Starting the day........................

"Ask yourself this question the moment you sit at your desk: The day is over and I am leaving the office with a tremendous sense of accomplishment. What have I achieved?"
-as excerpted from here.
thanks DK

So smile already..................................

Pick..........................

"Opportunity on every door doth knock, but it's never been known to pick a lock."
-Clarence "Big House" Gaines

Fine for a rainy Tuesday night..................

Dan Fogelberg.............................................Rhythm Of The Rain

 

A few of my favorite things.....................

From Nicholas Bate:  Freedom 7.  #6:  Never defer enjoying today or an opportunity for a hug or to tell someone how much you appreciate or love them.

From the Strategic Learner:   Giving thanks and counting blessings.

From xkcd:    Some days I almost understand the cartoons.

From this isn't happiness blog:   And now, a word from Calvin.

Spurious Correlations:  Reminding us not to link causation and correlation.  (thanks maggie's)

Will you still love me................................?

Switchback....................................................In My Glory




Nothing could prepare us for the  tightrope we must walk
Funny how unspoken love keeps us from falling off

Resistant....................................

via

Foundational truth................................

courtesy of Nicholas Bate

Not as easy as it looks.................................

"So here, alas, is where we now stand six years into the Age of Obama: The President isn’t making America safer at home, he doesn’t have the jihadis on the run, he has no idea how to bring prosperity, democracy, or religious moderation to the Middle East, he can’t pivot away from the region, and he doesn’t know what to do next. He’s the only President this country has got, and one can’t help but wish him well, but if things are going to get any better, he needs to stop digging. He probably needs to bring in some new blood, and he must certainly ask himself some tough questions about why so many of his most cherished ideas keep leading him and his country into such ugly places."
-Walter Russell Mead, as excerpted from here

More than you ever wanted to know......

...about the odds of the USA advancing to the knock-out round -- from Nate Silver.

Another interesting part of history........

........................................I neglected to learn in school.

The burning of books and the Jefferson library.  Story here.

Thanks Rob

Fifty years ago..............................

The Temptations...............................The Girl's Alright With Me

On wine and truth.....................

71.  Too much and too little wine.  Give him none, he cannot find truth;  give him too much, the same.
-Blaise Pascal,  Pensees

Reminds me of my favorite tee-shirt:

On men and machines..............

"One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man."
-Elbert Hubbard

Think I'll go eat breakfast........................

via

Start all over again..............................

Boz Scaggs.........................................Can I Change My Mind



Thanks Jb

A flick of light.......................................

Finn Brothers............................................Won't Give In



New (to me) music from this list.

My favorite optimist..........................

..................takes a scientific look at "global warming."

"The answer to climate change is, and always has been, innovation. To worry now in 2014 about a very small, highly implausible set of circumstances in 2100 that just might, if climate sensitivity is much higher than the evidence suggests, produce a marginal damage to the world economy, makes no sense. Think of all the innovation that happened between 1914 and 2000. Do we really think there will be less in this century?"

-Matt Ridley,  as excerpted from here

Know..................................

"No man is an island,  entire of itself;  every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main;  if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were;  any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;  it tolls for thee. "
-John Donne,  Meditation XVII

Human nature and "incentive-caused bias"...

So, I'm reading this longish essay by Charlie Munger titled "The Psychology of Human Misjudgment."   If you have been paying attention for the past twenty-five years (or if you follow the link), you know that Charlie Munger is worth paying attention to.  Anyway, this interesting passage caught my eye:

     "Now there are huge implications from the fact that the human mind is put together this way.  One implication is that people who create things like cash registers, which make dishonest behavior hard to accomplish, are some of the effective saints of our civilization because, as Skinner so well knew, bad behavior is intensely habit-forming when it is rewarded.
     "And so the cash register was a great moral instrument when it was created.  And, by the way, Patterson, the great evangelist of the cash register, knew that by his own experience.  He had a little store, and his employees were stealing him blind, so that he never made any money.  Then people sold him a couple of cash registers, and his store went to profit immediately.  He promptly closed the store and went into the cash register business, creating what became the mighty National Cash Register Company, one of the glories of its time.  "Repeat behavior that works" is a behavior guide that really succeeded for Patterson, after he applied one added twist.  And so did high moral cognition.  An eccentric, inveterate do-gooder (except when destroying competitors, all of which he regarded as would-be patent thieves), Patterson, like Carnegie, pretty well gave away all his money to charity before he died, always pointing out that 'shrouds have no pockets.'  So great was the contribution of Patterson's cash register to civilization, and so effectively did he improve the cash register and spread its use, that in the end, he probably deserved the epitaph chosen for the Roman poet Horace:  'I did not completely die.'"

On kind words..............................

"Kind words do not cost much.  They never blister the tongue or lips.  They make other people good natured.  They also produce their own image on man's soul and a beautiful image it is."
-Blaise Pascal

No surprise to me.......................

....Kurt learns and advances.  Full story here.  Snapshot here:

"I never once thought the owner had it in for me.  I never trashed him to the other employees.  I appreciated my brother’s willingness to help.  I watched how others bused the tables.  I engaged the owner to understand how he wanted things completed.  I wanted to advance.  I wanted more.  I never once thought that I was owed a certain number of hours during the week.  The system was brutally predictable:  Do well and don’t complain and you found yourself working all the hours you could handle;  take lots of breaks, loaf or complain and there was plenty of free time.  In the end, I could perform every function in the place."

Fifty years ago.................................

Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons................................Stay

 

Dormant forces...............................

"When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bonds:  Your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction, and you find yourself in a new, great and wonderful world.  Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive, and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be.” 
-attributed to Patanjali

A line so fine...............................

"Genius is often only the power of making continuous efforts. The line between failure and success is so fine that we scarcely know when we pass it — so fine that we are often on the line and do not know it. How many a man has thrown up his hands at a time when a little more effort, a little more patience, would have achieved success. As the tide goes clear out, so it comes clear in. In business sometimes prospects may seem darkest when really they are on the turn. A little more persistence, a little more effort, and what seemed hopeless failure may turn to glorious success. There is no failure except in no longer trying. There is no defeat except from within, no really insurmountable barrier save our own inherent weakness of purpose."
-Elbert Hubbard

The power......................................

"I have observed the power of the watermelon seed. It has the power of  drawing from the ground and through itself 200,000 times its weight. When you can tell me how it takes this material and out of it colors an outside surface beyond the imitation of art, and then forms inside of it a white rind and within that again a red heart, thickly inlaid with black seeds, each one of which in turn is capable of drawing through itself 200,000 times its weight - when you can explain to me the mystery of a watermelon, you can ask me to explain the mystery of God."
-William Jennings Bryan

On the importance of knowing things......

via

Soundtracks...............................

From the Thomas Crown Affair (1999 version)

Sting..................................................Windmills of Your Mind



Michael Wade offers a great list of his sixty favorite movie soundtracks.  This one is my favorite.

Real wealth is a by-product...................

"There is a cost to trying to be super-rich, and most people die at that altar of greed.  I suspect that most that succeed, did not aim to be super-rich, but pursued that task because they found it interesting.  They were idealists who happened to be in business, and their ideals matched up with what would enable society to pursue its goals more effectively."
-David Merkel, as excerpted from this interesting post

Foresightful.................

     "....Liberty is to faction, what air is to fire,  an ailment without which it instantly expires.  But it could not be a less folly to abolish liberty, which is essential to political life, because it nourishes faction, than it would be to with the annihilation of air, which is essential to animal life, because it imparts to fire its destructive agency."

     "The latent causes of faction are thus sown in the nature of man;  and we see them every where brought into different degrees of activity, according to the different circumstances of civil society.  A zeal for different opinions concerning religion, concerning Government and many other points, as well as speculation as of practice;  an attachment to different leaders ambitiously contending for pre-eminence and power; or to persons of other descriptions whose fortunes have been interesting to the human passions, have in turn divided mankind into parties, inflamed them with mutual animosity, and rendered them much more disposed to vex and oppress each other, then to co-operate for their common good.   So strong is this propensity of mankind to fall into mutual animosities, that where no substantial occasion presents itself, the most frivolous and fanciful distinctions have been sufficient to kindle their unfriendly passions, and excite their most violent conflicts.  But the most common and durable source of faction, has been the various and unequal distribution of property.  Those who hold, and those who are without property, have ever formed distinct interests in society.  Those who are creditors, and those who are debtors, fall under a like discrimination.  A landed interest, a manufacturing interest, a mercantile interest, a monied interest, with many lesser interests, grow up of necessity in civilized nations, and divide them into different classes, actuated by different sentiments and views.  The regulation of these various and interfering sentiments forms the principal task of modern Legislation, and involves the spirit of party and faction in the necessary and ordinary operations of Government."

-Publius, as channeled by James Madison on November 22, 1787 in The Federalist No. 10

thanks maggie's

Persist......................................

     "The universe does not favor the greedy, the dishonest, the vicious, although on the mere surface it may sometimes appear to be so;  it helps the honest, the magnanimous, the virtuous.   All the great teaches of the ages have declared this in varying forms, and to prove and know it a man has but to persist in making himself more and more virtuous by lifting up his thoughts."

     "Achievement, of whatever kind, is the crown of effort, the diadem of thought.  By the aid of self-control, resolution, purity, righteousness, and well-directed thought a man ascends;  by the aid of animality, indolence, impurity, corruption, and confusion of thought, a man descends."

-James Allen, as excerpted from As a Man Thinketh

Becoming..............................

thanks hugh

Fifty years ago...........................

Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons............Dawn (Go Away)

Beauty..................................

From my Sweetie's garden..........................-

If.........................................

If we have become a people incapable
of thought, then the brute-thought
of mere power and mere greed
with think for us.

If we have become incapable
of denying ourselves anything,
then all we have will be taken from us.

If we have no compassion,
we will suffer alone, we will suffer
alone the destruction of ourselves.

These are merely the laws of the world
as known to Shakespeare, as known to Milton:

When we cease from human thought,
a low and effective cunning
stirs in the most inhuman minds.

-Wendell Berry,  This Day
Sabbaths:  2005  XII

Verse.......................

Be not wise in thine own eyes;  fear the Lord, and depart from evil.
-Proverbs 3:7
The Holy Bible
King James Version

A little Alt music for Saturday night............

Sugar.......................................................A Good Idea



Scott Blitstein recommends Sugar's Copper Blue.  Here is one of the cuts.  Do visit Sensory Dispensary.  As the man says, “Come as you are, leave different”

Isn't it rich........................................

Frank Sinatra.........................................Send In The Clowns

Opening paragraphs.......................

The physicist Richard Feynman once remarked that every time a colleague from the humanities department complained that his students couldn't spell a common word like seize or accommodate, Feynman wanted to reply, "Then there must be something wrong with the way you spell it."
-Bill Bryson, from the Introduction to Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words:  A Writer's Guide To Getting It Right

Commerce as art...............................

"Commerce is the mother of the arts, the sciences, the professions, and in this twentieth century has itself become an are, a science, a profession.   As it plays with a fine touch on the strings of human nature the world over, and makes happier by its fairness the youth of today and the man of tomorrow, it is an art."
-Harry Gordon Selfridge,  Mr. Selfridge's Romance of Commerce

From the Archives

Apparently I am not the only one rummaging around in the Eclecticity archives.   No surprise to me.  When our friend Doug says he hasn't posted on the heavy blog since November of 2013, his politely ignoring the fact that he periodically goes over there and changes his blog header.  Perhaps tomorrow we will have another retrospective on such creativity.  Meanwhile:

from the Archives

Fifty years ago.........................

I actually remember, twelve-year old me, sitting on the couch in our den watching this game.  It was the first of a double header, Phillies versus the Mets at Shea Stadium in New York.   Jim Bunning, later to be a Senator from Kentucky,  pitched a perfect ballgame, the first in the National League for some 84 years.  Baseball at its best.



All you trivia buffs probably know this, but the Phillies' rookie Rick Wise, pitched and won the second game of the double header.

More on being judgmental..........

"How shall I forgive others?"

"If you never condemned, you would never need to forgive."

-Anthony de Mello,  One Minute Wisdom

Guanciale.................................

..........................................................is on a roll.

Sometimes......................

"One can sometimes do good by being the right person in the wrong place."
-Gilbert Keith Chesterton

Number 99..............................

Scott dispenses with his ninety-nine favorite albums.  There is much to like on his list, as well as much to explore. Don't be surprised if some new music shows up on these pages.   My guess is we will just agree to disagree about Hotel California.

Couple of guys messing around on guitars...

Mark Knopfler and Chet Atkins having a good old time........

And now a word from our sponsor.....

Actually, I think he has confused............

...............a democracy and a republic, but that is fairly common.  Still, the point holds:

     "Democracy is always imperfect, and always in need of repair.  But it is preferable to all other forms of government because it is built on a simple insight:  That we, the people, should constantly tighten the binds that tie our masters."
-Robert Guest

We forget this at our own peril.  Full essay here

Self................................

     "Men do not attract that which they want, but that which they are.   Their whims, fancies, and ambitions are thwarted at every step, but their inmost thoughts and desires are fed with their own food, be it foul or clean.  The 'divinity that shapes our ends' is in ourselves;  it is our very self.  Man is manacled only by himself:  thought and action are the gaolers of Fate - they imprison, being base;  and they are also the angels of Freedom - they liberate, being noble.  Not what he wishes and prays for does a man get, but what he justly earns.  His wishes and prayers are only gratified and answered when they harmonize with his thoughts and actions."
-James Allen, as excerpted from As A Man Thinketh

Fifty years ago...............................

Wayne Newton...................................................Only You

All I remember from History 230 was..............

.........that Europe had a lot of it and it was mostly messy.  That being said, I like having majored in History.  I'm not the only one:

"When I was young and foolish, I thought I could learn all of history and have it all available in my head, or at least a lot of European history, or at least a lot of English history. Now I know that almost all this stuff will fall right back out of my head again. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s not worth doing. There is another kind of knowledge building up, a synoptic sense of what people have done and will do, what sorts of organizations have succeeded, what sorts have failed, and some of the common notions of why. It’s all terribly vague and unsatisfactory, and the more you read the more you realize how variable and subjective the notions are, but as it accumulates I find that I’m far less likely to be fooled by the demagogues and politicians of the moment. I’m no better at predicting the future than anyone else, but I recognize the rashness of betting on my predictions better than most. History has a way of wriggling out of what people expect."

-Dale Favier, as excerpted from this Andrew Sullivan post

On being a little judgmental....

From Seth Godin, a story from thirty years ago.............

I loved this. These people, these lookers, not buyers, were identifying themselves to us from a distance. The little Kraco man on the shoulder meant, "I am here to waste your time, I am not a professional, what will you give me that's free?" We quickly began identifying anyone with one of these on their shoulder as a Kraco, someone not worth an investment of focus and energy or free stuff.

Full story here.

What is work..................?

thanks todd

I felt the same way about "Black List"....

via

Oh, no...........................................

The Beatles.................................................Hello Goodbye

Rules........................

"Perhaps the most important rule in management is 'Get the incentives right.'"
-Charles T. Munger, as excerpted from The Psychology of Human Misjudgment

Sincerity.........................

" A candour affected is a dagger concealed."
-Marcus Aurelius as channeled by Andrew Munro.  Balance of quote is here.

Suppose.................................

"Belief in the inevitable always presupposes a sort of vacuum in which forces are working.  The moves in a game of chess are mathematical facts, but suppose you prophesy that one player in a certain game will checkmate his opponent in a number of moves.  He may go crazy, or kick over the board in rage, or in a spirit of compassion make all his moves the wrong ones.  All predictions are like that.  They presuppose that the rules will be kept to, but suppose they are not?"
-Gilbert Keith Chesterton, as excerpted from here

Fifty years ago............................

The Beatles......................................I Should Have Known Better

Leadership...............................

thanks Todd

Sometimes it just works out that way........

"........my enemy's enemy is my enemy."
-Thomas L. Friedman, as excerpted from here

It's Quiz Time again...........................

You have twenty seconds to identify the number of the parking space the car is parked in.  Go.

thanks craig

Hint:  This is not a math problem

The second REALLY big mistake............

......................that George W. Bush made can be found here.

The Beach Boys share the studio..............

...........with Willie Nelson,  Lorrie Morgan, and Tammy Wynette

This news just in from the "What Doesn't Kill Us Makes Us Stronger Department"............

.....................Patent Medicine recipes of yore.

Can't find a suitable elixir at your favorite store?   The History Blog provides the necessary recipes.  Notice the significantly high proportion of "grain alcohol."  Good luck.

Jumped..................................

     I was greatly helped in my quest by two turns of mind.  First, I had long looked for insight by inversion in the intense manner counseled by the great algebraist, Jacobi:  "Invert, always invert."   I sought good judgment mostly by collecting instances of bad judgment, then pondering ways to avoid such outcomes.  Second, I became so avid a collector of instances of bad judgment that I paid no attention to boundaries between professional territories.  After all, why should I search for some tiny, unimportant, hard-to-find new stupidity in my own field when some large, important, easy-to-find stupidity was just over the fence in the other fellow's professional territory?  Besides, I could already see that real-world problems didn't neatly lie within territorial boundaries.  They jumped right across.
-Charles T. Munger, as excerpted from The Psychology of Human Misjudgment

Stuff you always wanted to know............

Why do Americans call the beautiful game "soccer" instead of "football"?  Read this article and you will know more about the subject, and get a short history lesson as part of the bargain.

Fifty years ago......................................

The Marvelettes..........................Too Many Fish In The Sea

On positive signs..........................

 
    Joel Kotkin, a writer/thinker who has been down on California lately, has taken a second look.  For all the problems, he finds some positive signs.  I liked this one in particular:

"But equally important has been the entrepreneurial growth among Latinos, who became the state’s largest ethnic group in 2014, according to demographers, and could be close to 50 percent of the population by 2050. Indeed, a recent study of Latino business found that Hispanic entrepreneurs have more than tripled since 1990, from 577,000 to more than 2 million. Not only did this growth outpace that of the overall population increase among Hispanics, but at a rate of increase far above the national average."

Kotkin's full post is here.  His conclusion is here:

"...we need to recognize that you cannot support an ever-expanding welfare state or do much of anything about climate change simply by chasing people and individuals elsewhere. We need to start developing policies that exploit our advantages and not rest on our glorious past. We need to see, as Charlie would say, that decline is not inevitable, but only a choice that too many in the state seem determined to embrace."
     

Wisdom...............................

"... but when it comes to warning systems, I suggest paying attention to the primal."
-Michael Wade

Another history lesson...................

Note the album cover in his hands.  It is #8 on this list.

Cartoon by

"it was the weight of too much imagination ... "

Jeff goes on an archaeological dig.........at home, and finds a blessing instead of a disaster.

Haunting.............................

R. Carlos Nakai.........................................Desert Song




Thanks Kurt

A few of my favorite things...................................

The not-so-simple Village Undertaker:  On the spirit of Father's Day.  “All the goodies in life go to the lover”, (meaning that the joy is in the giving, not only the receiving).

Nicholas Bate on Life in the Gaps:  Trade-offs are hard, very hard because they are rarely perfectly resolved.

From Eclecticity Light:  Those are not my friends.

"Busy is a decision" at the Brain Pickings blog:  The Theology of Rest.

From the Journal of a Nobody:   Living in a four room house.

The house band at Sippican Cottage.........................

Unorganized Hancock............................One Note Samba




Back story here.   Antonio Carlos Jobim's version here:



Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd's version here.

Ella Fitzgerald's contribution is here.

Dizzy Gillispie gives it a try here.

Schooling.......................................

"There are certain basic needs of every individual who has to cope as effectively as possible with the future.  An individual needs to be a free man, a convertible worker, a continuing student, a creative spirit, and a Believer in a Power greater than himself....His mind must be free - free externally from demands for the orthodox and denial of access to information, free externally from situations imposed by ignorance and inadequate thought process....His basic education should be of such broad applicability that he can enter a variety of occupations and be in a position to profit from additional training if the need arises....equipped to learn on his own and aware of the necessity of doing so.  As Margaret Mead said, 'In today's world, no one can complete an education.'"
-Peter Richmond, as excerpted from here

God love the old stuff..............................

"Management gurus may tell people to bow down before the great god of disruptive innovation.   But some companies are cheerfully doing the opposite - preserving or resuscitating traditional technologies and business models."

-As excerpted from this Schumpeter essay in The Economist

The "Truth In Advertising Act of 2014".............

I'm hoping H.R. 4341 dies from lack of interest.

"Please check your totalitarian instincts before forwarding terrifying legislation like this. I beg you for the sake of the Republic."

-as excerpted from this post at Euvoluntary Exchange

Fifty years ago....................................

Frank Sinatra..................................Softly, As I Leave You

A daunting task............................

...................Cultural Offering offers the 100 greatest albums

The breadth of his music is amazing.  Plus, lots of Beatles.  One could quibble, but why.  Just enjoy!

Truth.........................................

"The truth of something is not to be found in the assemblage of facts."
-Peter Richmond, as excerpted from here

At random...........................................

One of the best things about the Intertunnel is that it allows Michael Wade shares his "Random Thoughts" with the world.  His latest installment is here.  Cherry picking here:

One of my goals is to be an ambitious 85-year-old ... I suspect that most of us draw greater pleasure from the moments when we said "No" and stuck to it than from the times when we gave a reluctant "Yes ... Productive and worthless activities like to mingle.

A few of my favorite things.............

From Michael Hyatt:   A book review (Essentialism) so good, you probably don't need to buy the book.  One of his seven take-aways:   #7 The liberating possibility of no. Saying no to the many trivial requests, Essentialists are really saying yes to what matters most in their lives: their faith, their family, their health, their calling.

From Kids Prefer Cheese:   Monday's Child is full of links

From Pat Guanciale:  Taking refuge

From Newmark's Door:   The real villain is crony capitalism (which is a vastly different thing than capitalism)

From the View From the Ledge:  A properly placed book can be an effective weapon.

One of my favorites.............................

Kathy Troccolli and the Beach Boys..........I Can Hear Music

Patterns in the patternless.........................

     Patterns are the fool's gold of financial markets.  The power of chance suffices to create spurious patterns and pseudo-cycles that, for all the world, appear predictable and bankable.  But a financial market is especially prone to such statistical mirages.  My mathematical models can generate charts that - purely by the operation of random processes - appear to trend and cycle.  They would fool any professional "chartist."  Likewise, bubbles and crashes are inherent to markets.  They are the inevitable consequence of the human need to find patterns in the patternless.
-Benoit Mandelbrot and Richard Hudson,  The Misbehavior of Markets:  A Fractal View of Financial Turbulence  

Finding patterns in the patternless......Part 2

Opening paragraphs...................................

When Richard Newman died in Los Angeles in 1997, his body was taken to the county coroner's office for a routine autopsy.  Two years later, Newman's father learned that during the autopsy the coroner had removed his son's corneas without asking the family's permission.  At the time, this was the office's normal practice.  It was the product of both high and low motives.  There was a desperate shortage of corneas for transplant, and corneas must be transplanted very soon after death, often too soon to obtain the consent of the next of kin.  On the other hand, this same shortage made the corneas a valuable commodity, and the coroner's office earned $250 per pair by selling them to an eye bank.  Newman's father sued the coroner's office for damages.  The basis for the suit was that the coroner had violated the constitutional rights of Newman and his father by depriving them of property without due process of law.  But were Newman's corneas a kind of property?  And if they were, who was their owner once Richard Newman was dead?
-Stuart Banner, from the introduction to American Property:  A History of How, Why and What We Own

Fifty years ago.............................

Jay and the Americans....................Come a Little Bit Closer

Why I wish Greg Sullivan would write more....

..................................................................stuff like this:

My experience has been that there are only two kinds of people in any room, and some face one way, and others face the other way, and that's that. If the people on the stage try to sit in the audience, they implode, and if the people in the audience try facing the other way on the stage, they explode. I call it the Theory of Natural Self-Selection. Well, I just did, anyway.

Careful what you wish for...............................

"Those who promise us paradise on earth never produced anything but a hell."
-Karl Popper

Quiet storm..................................

Sade..............................................The Sweetest Taboo

Jetboy keeps opening doors..............................

John Hiatt and Sonny Landreth................................Circle Back



Two kids up and at 'Em
One more left at home
She's a spark plug, a real fire cracker
And in four years she'll be gone

They just blow through your life
Like the wind on the plains
Like the dust that covers everything
'Til the rivers fill with rain

full lyrics here    Jetboy's music is here

Thank you, for everything............................

Happy Fathers Day!

Whole...................................

God, how I hate the names
of the body's chemicals and anatomy,
the frore and glum department
of its parts, each alone in the scattering
of the experts of Babel.
                                         The body
is a single creature, whole,
its life is one, never less than one, or more,
so is its world, and so
are the two bodies in their love for one another
one.  In ignorance of this
we talk ourselves to death.

-Wendell Berry
Sabbaths,  2005  XVI

So, tenure is "unconstitutional".........?

While we can argue the pluses and minuses of tenure - well, actually we should argue about such things, Megan McArdle suggests we should avoid the "temptation to airdrop in a judge to kill the thing off with some lightning-fast verbal jujitsu."  Full post here.  Additional excerpt here: 
Political partisans on both sides tend to treat "unconstitutional" as a synonym for "things I think oughtn't to be allowed." This is not correct, and moreover, it is profoundly destructive. 

Fifty years ago..........................................

The Beatles.......................................................She Loves You



Released in 1963, ended up #2 on Billboards 1964 Hot 100 Singles

Beauty......................................

Proportion................................

It always pleased the Master
to hear people recognize
their ignorance.

"Wisdom tends to grow in
proportion to one's awareness
of one's ignorance," he claimed.

When asked for an explanation,
he said, "When you come to see
you are not as wise today as you
thought you were yesterday, you 
are wiser today."

-Anthony de Mello

Say it isn't so..........................

I guess Circuit City and Best Buy already knew this, but I didn't.  "People are buying more electronics than anything else on Amazon ... ."   One version of the story here.

thanks craig