The above is from the weblog of one James D. McCaffrey.
Saturday, July 29, 2023
For Connoisseurs of the Bottom Line
Monday, August 29, 2022
Euphoria High Meets Dragonrider School
Thursday, July 14, 2022
In Search of the Talented
"It's going to be accomplished in steps,
this establishment of the Talented
in the scheme of things."
— To Ride Pegasus ,
by Anne McCaffrey (Radcliffe '47)
"Having skipped me, the talent for math concentrated extravagantly
in one of my nieces, Amie Wilkinson, a professor at the University
of Chicago, and I figured she could teach me."
— Wilkinson, Alec. A Divine Language (p. 5).
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 12 July 2022, Kindle Edition.
Career Moves: Compare and Contrast —
"Amie Wilkinson is an explorer. Instead of seeking uncharted land,
she’s after undiscovered mathematical worlds — complex systems
of motion that unfold in unexpected ways. As a professor at the
University of Chicago, she’s known for discovering unique types
of these 'dynamical systems' that had been only conjectured to exist.
Wilkinson’s career has proceeded in a dynamical way, too. She now
approaches her roles as a researcher, teacher and mentor very
differently than she did when she was starting out."
— Kevin Hartnett in Quanta Magazine , June 13, 2019
The text of https://marcelanowak.com/home/ — About — We are a full-service creative agency based in LA.
Graphic and web design is our business. |
Like "La La Land" — A talent so nice they named it twice!
Tuesday, July 23, 2019
Word Magic
"Business-wise, Magic is working—Bloomberg reported
that the game brought in $500 million in revenue last year.
Hasbro owns Monopoly and Scrabble, but Magic is its top
game brand. . . .
The idea of using a card mechanic to generate story has
precedent—the Italian postmodern writer Italo Calvino
generated an entire novel based on drawing from a
tarot card deck. Games provide frameworks that miniaturize
and represent idealized realities; so do narratives."
— Adam Rogers, Sunday, July 21, 2019, at Wired
"The Esper party began . . ." —
Life of the Party From Stephen King's Dreamcatcher :
From Alfred Bester's The Demolished Man :
From Anne McCaffrey's To Ride Pegasus :
"… it's going to be accomplished in steps, this |
Adam Rogers at Wired as quoted above —
"The idea of using a card mechanic to generate story
has precedent. . . ."
See The Greater Trumps .
Thursday, October 6, 2016
Cuber
Nobel Flashback:
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
|
Friday, November 28, 2014
Former-Day Saint
Continued from Friday the 13th of June, 2014 :
"It's going to be accomplished in steps,
this establishment of the Talented
in the scheme of things."
— To Ride Pegasus ,
by Anne McCaffrey (Radcliffe '47)
Related material:
Click Zenna Henderson's dates for
an informative essay from April 5, 2009.
See also posts on, or about, that date in this journal.
Friday, August 29, 2014
Materie
See also Christmas Eve, 2012.
“It’s going to be accomplished
in steps, this establishment
of the talented….”
— To Ride Pegasus , by
Anne McCaffrey (Radcliffe ’47)
Friday, July 25, 2014
Actual Talent
“It’s going to be accomplished in steps,
this establishment of the Talented
in the scheme of things.”
— Anne McCaffrey, Radcliffe ’47, To Ride Pegasus
From a review of the new film “Magic in the Moonlight”—
“Sophie seems to have some actual talent….
When Sophie meets Aunt Vanessa, she uncovers the spinster’s
long-ago love affair with a member of parliament. It’s eerie.”
Material that is related, if only in story space:
- Today’s Telegraph obituary for aviatrix Lettice Curtis,
who reportedly died at 99 on July 21, 2014 - The 1933 film “Christopher Strong,” starring
Katharine Hepburn as an aviatrix who has an
affair with a member of parliament
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
Nobel Note
"It's going to be accomplished in steps,
this establishment of the Talented
in the scheme of things."
— To Ride Pegasus ,
by Anne McCaffrey (Radcliffe '47)
From a post of Jan. 11, 2012 —
Tension in the Common Room—
Saturday, December 21, 2013
Steps
"It's going to be accomplished in steps,
this establishment of the Talented
in the scheme of things."
— To Ride Pegasus ,
by Anne McCaffrey (Radcliffe '47),
quoted here on December 1, 2013
"Twenty-one days is enough time to build trust
and decimate it several times over, and long enough
for someone to drop their pretensions altogether.
So while 'Dude, You’re Screwed' is about a person
at war with himself, 'Naked and Afraid' is about
people at war with each other. The elements may
get you down, but hell is other people."
— Jon Caramanica in The New York Times
(page C1 of today's New York print edition)
Sunday, December 1, 2013
Sermon
First edition, 1973, cover art by Gene Szafran
"It's going to be accomplished in steps,
this establishment of the Talented
in the scheme of things."
— To Ride Pegasus ,
by Anne McCaffrey (Radcliffe '47)
Monday, March 5, 2012
Establishment of the Talented
For Women's History Month —
See this post's title in Log24 and the following from Pinkdex ,
the online catalog of the MIT Science Fiction Society (MITSFS)—
"The Pinkdex is so named because it was originally
maintained by another member of MITSFS, many years ago—
Marilyn 'Fuzzy Pink' Niven [said to be so called for her sweaters],
whose husband, Larry Niven, has written
or co-authored many of the books in the MITSFS library."
See also MIT Commencement in this journal.
Postscript for the less technically oriented reader—
This post was suggested by yesterday's "Look, Buster,"
and by the middle name of William Rowan Hamilton.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
The Talented
"It's going to be accomplished in steps, this establishment of the Talented in the scheme of things."
— Anne McCaffrey, Radcliffe ’47, To Ride Pegasus
"Character, as we have stated, is revealed through action.
We are not yet telepathic; we must embody even the most intellectual traits
and express them physically."
— The Craftsmen of Dionysus: An Approach to Acting by Jerome Rockwood
Dionysus Meets Apollo
in "Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould"—
Step I — Tiny Dancer in My Hand (0.48.46)
Step II — The Bridge (0.52.46)
Step III — Liftoff (1.27.37)
Friday, November 26, 2010
Making a Play
From "Deus ex Machina and the Aesthetics of Proof"
(Alan J. Cain in The Mathematical Intelligencer * of September 2010, pdf)—
Deus ex Machina
In a narrative, a deus is unsatisfying for two reasons. The
first is that any future attempt to build tension is undercut if
the author establishes that a difficulty can be resolved by a
deus. The second reason—more important for the purposes
of this essay—is that the deus does not fit with the internal
structure of the story. There is no reason internal to the
story why the deus should intervene at that moment.
Santa in the New York Thanksgiving Day Parade
Thanksgiving Day, 2010 (November 25), New York Lottery—
Midday 411, Evening 332.
For 411, see (for instance) April 11 (i.e., 4/11) in 2008 —
For 332, see "A Play for Kristen**" — March 16, 2008 —
"A search for the evening number, 332, in Log24 yields a rather famous line from Sophocles…"
Sophocles, Antigone, edited by Mark Griffith, Cambridge University Press, 1999:
“Many things are formidable (deina ) and none is more formidable (deinoteron ) than man.”
– Antigone , lines 332-333, in Valdis Leinieks, The Plays of Sophokles, John Benjamins Publishing Company, 1982, p. 62
See also the lottery numbers 411 and 332 in this journal on March 22, 2009— "The Storyteller in Chance ."
“… it’s going to be accomplished in steps,
this establishment of the Talented
in the scheme of things.”
— Anne McCaffrey, Radcliffe ’47, To Ride Pegasus
* It seems Santa has delivered an early gift — free online access to all issues of the Intelligencer .
** Teaser headline in the original version at Xanga.com
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Back to the Saddle
Recent posts (Church Logic and Church Narrative) have discussed finite geometry as a type of non-Euclidean geometry.
For those who prefer non-finite geometry, here are some observations.
"A characteristic property of hyperbolic geometry
is that the angles of a triangle add to less
than a straight angle (half circle)." — Wikipedia
From To Ride Pegasus, by Anne McCaffrey, 1973:
“Mary-Molly luv, it’s going to be accomplished in steps, this establishment of the Talented in the scheme of things. Not society, mind you, for we’re the original nonconformists…. and Society will never permit us to integrate. That’s okay!” He consigned Society to insignificance with a flick of his fingers. “The Talented form their own society and that’s as it should be: birds of a feather. No, not birds. Winged horses! Ha! Yes, indeed. Pegasus… the poetic winged horse of flights of fancy. A bloody good symbol for us. You’d see a lot from the back of a winged horse…”
“Yes, an airplane has blind spots. Where would you put a saddle?” Molly had her practical side.
On the practical side:
The above chapel is from a Princeton Weekly Bulletin story of October 6th, 2008.
Related material: This journal on that date.
Sunday, September 5, 2010
M Theory
"It's going to be accomplished in steps, this establishment
of the Talented in the scheme of things."
— Anne McCaffrey
From this journal on August 23,
a look at Resurrection Road in M magazine—
Notes for an unfinished novel, The Last Tycoon, by F. Scott Fitzgerald—
"There is a place for a hint somewhere
of a big agent to complete the picture."
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Wednesday June 10, 2009
Abstract Classicist
“It’s going to be accomplished
in steps, this establishment of
the Talented in the
scheme of things.”
— Anne McCaffrey, Radcliffe ’47
Click on images to enlarge.
Related material:
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Sunday December 14, 2008
fill my head with ideas—
only I don’t exactly know
what they are!…. Let’s have
a look at the garden first!”
— A passage from
Through the Looking-Glass
“… it’s going to be
accomplished in steps,
this establishment of
the Talented
in the scheme of things.”
On the seven steps of Charles Williams:
— Dennis L. Weeks (a former student of Walter J. Ong, S. J.) in Steps Toward Salvation: An Examination of Coinherence and Substitution in the Seven Novels of Charles Williams (New York, Peter Lang Publishing, 1991), page 9
On the twelve steps of Christmas:
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Saturday December 13, 2008
The Shining
of Dec. 13
continued from
Dec. 13, 2003
“There is a place for a hint
somewhere of a big agent
to complete the picture.”
— Notes for an unfinished novel,
The Last Tycoon,
by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Filmography:William Grady
The Good Earth (1937)
casting: Chinese extras
(uncredited)
See also
yesterday’s entries
as well as…
Serpent’s Eyes Shine,
Alice’s Tea Party,
Janet’s Tea Party,
Hollywood Memory,
and
Hope of Heaven.
“… it’s going to be
accomplished in steps,
this establishment of
the Talented
in the scheme of things.”
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Sunday March 16, 2008
(continued from
March 7, 2008)
A search for the evening
number, 332, in Log24
yields a rather famous
line from Sophocles…
Sophocles, Antigone,
edited by Mark Griffith,
Cambridge University Press,
1999:
— Antigone, lines 332-333, in Valdis Leinieks, The Plays of Sophokles, John Benjamins Publishing Company, 1982, p. 62
Continuing the search within Antigone for the mid-day number, 874, we find…
“Power (kratos), for one who is concerned with power (kratos), is in no way to be transgressed.”
— Antigone, lines 873-874, Leinieks, op. cit. p. 69
Both passages from Sophocles seem not unrelated to yesterday’s entry for the Ides of March and to last night’s opening routine on “Saturday Night Live.”
The above word deina (formidable, wonderful, awesome) in the latter context suggests the following meditation:
accomplished in steps,
this establishment
of the Talented in
the scheme of things.”
— Anne McCaffrey,
Radcliffe ’47,
To Ride Pegasus
Related material:
The Log24 Pi Day
mantra from
Roger Zelazny —
“center loosens,
forms again elsewhere.”
Monday, February 11, 2008
Monday February 11, 2008
“A shape of some kind
for something that
has no shape.”
— Roy Scheider
in “2010”
For further details,
click on the monolith.
See also the Keystone State’s
lottery numbers for Sunday–
Grammy night and the
date of Scheider’s death:
These numbers suggest
the following links.
For further details related
to death and religion, see
a version of the cheer
“1234, who are we for?”
For further details related
to Grammy night, see
6/17, 2007:
A selection from the
Stephen King Hymnal
“… it’s going to be
accomplished in steps,
this establishment
of the Talented in
the scheme of things.”
— Anne McCaffrey,
Radcliffe ’47,
To Ride Pegasus
Sunday, August 5, 2007
Sunday August 5, 2007
Under the Volcano, by Malcolm Lowry, 1947, Chapter VI:
“What have I got out of my life? Contacts with famous men… The occasion Einstein asked me the time, for instance. That summer evening…. smiles when I say I don’t know. And yet asked me. Yes: the great Jew, who has upset the whole world’s notions of time and space, once leaned down… to ask me… ragged freshman… at the first approach of the evening star, the time. And smiled again when I pointed out the clock neither of us had noticed.”
To Ride Pegasus, by Anne McCaffrey, 1973:
“Mary-Molly luv, it’s going to be accomplished in steps, this establishment of the Talented in the scheme of things. Not society, mind you, for we’re the original nonconformists…. and Society will never permit us to integrate. That’s okay!” He consigned Society to insignificance with a flick of his fingers. “The Talented form their own society and that’s as it should be: birds of a feather. No, not birds. Winged horses! Ha! Yes, indeed. Pegasus… the poetic winged horse of flights of fancy. A bloody good symbol for us. You’d see a lot from the back of a winged horse…”
From Holt Spanish and English Dictionary, 1955:
lucero m Venus
(as morning or evening star);
bright star…
star (in forehead of animal)….Scarlett Johansson and friend
in “The Horse Whisperer” (1998)
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Sunday June 17, 2007
Stephen King Hymnal
“… it’s going to be
accomplished in steps,
this establishment
of the Talented in
the scheme of things.”
— Anne McCaffrey,
Radcliffe ’47,
To Ride Pegasus
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Thursday August 31, 2006
Party Phone
for Van Morrison
on his birthday
A few words for M.C.C.:
Honey Blonde She's as sweet as |
From March 24, 2006:
Life of the Party
From Alfred Bester's
Related material: "… it's going to be — Anne McCaffrey,
|
"It's not the twilight zone no,
it's not the twilight zone
Yes it's just a party phone,
pure
honeycomb,
honeycomb,
honeycomb"
— Van Morrison, "Twilight Zone,"
in The Philosopher's Stone
Friday, March 24, 2006
Friday March 24, 2006
From Stephen King's Dreamcatcher:
From Alfred Bester's The Demolished Man:
Related material:
"… it's going to be
accomplished in steps,
this establishment
of the Talented in
the scheme of things."
— Anne McCaffrey,
Radcliffe '47,
To Ride Pegasus
Friday, March 17, 2006
Friday March 17, 2006
State of Grace
“Words and numbers are of equal value,
for, in the cloak of knowledge,
one is warp and the other woof.”
— The princesses Rhyme and Reason
in The Phantom Tollbooth,
by Norton Juster, 1961
(From a Sermon for
St. Patrick’s Day, 2001)
The Pennsylvania midday lottery
on St. Patrick’s Day, 2006:
618.
x2 – x – 1 = 0
Or we may, with Miles Davis, prefer a more sensuous incarnation of the keys:
“… it’s going to be
accomplished in steps,
this establishment
of the Talented in
the scheme of things.”
— Anne McCaffrey,
Radcliffe ’47,
To Ride Pegasus
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Wednesday January 25, 2006
and playing
with a full deck:
“… it’s going to be
accomplished in steps,
this establishment
of the Talented in
the scheme of things.”
— Anne McCaffrey,
Radcliffe ’47,
To Ride Pegasus
(And born yesterday…
Neil “I am, I cried” Diamond)
Friday, September 5, 2003
Friday September 5, 2003
Recommended Reading
for Cullinane College:
- Trifecta
- The Pegasus Prize
- The Bone People
- Alchemical Kubrick 2001
- The Diamond Archetype
- The Deceivers
- The Demolished Man
- To Ride Pegasus
“The Talented form their own society and that’s as it should be: birds of a feather. No, not birds. Winged horses! Ha! Yes, indeed. Pegasus… the poetic winged horse of flights of fancy. A bloody good symbol for us. You’d see a lot from the back of a winged horse…”
— To Ride Pegasus, by Anne McCaffrey.
“Born in Cambridge, MA, on April Fool’s Day 1926 (‘I’ve tried very hard to live up to being an April-firster,’ she quips), McCaffrey graduated from Radcliffe College in 1947.”
Born on March 9, 1947, in Christchurch, Keri Hulme won the Pegasus Prize for her Maori novel, The Bone People.
Thursday, September 5, 2002
Thursday September 5, 2002
Trifecta
Born today: Arthur Koestler,
former Communist and writer on parapsychology
From To Ride Pegasus, by Anne McCaffrey, 1973:
“Mary-Molly luv, it’s going to be accomplished in steps, this establishment of the Talented in the scheme of things. Not society, mind you, for we’re the original nonconformists…. and Society will never permit us to integrate. That’s okay!” He consigned Society to insignificance with a flick of his fingers. “The Talented form their own society and that’s as it should be: birds of a feather. No, not birds. Winged horses! Ha! Yes, indeed. Pegasus… the poetic winged horse of flights of fancy. A bloody good symbol for us. You’d see a lot from the back of a winged horse…”
“Yes, an airplane has blind spots. Where would you put a saddle?” Molly had her practical side.
He laughed and hugged her. Henry’s frequent demonstrations of affection were a source of great delight to Molly, whose own strength was in tactile contacts.
“Don’t know. Lord, how would you bridle a winged horse?”
“With the heart?”
“Indubitably!” The notion pleased him. “Yes, with the heart and the head because Pegasus is too strong a steed to control or subdue by any ordinary method.”
Born today: Darryl F. Zanuck,
producer of “Viva Zapata!”
Director Eliza Kazan consults with scriptwriter John Steinbeck about the production of “Viva Zapata!” in Cuernavaca, Mexico:
When John woke, I asked him, “Isn’t the Syndicate of Film Technicians and Workers here Communist-dominated?”
Elia Kazan on Darryl Zanuck’s insistence that Zapata’s white horse be emphasized:
Darryl made only one suggestion that he was insistent on. He’d stolen it, no doubt, from an old Warner western, but he offered it as if it were pristine stuff. “Zapata must have a white horse,” he said, “and after they shoot him, we should show the horse running free in the mountains — get the idea? A great fade-out.” We got the idea, all right. Darryl was innocent about the symbol in his suggestion, but so enthusiastic about the emotion of it that he practically foamed at the mouth. John’s face was without expression. Actually, while I thought it was corny, the idea worked out well in the end.
Born today: comedian Bob Newhart
|
If Kazan hadn’t directed “Viva Zapata!”…
Zanuck would have ended up shouting, “I said a WHITE horse!” |