Tuesday, April 21, 2026
Wednesday, November 19, 2025
Thursday, August 21, 2025
May 29 Bunker Bingo
From a May 29 review of "Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning" —
"Ethan Hunt is sealed in an unreality bunker* of his own."
From a novel, The Footprints of God , published August 12, 2003 —
A tour guide describes stations of the cross in Jerusalem:
"Ibrahim pointed down the cobbled street to a half circle of bricks
set in the street. 'There is where Jesus began to carry the cross.
Down the street is the Chapel of Flagellation, where the Roman
soldiers whipped Jesus, set on him a crown of thorns, and said,
"Hail, King of the Jews!" Then Pilate led him to the crowd and cried,
"Ecce homo! Behold the man!" '
Ibrahim delivered this information with the excitement of a man
reading bingo numbers in a nursing home."
* Hunt's unreality bunker is not unlike that of the Footprints of God hero.
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Thursday, July 31, 2025
Sunday, June 1, 2025
The Past is Prologue:
May Tricks, June Havoc
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May Tricks, June Havoc
May Tricks, June Havoc
Saturday, March 29, 2025
Mystery Tables
La Jolla, March 28, 2025 —
A rather more abstract table —
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Friday, March 28, 2025
Wednesday, December 25, 2013
Tuesday, July 1, 2003
Tuesday July 1, 2003
Jew’s on First
This entry is dedicated to those worshippers of Allah who have at one time or another cried
“Itbah al-Yahud!” … Kill the Jew!
(See June 29 entries).
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Dead at 78 Comedian Buddy Hackett died on Tuesday, July First, 2003, according to the New York Times. According to Bloomberg.com, he died Sunday or Monday. |
Associated Press
Buddy Hackett, |
| Whatever. We may imagine he has now walked, leading a parade of many other stand-up saints, into a bar. |
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MIDRASH From my May 25 entry, Matrix of the Death God: R. M. Abraham’s Diversions and Pastimes, published by Constable and Company, London, in 1933, has the following magic square:
The Matrix of Abraham A summary of the religious import of the above from Princeton University Press: “Moslems of the Middle Ages were fascinated by pandiagonal squares with 1 in the center…. The Moslems thought of the central 1 as being symbolic of the unity of Allah. Indeed, they were so awed by that symbol that they often left blank the central cell on which the 1 should be positioned.” — Clifford A. Pickover, The Zen of Magic Squares, Circles, and Stars, Princeton U. Press, 2002, pp. 71-72 Other appearances of this religious icon on the Web include:
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In the Picasso’s Birthday version, 22 of the 25 magic square cells are correlated with pictures on the “Class of ’91” cover of Rolling Stone magazine. Number 7 is Rod† Stewart. In accordance with the theological rhyme “Seven is heaven, eight is a gate,” our site music for today is “Forever Young,” a tune made famous by Stewart.
† Roderick, actually — the name of the hero in “Madwoman of Chaillot”
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Sunday, May 25, 2003
Sunday May 25, 2003
— ART WARS —
Mental Health Month, Day 25:
Matrix of the Death God
Having dealt yesterday with the Death Goddess Sarah, we turn today to the Death God Abraham. (See Jacques Derrida, The Gift of Death, University of Chicago Press, 1996.) For a lengthy list of pictures of this damned homicidal lunatic about to murder his son, see The Text This Week.
See, too, The Matrix of Abraham, illustrated below. This is taken from a book by R. M. Abraham, Diversions and Pastimes, published by Constable and Company, London, in 1933.
The Matrix of Abraham
A summary of the religious import of the above from Princeton University Press:
“Moslems of the Middle Ages were fascinated by pandiagonal squares with 1 in the center…. The Moslems thought of the central 1 as being symbolic of the unity of Allah. Indeed, they were so awed by that symbol that they often left blank the central cell on which the 1 should be positioned.”
— Clifford A. Pickover, The Zen of Magic Squares, Circles, and Stars, Princeton U. Press, 2002, pp. 71-72
Other appearances of this religious icon on the Web:
A less religious approach to the icon may be found on page 393 of R. D. Carmichael’s Introduction to the Theory of Groups of Finite Order (Ginn, Boston, 1937, reprinted by Dover, 1956).
This matrix did not originate with Abraham but, unlike Neo, I have not yet found its Architect.