Department, expanded the concept of textuality to
the point where nothing could be demarcated as 'hors d'œuvre' and escape the literary-critical eye. It was uncanny to feel
hierarchic boundaries waver until the commentary entered the text—not
literally, of course, but in the sense that the over-objectified
work became a reflection on its own status, its stability as an object
of cognition. The well-wrought urn contained mortal ashes." -- Geoffrey Hartman, A Life of Learning In memory of
"The last enemy
Knight move, Nfe5 mate Knight: Sir John Falstaff Posted 10/12/2004 at 4:30 PM |
Introduction to Aesthetics "Chess problems are the
G. H. Hardy in
A Mathematician's Apology: "We do not want many 'variations' in the proof of a mathematical theorem: 'enumeration of cases,' indeed, is one of the duller forms of mathematical argument. A mathematical proof should resemble a simple and clear-cut constellation, not a scattered cluster in the Milky Way. A chess problem also has unexpectedness, and a certain economy; it is essential that the moves should be surprising, and that every piece on the board should play its part. But the aesthetic effect is cumulative. It is essential also (unless the problem is too simple to be really amusing) that the key-move should be followed by a good many variations, each requiring its own individual answer. 'If P-B5 then Kt-R6; if .... then .... ; if .... then ....' -- the effect would be spoilt if there were not a good many different replies. All this is quite genuine mathematics, and has its merits; but it just that 'proof by enumeration of cases' (and of cases which do not, at bottom, differ at all profoundly*) which a real mathematician tends to despise. * I believe that is now regarded as a merit in a problem that there should be many variations of the same type." (Cambridge at the University Press. First edition, 1940.) Brian Harley in "It is quite true that variation play is, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, the soul of a problem, or (to put it more materially) the main course of the solver's banquet, but the Key is the cocktail that begins the proceedings, and if it fails in piquancy the following dinner is not so satisfactory as it should be." (London, Bell & Sons. First edition, 1931.) Posted 10/10/2004 at 10:35 PM |
Starflight
"The black king has three white flight squares, without mates being provided
for these flights, which suggests giving him a fourth. 1. Bg2 therefore
presents itself, especially when you notice that it prepares mates for
all the flights, and for the king remaining on its original square.
1. Bg2 The five variations together are the theme, 'starflight.' (With orthogonal
squares it is called plus- or cross-flight.)" See also the entries of
Oct. 8, 2002 and Oct. 8, 2004, and related remarks on the "double cross," or "king's moves" symbol:
For an appropriate bishop, see Posted 10/10/2004 at 4:48 PM |
Derrida Dead "Jacques Derrida, the Algerian-born, French intellectual who became one of the most celebrated and unfathomable philosophers of the late 20th century, died Friday at a Paris hospital, the French president's office announced. He was 74." -- Jonathan Kandell, New York Times "There is no teacher but the enemy." -- Orson Scott Card, Ender's Game, Posted 10/9/2004 at 6:40 PM |
Belief KERRY: "I'm going to be a president who believes in science." KERRY: "I'm a Catholic - raised a Catholic. I was an altar boy. Religion has been a huge part of my life, helped lead me through a war, leads me today." BUSH: "Trying to decipher that." Posted 10/9/2004 at 2:22 AM |
Behush the Bush
"There's where. First. "... we all gain an appreciation of how each of us can
provide readings that others are blind to and how each of us is
temporarily blind to other feasible readings. Reading the text
becomes a communal act of discovery....
No
one has much to say, for now, about the grass reference...." The phrase "snake in the grass" seems relevant, as does the opening of Finnegans Wake:
Related material: Joyce and Tao, Posted 10/8/2004 at 5:07 PM |
Absolute Full Spin Mode In today's news: "Kerry... said Bush and Cheney Today's midday 525. Star Wars and For similar theological remarks, Posted 10/7/2004 at 6:30 PM |
Prize This years's Nobel Prize for literature goes to Elfriede Jelinek. Related material:
Posted 10/7/2004 at 3:33 PM |
Metaphysics, cont. "Logocentrism is... described by Derrida as a 'metaphysics of presence.'" 1:00:00 AM: Hickory dickory dock... Posted 10/7/2004 at 1:00 AM |
3:17:20 PM Spin the Numbers IN NOMINE PATRIS...
ET FILII...
ET SPIRITUS SANCTI... "Heraclitus.... says: AMEN. Posted 10/6/2004 at 3:17 PM |
The Joyce Identity, From The Bourne Identity: ABBOTT: Can you really bring him in?
CONKLIN: Well why don't you go upstairs and book a conference room. Maybe you can talk him to death. Posted 10/5/2004 at 3:28 PM |
Tea Privileges On Janet Leigh,
On the redesigned "... the ultimate judgment will have to wait: Taniguchi himself told a MoMA curator who'd complimented him that considering the building without the art in it is like admiring the tea cup without the green tea. Next month the museum will have art on the walls and crowds in the galleries—and then the tea ceremony will begin." -- Cathleen McGuigan, Newsweek, Related material: Review of A Man and His Art, a book of paintings by Frank Sinatra: "... he's a solid abstractionist with an excellent eye for color, composition and geometric precision." -- Booklist (Jan. 15, 1992) "Blue Eyes took his Sunday painting seriously." -- Eric Banks in Artforum Magazine, See also Posted 10/5/2004 at 12:00 AM |
Today's birthday: Anne Rice. Vampire Quality To Jacques Levy, cont. and to Richard Avedon, cont. Levy directed "Red Cross," From Under the Volcano,
Jesse McKinley in today's New York Times: "In a surprise entry to the fall season, Sam Shepard - actor, playwright and sexagenarian heartthrob - has written a new, sharp-elbowed farce.... The play, 'The God of Hell,' was written over the summer by Mr. Shepard, 60, who wanted to stage it before the Nov. 2 election.... In a telephone interview on Friday, Mr. Shepard said that the play was 'a takeoff on Republican fascism, in a way,' and that he thought it would be more pertinent if seen during the presidential campaign." See The Script: Posted 10/4/2004 at 4:15 PM |
Ig Nobel Copies of to John Kerry for his blind support of scientism Related material: Posted 10/1/2004 at 4:23 PM |
Ig Nobel Background from David Brooks (NYT Magazine, Aug. 29, 2004): "The war on Islamic extremism.... We are in the beginning of this war, where we were against Bolshevism around 1905 or Fascism in the early 1930's, with enemies that will continue to gain strength, thanks to the demographic bulge in the Middle East...." On last night's Ig Nobel ceremony at Harvard: "Coming a week before their more noble cousins are announced in Stockholm, the awards have become a keenly contested, globally reported event." From the Bush-Kerry debate last night: "Kerry: The president just talked about Iraq as a center of the war on terror. Iraq was not even close to the center of the war on terror before the president invaded it." As David Brooks has pointed out, the so-called war on terror is actually a war on an Islamic extremism that seeks to dominate the Middle East. The United States government may deny, and Kerry may decry, the strategy of building permanent bases at the very center of the Middle East, Iraq (shown above), but such a strategy seems not without merit if the long-term strategic interests of the United States are placed ahead of political considerations. Kerry's apparent ignorance of such a strategy's merits entitles him to this year's Posted 10/1/2004 at 4:07 PM |
Dedication added on To Richard Avedon, who died On originality-- See Originality Prize A bag of Fritos to John Kerry... "Kerry contributed most of the night's fairly original phrases, including the suggestion that invading Iraq in retaliation to Sept. 11 was like Franklin Roosevelt invading Mexico in response to Pearl Harbor." -- Noel Holston at Newsday.com Log24.net illustration following Whoopi Goldberg's "bush" remarks and John Mellencamp's "bandito" song at a Kerry fundraiser last summer: Log24.net two years ago on this date: ... y el no estar del todo en una acción Posted 10/1/2004 at 12:00 AM |