The Dead
A short animated poem, from the youtube bag of tricks. Enjoy!
A short animated poem, from the youtube bag of tricks. Enjoy!
This morning’s NYT had a headline story on the Democrats taking back control of Congress. As usual, both parties made the same empty pledges of cooperation and “bipartisanship” that we always hear, but which rarely, if ever, happens. However, this time leaders of both parties used the same “pudding” metaphor, which was odd enough that the NYT even remarked on it. What was stranger to me (but perhaps not so strange after all) was that both the senators used the same incorrect version of the proverb - “The proof is in the pudding.” The correct proverb, of course, is - “The proof of the pudding is in the eating.” The latter actually makes sense, but I guess career politicians shy away from verbal constructs that have any real meaning. The proverb was first used by Cervantes in his epic work Don Quixote in which the Don’s squire, Sancho Panza, is a virtual fount of earthy wisdom, usually dispensed in the form of proverbs quoted out of context. But the sight of two senators mangling his proverb would make even good Sancho fall off his donkey.
I was going to write a longer post about this, but found the following which says it all.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/magazine/articles/2004/02/08/a_loss_for_words/
I had a very sedate(d) new year’s eve (NYE) – a radical departure from the hedonistic celebrations of years gone by. Both my wife and I (also some friends) caught a viral fever of some sort during a trip on XMAS weekend. The holiday week was spent watching movies, reading books, and lazing about, in between coughing fits that could be heard as far away as Moffett Field. The good news is that I don’t need to pop any Tylenols as is custom on New Year’s day every year.
I don’t have the energy to call those near and dear to wish them a prosperous new year. How about a blog post instead? Here’s wishing all the English speakers (and others who celebrate January 1st as the first day of the year) a happy new year.
Auld Lang Syne is the poem most associated with NYE. Originally written by that esteemed Scot, Robert Burns, it became part of the official NYE celebrations when Guy Lombardo’s band first used it in 1929. A recording from Lombardo’s band is still played during the NYE Times Square celebration in Manhattan. Burns wrote the poem in old Scots and very few people can remember even the English translation. Here’s the full English version…
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Recently, I read a fascinating book called “A Tale of Two Valleys: Wine, Wealth and the Battle for the Good Life in Napa and Sonoma” by Alan Deutschman. The book chronicles the author’s stay in Napa and Sonoma at the mansions of his rich Silicon Valley friends. There he engorges on the daily lives of the locals from cheese makers to cult winemakers such as Jean Philips of Screaming Eagle. The book offers a rare glimpse into the real life battle brewing between long-term locals and the fresh nouveau riche arrivals. It’s an easy read and highly recommended for those interested in wine and the quirky goings-on in the two valleys.
While we have often been to Napa, Mendocino, and some other wine regions in California, we hadn’t really visited Sonoma before. We had driven through the valley once without stopping at any of the wineries. Spurred on by the book, I thought the Thanksgiving weekend was a good time to head out to Sonoma. In the seven hours we spent there, we visited four wineries and learned a bit about this region.
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Just and Unjust Wars: A Moral Argument With Historical Illustrations. The title says it all. I haven’t finished reading the book. I have very little free time these days and the book is not exactly an easy read. But I can already tell you that it is a most excellent book. The kind of book that I will come back to in years to come.
The book is a reprinting of an earlier edition with some new updates. The author Michael Walzer among other things is a moral philosopher. He is particularly concerned with practical philosophizing and avoids the metaphysical. For example he presupposes the existence of a moral world about which rational people can reason about using a shared vocabulary. He does in the beginning expound a little bit about this, but moves on to the main topic of the book.
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In 1995, Ted L. Nancy discovered a six day underwear. It had three leg openings. You were supposed to rotate your legs over one opening every day. Once three days were up, you turned the underwear upside down and got three more days. It even had a cleaning agent in the fabric that agitated as you moved about and laundered the shorts. He wanted the “underwear executives” at Hanes to take notice and meet with him to discuss this invention. Sara Lee Corporation (owners of the Hanes brand) responded kindly and encouraged him to sign some papers and send it back. Their creative department would work with him after that.
Mr Nancy is a man of letters and over the period of a year (’95-’96), he sent a smattering of such letters to corporations, hotels, and other businesses. At the urging of Jerry Seinfeld, Mr Nancy published these and their responses in a collection, aptly tilted “Letters from a Nut.” Due to the legal implications of writing such nutty letters, Ted L. Nancy is of course a pseudonym of the prankster.
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In one of our most popular posts, ‘To Burn or to Compost‘, there was a good discussion around ‘death care’ … what happens to your body postmortem. In that discussion, a few of us offered our own preferences on what should be done with our cadavers. Some of you who want to donate your bodies to science and be cremated might want to think again. The ash urn that is supposed to contain your mortal remains might be a blend instead of your own. The parts of your body (except for the liver of course) that you want to donate to science might end up being used for creating cosmetics. The going price for your head is around $900 and legs around $1000.
The body parts industry is big business and the lack of regulation, unlimited demand, and poor supply makes this business a breeding ground for unethical practices. As an article from Wharton reveals, the industry and its shady practices are very well documented in a book titled ‘Body Brokers: Inside America’s Underground Trade in Human Remains‘ by Annie Cheney. The cover and topic are similar to the previously discussed ‘Stiff’. I haven’t read the book yet but the Wharton article does a good job in summing it up.
On a recent trip to Washington, Vanessa’s aunt gave me a whole bunch of comic titles that she thought I might like. I started reading 100 Bullets, which seemed just about the right story for the format and the right story for me. 9 books later, and still more to come, I can tell you it is probably one of the most fun reads I have had in a long time. I am utterly hooked to this story, to the point that I had to go to the comic store and buy the individual issues, cuz I couldn’t wait for the next book to come in December.
If you are a fan of film noir type, I am pretty sure you are going to like it. The story is fascinating, the writing is superb and the art is very compelling. I have shared the books with some of my friends, that are versed in the comic world, and they love it as much as we do.
The story starts with this guy (Agent Graves) that gives a suitcase to a (not-so) random character containing 100 Bullets, a gun, and a bunch of documentation of a person that is behind this character disgraces. The bullets, the gun, and the actions are untrackable by the police or any other law enforcement agency. It seems simple, but that is just the introduction to a really convoluted series of nicely tied subplots to the overarching big story that whenever you think you’ve gotten it down, the next page will make sure you are wrong, and start guessing again.
You can find more info about the series here
Happy read!
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