Life

Life is like a one-liner . . .

Nice Guy

Early to bed,

Lately to vice,

makes for a mad, bad

healthier nice.

Unsure

When Heisenberg first formulated his famous principle, he waited till what he thought the right time and place for announcing it because he didn't want to be uncertain.

Mixed Messages

In a local paper in Korea, big-lettered smallish headlines read:

"Dutch Architect says local projects

reusing old materials should go global."

Well, that's a new thought.

Witdom to Ponder

The Fog of War: "Tod."

The Frog of Wart: Toad.

Mere Coincidence?

Words of Comfort for Fellow Bloggers to Reflect Upon

The irony is that when you are at your most ill, say thrashing about wildly in your final death throes, you will have the most interesting things to blog upon, but be totally unable to do so for those staring uselessly at their monitors, awaiting with bated breath your final words . . .

Factotum

An employee who constructs and deconstructs facts.

Know it for a Fact!

Is every fact a complex construction?

Tennyson Speaks His Mind

My friend Bill Vallicella draws our attention to these lines in Tennyson:

For nothing worthy proving can be proven, 

Nor yet disproven: wherefore thou be wise, 

Cleave ever to the sunnier side of doubt, 

And cling to Faith beyond the forms of Faith . . .

For Bill's thoughts on this and its context, see here.

Words to Ponder?

"They were men who were here before us. We must build again."

- Stephen Vincent Benét

By the Waters of Babylon (1937)

Bonds Shaking?

Nicholas Kristof says the bonds with Israel are shaking. I say nonsense!

The bonds are not shaking. Bonds do not shake. They may stretch and snap. They may crumble and break.

But they do not shake. No, they do not shake.

Heaven and Hell . . .

. . . are the same place. There's no quarreling, no cussing, no feuding, no fighting . . . for all eternity forever.

The good folk will be perfectly happy there.

The bad guys will be bored to hell . . .

Gone . . .

but not forgiven.

I Can Dream, Can't . . . I

One of my friends, Kevin Kim, had a mild, but serious stroke a few days ago, and I guess I was worried because I dreamed about him. As I recounted the dream to him on his blog, the dreamland events went like this:

I dreamed about you last night. You were still in the hospital, but you seemed completely recovered, and - what's more - were dancing in the hallways with hundreds of people who were visiting you. Where did all these people come from? Apparently, your recent blog posts went viral, and millions of people are breathlessly awaiting each successive post! When some of those who seem to have taken upon themselves to set up a fund to pay for your bills discovered that I was a 'Friend of Kevin,' I was inundated with questions about you and your interests. I was flabbergasted, but I managed to find a few things to say. In a discussion of your literary interests, they discovered that I write poetry, I recited a couple of old ones ("San Francisco Morning" and "Water Witching"). There was some initial confusion as to who the poet was, but when the poems were clarified to be mine, a blog titled "Friend of Kevin" went online and had people pledging to support my poems, whatever that might mean. I checked my bank account first thing this morning and saw that the balance was no higher, so that support might not be financial.

Anyway, that's really what I dreamed (except that I haven't actually checked my account, for I'm not that big a fool).

Last . . .

but not forever.

A Call Goes Out: Emanations 9

The call goes out on May 1st, 2021. (Okay, I admit it, I'm not one to be hasty in sending out these divinely inspired calls.)

International Authors Emanations is an anthology series featuring fiction, poetry, and essays. The emphasis is on alternative narrative structures, new epistemologies, peculiar settings, esoteric themes, sharp breaks from reality, ecstatic revelations, and vivid and abundant hallucinations.

In Emanations 9, we seek to emphasize graphics and visual pieces. We are especially interested in asemic writing and images, visual poetry, formalist experiments in prose, bricolage, new experiments in graphic representation, and visual narratives. Artists are invited to prepare "compressed" portfolios (5-20 images) with an "artist's statement." Please bear in mind that the production will be in black and white.

The editors are also interested in literary material. We seek fiction and poetry that present unworldly ways of seeing, feeling, and describing. Recognizable genres -- science fiction, fantasy, horror, political dystopia, satire, mystery, local color, romance, realism, surrealism, and postmodernism -- are fine, but the chief idea is to make something new, and along these lines the illusion of something new can be just as important.

For more details, see more details.

One Space: Added Non-Value

Worthless is worth less than worth less.

Waistlines

People often talk about difficulties managing their weight. In the war on weight, the frontline is the waistline. Most of the action takes place there and appears to intensify as the years pass. It's a neverending battle of the bulge, one so dreadful that I express it as so:

"A waist is a terrible thing to mind."

Mindlessness or Mindfulness

I don't mind rules. (Two opposite meanings.)

Linguistic Ambiguity

Mind the Children! If you don't mind . . .

No Matter, Never Mind.

Clever, but does that solve, or resolve, anything about mind-matter dualism?

Disgarded Sayings

One of six, a dozen of half the others.

Famous Last Words

When Goethe on his deathbed said, "Mehr Licht," was he reporting or requesting?

Grape Expectations

As Linus might say to Lucy, we've got several groups of grapes in the kitchen.

I know what to expect for my breakfast . . .

Belated Commemoration: Anniversary of Napoleon's Passing

Brotherly Correspondence, May 5, 2021:

Horace Jeffery Hodges:

Dear Pat, Just writing to join you in commemoration of the anniversary of Napoleon's passing. Oh, also, happy birthday. Almost forgot. Love, Jeff

Pat Hodges:

Haha! Yes a notable day to remember for more than one reason. Thank you for the birthday wishes. And may the emperor Rest In Peace. Love, Pat

Horace Jeffery Hodges:

Yes, RIP. He gave us the Napoleonic Code, without which there would be no streetcar named "Desire"!

Pat Hodges:

Indeed. I’ll tip my glass of Stella Artois in his memory tomorrow.

Horace Jeffery Hodges:

Stellar thinking, Pat. And let no man blanch at that!

Pat Hodges:

Very good.! I under-Stanley you quite well.

Horace Jeffery Hodges:

Well, I've met my 'Mitch' and been out-punned.

Pat Hodges:

Well, Eu-Noze when it’s over.

Horace Jeffery Hodges:

Wordplay aside, you can now, at 65, retire from your labor and live on your meagre pension . . .

Pat Hodges:

Yes, well, I’ve been drawing my meager pension for 10 years now!

Horace Jeffery Hodges:

Ten years? Damn! Well, you always were a decade ahead of me . . .

Pat Hodges:

Haha!

The Patience of Job

Yesterday, the Korea Herald reported on a decision by Bill and Melinda Gates to divorce, to wit:

"Bill and Melinda Gates to divorce after 27 years."

Well, I suppose planning ahead is always best - one ought not rashly rush into a serious decision like divorce - but 27 years! That will be a long time to wait before getting that divorce.

Defamiliarization defamiliarized!

Newly Coined: Defermimeticization. 'Tis but defamiliarization defamiliarized! Or more properly, defamiliarization defermimeticized!

Antonyms

Nonplussed: Someminused

Time on Their Hands - A Little Time

How many chips could a chipmunk chip if a chipmunk could chip chips? (Tell-Tale Time Teaches Total!)

Non-Native Speaker

How time flies when it's having fun!

Magnified One Billion Trillion Gazillion Times

Here's that really big horse-shoed snail.