Saturday, January 9, 2016
Apple of my eye......................
Francis Sinatra......................You Are The Sunshine Of My Life
#1 on this list, which appears to have been a labor of love.
So, decide already.................
In my years as a head coach, I wanted a democratic-style organization with input and communication and freedom of expression, even opinions that were at great variance with my ideas. But only up to a point. When it was time for a decision, that decision would be made by me according to the dictates having to do with one thing only, namely, making the team better.
And once the decision was made, the discussion was over. My ultimate job, and yours, is not to give an opinion. Everybody's got an opinion. Leaders are paid to make a decision. The difference between offering an opinion and making a decision is the difference between working for the leader and being the leader.
-Bill Walsh with Steve Jamison, The Score Takes Care Of Itself: My Philosophy of Leadership
Fifty years ago.........................
Wilson Pickett.....................................Land Of 1000 Dances
Be really, really, really........
..........................................careful about what you wish for.
My guess this is what would be known as "opening Pandora's Box." Please don't do it.
On the off chance you are unfamiliar with Pandora's Box, here is the short version.
Friday, January 8, 2016
When she dances by...................
Frank Sinatra........................................................Tangerine
A preview from this long-awaited list
A strong stomach....................
In planning for a successful future, the past can show you how to get there. Too often we avert our gaze when the past is unpleasant. We don't want to go there again, even though it contains the road map to a bright future. How good are you at looking through the evidence from the past - especially the recent past? There's a certain knack to it, but basically it requires a keen eye for analysis, a commonsense mind for parsing evidence that offers clues to why things went as they did - both good and bad. And, of course, it often requires a strong stomach, because what you're rummaging through may include not only achievements but the remains of a very painful professional fiasco.
-Bill Walsh with Steve Jamison, The Score Takes Care Of Itself: My Philosophy of Leadership
Opening paragraphs................
Everybody lies.
Cops lie. Lawyers lie. Witnesses lie. The victims lie.
A trial is a contest of lies. And everybody in the courtroom knows this. The judge knows this. Even the jury knows this. They come into the building knowing they will be lied to. They take their seats in the box and agree to be lied to.
The trick if you are sitting at the defense table is to be patient. To wait. Not for just any lie. But for the one you can grab on to and forge like hot iron into a sharpened blade. You then use that blade to rip the case open and spill its guts out on the floor.
That's my job, to forge the blade. To sharpen it. To use it without mercy or conscience. To be the truth in a place where everybody lies.
-Michael Connelly, The Brass Verdict
nothing more I want.......................
But sitting here, under a budding lemon tree, among these lively, lovely people, I am absolutely certain that Tasso's garden is alive with something essentially holy. I see it in the warm glances exchanged around the fire. I hear it in Kosma's tender teasing of his father for his habit of depositing olive pits in his shirt pocket. I feel it all around me.
I owe much of my appreciation of what is happening here in Tasso's garden to my age. As an old man, I am at peace with this peacefulness. There is nothing I want from these people except their companionship. There is no new excitement or accomplishment I long for. Indeed at this moment there is nothing more I want from the cosmos than I have right here: "to see a World" in their faces.
-Daniel Klein, Travels with Epicurus: A Journey to a Greek Island in Search of a Fulfilled Life
Ed. note: see the next post to make sense of the "to see a World" quote.
Ed. note #2: If you have any intention of becoming old, do read this lovely, lively book.
Fifty years ago.....................
The Troggs...........................................................Wild Thing
About precision.........................
One problem with philosophical thinking - as with most academic disciplines - is that it tends to stick ideas into absolute categories, leaving little wiggle room for the complexities and inherent internal contradictions of ordinary human experience. One of Aristotle's lasting contributions to philosophy and science was his counsel, "We must not expect more precision that the subject matter admits." And the question, "What is the best way to be an old man?" is far from being a precise one. In fact it's about as open-ended as they get.
-Daniel Klein, Travels with Epicurus: A Journey to a Greek Island in Search of a Fulfilled Life
Well, good..............................
The lowest oil prices since 2009 translated into a $115 billion windfall for consumers last year, according to the American Automobile Association — about $550 per driver. Analysts say four-fifths of that cash got spent ...
-as culled from this The American Interest post
Thursday, January 7, 2016
Shine the darkness from my eyes.....
Jesse Colin Young..............................................Mornin' Sun
Highlights...........................................
-as captured from Bill Walsh's and Steve Jamison's book, The Score Takes Care of Itself: My Philosophy of Leadership
Churnings..............................
For all his negativity about old folk, Aristotle did say that "education is the best provision for the journey to old age," and part of what he meant is that acquiring good tools for thinking - and thinking philosophically - prepares us for one of the principal callings of an authentic old age: pondering the big questions.
I need to take a step back when considering such questions. Sometimes I think my basic philosophical impulses, those "what's it all about?" churnings in my gut, were ruined by studying academic philosophy. Too often I became preoccupied with the heady, abstruse concepts of the great thinkers and lost that sense of wonder that made me read them in the first place. I need to remind myself that to head off in the direction of philosophy, a person really only needs the basic intuition that the unexamined life doesn't quite cut it for him.
-Daniel Klein, Travels with Epicurus: A Journey to a Greek Island in Search of a Fulfilled Life
Every day..............................
No, no, there is no going back.
Less and less you are
that possibility you were.
More and more you have become
those lives and deaths
that have belonged to you.
You have become a sort of grave
containing much that was
and is no more in time, beloved
then, now, and always.
And so you have become a sort of tree
standing over the grave.
Now more than ever you can be
generous toward each day
that comes, young, to disappear
forever, and yet remain
unaging in the mind.
Every day you have less reason
not to give yourself away.
-Wendell Berry, 1993
Fifty years ago.................
Shades of Blue....................................................Oh How Happy
Lemonade..........................................
"Creating gold from dross is alchemy; making lemonade when you're give lemons is leadership; making lemonade when you don't have any lemons is great leadership."
-Bill Walsh
Flat tax anyone..............
Megan McArdle riffs on tax "expenditures":
Paying for new spending by “closing the loopholes” is a favorite rallying cry of almost everyone. But rarely are those people picturing giving up their own deductions for mortgage interest, employer-sponsored health insurance, dependent children, or retirement accounts. Why, no! Those aren't loopholes. Those are just the basics of a decent middle-class life. Loopholes are the deductions used by other, richer people who can afford crooked lawyers.
Full post is here.
Wednesday, January 6, 2016
A slight misjudgment.......
Poco...................................................................Glory Bound
Come on all you brothers, come on one and all
Come on get together, it's time to meet the call
You'll see lots of banners, down at City Hall
Lots of pretty girls to make a man feel six foot tall
You can bring your napsack, bring your carbine too
It ain't gonna take too long, 'cause there ain't much to do
Hey, we've just got to show those Yanks, we mean what we say
They can't tell us what to do, we'll chase them all away
Oh, catch the train a' runnin', runnin' right through town
Headed straight for glory - glorybound
Catch the train a' runnin', runnin' right through town glorybound
We're all gonna meet them, out at Cutter's Ridge
Right there in the clearing, just beyond the bridge
You'll see all the ladies with their parasols
Cheering for their favorites, they'll be waving to us all
Oh, catch the train a' runnin', runnin' right through town
Headed straight for glory - glorybound
You better catch the train a'runnin', runnin' right through town
On fathoming the unfathomable.......
I have this nagging suspicion that for the past fifty-odd years I have been dismissing Heidegger's question as total twaddle without ever really trying it on for size. Martin Heidegger was a twentieth-century German existentialist who focused - if hundreds of pages of dense, enigmatic prose can be called a focus - on the concept of being. As much as I can grasp his question, I gather that he is not asking why some things exist and others do not, or even asking what is is that causes something to exist and what constitutes its existence. No, he is after even bigger game than that. Heidegger is asking us to confront the idea that existence itself can be called into question, and this, he believes, is the ultimate philosophical question. He writes, "To philosophize is to ask 'Why are there things that are rather than nothing?' Really to ask this question signifies: a daring attempt to fathom this unfathomable question by disclosing what it summons us to ask, to push our questioning to the very end. Where such an attempt occurs there is philosophy."
-Daniel Klein, as excerpted from Travels with Epicurus: A Journey to a Greek Island in Search of a Fulfilled Life
Ed. note: Heidegger's quote and question come from his Introduction to Metaphysics, where in he also apparently says, "It is absolutely correct and proper to say that `You can't do anything with philosophy.' ... For the rejoinder imposes itself: granted that WE cannot do anything with philosophy, might not philosophy, if we concern ourselves with it, do something WITH US?"
eased his heavy breathing........
All out of doors looked darkly in at him
Through the thin frost, almost in separate stars,
That gathers on the pane in empty rooms.
What kept his eyes from giving back the gaze
Was the lamp tilted near them in his hand.
What kept him from remembering what it was
That brought him to that creaking room was age.
He stood with barrels round him -- at a loss.
And having scared the cellar under him
In clomping there, he scared it once again
In clomping off; -- and scared the outer night,
Which has its sounds, familiar, like the roar
Of trees and crack of branches, common things,
But nothing so like beating on a box.
A light he was to no one but himself
Where now he sat, concerned with he knew what,
A quiet light, and then not even that.
He consigned to the moon, such as she was,
So late-arising, to the broken moon
As better than the sun in any case
For such a charge, his snow upon the roof,
His icicles along the wall to keep;
And slept. The log that shifted with a jolt
Once in the stove, disturbed him and he shifted,
And eased his heavy breathing, but still slept.
One aged man -- one man -- can't keep a house,
A farm, a countryside, or if he can,
It's thus he does it of a winter night.
-Robert Frost
"An Old Man's Winter Night" 1916
Great moments in opening sentences....
Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether this station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show.
-Charles Dickens, David Copperfield
additional "great moments" may be found here
Fifty years ago..................
(with perhaps the finest example ever of disinterested lip-syncing)
The Standells.............................................................Dirty Water
Leisure.......................
It will be said that, while a little leisure is pleasant, men would not know how to fill their days if they had only four hours of work out of the twenty-four. In so far as this is true in the modern world, it is a condemnation of our civilization; it would not have been true at any earlier period. There was formerly a capacity for light-heartedness and play which has been to some extent inhibited by the cult of efficiency. The modern man thinks that everything ought to be done for the sake of something else, and never for its own sake.
-Bertrand Russell, as extracted from his 1932 essay "In Praise of Idleness"
dancing in the eddies..................
“We are travellers on a cosmic journey, stardust, swirling and dancing in the eddies and whirlpools of infinity. Life is eternal. We have stopped for a moment to encounter each other, to meet, to love, to share. This is a precious moment. It is a little parenthesis in eternity.”
-Paulo Coelho
photo via
Ed. note: The above quote, found here, has also been attributed to Deepak Chopra. Time was not taken to sort it all out. If you are inclined to investigate, do let me know.
All in good time...............
Cold weather returns...............................It is winter you know.
 |
| Pond surface at OSUN/COTC starting to ice over |
Oh good, another polar vortex. This should sell some winter coats
AccuWeather report from here
Tuesday, January 5, 2016
Responsibility......................
“Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does. It is up to you to give life a meaning.”
A finish worthy of the start............
WHY should not old men be mad?
Some have known a likely lad
That had a sound fly-fisher's wrist
Turn to a drunken journalist;
A girl that knew all Dante once
Live to bear children to a dunce;
A Helen of social welfare dream,
Climb on a wagonette to scream.
Some think it a matter of course that chance
Should starve good men and bad advance,
That if their neighbours figured plain,
As though upon a lighted screen,
No single story would they find
Of an unbroken happy mind,
A finish worthy of the start.
Young men know nothing of this sort,
Observant old men know it well;
And when they know what old books tell
And that no better can be had,
Know why an old man should be mad.
-William Butler Yeats
"Why Should Not Old Men Be Mad", 1936
Thoughts.........................
.............................random or otherwise. Another collection from Michael Wade. We are all waiting patiently for his book. Some snippets:
~ It will be a great person who produces as much pleasure as coffee and chocolate. ~ Complexity and simplicity are multi-talented and can play heroes and villains. ~ Excuse-making is a major industry in every nation. ~ Each day is a search for time even if we are surrounded by it.
Fifty years ago.................
The Mindbenders...................................Groovy Kind of Love
better audio from the studio version here
HIghlights.........................................
Bill Walsh, with Steve Jamison and Craig Walsh, The Score Takes Care Of Itself: My Philosophy of Leadership
Work is easy...........................
...the eighteenth century German philosopher Johann Hamann, who believed that the idle have a better perspective on philosophical ideas than academics do, in part because they are less likely to get caught up in minutiae. He would get no argument from me on that. Apparently, Hamann could get a tad defensive on the subject of idleness: when a friend criticized him for loafing, he is said to have retorted that work is easy, but true idleness takes courage and fortitude.
-Daniel Klein, Travels with Epicurus: A Journey to a Greek Island in Search of a Fulfilled Life
Heroic spirit indeed..................
"A thirsty ambition for truth and virtue, and a frenzy to conquer all lies and vices which are not recognized as such nor desire to be; herein consists the heroic spirit of the philosopher."
-Johann Georg Hamann
Monday, January 4, 2016
The very best kind...............................
Mannheim Steamroller....................................Chocolate Fudge
Fifty years ago.............................
The Rolling Stones.........................................Paint It Black
Highlights......................................
From: Bill Walsh, with Steve Jamison and Craig Walsh, The Score Takes Care of Itself: My Philosophy of Leadership.
Editor's Note: For a while there, one of my favorite stops along the Intertunnel way was The Highlights of My Day. Perhaps I liked it because I too read with a yellow highlighter in hand. The site has gone quiet. Hopefully it will return. In the meantime..............
Promises, promises.....................
............................Here's a list of 2016 resolutions from the progenitor of the house band at Sippican Cottage. I'll be happy if he just publishes more of his writing stuff in 2016. Please.
Sunday, January 3, 2016
Can't believe the news today......
U2..................................................Sunday Bloody Sunday
I can't believe the news today
Oh, I can't close my eyes
And make it go away
How long...
How long must we sing this song
How long, how long...
'cause tonight...we can be as one
Tonight...
Broken bottles under children's feet
Bodies strewn across the dead end street
But I won't heed the battle call
It puts my back up
Puts my back up against the wall
Sunday, Bloody Sunday
Sunday, Bloody Sunday
Sunday, Bloody Sunday
And the battle's just begun
There's many lost, but tell me who has won
The trench is dug within our hearts
And mothers, children, brothers, sisters
Torn apart
Sunday, Bloody Sunday
Sunday, Bloody Sunday
How long...
How long must we sing this song
How long, how long...
'cause tonight...we can be as one
Tonight...tonight...
Sunday, Bloody Sunday
Sunday, Bloody Sunday
Wipe the tears from your eyes
Wipe your tears away
Oh, wipe your tears away
Oh, wipe your tears away
(Sunday, Bloody Sunday)
Oh, wipe your blood shot eyes
(Sunday, Bloody Sunday)
Sunday, Bloody Sunday (Sunday, Bloody Sunday)
Sunday, Bloody Sunday (Sunday, Bloody Sunday)
And it's true we are immune
When fact is fiction and TV reality
And today the millions cry
We eat and drink while tomorrow they die
(Sunday, Bloody Sunday)
The real battle just begun
To claim the victory Jesus won
On...
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Sunday Bloody Sunday...
As rules to live by.....................
....................................................go, these are pretty good.
Verse.................................
10 I have seen the task which God has given the sons of men with which to occupy themselves.
11 He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.
12 I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and to do good in one’s lifetime;
13 moreover, that every man who eats and drinks sees good in all his labor—it is the gift of God.
14 I know that everything God does will remain forever; there is nothing to add to it and there is nothing to take from it, for God has so worked that men should fear Him.
15 That which is has been already and that which will be has already been, for God seeks what has passed by.
16 Furthermore, I have seen under the sun that in the place of justice there is wickedness and in the place of righteousness there is wickedness.
17 I said to myself, “God will judge both the righteous man and the wicked man,” for a time for every matter and for every deed is there.
18 I said to myself concerning the sons of men, “God has surely tested them in order for them to see that they are but beasts.”
19 For the fate of the sons of men and the fate of beasts is the same. As one dies so dies the other; indeed, they all have the same breath and there is no advantage for man over beast, for all is vanity.
20 All go to the same place. All came from the dust and all return to the dust.
21 Who knows that the breath of man ascends upward and the breath of the beast descends downward to the earth?
22 I have seen that nothing is better than that man should be happy in his activities, for that is his lot. For who will bring him to see what will occur after him?
-Ecclesiastes 3:10-22
The Holy Bible, New American Standard version
Fifty years ago........................
The Association.......................................................Cherish
The secret to..........................
................................................the keeping of resolutions?
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