Log24

See Borsalino, Miller's Crossing, and Road to Perdition.

Commentary on last night—

Tonight: The After-Party.

In related news…

"The yarns of seamen have a direct simplicity, the whole meaning of which
lies within the shell of a cracked nut. But Marlow was not typical
(if his propensity to spin yarns be excepted), and to him the meaning
of an episode was not inside like a kernel but outside, enveloping the tale
which brought it out only as a glow brings out a haze, in the likeness of
one of these misty halos that sometimes are made visible by
the spectral illumination of moonshine."

– Joseph Conrad in Heart of Darkness , quoted here in
   Cold Open (Saturday night, January 29, 2011)

* Related remarks:  Willard Motley on a Chicago color.

A publication from 1938 —

509 Fourth Avenue, Warren, Pennsylvania —

From The Phantom Tollbooth —

Related material —

May 18, 2023 10:24 AM Eastern Daylight Time

CHICAGO–(BUSINESS WIRE) — It is with profound sadness
that Equity Residential (NYSE: EQR) mourns the death of its
Founder and Chairman, Samuel Zell, who died today at age 81.

For less rigorous remarks, search Log24 for Modal Diamond Box.

(Continued)

"Ay que bonito es bailar
a las dos de la mañana"

— Adapted from a song lyric

See also . . .

Shadi Bartsch-Zimmer, Helen A. Regenstein
Distinguished Service Professor of Classics
at the University of Chicago,

"currently the lead editor of the journal 
KNOW: A Journal on the Formation of Knowledge."

Photo caption —

"Vinnie Paul of the band Hellyeah performs in concert
during Day 2 of the Rock Allegiance Festival at
Talen Energy Stadium on Sunday, Sept. 18, 2016, in
Chester, Pa. (Photo by Owen Sweeney/Invision/AP)"

News report —

"Former SKID ROW singer Sebastian Bach played
a cover version of the PANTERA classic 
"Cemetery Gates" as a tribute to Vinnie Paul Abbott 
during his June 24 concert at The Pyramid Cabaret in
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada."

Some backstory —

From University of Chicago Press in 1984:

"Drawing on Hegel, Nietzsche, Derrida,
and others, Mark Taylor extends—and
goes well beyond—pioneering efforts. . . . "
—G. Douglas Atkins, 
Philosophy and Literature

Update at noon on May 16 —

"Follow the Blood Arroyo to the place
where the snake lays its eggs."

— Westworld, Season 1, Episode 2,
air date October 9, 2016

This suggests a review of Derrida + Serpent 
in this journal.

CERN COURIER  May 28, 1999:

In hot pursuit of CP violation

"CP was a consolation prize for physicists.
At least it seemed so until 1964." 

"James W. Cronin, who shared the Nobel Prize in physics
for discovering a startling breakdown in what was assumed
to be the immutable symmetry of physical law, thereby
helping to explain the behavior and evolution of the universe
as a whole, died Aug. 25 in St. Paul, Minn. He was 84.

Dr. Cronin’s death was announced by the University of Chicago,
where he was a professor emeritus of physics as well as of
astronomy and astrophysics. No cause was reported."

— Martin Weil in The Washington Post , August 28, 2016

From "A Piece of the Storm,"
by the late poet Mark Strand —

"A snowflake, a blizzard of one…."

See Source + Michener and The Source (Dec. 29, 2014).

The title is a reference to the Chicago character named "Four"
in Veronica Roth's Divergent  series.

"In July 2014, Roth revealed that she initially wrote 
Divergent  from Four's point of view . . . ." — Wikipedia

Other Chicago-related stories — "Raiders of the Lost Code" 
(on the recent murder-suicide of two Chicago Jungians)
and the following —

See also Jungian narrative art in

https://redice.tv/news/
on-the-nature-of-four-jung-s-quarternity-mandalas-the-stone-and-the-self .

(Continued from December 19, 2007)

http://chicago.suntimes.com/news/
colleagues-shocked-as-noted-psychologists-die-in-murder-suicide/

Another tutelary figure —

"You got to know when to hold 'em …"

Happy birthday to composer John Kander, who turns 89 today.

* See Noonan Weimar in this journal.

Two transitions from last Monday, Oct. 26, 2015,
according to the online New York Times  today —

Related remarks:

Posts tagged "Steam," the post "On Ice-Breaking" from Oct. 27,
the post "Expanding the Seagram Spielraum" from Oct. 26, and
a 2008 article on the subject of the obituary at right above.

"Integrity, Craftsmanship, Tradition"

AP Today in History 
Thought for the Day:

“I respect faith, but doubt is what
gives you an education.”
— Wilson Mizner, 
     American playwright (1876-1933)*

From this journal on the (wide) release date
of "X-Men: First Class" —

A minimalist 3×3 matrix favicon—

This may, if one likes, be viewed as the "nothing"
present at the Creation.  See Jim Holt on physics.

* A source —

Horwich reportedly died on July 21, 2014.

For a different perspective on smart art, see the Log24 posts of April 2013.

… and for Anthony Hopkins and a Black Widow,
as well as for a filmmaker who reportedly died on May 19.

Update of 4:48 PM ET:  See also Philip Roth on an ambiguity.

* The title was suggested in part by a series of Isaac Asimov mysteries.

See Stadium Devildare,  Church Notes,  and Ruth Margraff*.

Ruthless : A Brief Drama —

"There is no ____ , there is only Zuul." 
— Adapted from  Ghostbusters

* In a webpage dated July 25, 2007.
  See also this journal on that date.

Or: Plan 9, Continued

For the late Harold Ramis .

See also 2/02 and 2/13.

Continued from 12:03 PM.

See also 12/03 last year.

Or:  Ready When You Are, C. B.

Dennis McLellan, Special to The Los Angeles Times , May 7, 2013:

Born in Los Angeles on June 29, 1920, Harryhausen was 13
when he saw "King Kong" during its run at Grauman's Chinese
Theater in Hollywood.

"I haven't been the same since," he is repeatedly quoted
as saying over the years.

"I came out of the theater awestruck," Harryhausen elaborated
in a 1999 interview with the Chicago Tribune. "It was such a
totally different, unusual film. The story line led you from the
mundane world into the most outrageous fantasy that's ever
been put on the screen."

"We buy it lock, stock, and shot glass"
— Ebert on Newman's performance in "The Verdict."

Harvard's President Faust:

Last evening's post Moondance was suggested by a check
in this journal of the date October 10, 2012. That date was
in turn suggested by the date of the above remarks.

Wer immer strebend sich bemüht,
Den können wir erlösen.

Who always striving efforts makes,
For him there is salvation.

— Faust Part 2, Act V, Scene 7: Mountain Gorges.

Or: Being There

(A sequel to last night's Lyric Intelligence )

William Deresiewicz reviews Kurt Vonnegut's 1952 novel Player Piano :

The novel’s prescience is chilling. Six years before the left-wing English
sociologist Michael Young published The Rise of the Meritocracy ,
a dystopian satire that coined that now-ubiquitous final word,
Vonnegut was already there.

Related material:

Intelligence Test , Gombrich,  and, more generally, Stupidity.

"One ring to bring them all…"
— J. R. R. Tolkien, Catholic author

Today in History, July 22, by The Associated Press—

"In 1934, bank robber John Dillinger was shot to death
by federal agents outside Chicago's Biograph Theater,
where he had just seen the Clark Gable movie
'Manhattan Melodrama.'"

From a  Manhattan Melodrama—

"Follow the Ring" 

Piatigorsky died on Sunday, July 15. Notes in this  journal from that date—

• A July 15 update within a post of Sunday, July 8, and
• Converse.

Backstory—

• The Purloined Diamond,
• July 16 , and
• Lozengy Argent and Gules.

Perhaps the best obituary for the late Morris Philipson

(see Nov. 10) is this text, by writer W.P. Norton
(not to be confused with the publishing firm W.W. Norton).
For the text in context, see a screenshot of the Norton
weblog (which was very slow to load this morning).

The Blogspot loading logo that did  appear at Norton's
weblog suggests the following image—

LOGOS

The logo on the right is that of
The New York Times 's
philosophy weblog "The Stone."

Philipson, incidentally, reportedly died on the morning of November 3.

See the remarks of Tom Wolfe quoted here on that date.

A puzzle of sorts—

To which book are these six books,
found in a Google book search today, related?

(Click image to enlarge.)

Update of 12:06 AM on November 11th—

Ben Brantley in The New York Times  on May 26—

While you theatergoing butterflies out there keep nattering on about the Tonys— who will win, who should win, and so on— I have been focused on an issue of far greater momentousness and urgency. That’s the shameful squandering on Broadway of what our country would seem to believe is our most valued (and infinitely exploitable) natural resource: our celebrities….

Lindsay Lohan: This undeniably talented (and for all intents and purposes, former) film actress poses a special challenge. Her only recent work appears to have been as a paparazzi model and professional partygoer, and a big, line-laden dramatic part like Blanche DuBois might be too onerous to start with. So why not put her in the Broadway premiere of “Finishing the Picture,” a late-career Arthur Miller play inspired by the travails of making a movie (“The Misfits”) with his wife Marilyn Monroe? Having seen a production of this play in Chicago, I can testify that the Marilyn part requires only that the actress playing her be willing to appear asleep and stupefied and, briefly, to walk across the stage naked. For Ms. Lohan, who credibly impersonated Marilyn for a New York magazine photo shoot, this ought to be a cinch. Should an eight-performance week prove too taxing, I suggest Paris Hilton for matinees.

This midnight post was suggested by Sunday's midday 4-digit NY Lottery number, 7286, and by the following web pages:

7286 Style by Lindsay Lohan and 7286 Prisoner Transport.

Some background from a third 7286 web page—

Starlet Lindsay Lohan is bringing her signature Hollywood style to the masses with her new 7286 line. The starlet's stylish stamp is on every aspect of the line, from the name (7-2-86 is her birthday) to the brand's tag line : "Give a girl the right handbag, and she can conquer the world!"

Where Entertainment is God (continued)

MTV.com on an event last night in Chicago—

"He ended the night with a poem, which read,
 'I stand before you oh captain oh captain
 to most humbly praise you for this radical ripple
 this single cast stone….'"

Related material:

Today's New York Times  obituaries
and Ed Harris in "The Rock"—

See also in this journal "The Rock" and "Time in the Rock."

"'It is always
Nice to see you'
Says the man
Behind the counter"

– Suzanne Vega, "Tom's Diner"

Last night's post was about a talk last year at the annual student symposium of the ACCA (Associated Colleges of the Chicago Area), a group of largely Christian colleges.

The fact that the talk was by a student from Benedictine University suggests a review of the Urbi et Orbi  speech by Pope Benedict XVI on Christmas 2010.

“The Word became flesh”. The light of this truth is revealed to those who receive it in faith, for it is a mystery of love. Only those who are open to love are enveloped in the light of Christmas. So it was on that night in Bethlehem, and so it is today. The Incarnation of the Son of God is an event which occurred within history, while at the same time transcending history. In the night of the world a new light was kindled, one which lets itself be seen by the simple eyes of faith, by the meek and humble hearts of those who await the Saviour. If the truth were a mere mathematical formula, in some sense it would impose itself by its own power. But if Truth is Love, it calls for faith, for the “yes” of our hearts.

And what do our hearts, in effect, seek, if not a Truth which is also Love? Children seek it with their questions, so disarming and stimulating; young people seek it in their eagerness to discover the deepest meaning of their life; adults seek it in order to guide and sustain their commitments in the family and the workplace; the elderly seek it in order to grant completion to their earthly existence.

The above excerpt from the Pope's speech may be regarded as part of a continuing commentary on the following remark—

There is a pleasantly discursive treatment of Pontius Pilate's unanswered question "What is truth?" — H. S. M. Coxeter, 1987

Now online— Lavery's "God, Death, and Pizza"

This suggests a look at Ivan Illich, at Mother Jerome, at a note from the date of death of the former, and at an image from the date of death of the latter.

Note from December 2, 2002— Pilate's Question

Image from June 27, 2006—

The title is a reference to yesterday's noon post.

For the late Vladimir Igorevich Arnold—

"All things began in order, so shall they end, and so shall they begin again; according to the ordainer of order and mystical Mathematicks of the City of Heaven."

— Sir Thomas Browne, The Garden of Cyrus, Chapter V

Arnold's own mystical mathematics may be found in his paper

"Polymathematics: Is Mathematics a Single Science or a Set of Arts?"

Page 13–
"In mathematics we always encounter mysterious analogies, and our trinities [page 8] represent only a small part of these miracles."

Also from that paper—

Page 5, footnote 2–
"The Russian way to formulate problems is to mention the first nontrivial case (in a way that no one would be able to simplify it). The French way is to formulate it in the most general form making impossible any further generalization."

Arnold died in Paris on June 3. A farewell gathering was held there on June 8—

"Celles et ceux qui le souhaitent pourront donner un dernier adieu à Vladimir Igorevitch
mardi 8 juin, de 14h a 16h, chambre mortuaire de l'hopital Saint Antoine…."

An International Blue Diamond

In Arnold's memory—  Here, in the Russian style, is a link to a "first nontrivial case" of a blue diamond— from this journal on June 8 (feast of St. Gerard Manley Hopkins). For those who prefer French style, here is a link to a blue diamond from May 18—

From French cinema—

Duelle

"a 'non-existent myth' of a battle between
goddesses of the sun and the moon
for a mysterious blue diamond
that has the power to make
mortals immortal and vice versa"

Benedict XVI, before he became Pope:

“… a purely harmonious concept of beauty is not enough…. Apollo, who for Plato’s Socrates was ‘the God’ and the guarantor of unruffled beauty as ‘the truly divine’ is absolutely no longer sufficient.”

Tom O’Bedlam:

“I know more than Apollo….“

Wikipedia:

“The lapis manalis (Latin: ‘stone of the Manes‘) was a name given to two sacred stones used in the Roman religion. One covered a gate to Hades, abode of the dead….

One such stone covered the mundus Cereris, a pit thought to contain an entrance to the underworld….

The… mundus was located in the Comitium, on the Palatine Hill. This stone was ceremonially opened three times a year, during which spirits of the blessed dead (the Manes) were able to commune with the living. The three days upon which the mundus was opened were August 24, October 5, and November 8. Fruits of the harvest were offered to the dead at this time.”

It’s Not Easy
Being Green



Don Imus, 1974 album

Rutgers women’s basketball
coach C. Vivian Stringer:

“It’s about us as people– black, white, purple or green. And as much as I speak about that, it’s not even black and white– the color is green.”

Imus flap about
black, white, and green

David Lieberman, Laura Petrecca and Gary Strauss in USA Today:

“So amid all the uproar over Imus’ remarks and the national discussion over race relations that they ignited, why wasn’t he fired?

Stringer and others think that has less to do with relations between blacks and whites than it does with another color.

‘The color is green– if we can tolerate as a society what’s just taken place,’ she said. ‘I don’t know how anyone could have heard this and not been offended.’

As one of the country’s most popular radio talk show hosts, Imus is the centerpiece of a multimillion-dollar business that would collapse without him.

To get a sense of its size: Advertisers spent $11.3 million last year on his show at just one station, New York’s WFAN, according to Nielsen. That accounted for nearly 24% of all the station’s ad sales.

Sponsors paid MSNBC an additional $8.4 million last year for spots on Imus’ show, according to TNS Media Intelligence.”

Mike Lupica in the
New York Daily News,
April 11, 2007:

“Essence Carson talked about what Imus had said about her and her teammates, and about everything that has happened since.

‘It has stolen a moment of pure grace from us,’ she said.

The moment of pure grace was Essence Carson….”

From ESSENCE.com:

“Essence Communications Inc. (ECI) was founded in 1968. In October 2000, ECI signed an agreement with Time Inc., a subsidiary of Time Warner Inc., to form a joint venture known as Essence Communications Partners. ESSENCE was the majority owner of the venture. In March 2005, Time Inc. acquired the portion it did not already own. The company’s name changed back to Essence Communications Inc. The ECI corporate headquarters are in New York City, with offices in Chicago, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Detroit.

During the past 36 years, the company has grown into a vital business of diverse media properties and communications systems that include ESSENCE, its flagship magazine launched in 1970. Its success is linked to its unique relationship with the readers of ESSENCE magazine and the strong alliances it has forged with America’s leading corporations and financial institutions.”

Above: Christina Aguilera performs “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World” in tribute to the late James Brown during the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday, February 11, 2007.

This morning’s New York Times:

Seven

“Research & Ideas” memo from Harvard Business School dated April 17, 2006:

“The word experience comes from the Latin words ex pericolo, which mean ‘from danger.'”

— Etymology by Professor Joseph Badaracco of Harvard University.  Badaracco gives no evidence for his dubious claim.

Related (if only temporally):
Easter Monday, April 17, 2006.

      — Online Etymology Dictionary

The title of this entry refers to the time it was posted. Related references to seven: April 7, 2003, and today’s previous entry.

See also an entry from 2/29, 2004
(Leap Day and Oscar Night):

Harvard persons from parts of the university that are more scholarly than the Business School may sneer at the above-quoted Online Etymology Dictionary.  They can consult the following:

On “experience”

From J.L. Austin, From Ritual to Theatre: The Human Seriousness of Play:

“Scholars, such as Julius Pokorny (Indogermanisches Etymolgisches Worterbuch, 1959), trace ‘experience’ right back to hypothetical Indo-European base or root *per-, ‘to attempt, venture, risk,’ whence the Greek peira,”experience,” the source of our word ’empirical.’ It is also the verbal root which derives the Germanic *feraz, giving rise to Old English faer, “danger, sudden calamity,” whence Modern English ‘fear.’ Already, we see the ‘cognitive’ directions taken by * per-, through the Greek route, and affective ones, through the Germanic — which would have interested Dilthey, one may be sure! But more directly ‘experience’ derives, via Middle English and Old French, from the Latin experientia, denoting ‘trial, proof, experiment,’ itself generated from experiens, the present participle of experiri, ‘to try, test,’ from from ex-, ‘out’ + base per as in peritus, ‘experienced,’ ‘having learned by trying.’ The suffixed extended form of *per is peri-tlo-, whence the Latin periclum, periculum, “trial, danger, peril. Once more, we find experience linked with risk, straining towards ‘drama,’ crisis, rather than bland cognitive learning!”

“… Finally, ‘experiment,’ like ‘experience,’ is derived from Latin experiri “to try or test.” If we put these various senses together we have a ‘laminated’ semantic system focused on ‘experience,’ which portrays it as a journey, a test (of self, of suppositions about others), a ritual passage, an exposure to peril or risk, a source of fear. By means of experience, we ‘fare’ ‘fearfully’ through ‘perils,’ taking ‘experimental’ steps. …” (17-18)

The above is taken from an anonymous weblog entry.  The author of the entry identified the source as From Ritual to Theatre: The Human Seriousness of Play.  The author of the entry falsely stated that the author of this book was J. L. Austin.  In fact, the book was written by Victor Turner, apparently the same philosophical sociologist whom we encountered in the previous entry and in the Log24 entry for the recent feast of St. Max Black.  Turner may have been quoting Austin; pages from the book are not available online.  Another author, however, says the quotation is by Turner himself.  See Rena Fraden’s Imagining Medea, pp. 218-219.

Today’s previous entry is a sort of “ritual passage” for a Nobel Prize winner. For a ritual passage more directly related to Professor Badaracco, see the Brookline TAB obituary of his 23-year-old daughter, who died on Monday, August 21, 2006.  According to today’s online Harvard Crimson, “she was walking along Hammond Street in Newton [Mass.] when an 84-year-old driver jumped the curb and struck her.”

From her Brookline TAB obituary of Thursday, Aug. 24, 2006:

“Funeral services will be held Friday [Aug. 25, 2006] at 10 a.m. at St. Mary’s of the Assumption Church, at 67 Harvard St.

The family asks that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Centro Romero Community Center in Chicago: 6216 N. Clark St., Chicago, IL 60660.”

The Kennedy School
 

Lead article in today’s Harvard Crimson:

“In a scathing attack on what they termed the ‘Israel Lobby,’ the Kennedy School’s Stephen M. Walt and the University of Chicago’s John J. Mearsheimer argued in a recent article that supporters of Israel have seized control of U.S. foreign policy, making it reflect Israel’s interests more than those of the U.S.”