tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-46201656420370256592024-03-17T23:02:29.257-04:00VA ViperJonah Goldberg's Odd Links Gal. Conservative Virginia Grandma.Witt's Endhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04505106934467289492noreply@blogger.comBlogger6373125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4620165642037025659.post-51535747273789833002024-03-13T09:47:00.000-04:002024-03-13T17:32:26.744-04:003/14 Happy Pi Day<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://static.spiceworks.com/shared/post/0007/4511/pi-day-simpsons.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://static.spiceworks.com/shared/post/0007/4511/pi-day-simpsons.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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March 14 (3/14) is celebrated annually as Pi Day because the date resembles the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter — 3.14159265359... or, rounded off, 3.1416. 2016, therefore, provided a particularly good reason to celebrate: 3/14/16. The year before (3.14.15) was significant because it matched the first four digits after the decimal point - now we're back to regular old Pi.</div>
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<a href="http://amzn.to/1pj3yhm" target="_blank">Archimedes</a> (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archimedes" target="_blank">wiki</a>) (circa 287–212 B.C.) is credited with doing the first calculation of Pi. British mathematician William Jones came up with the Greek letter and symbol for the figure in 1706, the use of which was later popularized by mathematician <a href="http://amzn.to/21r7etN" target="_blank">Leonhard Euler</a> (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonhard_Euler" target="_blank">wiki</a>), beginning in 1737.</div>
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Here's <a href="http://vihart.com/" target="_blank">Vi Hart</a> on 2016 Pi Day:</div>
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And a good general explanation of Pi (kid-oriented, but that makes it straightforward):</div>
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wNcFAQHJWAU" width="640"></iframe></div>
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<span style="text-align: justify;">And here's </span>what Pi sounds like:<br />
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Witt's Endhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04505106934467289492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4620165642037025659.post-49985705852439814582024-03-13T09:02:00.000-04:002024-03-13T17:56:43.030-04:00Albert Einstein was born on March 14, 1879: bio, video, and the post-mortem saga of his brain<div style="text-align: justify;">
The greatest aim of all science [is] to cover the greatest number of empirical facts by logical deduction from the smallest possible number of hypotheses or axioms.</div>
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~ <a href="http://amzn.to/22dyr96" target="_blank">Albert Einstein</a> (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein" target="_blank">wiki</a>) (quoted in Barnett, <i><a href="http://amzn.to/22dzPbI" target="_blank">The Universe and Dr. Einstein</a></i>)</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhdugRWCCGMZ5ACnBOBY6t0LWf6w1lsD_7UsnyqPEPgmXQFot6y3PcFtWlow8iZgrox-PI8pvTOZ3TDY1hyS6k_q_rpuV0nuxUkIRnUL5eo6NNKmC70NrpzTmkt3le6IxI3e5cdnRSkMWidVd1qi9kL63bMeAhGE6lsvgACjZB8Yv2yyzHbs5PEKwL3uaA" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1514" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhdugRWCCGMZ5ACnBOBY6t0LWf6w1lsD_7UsnyqPEPgmXQFot6y3PcFtWlow8iZgrox-PI8pvTOZ3TDY1hyS6k_q_rpuV0nuxUkIRnUL5eo6NNKmC70NrpzTmkt3le6IxI3e5cdnRSkMWidVd1qi9kL63bMeAhGE6lsvgACjZB8Yv2yyzHbs5PEKwL3uaA=w253-h320" width="253" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Einstein with an Einstein puppet</td></tr></tbody></table><br />To know that what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty, which our dull faculties can comprehend only in the most primitive forms - this knowledge, this feeling, is at the center of true religiousness. In this sense, and in this sense only, I belong to the ranks of the devoutly religious men.</div>
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~ Albert Einstein (<i>What I Believe</i>)</div>
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Our defense is not in armaments, nor in science, nor in going underground. Our defense is in law and order.</div>
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~ Einstein (New York Times Magazine, 2 August 1964)</div>
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If my theory of relativity is proven correct, Germany will claim me as a German, and France will declare that I am as a citizen of the world. Should my theory prove untrue, France will say that I am a German, and Germany will declare me a Jew.</div>
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~ Einstein (address at the Sorbonne, December 1929*)</div>
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Worshipped today, scorned or even crucified tomorrow, that is the fate of people whom—God knows why—the bored public has taken possession of.</div>
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~ Einstein (letter to Heinrich Zangger, 1922)</div>
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<a href="http://static.neatorama.com/images/2007-03/einstein-tongue-out.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://static.neatorama.com/images/2007-03/einstein-tongue-out.jpg" width="257" /></a></div>
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Even though without writing each other, we are in mental communication, for we respond to our dreadful times in the same way and tremble together for the future of mankind ... I like it that we have the same given name.</div>
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~ <a href="http://amzn.to/1WksAYD" target="_blank">Albert Schweitzer</a> (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Schweitzer" target="_blank">wiki</a>) (1875-1965) (of Einstein, letter, February 1955)</div>
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Quintessential theoretical physicist <a href="http://amzn.to/22dyr96" target="_blank">Albert Einstein</a> (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein" target="_blank">wiki</a>) (1879-1955) was born on March 14, 1879 in Ulm, Germany. After an unpromising start in school, Einstein took Swiss citizenship at the age of 15 and while working as a patent examiner in the Swiss patent office in 1905, produced three seminal papers - on the photoelectric effect and the quantum theory of light, Brownian motion, and his theory of special relativity - that forever changed modern physics. </div>
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The general theory of relativity (see video below on recent discovery of gravitational waves) followed in 1916, by which time he was professor of physics at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin, where he continued his theoretical work until 1934, when he fled Germany for the United States to escape Nazi persecution. He was among the prominent physicists who warned President Franklin Roosevelt in 1939 about the destructive potential of nuclear weapons, which led to the Manhattan Project and the atomic bomb. </div>
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Awarded American citizenship in 1940, Einstein spent his last years at Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study, where he sought to develop the so-called "unified field theory" which still eludes physicists today. He is now recognized as the greatest physicist of the 20th century, if not of all time.</div>
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Here's a brief biography:</div>
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And an explanation of the recent discovery of gravitational waves (based on Einstein's general theory):</div>
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<a href="http://static.neatorama.com/images/2007-03/einstein-brain.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://static.neatorama.com/images/2007-03/einstein-brain.jpg" width="216" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">After his death in 1955, <a href="http://amzn.to/1piS5yB" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Einstein's brain</a> (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein%27s_brain" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">wiki</a>) was removed - without permission from his family - by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Stoltz_Harvey" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Thomas Stoltz Harvey</a>, the Princeton Hospital pathologist who conducted the autopsy. Harvey took the brain home and kept it in a jar. He was later fired from his job for refusing to relinquish the organ.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Many years later, Harvey, who by then had gotten permission from Einstein's son Hans Albert to study the brain, sent slices to various scientists throughout the world. There's more <a href="http://old.post-gazette.com/pg/05107/488975.stm" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">here</a> on the postmortem travels and travails of the brain, plus this: the <a href="http://vaviper.blogspot.com/2012/11/first-formal-study-of-albert-einsteins.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">first formal study of Albert Einstein's brain</a>, which describes some differences in structure and morphology.</span></div>
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* N.B. An earlier variant of the same idea (in November 1919):<br />
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"By an application of the theory of relativity to the taste of readers, today in Germany I am called a German man of science, and in England, I am represented as a Swiss Jew. If I come to be regarded as a bête noire, the descriptions will be reversed, and I shall become a Swiss Jew for the Germans and a German man of science for the English!"</blockquote>
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** This photo was taken by Harry Burnett at Cal Tech in Pasadena where Albert Einstein was teaching. Einstein saw the puppet perform at the Teato Torito and was quite amused. He reached into his jacket’s breast pocket, pulled out a letter and crumpled it up. Speaking in German, he said, “The puppet wasn’t fat enough!” He laughed and stuffed the crumpled letter up under the smock to give the puppet a fatter belly.</div>
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Further reading:</div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Princeton's <a href="http://einsteinpapers.press.princeton.edu/papers" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">digital archive of Einstein's papers</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Prior to their divorce, Einstein had given to his first wife a <a href="http://www.openculture.com/2013/12/albert-einstein-imposes-on-his-first-wife-a-cruel-list-of-marital-demands.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">rather stringent list of behaviors that he put into writing</a>. He produced another <a href="https://www.brainpickings.org/2015/06/12/einstein-divorce/" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">set of criteria for their divorce</a>, including a promise to give to her the proceeds of his not-yet-awarded Nobel Prize.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="background-color: white;" /><a href="http://vaviper.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-plot-to-kill-einstein.html" style="background-color: white; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">The plot to kill Einstein</a>.</span><br />
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Parts of the text above is adapted from Ed's Quotation of the Day, only available via email - leave your email address in the comments if you'd like to be added to his list. Ed is the author of <i><a href="https://amzn.to/2TEy4Gu" target="_blank">Hunters and Killers: Volume 1: Anti-Submarine Warfare from 1776 to 1943</a></i> and<i> <a href="http://amzn.to/2nJP9Lf" target="_blank">Hunters and Killers: Volume 2: Anti-Submarine Warfare from 1943</a>.</i></div>
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Witt's Endhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04505106934467289492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4620165642037025659.post-44159573010002373922024-02-28T14:22:00.000-05:002024-02-29T09:25:11.342-05:00On February 29, 1504: Columbus tricked Jamaicans using knowledge of upcoming lunar eclipse<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<i>Columbus called a meeting with the chiefs of the nearby tribes shortly before the eclipse was to take place. In this meeting, he told them his god was angry with them for ceasing to give him supplies. As a result, his god would take away the moon as a sign of his anger and subsequently punish them for their actions.</i></blockquote>
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<a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/Eclipse_Christophe_Colomb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="325" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/Eclipse_Christophe_Colomb.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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On this day in history, 1504, Christopher Columbus convinced a group of Native Jamaicans that his god was angry with them for ceasing to provide his group with supplies and that god would show his anger with a sign from the heavens. The sign was a <a href="http://vaviper.blogspot.com/2015/09/great-teachable-moment-for-kids.html" target="_blank">lunar eclipse</a> that Columbus knew was imminent.</div>
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This event occurred on Columbus’ fourth and final voyage to the Americas, which began in Cadiz in 1502. Columbus landed near the north coast of Jamaica on June 20, 1503 with only two of his original four ships still afloat, but barely sea worthy due to a shipworm infestation. <a href="http://www.space.com/27412-christopher-columbus-lunar-eclipse.html" target="_blank">Space.com</a>:</div>
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Initially, the native peoples (Arawak Indians) welcomed the castaways, providing them with food and shelter, but as the days dragged into weeks, tensions mounted. Finally, after being stranded for more than six months, half of Columbus' crew mutinied, robbing and murdering some of the Arawaks, who themselves had grown weary of supplying cassava, corn and fish in exchange for little tin whistles, trinkets, hawk's bells and other trashy goods. With famine now threatening, Columbus formulated a desperate, albeit ingenious plan. </blockquote>
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<a href="http://images.fineartamerica.com/images-medium-large/columbus-jamaica-1504-granger.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://images.fineartamerica.com/images-medium-large/columbus-jamaica-1504-granger.jpg" height="290" width="400" /></a></div>
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Columbus had an almanac with him, compiled by the German astronomer Johannes Müller von Königsberg, better known today by his Latin name, <a href="http://amzn.to/1QO3OS0" target="_blank">Regiomontanus</a> (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regiomontanus" target="_blank">wiki</a>). This almanac contained detailed information about the sun, moon and planets, as well as the more important stars and constellations to navigate by - with its help, explorers were able to leave their customary routes and venture out into the unknown seas in search of new frontiers. </div>
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The almanac predicted there would be a total lunar eclipse on the evening of February 29, 1504. Columbus also gave an estimation of what time it would occur; this start time was based on Nuremberg, Germany time, so Columbus had to do a bit of estimating. Regiomontanus had even included fairly accurate information as to how long the eclipse would last.</div>
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Counting on this accuracy, Columbus called a meeting with the chiefs of the nearby tribes shortly before the eclipse was to take place. In this meeting, he told them his (Columbus's) god was angry with the natives for ceasing to give him supplies. As a result, his god would take away the moon as a sign of his anger and subsequently punish them for their actions.</div>
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<span style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://www.sciencenews.org/article/eclipse-saved-columbus" target="_blank">Science News</a>:</span></div>
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<a href="https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/DvB9qwp5ud6FXzjZbkX5Gk-970-80.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="554" data-original-width="800" height="276" src="https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/DvB9qwp5ud6FXzjZbkX5Gk-970-80.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
Amazingly, the prediction proved correct. As the full moon rose in the east on the appointed night, Earth's shadow was already biting into its face. As the moon rose higher, the shadow became larger and more distinct until it completely obscured the moon, leaving nothing but a faint red disk in the sky.</div>
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The natives were sufficiently frightened by this unexpected occurrence and by Columbus's uncanny prediction to beg forgiveness and appeal to him to restore their moon to the sky. Columbus responded that he wished to consult with his deity. He retired to his quarters, using a half-hour sandglass to time how long the eclipse would last. Some time later, when the eclipse had reached totality, he emerged to announce that the moon, in answer to his prayers, would gradually return to its normal brightness.</div>
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The next day, the natives brought food and did all they could to please Columbus and his crew.</div>
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Columbus and his crew were picked up a few months later when a ship from Hispaniola arrived in Jamaica on June 29, 1504. They arrived back in Spain on November 7, 1504.</div>
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Pre-knowledge of eclipse timing to fool the natives has been used as a plot device many times, including, most famously, H. Rider Haggard's <i><a href="http://amzn.to/1QDHvbx" target="_blank">King Solomon's Mines</a></i>, and Mark Twain's <i><a href="http://amzn.to/1QDHAfb" target="_blank">A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court</a>.</i></div>
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<a href="http://vaviper.blogspot.com/2015/09/great-teachable-moment-for-kids.html" target="_blank">More on the mechanics of eclipses here</a>. and more on the Columbus incident at <a href="https://www.sciencenews.org/article/eclipse-saved-columbus" target="_blank">Science News</a>, <a href="http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2012/02/this-day-in-history-christopher-columbus-tricks-native-jamaicans-into-giving-him-supplies-by-using-his-knowledge-of-an-upcomming-lunar-eclipse/" target="_blank">Today I Found Out</a>, and <a href="http://www.space.com/27412-christopher-columbus-lunar-eclipse.html" target="_blank">Space.com</a>.</div>
Witt's Endhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04505106934467289492noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4620165642037025659.post-50202434675660519452024-02-01T00:00:00.000-05:002024-02-01T21:27:06.931-05:008 years? 34 years? How long was Bill Murray stuck in Groundhog Day?<div style="text-align: justify;">
First of all, here's Jonah Goldberg's (perennial) <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2006/02/groundhog-day-movie-all-time-jonah-goldberg/" target="_blank">Groundhog Day column</a>; I completely agree with his contention that it's great comedy and a great moral lesson. But how long was Bill Murray stuck there?</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO6LpwDlRs8iQlCoLvy3GunnlrTn3xXawrQAgOOhRf14GXDIr-90rH-qLoC-2oqLTcQPn2w91H8lpI3A66BPlORRyzXaqs9LeCNIrhfqK62UQ6fNVRR-6DSWkmV4TwBxIjtaK3OjFWEHk/s1600/groundhog-chart.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="315" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO6LpwDlRs8iQlCoLvy3GunnlrTn3xXawrQAgOOhRf14GXDIr-90rH-qLoC-2oqLTcQPn2w91H8lpI3A66BPlORRyzXaqs9LeCNIrhfqK62UQ6fNVRR-6DSWkmV4TwBxIjtaK3OjFWEHk/s400/groundhog-chart.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;">Director </span><a href="http://amzn.to/1NJIPrG" style="background-color: white; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Harold Ramis</a><span style="background-color: white;">, in the </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001KEHAI0/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B001KEHAI0&linkCode=as2&tag=vavi-20" style="background-color: white; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">DVD commentary</a><span style="background-color: white;">, opined that it takes Murray's character about ten years of repeating Groundhog Day and then later, in response to several sites online linking to an article that came to an answer of just </span><a href="https://imgur.com/gallery/pUJIe" style="background-color: white; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">8 years, 8 months, and 16 days</a><span style="background-color: white;">, he offered the following:</span></span></div>
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"I think the 10-year estimate is too short. It takes at least 10 years to get good at anything, and allotting for the down time and misguided years he spent, it had to be more like 30 or 40 years…"</blockquote>
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Here's an <a href="http://whatculture.com/film/just-how-many-days-does-bill-murray-really-spend-stuck-reliving-groundhog-day.php" target="_blank">amazingly detailed subsequent analysis</a> that concluded it must have been at least 34 years, and <a href="http://vaviper.blogspot.com/2014/01/groundhog-daysuper-bowl-links.html" target="_blank">here </a>are some additional interesting Groundhog Day links.<br /></div>
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Witt's Endhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04505106934467289492noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4620165642037025659.post-69795211138823568012024-01-26T10:30:00.004-05:002024-01-26T10:30:42.981-05:00The Story of the Decade - on Covid-19 virus originating in Wuhan lab<a href="https://www.city-journal.org/article/new-documents-bolster-lab-leak-hypothesis">The Story of the Decade</a>: The materials strengthen—perhaps conclusively—the lab-leak hypothesis of Covid-19’s origins.<div></div><blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;">...most recent evidence supporting the inference that the Covid-19 virus originated in the Wuhan lab... <span style="color: initial;">Both Beijing and Washington have covered up information about the origin of SARS2. Washington’s obfuscation has been aided by the puzzling inability of its 17 intelligence agencies to discover documents in the U.S. government’s own possession, and by a mainstream press too opinionated and ignorant of science to understand the story of the decade. U.S. responsibility lies in having allowed two senior health-research officials, Anthony Fauci and Francis Collins, to promote gain-of-function research (enhancing natural viruses) for years without adequate safety oversight or scientific consensus.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Though Washington may be complicit, the bulk of the blame for the pandemic surely rests with Beijing. No one but China is responsible for regulating the safety of virology research at Wuhan. Chinese researchers apparently chose to race ahead with a project that DARPA, perhaps because of the manifest risks, had refused to fund. When the virus escaped its lax containment, if that is indeed what happened, the Chinese government did everything possible to bury the truth.</div></blockquote><div></div>Witt's Endhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04505106934467289492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4620165642037025659.post-88934699094313056492024-01-19T03:00:00.000-05:002024-01-20T16:29:42.941-05:00It's Stonewall Jackson's birthday - here's the story of his left arm's separate grave (bonus: Lord Uxbridge's leg)From the always interesting <a href="http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/grave-of-stonewall-jackson-s-arm" target="_blank">Atlas Obscura</a>:<br />
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Most of Civil War superstar <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1611211387/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1611211387&linkCode=as2&tag=vavi-20" target="_blank">Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall*" Jackson</a> (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonewall_Jackson" target="_blank">wiki</a>) was buried in a Lexington, Virginia, cemetery that now bears his name, but he was so famous at the time of his death that his amputated left arm was spirited away to its own separate grave.</div>
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<a href="http://assets.atlasobscura.com/media/W1siZiIsInVwbG9hZHMvcGxhY2VfaW1hZ2VzLzQzZGM5ODc5OGYyN2IxZmQwN184NTI2Mjk3NzE1XzIwNmMzNjg2MDZfei5qcGciXSxbInAiLCJ0aHVtYiIsIjk4MHhcdTAwM2UiXSxbInAiLCJjb252ZXJ0IiwiLXF1YWxpdHkgOTEgLWF1dG8tb3JpZW50Il1d/image.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://assets.atlasobscura.com/media/W1siZiIsInVwbG9hZHMvcGxhY2VfaW1hZ2VzLzQzZGM5ODc5OGYyN2IxZmQwN184NTI2Mjk3NzE1XzIwNmMzNjg2MDZfei5qcGciXSxbInAiLCJ0aHVtYiIsIjk4MHhcdTAwM2UiXSxbInAiLCJjb252ZXJ0IiwiLXF1YWxpdHkgOTEgLWF1dG8tb3JpZW50Il1d/image.jpg" height="400" width="400" /></a></div>
It was just after dark on May 2, 1863. Jackson had just launched a devastating attack against Union forces at Chancellorsville. Returning to his own lines with several staff officers, Jackson, ever the aggressive soldier, decided to conduct reconnaissance in the area. As he and his staff rode through the woods near Confederate lines, a North Carolina regiment, unable to see who was riding up on them, opened fire. Jackson was struck by three bullets, two of them shattering his left arm.** The general was evacuated from the area and given medical treatment, but the arm couldn't be saved and was amputated. Pneumonia set in, and on May 10, 1863, the South lost its most effective tactician. While Jackson's body would travel to Lexington, where he had taught before the war, his severed arm would receive its own burial.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Two-armed Thomas 'Stonewall' Jackson <br />
during the Mexican-American War, 1847</td></tr>
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Thinking that the limb of so great a solider was too precious to simply throw on the regular body part trash pile, Jackson's unofficial company chaplain, Reverend Tucker Lacy wrapped the arm in a blanket and took it his family cemetery. The reverend gave the limb a standard Christian burial and placed a marker above the site.<br />
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Supposedly Stonewall Jackson's arm was dug up and reburied numerous times in the ensuing years and there is no concrete evidence that it still resides in its original burial space, but the simple gravestone remains to remember one of the oddest instances of hero worship in the history of battle.<br />
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* Jackson rose to prominence and earned his most famous nickname at the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Battle_of_Bull_Run" target="_blank">First Battle of Bull Run</a> (aka First Manassas) on July 21, 1861. As the Confederate lines began to crumble under heavy Union assault, Jackson's brigade provided crucial reinforcements on Henry House Hill, demonstrating the discipline he instilled in his men. Brig. Gen. Barnard Elliott Bee, Jr., exhorted his own troops to re-form by shouting, "There is Jackson standing like a stone wall. Let us determine to die here, and we will conquer!"</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20.25px; word-wrap: break-word;">The Death of “Stonewall” Jackson</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f6f6f6; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20.25px; word-wrap: break-word;">Currier & Ives (1872)</span></td></tr>
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When Jackson died on May 10, 1863, his attending physicians attributed the death to a pneumonia Jackson had developed four days after amputation of his arm. The infection was believed to be secondary to a pulmonary contusion, or bruised lung, that Jackson may have suffered after falling from a stretcher during his removal from the field. For nearly 150 years, that diagnosis was largely unchallenged. </div>
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More recently, however, modern physicians have begun offering alternate possibilities for his cause of death.The most commonly suggested alternative is pyemia, or blood poisoning. Known today as sepsis, pyemia was a well-recognized and deadly condition during the pre-antibiotic days of the Civil War.</div>
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** The story of Stonewall Jackson's injury always reminds me of this, from later in the <a href="http://amzn.to/1nadh8O" target="_blank">War of Northern Aggression</a> (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naming_the_American_Civil_War" target="_blank">wiki</a>):</div>
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"They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance."</div>
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~ Union general John Sedgwick (died 1864) (just before being killed by Confederate fire at the battle of Spotsylvania) </div>
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Related, via <a href="https://twitter.com/AStuttaford" target="_blank">Andrew Stuttaford</a> - read the whole Wikipedia entry: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Uxbridge's_leg" target="_blank">Lord Uxbridge's leg</a> was shattered by a cannon shot at the Battle of Waterloo and removed by a surgeon. The amputated limb went on to lead a somewhat macabre after-life as a tourist attraction in the village of Waterloo in Belgium, where it had been removed and interred. </div>
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Per Wikipedia:<br />
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Just after the Surgeon had taken off the Marquis of Anglesey's leg, Sir Hussey Vivian came into the cottage where the operation was performed. "Ah, Vivian!" said the wounded noble, "I want you to do me a favour. Some of my friends here seem to think I might have kept that leg on. Just go and cast your eye upon it, and tell me what you think." "I went, accordingly", said Sir Hussey, "and, taking up the lacerated limb, carefully examined it, and so far as I could tell, it was completely spoiled for work. A rusty grape-shot had gone through and shattered the bones all to pieces. I therefore returned to the Marquis and told him he could set his mind quite at rest, as his leg, in my opinion, was better off than on."</blockquote>
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I love this bit: </div>
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According to anecdote, he was close to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Wellesley,_1st_Duke_of_Wellington" target="_blank">Duke of Wellington</a> (at Waterloo) when his leg was hit, and exclaimed, "By God, sir, I've lost my leg!", to which Wellington replied "By God, sir, so you have!"</blockquote>
Further reading: <i><a href="http://amzn.to/2bR4DYb" target="_blank">Rebel Yell: The Violence, Passion, and Redemption of Stonewall Jackson</a></i></div>
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Witt's Endhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04505106934467289492noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4620165642037025659.post-81342005784346090452024-01-13T18:02:00.001-05:002024-01-13T18:02:31.473-05:00The Story Behind the 1998 Pizza Hut Commercial That Featured Former Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev<p style="text-align: justify;"> From <a href="https://www.vintag.es/2024/01/gorbachev-pizza-hut.html">Vintage Everyday</a>:</p><div style="box-sizing: inherit; color: initial; font-family: Rokkitt; font-size: 16px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial;"></div><blockquote><div style="box-sizing: inherit; color: initial; font-family: Rokkitt; font-size: 16px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEisOP-JKYxspPNxUDd26AfcOyuTYFxfghmiZn7uVDG7dGvfnSQlongSSs0ZHvYPSI6YNDeCECTzbIgQ6ZLGYjh3_uFC1g4D8m6sv6jaBrH6pW0hefYN0JnqNP-knwvQg_EwcxoAOf5Bz-9FgCeZmDrdlwUYtn4ItzxMG4UJpbPJ3Xvlt0TCAJl3vWRdVXE" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="426" data-original-width="640" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEisOP-JKYxspPNxUDd26AfcOyuTYFxfghmiZn7uVDG7dGvfnSQlongSSs0ZHvYPSI6YNDeCECTzbIgQ6ZLGYjh3_uFC1g4D8m6sv6jaBrH6pW0hefYN0JnqNP-knwvQg_EwcxoAOf5Bz-9FgCeZmDrdlwUYtn4ItzxMG4UJpbPJ3Xvlt0TCAJl3vWRdVXE=w400-h266" width="400" /></a></div><br />In the commercial, <a href="https://amzn.to/47Ad9pn">Gorbachev </a>and his then-10-year-old granddaughter, Anastasia, are shown walking through Moscow’s Red Square and stopping at a Pizza Hut. Spoken in Russian with English subtitles, the commercial focuses on Pizza Hut’s new Edge Pizza. A family of diners spots Gorbachev a few tables away and starts arguing about whether he took them to “the edge of economic ruin, the edge of chaos.”</div><div style="box-sizing: inherit; color: initial; font-family: Rokkitt; font-size: 16px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial;"><br style="box-sizing: inherit; color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: inherit; color: initial; font-family: Rokkitt; font-size: 16px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial;">“Because of him, we have freedom,” a young man tells Gorbachev’s critic. An older female sympathizer gets in the last word: “Because of him we have many things, like Pizza Hut!” This prompts others to raise a slice to chants of “Hail to Gorbachev!” The commercial hawked pizza, but it also had political overtones of Gorbachev’s policies of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring).</div></blockquote><div style="box-sizing: inherit; color: initial; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial;"><span style="font-family: Rokkitt;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kMBPuKLZQo8" width="320" youtube-src-id="kMBPuKLZQo8"></iframe></div></span></div><div style="box-sizing: inherit; color: initial; font-family: Rokkitt; font-size: 16px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial;"><br /></div><div style="box-sizing: inherit; color: initial; font-family: Rokkitt; font-size: 16px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial;">Better known in the US, here's Ronald Reagan at History.com - <a href="https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/reagan-challenges-gorbachev-to-tear-down-the-berlin-wall">"Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"</a></div>Witt's Endhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04505106934467289492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4620165642037025659.post-16875546415071983012024-01-10T18:49:00.004-05:002024-01-13T18:04:18.413-05:00My newest (and presumably last) granddaughter was born today. :-)<p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxw_jLv8oJkMjfR7ZXRNaMRXjeYJxaga52iVynghgTmGdBcFL7jM3x670LeeXLcYaMNI3g8D2kavC7REdaOx8XvGR_BwuRl9XE7K5lrSyuWWZZ35I2MVTcd3MoAMHHYr3bg4HrH_VoJITN1qLu3Vs8CTgmzLHtycOK-fNGFeRVZVG8-kwHpAnmh0tzGro/s1137/IMG_20240110_182413~3.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1137" data-original-width="830" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxw_jLv8oJkMjfR7ZXRNaMRXjeYJxaga52iVynghgTmGdBcFL7jM3x670LeeXLcYaMNI3g8D2kavC7REdaOx8XvGR_BwuRl9XE7K5lrSyuWWZZ35I2MVTcd3MoAMHHYr3bg4HrH_VoJITN1qLu3Vs8CTgmzLHtycOK-fNGFeRVZVG8-kwHpAnmh0tzGro/w234-h320/IMG_20240110_182413~3.jpg" width="234" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><span color="initial">Today we're welcoming Miss Deborah Jane Witt (named after her grandmothers), seventh child and fourth daughter to my older son Charlie and his wife Mai Lea. Deborah was born at 4:59 this afternoon, weighs 7 pounds and 11 ounces, is 20 inches long, and has all of the appropriate body parts, in the appropriate amounts.</span></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">WELCOME TO THE WORLD, DEBORAH!</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span color="initial" style="font-family: inherit;">It is a pleasant thing to reflect upon, and furnishes a complete answer to those who contend for the gradual degeneration of the human species, that every baby born into the world is a finer one than the last. </span></p><div style="color: initial; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial;"><span color="initial" style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;">~ </span><a href="http://amzn.to/1KvAM77" style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;" target="_blank">Dickens</a><span color="initial" style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;">, Nicholas Nickleby, Ch. 36</span></div><div style="color: initial; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial;"><span color="initial" style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div style="color: initial; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial;"><span color="initial" style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"><div style="color: initial; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial;"><span color="initial" style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;">Infant Sorrow by </span><a href="http://amzn.to/1o8Urji" style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;" target="_blank">William Blake</a></div></span></div><div style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" />My mother groand! my father wept.<br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" />Into the dangerous world I leapt:<br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" />Helpless, naked, piping loud;<br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" />Like a fiend hid in a cloud.<br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" /><br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" />Struggling in my fathers hands:<br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" />Striving against my swaddling bands:<br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" />Bound and weary I thought best<br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" />To sulk upon my mothers breast.<br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh87_ZWFv-r88s0F35TAuvwkEYXyh5X4c7bk_td9jbNJqC7ioGtSelmLHMpeJMjD1XzDNObD5Ytm5LOdeRvpB5agJ1R6sqVWBiu9g7gXD-3QpQooPfmHb_Jx7CO855UHWmUPAwIeayZBbKKv0QX1CkECsOO7qMoUrxnnMD2AIg5xt5PWz2qm9cmuvd3GTg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="556" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh87_ZWFv-r88s0F35TAuvwkEYXyh5X4c7bk_td9jbNJqC7ioGtSelmLHMpeJMjD1XzDNObD5Ytm5LOdeRvpB5agJ1R6sqVWBiu9g7gXD-3QpQooPfmHb_Jx7CO855UHWmUPAwIeayZBbKKv0QX1CkECsOO7qMoUrxnnMD2AIg5xt5PWz2qm9cmuvd3GTg=w296-h320" width="296" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The younger, female contingent of sisters<br /> and cousins seeing the first picture. :-)</td></tr></tbody></table><br />Song To Be Sung by the Father of Infant Female Children<br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" /><br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" />by <a href="http://amzn.to/1SuRaYo" target="_blank">Ogden Nash</a><br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" /><br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" />My heart leaps up when I behold<br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" />A rainbow in the sky;<br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" />Contrariwise, my blood runs cold<br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" />When little boys go by.<br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" />For little boys as little boys,<br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" />No special hate I carry,<br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" />But now and then they grow to men,<br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" />And when they do, they marry.<br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" />No matter how they tarry,<br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" />Eventually they marry.<br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" />And, swine among the pearls,<br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" />They marry little girls.<br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" /><br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" />Oh, somewhere, somewhere, an infant plays,<br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" />With parents who feed and clothe him.<br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" />Their lips are sticky with pride and praise,<br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" />But I have begun to loathe him.<br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" />Yes, I loathe with loathing shameless<br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" />This child who to me is nameless.<br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" />This bachelor child in his carriage<br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" />Gives never a thought to marriage,<br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" />But a person can hardly say knife<br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" />Before he will hunt him a wife.<br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" /><br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg_JhkWnubBRZRQjp8Mb1VIGMnmdCRmEtXKtGUoXMbdZwcde4jAS00aiujXQBsC6u63h1i_6CejfOvk104FINgNeHmSvFljJ7OFJ5TyG5XUfgC8d4C16dxhpOSoOHcUJ0xnvlx-fyhCDHdkEh0UNdYNc6KGSm_EmPMGOHbd4zpGHnDQRFPDmwBaUhUQ9dI" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="844" data-original-width="1120" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg_JhkWnubBRZRQjp8Mb1VIGMnmdCRmEtXKtGUoXMbdZwcde4jAS00aiujXQBsC6u63h1i_6CejfOvk104FINgNeHmSvFljJ7OFJ5TyG5XUfgC8d4C16dxhpOSoOHcUJ0xnvlx-fyhCDHdkEh0UNdYNc6KGSm_EmPMGOHbd4zpGHnDQRFPDmwBaUhUQ9dI" width="318" /></a></div><br />I never see an infant (male),<br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" />A-sleeping in the sun,<br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" />Without I turn a trifle pale<br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" />And think is he the one?<br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" />Oh, first he'll want to crop his curls,<br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" />And then he'll want a pony,<br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" />And then he'll think of pretty girls,<br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" />And holy matrimony.<br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" />A cat without a mouse<br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" />Is he without a spouse.<br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" /><br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" />Oh, somewhere he bubbles bubbles of milk,<br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" />And quietly sucks his thumbs.<br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" />His cheeks are roses painted on silk,<br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" />And his teeth are tucked in his gums.<br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" />But alas the teeth will begin to grow,<br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" />And the bubbles will cease to bubble;<br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" />Given a score of years or so,<br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" />The roses will turn to stubble.<br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" />He'll sell a bond, or he'll write a book,<br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" />And his eyes will get that acquisitive look,<br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" />And raging and ravenous for the kill,<br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" />He'll boldly ask for the hand of Jill.<br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" />This infant whose middle<br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" />Is diapered still<br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" />Will want to marry My daughter Jill.<br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" /><br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" />Oh sweet be his slumber and moist his middle!<br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" />My dreams, I fear, are infanticiddle.<br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" />A fig for embryo Lohengrins!<br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" />I'll open all his safety pins,<br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" />I'll pepper his powder, and salt his bottle,<br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" />And give him readings from Aristotle.<br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" />Sand for his spinach I'll gladly bring,<br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" />And Tabasco sauce for his teething ring.<br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" />And an elegant, elegant, alligator<br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" />To play with him in his perambulator.<br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" />Then perhaps he'll struggle through fire and water<br style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;" />To marry somebody else's daughter.</span></div>Witt's Endhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04505106934467289492noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4620165642037025659.post-4113673436467844882024-01-10T12:17:00.001-05:002024-01-10T12:17:46.231-05:00Back to the Future: Power Dishwashers!<p> At <a href="https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2024/01/back-to-the-future-power-dishwashers.html">Marginal Revolution</a>:</p><p></p><blockquote><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">Why do today’s dishwashers typically take more than 2 hours to run through a normal cycle when less than a hour was common in the past? The reason is absurd energy and water “conservation” rules. These rules, imposed on dish and clothes washers, have made these products perform worse than in the past, cleaning less well or much more slowly. One of the best things that the Trump administration did (other than Operation Warp Speed, of course) was creating a product class–superwashers!–that cleaned in under an hour and were not subject to energy and water conservation standards. The Biden administration reversed these rules but the 5th circuit just ruled that the reversal was “arbitrary and capricious.”</li></ul></blockquote><p></p><p>I'll be moving later this year, but I'll take my <a href="https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2007/09/the-feds-dirty.html">30 year old washing machine</a> with me. </p>Witt's Endhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04505106934467289492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4620165642037025659.post-71563389122985857612023-11-29T14:51:00.001-05:002023-12-03T13:55:08.883-05:00Apple Pudding<p><span color="initial">Apple Pudding</span></p><p><span color="initial">unsure of the origin of this one:</span></p><p><span color="initial">½ cup melted butter</span></p><p><span color="initial">1/2 cup white sugar</span></p><p><span color="initial">1/2 cup brown sugar</span></p><p><span color="initial">1 cup all-purpose flour</span></p><p><span color="initial">2 tsp baking powder</span></p><p><span color="initial">1 cup milk</span></p><p><span color="initial">2 cups peeled apple, chopped (personal favorite for this is Granny Smith)</span></p><p><span color="initial">1 teaspoon ground cinnamon</span></p><p><span color="initial">1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg</span></p><p>Preheat oven to 375 degrees.</p><p><span color="initial"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjutLa6vpVVPswzCOHpEhgkbjmzx3-0mdmSiYYVZGsWEWxOxWCj7Fe0oKIx4EoDNRCinz3SEamz4C-nxpL3fsGcKMZyAFfTB9fI34UbdS9u27v6PpSxmk3xm74hLcBjgZdWW9g0P7aBOUT9f-Cl7VL9_l82egpiEnjREYjAuKt9pa6Gy43ompp2qPZ4Q6U" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1256" data-original-width="1256" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjutLa6vpVVPswzCOHpEhgkbjmzx3-0mdmSiYYVZGsWEWxOxWCj7Fe0oKIx4EoDNRCinz3SEamz4C-nxpL3fsGcKMZyAFfTB9fI34UbdS9u27v6PpSxmk3xm74hLcBjgZdWW9g0P7aBOUT9f-Cl7VL9_l82egpiEnjREYjAuKt9pa6Gy43ompp2qPZ4Q6U" width="240" /></a></div>Pour melted butter into a casserole dish with high-ish sides* (<a href="https://amzn.to/46Fa4nr">similar to this</a>). <p></p><p><span color="initial">In a bowl, combine sugars, flour, and baking powder, then add milk and whisk until smooth. Pour into the casserole dish (with the melted butter) without mixing.</span></p><p>In a small saucepan, heat apples with cinnamon and nutmeg until slightly softened.</p><p>Pour apples into the center of the batter, again without mixing.</p><p><span color="initial"></span></p><p>Bake in the preheated oven 30 - 40 minutes, or until golden.</p><p>Serve warm - drizzle the plate or bowl with with caramel sauce, then add a scoop of the pudding and top with whipped cream or ice cream.</p><p>* In a deep casserole dish, the batter rises to cover the apples. </p>Witt's Endhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04505106934467289492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4620165642037025659.post-62009436238258765412023-11-21T08:18:00.001-05:002023-11-21T20:42:17.773-05:00Today is my 75th birthday. A few ruminations on growing old, plus the Thanksgiving birthday pattern<div>
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I was born on November 22, 1948; for those of us born between the 22nd and 28th and have always wondered, here's how it works: the <a href="http://scottforbes.net/2010/07/07/how-often-does-my-birthday-fall-on-thanksgiving/" target="_blank">Thanksgiving Birthday Pattern</a>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A few quotes and poems, mostly gloomy, <span style="color: initial;"> </span><span style="color: initial;">on the subject of old age:</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: justify;">The older I grow the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom.</span></div>
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~ H. L. Mencken</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: initial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: initial;">Experience teaches that no man improves much after 60, and that after </span><span style="color: initial;">65 most of them deteriorate in a really shocking manner. I could give an auto</span><span style="color: initial;">biographical example, but refrain on the advice of counsel.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div> </div><div>~ H. L. Mencken <span style="color: initial;">(Baltimore Sun, 7 November 1948) </span></div><div><span style="color: initial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: initial;"><div>The return of my birthday, if I remember it, fills me with thoughts which it<span style="color: initial;"> seems to be the general care of humanity to escape. I can look back upon </span><span style="color: initial;">three-score and four years, in which little has been done, and little has been </span><span style="color: initial;">enjoyed, a life diversified by misery, spent part in the sluggishness of penury,</span><span style="color: initial;"> and part under the violence of pain, in gloomy discontent, or importunate dis</span><span style="color: initial;">tress. </span></div><div> </div><div>~ Dr. Samuel Johnson <span style="color: initial;">(letter to Hester Thrale, 21 September 1773) </span><span style="color: initial;"> </span></div></span></div><div><span style="color: initial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: initial;">Old age is like being on a plane flying through a thunderstorm. Once you're </span><span style="color: initial;">aboard, there's nothing you can do. </span></div><div> </div><div>~ Golda Meir <span style="color: initial;">(attributed)</span></div><div> <span style="color: initial;"> </span></div><div>Growing old is no gradual decline, but a series of tumbles, full of sorrow, from <span style="color: initial;">one ledge to another. Yet when we pick ourselves up, we find no bones are broken; </span><span style="color: initial;">and not unpleasing is the new terrace that stretches out unexplored before us. </span></div><div> </div><div>~ Logan Pearsall Smith <span style="color: initial;">(All Trivia, "Last Words") </span></div></div>
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I have enjoyed greatly the second blooming that comes when you finish the life of the emotions and of personal relations; and suddenly find - at the age of fifty, say - that a whole new life has opened before you, filled with things you can think about, study, or read about...It is as if a fresh sap of ideas and thoughts was rising in you.<br />
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~ Agatha Christie<br />
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<div style="text-align: justify;"><div>For age is opportunity no less</div><div>Than youth itself, though in another dress,</div><div>And as the evening twilight fades away,</div><div>The sky is filled with stars invisible by day.</div><div><br /></div><div>~ Longfellow, "Morituri Salutamus"</div></div>
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The first half of our lives is ruined by our parents, and the second half by our children.</div>
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~ Clarence Darrow</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div>How pleasant is the day when we give up striving to be young -- or slender.</div><div><br /></div><div>~William James</div></div>
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Every old man complains of the growing depravity of the world, of the petulance and insolence of the rising generation.</div>
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~ Dr. Johnson</div>
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Too old to plant trees for my own gratification, I shall do it for my posterity.</div>
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~ Thomas Jefferson</div>
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How pleasant is the day when we give up striving to be young -- or slender.</div>
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~ William James</div>
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For age is opportunity no less</div>
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Than youth itself, though in another dress,</div>
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And as the evening twilight fades away,</div>
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The sky is filled with stars invisible by day.</div>
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~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, <i>Morituri Salutamus</i></div>
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It is an illusion that youth is happy, an illusion of those who have lost it; but the young know they are wretched for they are full of the truthless ideals which have been instilled into them, and each time they come in contact with the real, they are bruised and wounded.</div>
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~ W. Somerset Maugham, <i>Of Human Bondage</i></div>
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When I was young I was amazed at Plutarch's statement that the elder Cato began at the age of eighty to learn Greek. I am amazed no longer. Old age is ready to undertake tasks that youth shirked because they would take too long.</div>
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~ W. Somerset Maugham</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: initial;">Experience is a revelation in the light of which we renounce our errors of youth for those of age. </span></div>
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~ Ambrose Bierce, <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0820324019/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0820324019&linkCode=as2&tag=vavi-20" target="_blank">The Devil's Dictionary</a></i></div>
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When the loud day for men who sow and reap</div>
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Grows still and on the silence of the town</div>
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The unsubstantial veils of night and sleep,</div>
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The meed of day's labour, settle down,</div>
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Then for me in the stillness of the night</div>
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The wasting, watchful hours drag on their course,</div>
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And in the idle darkness comes the bite</div>
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Of all the burning serpents of remorse;</div>
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Dreams seethe; and fretful infelicities</div>
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Are swarming in my over-burdened soul,</div>
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And Memory before my wakeful eyes</div>
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With noiseless hand unwinds her lengthy scroll.</div>
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Then, as with loathing I peruse the years,</div>
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I tremble, and I curse my natal day,</div>
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Wail bitterly, and bitterly shed tears,</div>
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But cannot wash the woeful script away.</div>
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~ Alexander Pushkin, <i>Remembrance</i></div>
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The spiritual eyesight improves as the physical eyesight declines.</div>
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~ Plato</div>
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So Life's year begins and closes;</div>
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Days, though short'ning, still can shine;</div>
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What though youth gave love and roses,</div>
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Age still leaves us friends and wine.</div>
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~ Thomas Moore, <i>Spring and Autumn</i></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;"><div>But as usual, Shakespeare says it best:</div><div><span style="color: initial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: initial;">All the world's a stage,</span></div><div>And all the men and women merely players:</div><div>They have their exits and their entrances;</div><div>And one man in his time plays many parts,</div><div>His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,</div><div>Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.</div><div>And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel</div><div>And shining morning face, creeping like snail</div><div>Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,</div><div>Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad</div><div>Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,</div><div>Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,</div><div>Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,</div><div>Seeking the bubble reputation</div><div>Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,</div><div>In fair round belly with good capon lined,</div><div>With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,</div><div>Full of wise saws and modern instances;</div><div>And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts</div><div>Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,</div><div>With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,</div><div>His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide</div><div>For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,</div><div>Turning again toward childish treble, pipes</div><div>And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,</div><div>That ends this strange eventful history,</div><div>Is second childishness and mere oblivion,</div><div>Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.</div><div><br /></div><div> (As You Like It, Act II, Sc. 7)</div></div>
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Witt's Endhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04505106934467289492noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4620165642037025659.post-57044733451626779232023-11-21T08:00:00.000-05:002023-11-22T13:34:41.516-05:00Round-up of Thanksgiving links<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://vaviper.blogspot.com/2014/11/a-thanksgiving-miscellany-mark-twain.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">A Thanksgiving miscellany</a>: Mark Twain, science, WKRP, Cicero and the best turkey fryer PSA ever.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">10 Thanksgiving Words With <a href="http://listverse.com/2013/11/28/10-thanksgiving-words-with-bizarre-origins/" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Bizarre Origins</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://mentalfloss.com/search?term=thanksgiving#sthash.PzgBMPTh.dpuf" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">In 1939, the U.S. celebrated Democrat Thanksgiving and Republican Thanksgiving</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">A bird in a bird in a bird in a bird in a bird in a pig: the <a href="http://vaviper.blogspot.com/2012/11/for-thanksgiving-dinner-turbacon-epic.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">TurBacon Epic</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.thekitchn.com/what-is-a-wishbone-and-why-do-we-crack-it-ingredient-intelligence-213029" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">What's a Wishbone, and Why Do We Crack It?</a> Related, <a href="http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/dinosaur/2010/11/24/this-thanksgiving-make-a-wish-on-a-dinosaur" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Tyrannosaurus Rex Had a Wishbone</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">This Man Made the First <a href="http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/food/2013/11/this-man-made-the-first-canned-cranberry-sauce" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Canned Cranberry Sauce</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://vaviper.blogspot.com/2012/11/benjamin-franklins-account-of-first.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Benjamin Franklin’s account of the First Thanksgiving</a>.</span></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://mentalfloss.com/article/13144/8-thanksgiving-flowcharts" style="font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">8 Thanksgiving Flowcharts</a><span style="color: initial; font-family: inherit;">.</span></div>
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<a href="http://vaviper.blogspot.com/2013/11/how-turkey-got-its-name.html" target="_blank">How Turkey Got Its Name.</a></div>
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<a href="http://mentalfloss.com/article/26471/why-do-lions-cowboys-always-play-thanksgiving" target="_blank">Why Do The Lions & Cowboys Always Play On Thanksgiving?</a></div>
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For those of us born between the 22nd and 28th and have always wondered, here's how it works: the <a href="http://scottforbes.net/2010/07/07/how-often-does-my-birthday-fall-on-thanksgiving/" target="_blank">Thanksgiving Birthday Pattern</a>.</div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://abnormaluse.com/2010/11/thanksgiving-in-1810-1910-and-2010.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Thanksgiving in 1810, 1910, and 2010</a>. Related: Celebrating <a href="http://shannonselin.com/2016/11/thanksgiving-1800s/" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Thanksgiving in the 1800s</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">For the kids, a <a href="http://www.scholastic.com/scholastic_thanksgiving/" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">virtual field trip to the first Thanksgiving</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=as_li_qf_sp_sr_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&index=aps&keywords=dave%20barry&linkCode=as2&tag=vavi-20" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Dave Barry</a> Thanksgiving columns from <a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/2007/11/18/288480/great-american-turkeys.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">1996</a>, <a href="http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1525574/posts" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">1998</a>, <a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/11/21/1930423/wed-rather-eat-turkey.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">2004</a>... feel free to add more in the comments.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Buffy </i>Thanksgiving episode: <a href="http://vaviper.blogspot.com/2013/11/buffy-thanksgiving-episode-ritual.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">"Ritual sacrifice, with pie."</a></span></div>
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Witt's Endhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04505106934467289492noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4620165642037025659.post-41758755121171745102023-11-21T00:00:00.001-05:002023-11-22T13:32:44.599-05:00Miscellaneous Thanksgiving stuff: Mark Twain, science, WKRP turkey drop episode, more<div>
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I've accumulated a LOT of Thanksgiving-related links over the years, so I've divided them up - here's the first set.<br />
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I celebrated Thanksgiving in an old-fashioned way. I invited everyone in my neighborhood to my house, we had an enormous feast, and then I killed them and took their land.<br />
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~ <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0446691860/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0446691860&linkCode=as2&tag=vavi-20" target="_blank">Jon Stewart</a></div>
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In 1939, the U.S. celebrated <a href="http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/11/franksgiving-roosevelt-thanksgiving-113195" target="_blank">Democrat Thanksgiving and Republican Thanksgiving</a>.<br />
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<a href="http://cdn-5.incredibleart.org/links/rockwell_thanksgiving_sm.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://cdn-5.incredibleart.org/links/rockwell_thanksgiving_sm.jpg" width="312" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Science answers the important questions: <a href="http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/science/2012/11/why-youll-still-have-room-for-pie-after-turkey-and-stuffing/" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Why you’ll still have room for pie after turkey and stuffing</a>. Related, The <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/prefrontal-nudity/201111/the-turkey-tryptophan-myth" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Turkey-Tryptophan Myth</a> and <a href="http://vaviper.blogspot.com/2014/11/what-goes-on-in-our-stomachs-after.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">What Goes on in Our Stomachs After Eating Too </a>Much?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://theoatmeal.com/comics/thanksgiving" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Cartoon</a> (The Oatmeal): Thanksgiving as a kid VS Thanksgiving as an adult.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Thanksgiving Day, a function which originated in New England two or three centuries ago when those people recognized that they really had something to be thankful for - annually, not oftener - if they had succeeded in exterminating their neighbors, the Indians, during the previous twelve months, instead of getting exterminated by their neighbors, the Indians. Thanksgiving Day became a habit, for the reason that in the course of time, as the years drifted on, it was perceived that the exterminating had ceased to be mutual and was all on the white man's side, consequently on the Lord's side; hence it was proper to thank the Lord for it and to extend the usual annual compliments.<br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; text-align: start;">~ Mark Twain </span><i style="background-color: white; text-align: start;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060955422/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0060955422&linkCode=as2&tag=vavi-20" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Autobiography</a></i><br style="background-color: white; text-align: start;" /><br style="background-color: white; text-align: start;" /><i style="background-color: white; text-align: start;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000VHPAYS/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B000VHPAYS&linkCode=as2&tag=vavi-20" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">WKRP</a></i><span style="background-color: white; text-align: start;"> Turkey Drop episode: "As God as my witness, I thought turkeys could fly"</span></span></div>
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<i>Gratius animus est una virtus non solum maxima, sed etiam mater virtutum omnium reliquaram.</i><br />
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~ Marcus Tullius <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1406847100/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1406847100&linkCode=as2&tag=vavi-20" target="_blank">Cicero</a>, <i>Oratio pro Cnaeo Plancio</i>, 23</div>
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A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the mother of all other virtues.</blockquote>
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<a href="http://vaviper.blogspot.com/2012/11/benjamin-franklins-account-of-first.html" target="_blank">Benjamin Franklin’s account of the First Thanksgiving</a>.</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;"><span color="initial" style="color: initial; text-align: left;">Turkey fryer alert: 86 year old man </span><a href="http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/134303038.html" style="text-align: left;" target="_blank">deep fries own leg</a><span color="initial" style="color: initial; text-align: left;">. Or as he calls it, his drumstick.</span></div></div></div><div>
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If you're actually going to fry a turkey, you might consider Alton Brown's advice on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1905199216176344" target="_blank">how to construct a derrick over your turkey fryer (video).</a> </div>
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<a href="http://vaviper.blogspot.com/2013/11/infographic-pi-vs-pie.html" rel="" target="_blank">Pi vs Pie</a>.</div>
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The voices of Christopher Walken and John Madden: <a href="https://youtu.be/7755vuRLJ-Q" target="_blank">The First Thanksgiving</a>.</div>
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<a href="http://abnormaluse.com/2010/11/thanksgiving-in-1810-1910-and-2010.html" target="_blank">Thanksgiving in 1810, 1910, and 2010</a>. Related: <a href="http://shannonselin.com/2016/11/thanksgiving-1800s/" target="_blank">Celebrating Thanksgiving in the 1800s</a>.</div>
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Witt's Endhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04505106934467289492noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4620165642037025659.post-77098942718509782192023-11-15T19:51:00.000-05:002023-11-16T14:36:59.710-05:00Roast Chestnut Soup<div style="text-align: justify;">
The directions below makes 6 to 8 servings - doubles well, and is better the next day.</div>
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1 pound chestnuts (<a href="http://amzn.to/2A437BA" target="_blank">we use these</a>)</div>
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1/2 chopped medium onion</div>
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1/2 cup chopped celery</div>
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3 tablespoons butter</div>
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1 1/4 quarts low-sodium or homemade chicken broth</div>
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2 bay leaves</div>
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1 cup half-and-half or cream</div>
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Dash of freshly grated nutmeg</div>
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In a good-sized, heavy bottomed saucepan, over medium-high heat, saute onion and celery in butter until soft.</div>
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Add chestnuts, chicken broth and bay leaves and bring to boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer uncovered until chestnuts are tender, about 30 minutes. Remove bay leaves.</div>
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In a blender or food processor fitted with a metal blade, puree soup until smooth. If you have an immersion blender, use that. </div>
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Return soup to pan; stir in half-and-half, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Heat through over low heat. Serve hot.</div>
Witt's Endhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04505106934467289492noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4620165642037025659.post-87655870972160196422023-10-13T00:30:00.000-04:002023-10-13T13:02:37.796-04:00Paraskavedekatriaphobia: Why is Friday the 13th Considered Unlucky?<div>
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In case you were trying to work it out for yourself, the name of this phobia in Pig Latin is araskavedekatriaphobiapay.</div>
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Superstition, bigotry, and prejudice, ghosts though they are, cling tenaciously to life: they are shades armed with tooth and claw. They must be grappled with unceasingly, for it is a fateful part of human destiny that it is condemned to wage perpetual war against ghosts. A shade is not easily taken by the throat and destroyed. </div>
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~ Victor Hugo,<i> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0449300021/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0449300021&linkCode=as2&tag=vavi-20" target="_blank">Les Misérables</a></i></div>
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Today is Friday, the 13th, which superstition holds is a day for bad luck. According to folklorists, there is no written reference to this belief before the 19th century. The earliest known reference in English occurred in an 1869 biography of composer Gioacchino Rossini, which described the irony of his dying on an "unlucky" Friday, the 13th. </div>
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<a href="https://insightsfromtheedgedotnet.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/friday13.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://insightsfromtheedgedotnet.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/friday13.jpg" width="396" /></a></div>
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The basis for the superstition may lie in the fact that 13 has long been held to be an unlucky number and Friday an unlucky day - hence the combination. It has been estimated that something like 20 million people are affected by this belief in the United States, many of them changing their normal routines on this day to avoid "the curse." The Dutch Centre for Insurance Statistics claims that "fewer accidents and reports of fire and theft occur when the 13th of a month falls on a Friday than on other Fridays, because people are preventatively more careful or just stay home." This seems to be confirmed by Dutch auto accident data.</div>
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<a href="https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/05/110513-friday-the-13th-superstitions-triskaidekaphobia/" target="_blank">This Nat Geo article</a> discusses the phobia with Donald Dossey, founder of a Stress Management Center and Phobia Institute in North Carolina (and also a folklore historian and author of <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0925640077/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0925640077&linkCode=as2&tag=vavi-20" target="_blank">Holiday Folklore, Phobias and Fun</a></i>): he says that fear of Friday the 13th is rooted in ancient, separate bad-luck associations with the number 13 and the day Friday. The two unlucky entities ultimately combined to make one super unlucky day.</div>
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Dossey traces the fear of 13 to a Norse myth about 12 gods having a dinner party at Valhalla, their heaven. In walked the uninvited 13th guest, the mischievous Loki. Once there, Loki arranged for Hoder, the blind god of darkness, to shoot Balder the Beautiful, the god of joy and gladness, with a mistletoe-tipped arrow.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgZJjOcFGEAQofbp2g4sYFnbFGh3tyEq3jdfLMIPTVEU7of6jzRUpN4FgMFMNhZKoXyYg0xufTsB4AqN6pjyGXqie99mGP_gDzBNyYZvBn0dTv6HI2uIJVhWSjVXXd8EuEpTb-piEgDzKK_czqBlYo_y-bxIz1A5aH430yj99-bq8phOSPv_8ZQmCUqkks" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="614" data-original-width="460" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgZJjOcFGEAQofbp2g4sYFnbFGh3tyEq3jdfLMIPTVEU7of6jzRUpN4FgMFMNhZKoXyYg0xufTsB4AqN6pjyGXqie99mGP_gDzBNyYZvBn0dTv6HI2uIJVhWSjVXXd8EuEpTb-piEgDzKK_czqBlYo_y-bxIz1A5aH430yj99-bq8phOSPv_8ZQmCUqkks=w300-h400" width="300" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">H/t Library of Congress - <a href="https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2017/01/whos-afraid-of-friday-the-thirteenth/" target="_blank">more information here</a>.</td></tr></tbody></table><br />"Balder died and the whole Earth got dark. The whole Earth mourned. It was a bad, unlucky day," said Dossey. From that moment on, the number 13 has been considered ominous and foreboding.</div>
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There is also a biblical reference to the unlucky number 13. Judas, the apostle who betrayed Jesus, was the 13th guest to the Last Supper.<br />
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Meanwhile, in ancient Rome, witches reportedly gathered in groups of 12. The 13th was believed to be the devil.</div>
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Thomas Fernsler, an associate policy scientist in the Mathematics and Science Education Resource Center at the University of Delaware in Newark, said the number 13 suffers because of its position after 12.</div>
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According to Fernsler, numerologists consider 12 a "complete" number. There are 12 months in a year, 12 signs of the zodiac, 12 gods of Olympus, 12 labors of Hercules, 12 tribes of Israel, and 12 apostles of Jesus.</div>
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In exceeding 12 by 1, Fernsler said 13's association with bad luck "has to do with just being a little beyond completeness. The number becomes restless or squirmy."</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://cdn.wallpapersafari.com/62/13/W7wGsp.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="389" data-original-width="800" height="311" src="https://cdn.wallpapersafari.com/62/13/W7wGsp.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Judas, the apostle who betrayed Jesus, was the 13th person to arrive at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_Supper" target="_blank">The Last Supper</a></td></tr>
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This fear of 13 is strong in today's world. According to Dossey, more than 80 percent of high-rises lack a 13th floor. Many airports skip the 13th gate. Hospitals and hotels regularly have no room number 13.</div>
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On streets in Florence, Italy, the house between number 12 and 14 is addressed as 12 and a half. In France socialites known as the quatorziens (fourteeners) once made themselves available as 14th guests to keep a dinner party from an unlucky fate.</div>
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As for Friday, it is well known among Christians as the day Jesus was crucified. Some biblical scholars believe Eve tempted Adam with the forbidden fruit on Friday. Perhaps most significant is a belief that Abel was slain by Cain on Friday the 13th.</div>
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Related: <a href="http://mentalfloss.com/article/23266/13-reasons-people-think-number-13-unlucky" target="_blank">13 Reasons People Think the Number 13 is Unlucky</a>.</div>
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I always try to make myself as widely understood as possible; and if I don't succeed, I consider it my own fault. <br />
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~ <a href="http://amzn.to/1u1hoUz" target="_blank">Dmitri Shostakovich</a> (quoted in Machlis, <i>Introduction to Contemporary Music</i>) </div>
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The composer apparently does not set himself the task of listening to the desires and expectations of the Soviet public. He scrambles sounds to make them interesting to formalist elements who have lost all taste... The power of good music to affect the masses has been sacrificed to a petty-bourgeois, "formalist" attempt to create originality through cheap clowning. It is a game of clever ingenuity that may end very badly.* <br />
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~ Pravda (on the Shostakovich opera <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000JJRACI/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000JJRACI&linkCode=as2&tag=vavi-20&linkId=IVSJ2575MYDOW7P5" target="_blank">Lady MacBeth of Mtsensk</a></i>, "Muddle Instead of Music," January 1936)<br />
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Shostakovich told me: "I finished the Fifth Symphony in the major and fortissimo... It would be interesting to know what would have been said if I finished it pianissimo and in the minor." Only later did I understand the full significance of these words, when I heard the Fourth Symphony, which does finish in the minor and pianissimo. But in 1937, nobody knew the Fourth Symphony.**<br />
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~ Boris Khaikin (1904-1978) (<i>Discourses on Conducting</i>)<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.musicwithease.com/images01/shostakovich-time-1942.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="527" data-original-width="374" height="400" src="https://www.musicwithease.com/images01/shostakovich-time-1942.jpg" width="282" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The cover of a 1942 issue of Time Magazine with the <br />caption "Fireman Shostakovich: 'Amid bombs burning<br /> in Leningrad, he heard the chords of victory.' Refers to <br />the Battle of Leningrad in which he served<br /> as a volunteer in the anti-fire brigades</td></tr>
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There may be few notes, but there's lots of music.</div>
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~ Shostakovich (on his film music for <i>King Lear</i>; quoted in Wilson, <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0691128863/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0691128863&linkCode=as2&tag=vavi-20&linkId=DGBOI3MMMNBOHC2B" target="_blank">Shostakovich, A Life Remembered</a></i>)<br />
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Particularly during the Cold War, Shostakovich was anathema to many Western critics:</div>
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The Fifth Symphony of Shostakovich always has been singularly irritating to this chronicler... Whenever I hear one of his marches, my imagination fastens upon a picture of the parades in Red Square and the banners of Uncle Joe, and my irritation becomes powerful. <br />
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~ Cyrus Durgin (? - 1962) (Boston Globe, 25 October 1952) </div>
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To anyone who knew his music, a first encounter with Dmitri Shostakovich could not fail to be startling. In contrast to the elemental force, bombast, grandeur of his works, he was a chétif*** figure, the perennial student, unassertive and shy, who looked as though all the music could be wrung out of him in a couple of song cycles. <br />
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~ Yehudi Menuhin (1916-1999) (<i>Unfinished Journey</i>) </div>
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September 25 is the anniversary of the birth of Soviet composer <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/?_encoding=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&field-keywords=shostakovich&linkCode=ur2&sprefix=shostakovich%2Cstripbooks&tag=vavi-20&url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&linkId=HC5KP6TDVODGN4VW" target="_blank">Dmitri Shostakovich</a> (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmitri_Shostakovich" target="_blank">wiki</a>) (1906-1975), considered by some as the greatest symphonist of the 20th century. Born in St. Petersburg, Shostakovich was an early piano prodigy and studied composition at the St. Petersburg Conservatory during the early Soviet era.<br />
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<a href="https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSd3HHZD91wiWmT_-6zrMUi5sCziW2Qu00UraZjA0GQm_zIQxC7" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="185" data-original-width="273" height="271" src="https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSd3HHZD91wiWmT_-6zrMUi5sCziW2Qu00UraZjA0GQm_zIQxC7" width="400" /></a></div>
At first recognized internationally as an exemplar of the best of Soviet musicianship, he ran afoul of the regime with his modernistic opera, <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000JJRACI/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000JJRACI&linkCode=as2&tag=vavi-20&linkId=IVSJ2575MYDOW7P5" target="_blank">Lady MacBeth of Mtsensk</a></i>, which so outraged Stalin that he is said to have had a personal hand in writing the infamous Pravda editorial, "Muddle Instead of Music" that literally put the composer's life in jeopardy during the "Great Purge" of the late 1930s. <br />
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Shostakovich somehow survived, even though he was recurrently criticized by the regime for his “modernist” tendencies. During his subsequent tumultuous career, he produced an enormous oeuvre: 15 symphonies, concertos, a great quantity of chamber music, song cycles, piano music, and several operas. Generally considered a serious - almost tragic - composer, Shostakovich nonetheless wrote a large amount of “light” music, including even a stage work – Moscow Cheryomushki (1959) – that might be described as a Russian musical comedy. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.chzbgr.com/maxW500/2520749568/h54108DC5/" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="270" src="https://i.chzbgr.com/maxW500/2520749568/h54108DC5/" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://amzn.to/2yn456U" target="_blank">Harry Potter</a> looks exactly like<br /> a young Shostakovich</span></td></tr>
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For newcomers to the music of Shostakovich, I would recommend his 4th, 5th, and 10th symphonies, the two piano concertos, the "autobiographical" 8th strinq quartet, his several "jazz" and "ballet" suites compiled from light works of the 1930s, and his film score for <i><a href="http://amzn.to/2y2ltBI" target="_blank">The Gadfly</a></i>, whose "Romance" was used to great effect as the principal theme of the TV series, "<i><a href="http://amzn.to/2wQY956" target="_blank">Riley, Ace of Spies</a></i>." </div>
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During the last two decades, there has been a raging musicological debate about whether the music of Shostakovich reveals him as a loyal Soviet citizen or a closet dissident whose works portray a tormented man. No one really knows. He was clearly a quirky guy. In contradiction to the opening quotation above, he noted late in life,</div>
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"I've said what I said. Either you have it in you to understand, or if not, then it would be fruitless to try to explain anyway."</blockquote>
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* N.B. In the first year of the Great Purge, this last sentence was a terrifying threat.</div>
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** After the uproar caused by Lady MacBeth of Mtsensk, Shostakovich "redeemed" himself with his Fifth Symphony (1937), designated "A Soviet Artist's Response to Just Criticism," still one of his most successful and popular works. However, his iconoclastic Fourth Symphony, which had been in rehearsal at the time of the debacle, was withdrawn and did not emerge again until 1961. It is now considered one of the master's most original works and a fascinating indicator of "the road not taken." By the way, Boris Khaikin was a Soviet-Jewish conductor. </div>
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*** Chétif - a French word meaning "puny." </div>
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Here is the romance from <i>The Gadfly</i>:<br />
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More typical of Shostakovich is the opening of his 4th symphony:<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tBOdZIx00uo" width="640"></iframe></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: initial; font-size: 14.85px; text-decoration-color: initial;">Parts of the text above are adapted from the late, great Ed Whitman's Quotation of the Day. In addition to being my partner, my best friend, and Grandpa to the many kids who call me Grandma, Ed is also the author of </span><a href="http://amzn.to/2oBGMWb" style="font-size: 14.85px;" target="_blank"><i style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">Hunters and Killers: Volume 1: Anti-Submarine Warfare from 1776 to 1943</i></a><span style="color: initial; font-size: 14.85px; text-decoration-color: initial;"> and </span><a href="http://amzn.to/2nJP9Lf" style="font-size: 14.85px;" target="_blank"><i style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">Hunters and Killers: Volume 2: Anti-Submarine Warfare from 1943</i></a><span style="color: initial; font-size: 14.85px; text-decoration-color: initial;">. Fair winds and following seas, Sailor. I miss you.</span></span></div>
Witt's Endhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04505106934467289492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4620165642037025659.post-45038193564476528442023-09-19T07:00:00.000-04:002023-09-20T11:29:02.371-04:00Hey, Firefly fans - September 20 is Unification DayHere's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefly_(TV_series)" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a> on <i><a href="http://amzn.to/1wHRmIf" target="_blank">Firefly</a></i>'s Unification Day:<br />
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Unification Day is a holiday celebrated in the fictional universe of the science-fiction television series Firefly. It marks the day in which the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliance_(Firefly)" target="_blank">Alliance</a> forces defeated the resistance ("<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browncoats" target="_blank">Browncoats</a>") in the Unification War.</blockquote>
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<a href="http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/a7/4f/d6/a74fd6022e05cf5f18ea1642468c0817.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/a7/4f/d6/a74fd6022e05cf5f18ea1642468c0817.jpg" height="265" width="400" /></a></div>
"<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Train_Job" target="_blank">The Train Job</a>", the second episode of the series (although Fox originally aired it before the pilot episode "Serenity"), opens with Mal, Zoe, and Jayne in a bar during a Unification Day celebration. Malcolm's brown coat and his disinterest in celebrating Unification Day lead to a brawl.</div>
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Unification Day is a holiday mentioned in the backstory of the television series Firefly. According to Nathan Fillion (Mal), the holiday is on September 20th.</div>
Witt's Endhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04505106934467289492noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4620165642037025659.post-62567862774090530142023-09-17T03:00:00.001-04:002023-09-17T15:39:02.447-04:00Dr. Samuel Johnson was born on September 18, 1709: here's a selection of his insults and Scotland-bashing quotes.<div style="text-align: justify;">
September 18 is the anniversary of the birth in 1709 of that quintessential 18th-century curmudgeon <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/?_encoding=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&field-keywords=samuel%20johnson&linkCode=ur2&rh=n%3A283155%2Ck%3Asamuel%20johnson&tag=vavi-20&url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&linkId=TCYXEYMBB2YXMLUO" target="_blank">Dr. Samuel Johnson</a> (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Johnson" target="_blank">wiki</a>), the literary lion of Georgian London for much of his lifetime (1709-1784). A poet, critic, lexicographer, and wit, Johnson compiled the first respectable English dictionary between 1747 and 1755, following several years of writing critical articles for London magazines such as <i>The Idler</i>.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://media.tumblr.com/e43f94dea43e89bc3a8123792e13d9dc/tumblr_inline_mk2cb9o0QP1qz4rgp.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="314" src="http://media.tumblr.com/e43f94dea43e89bc3a8123792e13d9dc/tumblr_inline_mk2cb9o0QP1qz4rgp.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
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From The Grub Street Journal (Oct 30, 1732), this cartoon depicts the “literatory,” a sort of publishing factory driven by beasts without artistic inspiration. Such was the perception of Grub Street writers like Johnson and Savage, who did indeed scrape together a living from commissioned writing. </div>
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Born in Lichfield the son of a book dealer, Johnson studied at Oxford and ran his own private school - where the actor David Garrick was a student - before removing to London and its literary milieu in 1737. There, in 1763, he met his companion and biographer, the Scot, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KFDJYK4/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00KFDJYK4&linkCode=as2&tag=vavi-20&linkId=LWV2EQKHVXJ3V7NG" target="_blank">James Boswell</a> (1740-1795), to whom we owe the recording of most of Johnson's voluminous observations. </div>
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/20/Samuel_Johnson_by_Joshua_Reynolds.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEjlq34XhPAqaROC1dVdjkjVfJJZzVu6Io2DF9M5F4LeeO7zZSktCH_GVahBE6CmMM8D-jbMM7q57JVog2WIdtcAXmhn2RSakpM0WEXfWWn93F3nlv944SqXSBDu-0kOB78rKHaSLCEIjGGTKhsbVj1ObGxz67kdAqhtBdN-OH5N_mZhPWKKJ2NbbqTqvOSbCUwNYxtude4ZJw=" width="328" /></a></div>
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He was no fan of Scotland:</div>
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"The noblest prospect which a Scotchman ever sees, is the high road that leads him to England!"</div>
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I having said that England was obliged to us for gardeners, almost all their gardeners being Scotchmen; Johnson: "Why, Sir, that is because gardening is much more necessary amongst you than with us, which makes so many of your people learn it. It is all gardening with you. Things which grow wild here, must be cultivated with great care in Scotland. Pray now," throwing himself back in his chair, and laughing, "are you ever able to bring the sloe to perfection?"</div>
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He would not allow Scotland to derive any credit from Lord Mansfield; for he was educated in England. "Much may be made of a Scotchman, if he be caught young."</div>
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"There is in Scotland a diffusion of learning, a certain portion of it widely and thinly spread. A merchant has as much learning as one of their clergy."</div>
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"What enemy would invade Scotland, where there is nothing to be got?"<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">In “The Mitre Tavern” (1880), Samuel Johnson (far right) converses with James Boswell (center) and author Goldsmith. (<a href="https://www.huntington.org/exhibitions/samuel-johnson" target="_blank">source</a>)</span></div>
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Asked by a Scot what Johnson thought of Scotland: "That it is a very vile country, to be sure, Sir" "Well, Sir! (replies the Scot, somewhat mortified), God made it." Johnson: "Certainly he did; but we must always remember that he made it for Scotchmen, and comparisons are odious, Mr. S------; but God made hell."</div>
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Mr. Arthur Lee mentioned some Scotch who had taken possession of a barren part of America, and wondered why they would choose it. Johnson: "Why, Sir, all barrenness is comparative. The Scotch would not know it to be barren." Boswell: "Come, come, he is flattering the English. you have now been in Scotland, Sir, and say if you did not see meat and drink enough there." Johnson:"Why yes, Sir; meat and drink enough to give the inhabitants sufficient strength to run away from home."</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://cruciality.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/samuel-johnson-and-james-boswell.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="388" src="https://cruciality.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/samuel-johnson-and-james-boswell.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Johnson and Boswell in Edinburgh</td></tr>
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"Your country consists of two things, stone and water. There is, indeed, a little earth above the stone in some places, but a very little; and the stone is always appearing. It is like a man in rags; the naked skin is still peeping out."</div>
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"A tree might be a show in Scotland as a horse in Venice. At St. Andrews Mr. Boswell found only one, and recommended it to my notice; I told him it was rough and low, or looked as if I thought so. This, said he, is nothing to another a few miles off. I was still less delighted to hear that another tree was not to be seen nearer. Nay, said a gentleman that stood by, I know but of this and that tree in the county."</div>
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[Of an inn in Scotland, SJ wrote...] "Of the provisions the negative catalogue was very copious. Here was no meat, no milk, no bread, no eggs, no wine. We did not express much satisfaction."</div>
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"He that travels in the Highlands may easily saturate his soul with intelligence, if he will acquiesce in the first account. The highlander gives to every question an answer so prompt and peremptory, that skepticism itself is dared into silence, and the mind sinks before the bold reporter in unresisting credulity; but, if a second question be ventured, it breaks the enchantment; for it is immediately discovered, that what was told so confidently was told at hazard, and that such fearlessness of assertion was either the sport of negligence, or the refuge of ignorance."</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1781: Johnson (second from left), other <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Club_(Literary_Club)#Members" target="_blank">members of "The Club"</a>.</td></tr>
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(Written by an Irishman) The author of these memoirs will remember, that Johnson one day asked him, 'Have you observed the difference between your own country impudence and Scottish impudence?' The answer being in the negative: 'Then I will tell you,' said Johnson. 'The impudence of an Irishman is the impudence of a fly, that buzzes about you, and you put it away, but it returns again, and flutters and teazes you. The impudence of a Scotsman is the impudence of a leech, that fixes and sucks your blood.' </div>
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Johnson also, of course, had little use for America or Americans:</div>
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"Sir, they are a race of convicts, and ought to be thankful for anything we allow them short of hanging."</div>
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"To a man of mere animal life, you can urge no argument against going to America, but that it will be some time before he will get the earth to produce. But a man of any intellectual enjoyment will not easily go and immerse himself and his posterity for ages in barbarism."</div>
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"I am willing to love all mankind, except an American"</div>
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A <a href="http://amzn.to/1mfIh5Z" target="_blank">Blackadder </a>clip on Johnson's Dictionary:</div>
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Here's a very well done bio of Johnson by the BBC:</div>
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A selection of his legendary insults: </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dr. Johnson in the ante-room of Lord Chesterfield. </td></tr>
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Of Lord Chesterfield:<br />
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"This man I thought had been a Lord among wits; but I find, he is only a wit among Lords."</div>
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And of Lord Chesterfield's <i><a href="http://amzn.to/1LA7mPs" target="_blank">Letters to His Son</a>*</i>:<br />
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"They teach the morals of a whore; and the manners of a dancing-master."</div>
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Of Thomas Sheridan:<br />
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"Why, Sir, Sherry is dull, naturally dull; but it must have taken him a great deal of pains to become what we now see him. Such an excess of stupidity, Sir, is not in nature."</div>
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Of the respective merits of the poets Derrick and Smart:<br />
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"Sir, there is no settling the point of precedence between a louse and a flea."</div>
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Of the criticism of one critic (Edwards) of another (Warburton):<br />
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"A fly, Sir, may sting a stately horse and make him wince; but the one is but an insect and the other is a horse still."</div>
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Of Lady Macdonald of Sleat: <br />
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"...she was as bad as negative badness could be, and stood in the way of what was good; that insipid beauty would not go a great way... and such a woman might be cut out of a cabbage, if there was a skilful artificer."</div>
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Of two disputants: <br />
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"One has ball without powder; the other powder without ball."</div>
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Of a man hired to sit with him during a convalescence: <br />
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"The fellow's an idiot; he is as awkward as a turn-spit when first put to the wheel, and as sleepy as a dormouse."</div>
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Of James Macpherson: <br />
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"He wants to make himself conspicuous. He would tumble in a hogstye, as long as you looked at him and called him to come out."</div>
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Of the new rich: <br />
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"Sir, they have lost the civility of tradesmen, without acquiring the manners of gentlemen."</div>
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Despite his legendary bile, Johnson did remark later in life,</div>
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"As I know more of mankind I expect less of them, and am ready to call a man a good man upon easier terms than I was formerly."</div>
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* My favorite quote from Lord Chesterfield's <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/?_encoding=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&field-author=Lord%20Chesterfield&linkCode=ur2&search-alias=books&sort=relevancerank&tag=vavi-20&text=Lord%20Chesterfield&linkId=XXUL2PBI3H3YXQJI" target="_blank">Letters to His Son</a> </i>(to his illegitimate son, that is; he (Chesterfield) was trying to raise him (the son) above his (the son's) lowly origins and inferior blood):</div>
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"I knew a gentleman, who was so good a manager of his time, that he would not even lose that small portion of it, which the calls of nature obliged him to pass in the necessary-house; but gradually went through all the Latin poets, in those moments. He bought, for example, a common edition of Horace, of which he tore off gradually a couple of pages, carried them with him to that necessary place, read them first, and then sent them down as a sacrifice to Cloacina*: this was so much time fairly gained; and I recommend you to follow his example.</div>
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It is better than only doing what you cannot help doing at those moments; and it will made any book, which you shall read in that manner, very present in your mind. Books of science, and of a grave sort, must be read with continuity; but there are very many, and even very useful ones, which may be read with advantage by snatches, and unconnectedly; such are all the good Latin poets, except Virgil in his "<i>Aeneid</i>": and such are most of the modern poets, in which you will find many pieces worth reading, that will not take up above seven or eight minutes."</div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Attribution for many of the quotes above can be found at the <a href="http://www.samueljohnson.com/index.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Samuel Johnson Sound Bite Page</a>. More on Johnson <a href="http://blog.tavbooks.com/?p=399" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">here </a>and <a href="http://www.biography.com/people/samuel-johnson-37037" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">here</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Further reading: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The definitive source for all things Johnson is, of course Boswell's book <i><a href="http://amzn.to/1LA7FJW" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">The Life of Samuel Johnson</a>. </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Johnson's travels in Scotland are chronicled in <i><a href="http://amzn.to/1W4OXlg" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">The Journey to the Western Islands Scotland </a></i>and <i><a href="https://amzn.to/2MJ2M9f" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides.</a></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: initial; font-size: 14.85px; text-decoration-color: initial;">Parts of the text above are adapted from the late, great Ed Whitman's Quotation of the Day. In addition to being my partner, my best friend, and Grandpa to the many kids who call me Grandma, Ed is also the author of </span><a href="http://amzn.to/2oBGMWb" style="font-size: 14.85px;" target="_blank"><i style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">Hunters and Killers: Volume 1: Anti-Submarine Warfare from 1776 to 1943</i></a><span style="color: initial; font-size: 14.85px; text-decoration-color: initial;"> and </span><a href="http://amzn.to/2nJP9Lf" style="font-size: 14.85px;" target="_blank"><i style="color: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">Hunters and Killers: Volume 2: Anti-Submarine Warfare from 1943</i></a><span style="color: initial; font-size: 14.85px; text-decoration-color: initial;">. Fair winds and following seas, Sailor.</span></span></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e4/Ft._Henry_bombardement_1814.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="292" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e4/Ft._Henry_bombardement_1814.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bombing of Fort McHenry by the British. Engraved by John Bower</td></tr>
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It was a galling sight for British seamen to behold. And as the last vessel spread her canvas to the wind, the Americans hoisted a most superb and splendid ensign on their battery and fired at the same time a gun of defiance... When the squadron retreated from Baltimore, sullen discontent was displayed and malevolent aspersions cast upon our veteran chief... </div>
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~ Midshipman Robert Barrett, RN (1799-1828) (on the British withdrawal from Baltimore, "Naval Recollections of the American War") </div>
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Without any clash on the battlefield the young American republic had humbled the might of the British empire. The rebuff of Britain at Baltimore decisively demonstrated America's independence of its former master. And this explosion of national pride was only to be magnified by the events of the remaining months of the war.* </div>
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~Peter Snow (b.1938) (<i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1250048281/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1250048281&linkCode=as2&tag=vavi-20&linkId=ROQZYUS7GUFHPLIG" target="_blank">When Britain Burned the White House - the 1812</a> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1250048281/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1250048281&linkCode=as2&tag=vavi-20&linkId=ROQZYUS7GUFHPLIG">Invasion of Washington</a></i>,** Ch. 21)</div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.mapmanusa.com/images/print-color-maps/cci-battle-of-baltimore-map-scott-sheads.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://www.mapmanusa.com/images/print-color-maps/cci-battle-of-baltimore-map-scott-sheads.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.mapmanusa.com/images/print-color-maps/cci-battle-of-baltimore-map-scott-sheads.jpg" target="_blank">Larger version of map here</a></td></tr>
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September 13th and 14th mark the anniversary of the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0812981391/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0812981391&linkCode=as2&tag=vavi-20&linkId=J3GIXFDLZCFIDMHJ" target="_blank">Battle of Baltimore</a> (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Baltimore" target="_blank">wiki</a>) during the War of 1812, remembered primarily for the unsuccessful British bombardment of Fort McHenry and Francis Scott Key's penning the words of "<i>The Star-Spangled Banner</i>" while interned on a British warship. </div>
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President James Madison had declared war on Great Britain in June 1812 in response to interference with American shipping and the impressment of U.S. merchant seamen during the Napoleonic wars, as well as the British stirring up the Indians of the Ohio Valley to resist American settlement. Following an abortive American invasion of southern Canada, the British sent a modest naval and marine force - newly freed up from the Spanish campaign against Napoleon - to the Chesapeake in retaliation. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://uploads.neatorama.com/images/posts/342/75/75342/1409605641-1.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://uploads.neatorama.com/images/posts/342/75/75342/1409605641-1.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The burned White House by George Munger, <br />
White House Historical Association</td></tr>
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In mid-August 1814, an expeditionary force under Admirals Alexander Cochrane and George Cockburn landed on the lower Patuxent River and after routing U.S. militia at the Battle of Bladensburg on the 24th, occupied Washington that night and burned its major government buildings, including the White House and the Capitol, before withdrawing a day later. (Simultaneously, another Royal Navy flotilla maneuvered up the Potomac River to seize Alexandria and held that city for several days before retiring with significant plunder.) After returning to their ships, the British moved up the Chesapeake Bay to attack Baltimore with a naval penetration of the Patapsco River and an amphibious landing southeast of the city on 12 September. </div>
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<a href="http://media.pennlive.com/entertainment_impact/photo/4-mural-fort-mchenryjpg-563a89be3c1cacf0.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="278" src="http://media.pennlive.com/entertainment_impact/photo/4-mural-fort-mchenryjpg-563a89be3c1cacf0.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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By then, however, the Americans had rallied their own forces, stopped the (outnumbered) British at the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_North_Point" target="_blank">Battle of North Point</a>, and fought off the Royal Navy's attempt to reduce Fort McHenry on the night of September 13th - 14th. In the face of these failures, the badly over-extended British expedition withdrew southward and departed the Chesapeake Bay to prepare for the New Orleans campaign. And as for "<i><a href="https://amzn.to/2ZUnH3Q" target="_blank">The Star-Spangled Banner</a></i>," here's the verse we never sing:</div>
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Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand</div>
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Between their loved home and the war's desolation!</div>
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Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land</div>
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Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.</div>
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Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,</div>
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And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."</div>
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And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave</div>
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O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!</div>
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Here's a rather well-done shortish documentary:</div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/CnRQ8-MMX28" width="600"></iframe></div>
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The U.S. Marine Band plays the National Anthem:</div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/LGvW6jHUHiY" width="600"></iframe></div>
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* The reference here is to the American victories on Lake Champlain (8-11 September 1814) and in the Battle of New Orleans, 8 January 1815, the second of which was actually fought two weeks after the Treaty of Ghent ended the war. </div>
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** This recent book (St. Martin's Press, New York, 2013) presents a lively and readable account of the British invasion of Washington and the attack on Baltimore during the War of 1812. It should be remembered that all of this happened while Britain was deeply preoccupied with her struggle against Napoleon. He had been exiled to Elba as recently as April 1814 but would return to France on 20 March 1815 to fight the Hundred Days Campaign, which culminated in the Battle of Waterloo on 18 June.<br />
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John Farrier at Neatorama has <a href="http://www.neatorama.com/2014/09/13/200-Years-Ago-Today-The-Battle-of-Baltimore-and-the-Star-Spangled-Banner/" target="_blank">an excellent article on the same subject</a>.</div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;">Parts of the text above are adapted from the late, great Ed Whitman's Quotation of the Day. In addition to being my partner, my best friend, and Grandpa to the many kids who call me Grandma, Ed is also the author of </span><a href="http://amzn.to/2oBGMWb" style="background-color: white; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><i>Hunters and Killers: Volume 1: Anti-Submarine Warfare from 1776 to 1943</i></a><span style="background-color: white;"> and </span><a href="http://amzn.to/2nJP9Lf" style="background-color: white; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><i>Hunters and Killers: Volume 2: Anti-Submarine Warfare from 1943</i></a><span style="background-color: white;">.</span></span></div>
Witt's Endhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04505106934467289492noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4620165642037025659.post-29146795056438288922023-09-06T00:00:00.000-04:002023-09-07T10:51:18.547-04:00September 7 is the anniversary of the battle of Borodino, on which War and Peace and the 1812 Overture are based<div style="text-align: left;">
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<div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgm_Bl4lO5m5EctwUhXD8MplCR9mt6n-OhPwLH7erfLNc42xCSCqIo0P9_0j9okFiFBFaJw8HGEkjoh05qLp-TeIzMyplpbQG4SLytsNpkpWrvBYPKlAeMSiFUQwXjXuYWrppHOW2-6pFZrFk6Wn4dKnwG3yGhWIoO0ToERXXuYgyw61K4AvGuQr22951s" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="573" data-original-width="575" height="398" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgm_Bl4lO5m5EctwUhXD8MplCR9mt6n-OhPwLH7erfLNc42xCSCqIo0P9_0j9okFiFBFaJw8HGEkjoh05qLp-TeIzMyplpbQG4SLytsNpkpWrvBYPKlAeMSiFUQwXjXuYWrppHOW2-6pFZrFk6Wn4dKnwG3yGhWIoO0ToERXXuYgyw61K4AvGuQr22951s=w400-h398" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">French (blue) and Russian (red) troops <br />before start of battle. <a href="https://www.allworldwars.com/The%20Batlle%20of%20Borodino%20September%207%201812.html" target="_blank">Source</a>.</td></tr></tbody></table><br />September 7 is the anniversary of the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/?_encoding=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&field-keywords=BATTLE%20OF%20BORODINO&linkCode=ur2&tag=vavi-20&url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&linkId=HGBG4QP5EGBKK6IP" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">battle of Borodino</a> (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Borodino" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">wiki</a>) on 7 September 1812, at which <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&keywords=napoleon&linkCode=ur2&qid=1410095803&rh=i%3Astripbooks%2Cn%3A283155%2Ck%3Anapoleon&tag=vavi-20&linkId=2REN6BNRXDFGG5PG" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Napoleon</a>'s (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">wiki</a>) Grande Armée grappled bitterly with massed Russian forces defending Moscow under <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Kutuzov" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Marshal Mikhail Kutusov</a> (1745-1813)* during <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_invasion_of_Russia" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Napoleon's invasion of Russia</a>. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Kutusov suffered significant losses, and the French occupied Moscow a week later, but in a month, Napoleon's disastrous retreat toward the west had begun. As Tolstoy noted in <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1853260622/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1853260622&linkCode=as2&tag=vavi-20&linkId=A4T5OAX47L66WHFA" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">War and Peace</a></i>,</span></div>
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"The cudgel of the people's war was lifted with all its menacing and majestic might, and caring nothing for good taste and procedure, with dull-witted simplicity but sound judgment, it rose and fell, making no distinctions."</blockquote>
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Napoleon's own judgment has become more famous:</div>
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<i>"Du sublime au ridicule il n'y a qu'un pas."</i></div>
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(From the sublime to the ridiculous is but a step.)</div>
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Here's the rousing cannon-punctuated finale of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007WG6I1U/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B007WG6I1U&linkCode=as2&tag=vavi-20&linkId=ZNPQQ7U6RS6KWOKB" target="_blank">Tchaikovsky's <i>1812 Overture</i></a>:</div>
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Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) was commissioned to write that staple of summer pops concerts, the <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007WG6I1U/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B007WG6I1U&linkCode=as2&tag=vavi-20&linkId=ZNPQQ7U6RS6KWOKB" target="_blank">1812 Overture</a></i> (actually <i>Ouverture Solennelle 1812, Op. 49</i>), for an exhibition of arts and industries at Moscow in 1881. It was intended to commemorate the battle of Borodino and Napoleon's ultimate defeat.**</div>
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* N.B. Earlier, at the battle of Smolensk, Kutusov had noted, "The battle has already been decided. It is like a river that runs downhill. I can only move it slightly to the right or left. But its outcome will not be changed by me." </div>
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** During the Soviet era, Russian performances of the <i>1812 Overture</i> substituted an anonymous chorale-like tune for "<i>God Preserve the Czar</i>," the "Russian hymn" quoted by Tchaikovsky in the original. </div>
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A brief documentary:</div>
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2KQ9ZKkeqaY" width="640"></iframe><br />
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Related post: <a href="http://vaviper.blogspot.com/2015/06/june-18-is-200th-anniversary-of-battle.html" target="_blank">the anniversary of the 1815 Battle of Waterloo</a>: history, quotes and video (including a Lego re-enactment)<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;">Parts of the text above are based on the late, great Ed Whitman's Quotation of the Day. Ed was my partner and love for 25 years, and the author of </span><a href="http://amzn.to/2oBGMWb" style="background-color: white; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><i>Hunters and Killers: Volume 1: Anti-Submarine Warfare from 1776 to 1943</i></a><span style="background-color: white;"> and </span><a href="http://amzn.to/2nJP9Lf" style="background-color: white; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><i>Hunters and Killers: Volume 2: Anti-Submarine Warfare from 1943</i></a><span style="background-color: white;">.</span></span></div>
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</span></span></span>Witt's Endhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04505106934467289492noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4620165642037025659.post-81164852457319800372023-08-23T09:07:00.000-04:002023-08-24T15:53:45.360-04:00August 24: the eruption of Mount Vesuvius and destruction of Pompeii in A.D. 79<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://geology.com/volcanoes/vesuvius/pompei-garden-of-fugitives.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://geology.com/volcanoes/vesuvius/pompei-garden-of-fugitives.jpg" width="270" /></a></td></tr>
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Plaster casts of people who died (buried by ashfall) in </div>
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Pompeii during the 79 AD eruption of Mount Vesuvius</div>
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He [<a href="http://amzn.to/1Kfs7Uk" target="_blank">Pliny the Elder</a>] was at Misenum* in his capacity as commander of the fleet on the 24th of August, when between two or three in the afternoon my mother drew his attention to a cloud of unusual size and appearance. He had had a sunbath, then a cold bath, and was reclining after dinner with his books. He called for his shoes and climbed up to where he could get the best view of the phenomenon. The cloud was rising from a mountain - at such a distance we couldn't tell which - but afterwards learned that it was Vesuvius. I can best describe its shape by likening it to a pine tree. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.basicplanet.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Vesuvius-picture.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="205" src="http://www.basicplanet.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Vesuvius-picture.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
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It rose into the sky on a very long "trunk" from which spread some "branches." I imagine it had been raised by a sudden blast, which then weakened, leaving the cloud unsupported so that its own weight caused it to spread sideways. Some of the cloud was white, in other parts there were dark patches of dirt and ash. The sight of it made the scientist in my uncle determined to see it from closer at hand.</div>
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~ Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus (<a href="http://amzn.to/1Kfs36N" target="_blank">Pliny the Younger</a> (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pliny_the_Younger" target="_blank">wiki</a>)) (letter to Tacitus, ca A.D. 95, describing the eruption of Mount Vesuvius and the death of <a href="http://amzn.to/1Kfs7Uk" target="_blank">Pliny the Elder</a> (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pliny_the_Elder" target="_blank">wiki</a>)) </div>
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<a href="http://www.7continentslist.com/images/amazing-facts-about-mount-vesuvius.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://www.7continentslist.com/images/amazing-facts-about-mount-vesuvius.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>Natura vero nihil hominibus brevitate vitae preaestitit melius.</i></div>
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~ Gaius Plinius Secundus (Pliny the Elder) (<i>Historia naturalis</i>, VII, 50, 168) </div>
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(Nature has granted man no better gift than the shortness of life.)</div>
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Today is the anniversary of the catastrophic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79 and the death of Pliny the Elder (born A.D. 23) in that event. The eruption, which followed several years of precursor ground movements, buried the cities of <a href="http://amzn.to/1NvVsMc" target="_blank">Pompeii </a>and Herculaneum and is thought to have killed as many as 15,000 people. </div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">A view of Naples at the height of the eruption of Mount </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Vesuvius in 1944. Photo by </span><a href="http://digitalcollections.smu.edu/cdm4/results.php?CISOOP1=any&CISOBOX1=vesuvius&CISOFIELD1=CISOSEARCHALL&CISOROOT=%2Fmcs" style="font-size: 12.8px;" target="_blank">Melvin C. Shaffer</a></div>
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Subsequent major eruptions occurred in 1631, 1906, and 1944, the last just after the Allies had taken the city of Naples in World War II. Pliny the Elder is remembered primarily for his "<i><a href="http://amzn.to/2g5uhiy" target="_blank">Natural History</a></i>," a comprehensive compendium of ancient knowledge of the natural world. His scientific curiosity led him to take ship across the Bay of Naples to see the Vesuvius eruption at close quarters, and he was killed there by ash and poisonous fumes from the volcano. The account of his nephew and adopted son, Pliny the Younger (A.D. 61-ca. 114), is the only <a href="http://amzn.to/1MIryCF" target="_blank">eyewitness description</a> we have of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, and it goes on to provide further detail about on-site conditions near the disaster and his own experiences farther afield. </div>
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* N.B. Misenum (near modern-day Bacoli) was on the opposite shore of the Bay of Naples from Mount Vesuvius. During ancient times, it was Rome's principal naval base on the west coast of Italy. </div>
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Here's a brief re-enactment:</div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YIZ4aSKT3mo?rel=0" width="640"></iframe></div>
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And a newsreel about the eruption in 1944:</div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="390" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1bsmv6PyKs0?rel=0" width="640"></iframe></div>
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Recommended reading:</div>
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I first read Pliny the Younger's account of the eruption in the excellent <i><a href="http://amzn.to/1MIryCF" target="_blank">Eyewitness to History</a>, </i>a book that I've also given to several kids and grandkids. </div>
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The thoroughly engaging novel <i><a href="http://amzn.to/1NvWlUQ" target="_blank">Pompeii</a> </i>by Robert Harris is the story of a Roman engineer trying to repair an aqueduct in the lead-up to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Full of interesting technical and historical detail.</div>
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Witt's Endhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04505106934467289492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4620165642037025659.post-71085942765883517312023-08-23T08:17:00.000-04:002023-08-24T16:04:31.158-04:00Happy St. Bartholomew's Day - some history, a brief documentary, and Monty Python<span style="font-size: small;"></span>
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If St. Bartholomew's Day be fair and clear, </div>
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Then a prosperous autumn comes this year.</div>
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St. Bartlemy's mantle wipes dry </div>
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All the tears that St. Swithin can cry.* </div>
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~ Traditional English proverb</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.italian-renaissance-art.com/images/St-Bartholomew.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="538" data-original-width="380" height="400" src="https://www.italian-renaissance-art.com/images/St-Bartholomew.jpg" width="282" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">Michelangelo's painting of The Last Judgment on the <br />end wall <span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87)" style="background-color: #fafafa; font-variant-ligatures: none; text-align: start; white-space: pre-wrap;">of the Vatican's Sistine Chapel, where
Bartholomew is depicted </span><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87)" style="background-color: #fafafa; font-variant-ligatures: none; text-align: start; white-space: pre-wrap;">below and to the right of
Christ. The face on the discarded skin of </span><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87)" style="background-color: #fafafa; font-variant-ligatures: none; text-align: start; white-space: pre-wrap;">the saint
has long been accepted as a self-portrait of the </span><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87)" style="background-color: #fafafa; font-variant-ligatures: none; text-align: start; white-space: pre-wrap;">artist.
Note the flaying knife in Bartholomew's right hand.</span></span></td></tr>
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August 24th is the feast day of <a href="http://amzn.to/1Jtewb3" target="_blank">St. Bartholomew</a> (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartholomew_the_Apostle" target="_blank">wiki</a>), who is mentioned in three of the Gospels as an apostle and may be the Nathanael of John 1:45-51 and 21:2. According to tradition, he was flayed alive and then beheaded in Armenia and thus is often portrayed with a large knife and occasionally his own skin flung over his arm. </div>
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For obvious reasons, Bartholomew is the patron saint of tanners; it is less obvious why he is also the patron saint of plasterers and cheese merchants**. From 1133 to 1752, London's great Smithfield fair began on this day and was also known as St. Bartholomew's Fair partly because of its proximity to the ancient hospital of that name. </div>
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It's also the anniversary of the <a href="http://amzn.to/1Jtewb3" target="_blank">St. Bartholomew's Night Massacre</a> (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Bartholomew%27s_Day_massacre" target="_blank">wiki</a>) in 1572, when French king Charles IX - urged on by the dowager queen, Catherine di Medici, ordered the slaughter of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huguenots" target="_blank">Huguenots</a> throughout France on the saint's feast day. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/52/Francois_Dubois_001.jpg/340px-Francois_Dubois_001.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/52/Francois_Dubois_001.jpg/340px-Francois_Dubois_001.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An Eyewitness Account of the Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre<br /> by François Dubois</td></tr>
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The massacre was timed to coincide with the wedding of Henry of Navarre (later Henry IV) in Paris, which attracted many prominent French Protestants to the capital. Admiral Gaspard de Chatillon, Comte de Coligny (1519-1572) was the first to die, followed by 2,000 more victims in Paris and perhaps 10,000 in all of France (although accounts differ). </div>
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When the news reached Rome, Pope Gregory XIII ordered a <i>Te Deum</i> and had all the city's church bells rung in thanksgiving. The St. Bartholomew's massacre became a major <i>cause celebre</i> among European Protestants and in France re-ignited the Wars of Religion, which lasted until 1598. </div>
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* N.B. The reference here is to the traditional belief that if it rains on St. Swithin's Day - 15 July - 40 more days of rain will follow. </div>
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Brief documentary on the massacre:</div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="390" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/IDrUNhdPjVs?rel=0" width="640"></iframe></div>
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** Here's the "blessed are the cheesemakers" clip from Monty Python's <i><a href="http://amzn.to/1JoXw1o" target="_blank">Life Of Brian</a>:</i></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JAVvEQvnDm0?rel=0" width="640"></iframe></div>
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</span></span></span>Witt's Endhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04505106934467289492noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4620165642037025659.post-65117413672808888222023-08-18T06:30:00.000-04:002023-08-18T18:37:51.959-04:00August 21 is Dorothy Parker's birthday: quotes, poems, a brief bio, and the weird journey of her ashes<div style="text-align: justify;">
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A few favorite attributed quotes from <a href="http://amzn.to/1trndZ2" target="_blank">Dorothy Parker</a> (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy_Parker" target="_blank">wiki</a>):<br />
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<a href="https://www.americanpoems.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/parker.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="237" data-original-width="160" height="400" src="https://www.americanpoems.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/parker.jpg" width="270" /></a></div>
“Their pooled emotions wouldn’t fill a teaspoon.”</div>
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“You can lead a horticulture, but you can't make her think.”<br />
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“I’d rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.”</div>
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“I require three things in a man: he must be handsome, ruthless, and stupid.”</div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">August 21 is the anniversary of the birth in 1893 of American humorist, literary critic, and writer <a href="http://amzn.to/1trndZ2" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Dorothy Parker</a> (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy_Parker" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">wiki</a>, <a href="http://www.biography.com/people/dorothy-parker-9433450" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">biography.com</a>) (1893-1967), born Dorothy Rothschild in West End, New Jersey. Parker grew up in New York City and in her twenties worked on the magazine Vanity Fair with Robert Benchley and Robert Sherwood. With them, she founded a legendary writer's luncheon group known as <a href="http://amzn.to/2bE1TO1" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Algonquin Hotel's "Round Table"</a> (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algonquin_Round_Table" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">wiki</a>), (<a href="http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/the-algonquin-round-table-about-the-algonquin/527/" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">PBS</a>) which ultimately included <a href="http://amzn.to/2b9EOo5" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">James Thurber</a>, <a href="http://amzn.to/2bE1IlT" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">E.B. White</a>, <a href="http://amzn.to/2bE3kfp" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Ogden Nash</a> (<a href="http://vaviper.blogspot.com/2011/11/ogden-nash-common-cold.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">my personal favorite Nash here</a>), and <a href="http://amzn.to/2bE2qPM" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Ring Lardner</a>. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">After 1927, Parker published incisive book reviews in her "Constant Reader" column in the New Yorker and made her literary mark with a series of poignant short stories about the cruelty and absurdity of city living. Later, she collaborated on several screen plays, including <i><a href="http://amzn.to/2bE2VJQ" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">A Star is Born</a></i>(1935), and served as a war correspondent in the Spanish Civil War. Her successes, including two Academy Award nominations, were curtailed as her involvement in left-wing politics led to a place on the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_blacklist" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Hollywood blacklist</a>.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/files/2008/10/610_algonquin_about.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="202" src="http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/files/2008/10/610_algonquin_about.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
A few more favorite quotes/poems:<br />
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“Beauty is only skin deep, but ugly goes clean to the bone.”</div>
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“Men seldom make passes at girls who wear glasses.”</div>
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“One more drink and I’ll be under the host.”<br />
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"That woman speaks eighteen languages and can’t say ‘no’ in any of them."<br />
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“It serves me right for putting all my eggs in one bastard.”</div>
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<span style="text-align: start;">Oh, life is a glorious cycle of song,</span><br />
<span style="text-align: start;">A medley of extemporanea;</span><br />
<span style="text-align: start;">And love is a thing that can never go wrong;</span><br />
<span style="text-align: start;">And I am Marie of Roumania.</span><br />
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<span style="text-align: start;">"If all the girls who attended the Yale prom were laid end to end, I wouldn't be a bit surprised." </span><br />
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<span style="text-align: start;">"It's not the tragedies that kill us, it's the messes." </span><br />
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<span style="text-align: start;">My land is bare of chattering folk;</span><br />
<span style="text-align: start;">the clouds are low along the ridges,</span><br />
<span style="text-align: start;">and sweet's the air with curly smoke</span><br />
<span style="text-align: start;">from all my burning bridges. </span></div>
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By the time you swear you’re his,</div>
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Shivering and sighing,</div>
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And he vows his passion is</div>
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Infinite, undying -</div>
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Lady, make a note of this:</div>
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One of you is lying.</div>
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<a href="http://mentalfloss.com/article/52358/25-dorothy-parkers-best-quotes" target="_blank"></a><a href="http://mentalfloss.com/article/52358/25-dorothy-parkers-best-quotes" target="_blank">More quotes here</a>.</div>
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If you have some time, watch this - <i>The Ten-Year Lunch; Wits & Legends of the Algonquin Round Table</i> (Complete):</div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="390" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_ObXzrP4wdc" width="640"></iframe></div>
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Dorothy Parker's memorial and the story of her remains - here's the short(ish) version:</div>
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Four suicide attempts never succeeded for Dorothy Parker. When she turned 70, she told an interviewer who asked what she was going to do next, "If I had any decency, I'd be dead. All my friends are." But death waited until she was 73, and a fatal coronary came on June 7, 1967. </div>
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Her will was plain and simple. With no heirs, she left her literary estate to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. She'd never met the civil rights activist, but always felt strongly for social justice. She named the acerbic author Lillian Hellman as her executor. Parker didn't want a funeral, but Hellman held one anyway, and made herself the star attraction.</div>
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<a href="http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2012/06/06/parker_naacp_custom-51edb4776df3841dcd95d19445f83ca32f6142b4-s900-c85.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2012/06/06/parker_naacp_custom-51edb4776df3841dcd95d19445f83ca32f6142b4-s900-c85.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Within a year of her death, Dr. King was assassinated, and the Parker estate rolled over to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. To this day, the NAACP benefits from the royalty of all Parker publications and productions.</div>
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She was cremated, and this is where the story takes a sharp right turn. Parker was cremated on June 9, 1967, at Ferncliff Crematory in Hartsdale, New York. Hellman, who made all the funeral arrangements, never told the crematory what to do with the ashes. So they sat on a shelf in Hartsdale. Six years later, on July 16, 1973, the ashes were mailed to Mrs. Parker's lawyer's offices, O'Dwyer and Bernstein, 99 Wall Street. Paul O'Dwyer, her attorney, didn't know what to do with the little box of ashes. It sat on a shelf, on a desk, and for 15 years, in a filing cabinet.</div>
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Hellman went to court to fight the NAACP over Parker's literary estate. Hellman lost in 1972 when a judge ruled that she should be removed from executorship. Hellman was adamant that she get Parker's money, and came out of the mess painted as a racist. She was sure the will was supposed to give her a huge sum. Hellman said, "she must have been drunk when she did it."</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://dorothyparker.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/newplaque.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="500" height="256" src="https://dorothyparker.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/newplaque.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="text-align: start;">Here lie the ashes of Dorothy Parker (1893-1967) <br />Humorist, writer, critic, defender of human and<br /> civil rights. For her epitaph she suggested<br /> “Excuse My Dust”. This memorial garden is dedicated<br /> to her noble spirit which celebrated the oneness<br /> of humankind, and to the bonds of everlas</span><span style="font-size: 16px; text-align: start;">ting<br /> friendship between black and Jewish people.</span></span></td></tr></tbody></table><br />In 1988, someone figured out that Mrs. Parker's ashes were unclaimed, 21 years after her death. New York tabloids ran stories and readers sent in letters about what should be done with the dust. But the NAACP stepped in and took the box from Paul O'Dwyer's drawer. The NAACP built a memorial garden at the national headquarters in Baltimore, and interred the ashes there.</div>
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From <span style="text-align: start;">Christopher Hitchens' 1999 Atlantic article on Parker: </span><i style="text-align: start;"><a href="http://www.vanityfair.com/magazine/archive/1999/10/hitchens199910" target="_blank">Rebel in Evening Clothes:</a></i></div>
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A small memorial garden was prepared on the grounds of the organization's national headquarters in Baltimore, and a brief ceremony was held at which Mr. Hooks improved somewhat on the terse line about "excuse my dust." It might be better, he said, to recall her lines from "Epitaph for a Darling Lady":</blockquote>
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Leave for her a red young rose<br />
Go your way, and save your pity.<br />
She is happy, for she knows<br />
That her dust is very pretty.</blockquote><div><span><span style="background-color: white;">In August 2020 the NAACP removed the urn containing Dorothy Parker’s ashes, and returned it to her family members.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span></div><div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;">More at her </span><a href="http://www.dorothyparker.com/dot33.htm" style="background-color: white; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">website</a><span style="background-color: white;">. </span><i style="background-color: white;"><a href="http://amzn.to/2bE7SCa" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">The Portable Dorothy Parke</a>r</i><span style="background-color: white;"> for a "greatest hits" selection, and, if you'd prefer a biography, </span><i style="background-color: white;"><a href="http://amzn.to/2b7Gkda" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">What Fresh Hell Is This?</a></i><span style="background-color: white;">.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><a href="http://mentalfloss.com/article/25538/10-things-you-might-not-know-about-dorothy-parker" style="background-color: white; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">10 Things You Might Not Know About Dorothy Parker</a><span style="background-color: white;">.</span></span></div>
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Witt's Endhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04505106934467289492noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4620165642037025659.post-20227637274767838672023-08-11T00:00:00.001-04:002023-08-12T13:03:52.439-04:00Today is Erwin Schrödinger's (he of the famous half-dead cat) birthday: explanation, quotes, jokes, video<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEh-5fsteCMjCHKHQcj8K9UU9bpoPx-mEGOeZZjbGE1fBgh6OJlIhX1krVE2vdwAWlu-jLoNX_VTuCykoT1wgWM-BHYQHG5xrRxhB7XroNHsN1oYscv2eoFxhBe4Xjem4D3sP68a9FVCB7X15Cp53U9br_sb0fCkUc_TbvgNCT7Wql6X-vOnj8GyPeDuD1pSII6luSnUh57ctaQdpmdltv_nRwihz8dfe2tu_ovy=" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEh-5fsteCMjCHKHQcj8K9UU9bpoPx-mEGOeZZjbGE1fBgh6OJlIhX1krVE2vdwAWlu-jLoNX_VTuCykoT1wgWM-BHYQHG5xrRxhB7XroNHsN1oYscv2eoFxhBe4Xjem4D3sP68a9FVCB7X15Cp53U9br_sb0fCkUc_TbvgNCT7Wql6X-vOnj8GyPeDuD1pSII6luSnUh57ctaQdpmdltv_nRwihz8dfe2tu_ovy=" width="400" /></a></div>
A brief explanation of <a href="http://amzn.to/2aXBERd" target="_blank">Schrödinger's cat</a> (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schr%C3%B6dinger's_cat" target="_blank">wiki</a>): A cat, a flask of poison, and a radioactive source are placed in a sealed box. If an internal monitor detects radioactivity (i.e. a single atom decaying), the flask is shattered, releasing the poison that kills the cat. The Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics implies that after a while, the cat is simultaneously alive and dead. When one looks in the box, however, he sees the cat either alive or dead, not both alive and dead. This poses the question of when exactly quantum superposition ends and reality collapses into one possibility or the other. The Einstein quotation below refers to an earlier version of the experiment that replaced poison with an explosive charge to kill the cat.<br />
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If I am to have an interest in something, others must also have one. My word is seldom the first, but often the second, and may be inspired by a desire to contradict or to correct, but the consequent extension may turn out to be more important than the correction, which served only as a connection. </div>
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~ <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/?_encoding=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&field-keywords=Schroedinger&linkCode=ur2&tag=vavi-20&url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks" target="_blank">Erwin Schrödinger</a> (Nobel Prize address, 1933) </div>
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I insist upon the view that "all is waves." </div>
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~ Schrödinger (letter to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lighton_Synge" target="_blank">John Lighton Synge</a>, 9 November 1959) </div>
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If we were bees, ants, or Lacedaemonian warriors, to whom personal fear does not exist, and cowardice is the most shameful thing in the world, warring would go on forever. But luckily we are only men - and cowards. <br />
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~ Schrödinger (<i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1107604664/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1107604664&linkCode=as2&tag=vavi-20" target="_blank">Mind and Matter</a></i>, 1958)</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiflqYlpdRtpA0ZcHP_Su0PNKPuWO1RSR_v6royC_nbBr6aWd5x7-v2MdXyOvVQr1E7bTf8x3WnDYSxaJnGwykYse_0L9DrPYFdAU3mn54OdwNoJmqtHKQ90GNWl-xJuJIFk4pt8C2jpTeK/s1600/2010-03-19-Schrodinger.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiflqYlpdRtpA0ZcHP_Su0PNKPuWO1RSR_v6royC_nbBr6aWd5x7-v2MdXyOvVQr1E7bTf8x3WnDYSxaJnGwykYse_0L9DrPYFdAU3mn54OdwNoJmqtHKQ90GNWl-xJuJIFk4pt8C2jpTeK/s1600/2010-03-19-Schrodinger.png" width="400" /></a></div>
You are the only contemporary physicist, besides Laue,* who sees that one cannot get around the assumption of reality - if only one is honest. Most of them simply do not see what sort of risky game they are playing with reality - reality as something independent of what is experimentally established. Their interpretation is, however, refuted most elegantly by your system of radioactive atom + amplifier + charge of gun powder + cat in a box, in which the psi-function of the system contains both the cat alive and blown to bits. Nobody really doubts that the presence or absence of the cat is something independent of the act of observation.<br />
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~ <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstein" target="_blank">Albert Einstein</a> (1879-1955) (letter to Schrödinger, 1950)</div>
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Today is the anniversary of the birth of Austrian physicist <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/?_encoding=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&field-keywords=Schroedinger&linkCode=ur2&tag=vavi-20&url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks" target="_blank">Erwin (Rudolf Josef Alexander) Schrödinger</a> (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erwin_Schr%C3%B6dinger" target="_blank">wiki</a>) (1887-1961), one of the most important figures in the development of quantum theory. After early study at the University of Vienna and service in the Austrian fortress artillery during World War I, Schrödinger steadily advanced up the scientific/academic ladder in a series of positions at the universities of Stuttgart, Breslau, and Zurich before becoming a professor at the Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin in 1927.<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WWvMf-TuTrE/TnazHXERLwI/AAAAAAAACNY/y5b9QDROJ2A/s1600/schrodinger%2527s_cat.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WWvMf-TuTrE/TnazHXERLwI/AAAAAAAACNY/y5b9QDROJ2A/s1600/schrodinger%2527s_cat.jpg" width="315" /></a>He left Germany with the rise of Nazism in 1933 and taught briefly at Oxford, but then returned to the University of Graz (Austria) in 1936. After Austria was absorbed into the Third Reich, Schrödinger fled to Italy, then to England and Belgium, eventually settling in Ireland for most of the rest of his life. Schrödinger's greatest contribution to quantum theory was in his challenge to the "Copenhagen interpretation" of quantum behavior, which described aspects of fundamental particles only in terms of their probabilities of observation. He dramatized the resulting contradictions with common sense by devising the "thought experiment" known as <a href="http://amzn.to/2aXBERd" target="_blank">Schrödinger's cat</a> (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schr%C3%B6dinger's_cat" target="_blank">wiki</a>) and substituted a quantum interpretation based on the idea of "wave mechanics," in which the position of a particle is described in terms of probability functions, <img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/math/3/9/8/398b8c3e58e961cdea0fe626771f3243.png" />, satisfying the Schrödinger wave equation,</div>
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where E is the energy of a particle's state. The philosophical issues raised by Schrödinger's cat are still debated today, and it remains his most enduring legacy in popular science. His wave equation represents his most important finding at a more technical level and has been applied to the understanding of a long series of quantum phenomena and applications.<br />
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At an early age, Schrödinger became a student of eastern religions, and in addition to his prolific scientific writings, produced a number of philosophical studies on the relation of science to ethics and religion, as well as theoretical biology. He received the Nobel Prize for physics in 1933 for the derivation of his quantum wave equation. </div>
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* N.B. Max von Laue (1879-1960) was a German physicist who won the Nobel Prize in 1914 for his work on the diffraction of X-rays by crystals.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpjFaWtt3DXSNNqvA0BDK6BnkEkEBbHSI2CELxQk_QXgATpuZ1H9kRpv9rFTUmXk0-dDUNd9lq9juJui2sPC7VxvmWeLvHuZqNFoO_wc4DA6iphCbcbAsSdIFYgNnvtW1hrEfTXxOlplk/s1600/heisenberg.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="229" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpjFaWtt3DXSNNqvA0BDK6BnkEkEBbHSI2CELxQk_QXgATpuZ1H9kRpv9rFTUmXk0-dDUNd9lq9juJui2sPC7VxvmWeLvHuZqNFoO_wc4DA6iphCbcbAsSdIFYgNnvtW1hrEfTXxOlplk/s1600/heisenberg.png" width="320" /></a>Anyone remember the Heisenberg joke about being stopped for speeding?<br />
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Heisenberg was driving down the Jersey Turnpike when a policeman pulled him over.<br />
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The policeman asked Heisenberg, "Do you know how fast you were going?"<br />
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And Heisenberg said, "No, but I can tell you exactly where I was."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">So there's a variation where Schrödinger is the driver, and the cop searches his car: </div>
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The cop insists on searching the car (4th amendment doesn't apply in New Jersey) and then asks Schrödinger, "Do you know you have a dead cat in the trunk?",<br />
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Schrödinger replies, "Well, <i>now</i> I do."</div>
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And my personal favorite:</div>
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Schrödinger's cat walks into a bar... and doesn't.<br />
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Here's a brief (less than 2 minutes) explanation:<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="338" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/IOYyCHGWJq4?rel=0" width="600"></iframe><br />
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And here's a <i><a href="http://amzn.to/XdUkpu" target="_blank">Big Bang Theory</a></i> discussion of the concept:<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="338" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/pNTMYNj2Ulk?rel=0" width="600"></iframe><br />
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Here are a couple of Dr. Seuss-esque explanations - the first is from <a href="http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/113/the-story-of-schroedingers-cat-an-epic-poem" target="_blank">Straight Dope</a>, one of my favorite websites:</div>
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Schroedinger, Erwin! Professor of physics!</div>
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Wrote daring equations! Confounded his critics!</div>
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(Not bad, eh? Don't worry. This part of the verse</div>
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Starts off pretty good, but it gets a lot worse.)</div>
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Win saw that the theory that Newton'd invented</div>
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By Einstein's discov'ries had been badly dented.</div>
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What now? wailed his colleagues. Said Erwin, "Don't panic,</div>
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No grease monkey I, but a quantum mechanic.</div>
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Consider electrons. Now, these teeny articles</div>
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Are sometimes like waves, and then sometimes like particles.</div>
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If that's not confusing, the nuclear dance</div>
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Of electrons and suchlike is governed by chance!</div>
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No sweat, though — my theory permits us to judge</div>
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Where some of 'em is and the rest of 'em was."</div>
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Not everyone bought this. It threatened to wreck</div>
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The comforting linkage of cause and effect.</div>
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E'en Einstein had doubts, and so Schroedinger tried</div>
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To tell him what quantum mechanics implied.</div>
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Said Win to Al, "Brother, suppose we've a cat,</div>
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And inside a tube we have put that cat at —</div>
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Along with a solitaire deck and some Fritos,</div>
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A bottle of Night Train, a couple mosquitoes</div>
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(Or something else rhyming) and, oh, if you got 'em,</div>
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One vial prussic acid, one decaying ottom</div>
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Or atom — whatever — but when it emits,</div>
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A trigger device blasts the vial into bits</div>
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Which snuffs our poor kitty. The odds of this crime</div>
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Are 50 to 50 per hour each time.</div>
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The cylinder's sealed. The hour's passed away. Is</div>
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Our pussy still purring — or pushing up daisies?</div>
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Now, you'd say the cat either lives or it don't</div>
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But quantum mechanics is stubborn and won't.</div>
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Statistically speaking, the cat (goes the joke),</div>
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Is half a cat breathing and half a cat croaked.</div>
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To some this may seem a ridiculous split,</div>
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But quantum mechanics must answer, "Tough shit.</div>
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We may not know much, but one thing's fo' sho':</div>
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There's things in the cosmos that we cannot know.</div>
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Shine light on electrons — you'll cause them to swerve.</div>
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The act of observing disturbs the observed —</div>
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Which ruins your test. But then if there's no testing</div>
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To see if a particle's moving or resting</div>
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Why try to conjecture? Pure useless endeavor!</div>
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We know probability — certainty, never.'</div>
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The effect of this notion? I very much fear</div>
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'Twill make doubtful all things that were formerly clear.</div>
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Till soon the cat doctors will say in reports,</div>
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"We've just flipped a coin and we've learned he's a corpse."'</div>
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So saith Herr Erwin. Quoth Albert, "You're nuts.</div>
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God doesn't play dice with the universe, putz.</div>
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I'll prove it!" he said, and the Lord knows he tried —</div>
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In vain — until fin'ly he more or less died.</div>
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Win spoke at the funeral: "Listen, dear friends,</div>
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Sweet Al was my buddy. I must make amends.</div>
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Though he doubted my theory, I'll say of this saint:</div>
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Ten-to-one he's in heaven — but five bucks says he ain't."<br /></div>
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— <a href="http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/113/the-story-of-schroedingers-cat-an-epic-poem" target="_blank">Cecil Adams</a><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/89fe5aa49a6a3b2f85f683c00712e8554d21ee2e/0_0_808_932/master/808.jpg?width=300&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=395304528a819b7bf2a96e6287ae8ced" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="346" data-original-width="300" height="346" src="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/89fe5aa49a6a3b2f85f683c00712e8554d21ee2e/0_0_808_932/master/808.jpg?width=300&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=395304528a819b7bf2a96e6287ae8ced" width="300" /></a></div><br />This was sent by a friend, and the description and book cover design are by <a href="https://www.facebook.com/nathanwpyle2?directed_target_id=0" target="_blank">Nathan W. Pyle</a></div>
<br />
I do not see him here or there.<br />
I do not see him anywhere. <br />
I think he may be in that box, <br />
introducing me to paradox. <br />
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I think that cat, <br />
he may be dead, <br />
lying in his cardboard bed. <br />
In the box he would not thrive, <br />
but chances are he’s still alive.<br />
<br />
There's lots of Schrödinger's cat merchandise out there - try <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/?_encoding=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&keywords=Schroedinger&linkCode=ur2&qid=1407796856&rh=k%3ASchroedinger%2Ci%3Afashion&tag=vavi-20" target="_blank">Amazon</a> and/or <a href="http://www.cafepress.com/+schrodinger's-cat+gifts" target="_blank">Cafepress</a>.</div><br /><div>
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<!--Blogger automated replacement: "https://images-blogger-opensocial.googleusercontent.com/gadgets/proxy?url=http%3A%2F%2Fupload.wikimedia.org%2Fwikipedia%2Fcommons%2Fthumb%2F9%2F91%2FSchrodingers_cat.svg%2F320px-Schrodingers_cat.svg.png&container=blogger&gadget=a&rewriteMime=image%2F*" with "https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEh-5fsteCMjCHKHQcj8K9UU9bpoPx-mEGOeZZjbGE1fBgh6OJlIhX1krVE2vdwAWlu-jLoNX_VTuCykoT1wgWM-BHYQHG5xrRxhB7XroNHsN1oYscv2eoFxhBe4Xjem4D3sP68a9FVCB7X15Cp53U9br_sb0fCkUc_TbvgNCT7Wql6X-vOnj8GyPeDuD1pSII6luSnUh57ctaQdpmdltv_nRwihz8dfe2tu_ovy="-->Witt's Endhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04505106934467289492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4620165642037025659.post-87117953015012954002023-08-02T17:52:00.000-04:002023-08-17T17:54:56.916-04:00Puttanesca Sauce<div style="text-align: justify;">
Linguine alla Puttanesca (Linguine, “Whore Style”).</div>
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4 Tbs olive oil (extra virgin)</div>
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2 large garlic cloves, peeled and sliced thinly</div>
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1 large fire-roasted red pepper (available bottled), seeded and sliced into thin strips</div>
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4 Oz olive-oil packed anchovies, drained and pounded to a paste (This is one small tin; I generally use about 3/4s of it – to taste.)</div>
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1 2-pound can of imported Italian peeled tomatoes, drained (but save some of the juice in case you need to thin the sauce later.) </div>
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1 Cup pitted black olives, not from California, which will give the wrong flavor! (I use pitted Kalamata olives – bottled – from Greece and halve them.) </div>
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2 Tbs small capers (but some extra won’t hurt…) </div>
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1 pound dried pasta</div>
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Heat the oil in a heavy skillet, add the garlic and diced red peppers, and fry gently for 6 or 7 minutes until the garlic is softened. Add the pounded anchovies and cook until they dissolve, stirring until thoroughly blended. </div>
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Cut the tomatoes coarsely and add to the pan along with the olives and capers. Cook gently, stirring frequently, until the sauce thickens and begins to take on a slightly brownish hue. This generally takes about 30 minutes. It must not be watery, but not too thick either… </div>
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Meanwhile, cook the pasta in salted water until al dente – follow package directions – and drain in a colander. Serve in warmed pasta bowls with a generous ladle of sauce on each serving. Alternatively, you can pile all the pasta on a serving plate, spread the sauce on top, and toss it. </div>
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The recipe doubles and triples reasonably well. </div>
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<i>Buon Appetito</i>!</div>
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Historical note: Puttanesca sauce has been a Neapolitan classic for more than a century, its name deriving from an impolite Italian word for prostitute – la puttane. One finds several competing theories for the origin of the name, but no one really knows its real derivation. Here are the most popular suggestions: </div>
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(1) Because the ingredients are readily available, and it cooks quickly, it was easy for a woman of the night to prepare the dish as a pick-me-up between “assignments.” </div>
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(2) Some of the ingredients - notably the olives, anchovies, and capers - are reputed to be aphrodisiacs. </div>
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(3) It can be made very salty, thus encouraging the puttane’s “clients” to drink more. </div>
Witt's Endhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04505106934467289492noreply@blogger.com0