Log24

This post was suggested by the book Turing's Cathedral  and by
comments 29 and 31 on Scott Aaronson's Dec. 16 post about
"The Imitation Game."

See Church-Turing thesis at Wikipedia and Church Logic here.

The above image is a pre-text. For details, see the text .

Some remarks by Dr. Henderson:

The myth of the hero is the most common and the best known myth in the world… classical mythology… Greece and Rome… Middle Ages… Far East… contemporary primitive tribes. It also appears in dreams… obvious dramatic… profound… importance. P. 101

… structurally very similar… universal pattern… over and over again… a tale of… miraculous… humble birth… early proof of superhuman strength… rapid rise to prominence… triumphant struggle with the forces of evil… fallibility to the sin of pride (hybris)… and his fall through betrayal or a “heroic” sacrifice that ends in his death. P. 101

… another important characteristic… provides a clue… the early weakness… is balanced by… strong “tutelary” figures… who enable him to perform the superhuman tasks that he cannot accomplish unaided. Theseus had Poseidon… Perseus had Athena… Achilles had Cheiron… the wise centaur, as his tutor. P. 101 

And Stan Carlisle had
Dr. Lilith Ritter:

“There’s a place for us….”

“The authors of the etiquette book The Art of Civilized Conversation say that conversation’s versatility makes it ‘the Swiss Army knife of social skills.'”

Today’s New York Times on a rabbi who died in Jerusalem on Sunday, Dec. 5:

“In the 1950’s, he was a vocal advocate for the relaxation of New York City’s blue laws, which forbade many kinds of commerce on Sundays but not on Saturdays. The laws were repealed in the 1970’s. Solomon Joseph Sharfman was born on Nov. 1, 1915, in Treblinka, Poland; his family immigrated to the United States five years later. His father, Rabbi Label Sharfman, worked as a shochet, or ritual slaughterer….”

Saturday’s lottery numbers from Pennsylvania, the State of Grace:

Winter’s Tale

The title is that of a novel by Mark Helprin.

On this date in 1903, the Williamsburg Bridge between Brooklyn and Manhattan was opened to traffic.

From the opening of Helprin’s 1983 novel:

“The horse…. trotted alone over the carriage road of the Williamsburg Bridge, before the light, while the toll keeper was sleeping by his stove and many stars were still blazing above the city.”

See also Plato, Pegasus, and the Evening Star.

“The Forms are abstract but real.”

— Rebecca Goldstein on Plato

Plain Hunt Maximus

This midnight’s site music is in honor of Sinatra’s first recording session for Reprise on December 19, 1960 (which included “Ring-a-Ding-Ding”).

See also The Nine Tailors, by Dorothy Sayers, and this applet for devising your own peal of changes.

Those who prefer Disney may go to this web page and click on the title “The Bells of Notre Dame” for a different midi.  For Mary Gaitskill‘s more mature approach to Victor Hugo’s classic, click here.