(See previous entry.)
— Source: The Nation online,
Robert Scheer column of Feb. 3, 2004
containing movie ad of Sept. 30, 2005
“This place ain’t doing me any good.
I’m in the wrong town,
I should be in Hollywood.”
— Dylan, “Things Have Changed“
From today’s Harvard Crimson:
Former House Master Dead at 89
“Andrews discovered Harvard while studying at the Army Air Force’s Statistical Control School, which was held at HBS and taught by HBS faculty.
Having completed his Air Force service in 1946, Andrews joined a multidisciplinary teaching group at HBS to develop a new course called Administrative Practices.”
 |
“All the truth in the world
adds up to one big lie.”
To St. Michael on his day (9/29)
in the spirit of St. Cecilia’s Eve (11/21):
And Hennessey Tennessee tootles the flute,
And the music is somethin’ grand;
A credit to old Ireland is McNamara’s band.
Click on picture for details.
— H. S. M. Coxeter, introduction to
Richard J. Trudeau’s
The Non-Euclidean Revolution
“People have always longed for truths about the world — not logical truths, for all their utility; or even probable truths, without which daily life would be impossible; but informative, certain truths, the only ‘truths’ strictly worthy of the name. Such truths I will call ‘diamonds’; they are highly desirable but hard to find….The happy metaphor is Morris Kline’s in Mathematics in Western Culture (Oxford, 1953), p. 430.”
— Richard J. Trudeau,
The Non-Euclidean Revolution,
Birkhauser Boston,
1987, pages 114 and 117
“A new epistemology is emerging to replace the Diamond Theory of truth. I will call it the ‘Story Theory’ of truth: There are no diamonds. People make up stories about what they experience. Stories that catch on are called ‘true.’ The Story Theory of truth is itself a story that is catching on. It is being told and retold, with increasing frequency, by thinkers of many stripes…. My own viewpoint is the Story Theory…. I concluded long ago that each enterprise contains only stories (which the scientists call ‘models of reality’). I had started by hunting diamonds; I did find dazzlingly beautiful jewels, but always of human manufacture.”
— Richard J. Trudeau,
The Non-Euclidean Revolution,
Birkhauser Boston,
1987, pages 256 and 259
An example of
the story theory of truth:
Actress Gwyneth Paltrow (“Proof”) was apparently born on either Sept. 27, 1972, or Sept. 28, 1972. Google searches yield “about 193” results for the 27th and “about 610” for the 28th.
Those who believe in the “story theory” of truth may therefore want to wish her a happy birthday today. Those who do not may prefer the contents of yesterday’s entry, from Paltrow’s other birthday.
Gwyneth Paltrow is said to be 33 today.
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Mathematics
|
Narrative
|
|
Recommended reading for Harvard's president:
Truth: A Guide, |
Recommended reading for Gwyneth Paltrow:
On Bullshit, |
|
|
“There is a place for a hint
somewhere of a big agent
to complete the picture.”
— Notes for an unfinished novel,
The Last Tycoon
|
Parable: “A comparison or analogy. The word is simply a transliteration of the Greek word: parabolé (literally: ‘what is thrown beside’ or ‘juxtaposed’)….” |
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Related material:
So far, the Yale Daily News obit is the only one showing up on a Google News search. Probably the New York Times will get around to Lang eventually. In the meantime, here's what an online newspaper and some blogs have to say.
The New Haven Independent
Obituary for Serge Lang
Weblog Entries on
Serge Lang's Death
Peter Woit's weblog
New AIDS Review
Locana
Weapon of Class Instruction
Simon's Rock College's Journal
Update of Sept. 24, 2004, 9:25 PM:
The New York Times now has an obituary.
Google News this afternoon:
The Randomness
In yesterday’s New York Times, science writer George Johnson quoted a Buddhist:
“Though he professes to accept evolutionary theory, he recoils at one of its most basic tenets: that the mutations that provide the raw material for natural selection occur at random. Look deeply enough, he suggests, and the randomness will turn out to be complexity in disguise– ‘hidden causality,’ the Buddha’s smile. There you have it, Eastern religion’s version of intelligent design.”
— “The Universe in a Single Atom”: Reason and Faith
| Sunday NY lottery 9/18/05 |
Sunday PA lottery 9/18/05 |
| Midday: 748 | Midday: 999 |
| Evening: 000 | Evening: 709 |
Gamblers, religious zealots, and the insane may interpret the above as utterances of Lady Luck, God, or The Conspiracy.
A Buddhist interpretation for the New York Times:
A Christian interpretation for the home state of Grace Kelly:
See also the previous entry,
Barging In.
Update of 7:11 PM EDT:
Barging In, Part II is on
Turner Movie Classics at 8 PM EDT.
“Some fearless outside referee
had to barge in and try to
adjudicate the culture wars….”
— Frank Rich in
today’s New York Times
On this date 100 years ago,
Greta Garbo was born.
For Frank Rich,
who wrote a review
of a new novel,
On Beauty
For George Johnson,
who wrote…
“Look deeply enough,
he suggests,
and the randomness
will turn out to be
complexity in disguise –
‘hidden causality,’
the Buddha’s smile.
There you have it….”
previous entry. |
From Matt Glaser, Satchmo, the Philosopher:
“… the luminosity and perpetual freshness of Armstrong’s music. These qualities, as well as his essentially abstract ability to affect our perception of time, link him with the other artistic and scientific revolutionaries of the first half of the 20th century. Recently I had a very public fantasy (in Ken Burns’s Jazz) in which Werner Heisenberg attends a Louis Armstrong concert in Copenhagen, in 1933. Did I go too far? Actually, I didn’t go far enough.”
That Log24 entries connect both these dates to Louis Armstrong is, of course, purely coincidental.
From www.ams.org:
“Serge Lang passed away on September 12 at the age of 78. Lang was a professor at Yale University from 1972 to 2005. He received his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1951 under the direction of Emil Artin. Lang was awarded the Frank Nelson Cole Prize in Algebra in 1960 and the Leroy P. Steele Prize for Mathematical Exposition in 1999. He was well known for his mathematics texts and was a member of the National Academy of Sciences. [Item posted 9/15/05]”
From a review of one of Lang’s books, Challenges:
“Again and again, Lang has caught powerful academics and journalists at evasions, stonewalling, and intimidation. It’s cost him considerable time, effort, and money; it’s also made him a lot of enemies. It should be mentioned here that Professor Lang is also a productive researcher in mathematics and a prolific author of books of mathematics. I literally don’t know how he does it. He must have absolutely no life outside his office.
OK, sure, Lang is a crank. He’s also a national treasure. His commitment to the ethic of honesty and plain speaking should be an example to us all.”
Serge Lang,
May 19, 1927 –
September 12, 2005
Square Wheel, continued
For director Robert Wise,
who died yesterday on
The Feast of The Holy Cross:
The Maltese Cross
From Cabaret Mechanical Theatre
See also Sept. 8, 2002, Sept. 12, 2002, and Time Fold.
Multimedia
“… the quality of life as of death
and of light as of darkness is one…”
— Robinson Jeffers
(See previous two entries
and Dante, Paradiso, 25.054.)
Lutheran Rhythm, continued:
(See previous entry.)
“This is a sane and sensible interpretation, deeply musicianly and devoid of eccentricity. Her attitude, rather like Toscanini’s, is to accept the text com’ e scritto (for example, she adopts the ‘square-wheel’ rhythm of the E minor Gigue) and then to make legitimate adjustments….”
Holy Cross Day
The Cross and the Wheel:
“… the quality of life as of death
and of light as of darkness is one,
one beauty, the rhythm of that Wheel,
and who can behold it is happy
and will praise it to the people.”
— Robinson Jeffers,
“Point Pinos and Point Lobos,”
quoted at the end of
The Cosmic Code by Heinz Pagels,
Simon & Schuster, 1982
Death on 9/11
By THE NEW YORK TIMES
Al Casey, a guitarist whose playful acoustic rhythms and solos were a defining feature of Fats Waller’s band in the 1930’s and 1940’s, died on Sunday [9/11] in Manhattan. He was 89….
Mr. Casey played and recorded with Louis Armstrong in 1944 when both were recognized as leading jazz musicians in the Esquire magazine readers’ poll….
A 90th birthday celebration for Mr. Casey, scheduled for Thursday evening at St. Peter’s Church, 54th Street and Lexington Avenue, will now be his musical memorial service, open to the public.
See also the previous entry.
Final arrangements, continued:
Justice at Heaven’s Gate
“Gate — Early term for a Jazz musician.
Armstrong is the original Swing Jazz player that’s why they call used to call him ‘Gate.’“
— All About Jazz
“Armstrong is also frequently cited as the main source or popularizer of words like scat, gate (a greeting among jazz musicians that became a popular WWII term for a buddy or pal)²
² The term apparently goes back to Louis’s own adolescent nickname, ‘Gatemouth.'”
— Jazz Institute of Chicago
x
| I need a photo-opportunity. I want a shot at redemption. Don’t want to end up a cartoon In a cartoon graveyard. — Paul Simon |
Related material:
Nine Gates to the
Temple of Poetry
and
Law Day 2001:
The Devil and Wallace Stevens
“When asked which words in the English language are the most difficult to define precisely, a lexicographer would surely mention funky.”
“Founded by Isaac Kaufmann Funk, a Lutheran minister who in 1876 began editing and publishing two magazines, The Homiletic Review and The Voice, the latter for the Prohibition Party. Unfortunately, neither magazine paid its way. The following year he teamed with [one of his classmates at Wittenberg College] A.W. Wagnalls, a lawyer and accountant, who got Funk on sounder financial footing. They began by publishing pamphlets and booklets for the clergy, mostly commentaries on the Bible.”
— Major American Publishers and Wikipedia
* Company: “The Grateful Dead”– “a name chosen at random from a dictionary– some claim it was a Funk & Wagnalls, others an Oxford Dictionary– by Jerry Garcia“
(Background: the two previous entries.)
Alicia Keys and Paul Simon
on last night’s Katrina telethon
Readings for St. Patrick’s Day,
Log24.net, March 17, 2005,
featuring
Conrad’s Under Western Eyes.
Reading for the Saints of 9/11,
New York Times of Sunday, 9/11, 2005:
“The True Classic of Terrorism,”
Conrad’s Under Western Eyes.
And for some comic relief,
Harvard’s President on St. Patrick’s Day:
Professor Matory is “a renowned expert on Brazil and on the Yoruba civilization of West Africa, which is world famous for its religious complexity and artistic creativity. He is equally noted for his study of such Latin American religions as Haitian ‘Vodu,’ Brazilian Candomblé, and Cuban Santería….”
Play that funky music, white boy.
Why is this man smiling?
From today’s New York Times:
Robert W. Funk,
founder of the Jesus Seminar…
died on Sept. 3…
From the First Amendment Center:
Chief Justice William Rehnquist
died on Sept. 3…
For the answer to the above question,
see the previous entry–
Lutheran Rhythm—
and Funk’s Hier Stehe Ich.
“A family of musicians took shelter for the night
In the little harbor church of St. Cecilia”
— Paul Simon, Rhythm of the Saints
“The canonized go on.”
— Philip Roth in
today’s New York Times,
“Why Is This Man Smiling?“
“Have the ensemble clap the rhythm of the first four treble clef bars of Bach’s Minuet in G, and then play it with correct pitches or in a unison single pitch. Next, have them clap the bass clef rhythm and play it either in unison or with correct pitches. Finally, have one group play the treble part while the other group claps the bass part, and then reverse roles as above.”
Faith
Faith is an island in the setting sun
But proof, yes
Proof is the bottom line for everyone
— Paul Simon, “Proof”
Lottery numbers for
Pennsylvania, Sept. 1, 2005:
“Proof is the bottom line for everyone”–
Day = 120
“Faith is an island in the setting sun”–
Evening = 511
See also
Giving the Devil His Due.
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