First Day Of Spring 2014

     

Tucson Weather Today

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178 pounds

Today Is The First Day Of Spring

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Man is born in a day, and he dies in a day, and the thing is easily over; but to have a sick heart for three-fourths of one's lifetime is simply to have death renewed every morning; and life at that price is not worth living.
--Gilbert Parker


After reading the  question "Is Life Worth Living" on one of those Self-Help websites and after pondering the many answers posted in the comments section, especially the ridiculous and the mostly trite and meaningless ones, I gave up and vowed to think about the question until I could find a satisfactory answer.

I thought about it before, during, and after my daily walk yesterday.

My conclusion is: If I had not been born or if I had died as a child then I might say that my life was probably not worth living. But I was born and I did live on into adulthood. I was married and my wife and I had four children, three boys and a girl. Eventually they all were married and they all had children of their own. Those children will probably have children of their own, and on and on and on.

My answer is: Yes, my life was (and somehow still is) absolutely worth living.

Of course, I can only speak for myself.

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Random Image

Camino Seco Avenue - North Toward The Catalinas

Tucson, Arizona  March 20, 2014

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Did You Know . . .?

Without regular erections, penile tissue can become less elastic and shrink, making the penis 1-2 centimeters shorter.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

In Ripon, Wisconsin, former members of the Whig Party meet to establish a new party to oppose the spread of slavery into the western territories. Anti-slavery Whigs had begun meeting in the upper Midwestern states to discuss the formation of a new party. One such meeting, in Wisconsin on this day, March 20 in 1854, is generally remembered as the founding meeting of the Republican Party.

In November 1860, Republican Abraham Lincoln was elected president over a divided Democratic Party. The Civil War firmly identified the Republican Party as the party of the victorious North, and after the war the Republican-dominated Congress forced a "Radical Reconstruction" policy on the South, which saw the passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to the Constitution and the granting of equal rights to all Southern citizens. By 1876, the Republican Party had lost control of the South, but it continued to dominate the presidency until the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933.

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WORD FOR TODAY

penile  [pee-nyle]
adjective
of or relating to the penis

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Carl Reiner

(born March 20, 1922)

Carl Reiner is an American stand-up comedian, actor, director, producer, writer and voice artist. He has won nine Emmy Awards and one Grammy Award during his career. After many successful years in show business, he is probably remembered most for his role as Alan Brady on The Dick Van Dyke Show.

Holly Hunter

(born March 20, 1958)

Holly Hunter is an American actress. Hunter starred in The Piano for which she won the Academy Award, BAFTA and Golden Globe Award among other awards. She has also been nominated for Oscars for her roles in Broadcast News, The Firm, and Thirteen.

William McChord Hurt

(born March 20, 1950)

William Hurt is an American stage and film actor. He made his film debut as a troubled scientist in the science-fiction feature Altered States (1980). He subsequently played a leading role in Body Heat (1981). In 1985, Hurt garnered substantial critical acclaim in Kiss of the Spider Woman and for his lead performances in Children of a Lesser God (1986) and Broadcast News (1987). Hurt received his first Tony Award nomination in 1985 for the Broadway production of Hurlyburly.

After playing a diversity of character roles in the following decade, Hurt earned his fourth Academy Award nomination for his supporting performance in David Cronenberg's crime thriller A History of Violence (2005). Other notable films in recent years have included A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), The Village (2004), Syriana (2005), The Good Shepherd (2006), Mr. Brooks (2007), Into the Wild (2007), The Incredible Hulk (2008), and Robin Hood (2010).

Frederick "Fred" McFeely Rogers

(Mar 20, 1928 - Feb 27, 2003)

Mr. Rogers was an American educator, Presbyterian minister, songwriter, author, and television host. Rogers was most famous for creating and hosting Mister Rogers' Neighborhood (1968-2001), which featured his gentle, soft-spoken personality and directness to his audiences.

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Writing is a dog's life, but the only life worth living.
Gustave Flaubert

NASA TV

This Is Who I Am

   

A Tangled Web

   

Tucson Weather Today

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It is no mystery (to thinking people) as to why the threats posed by Edward Snowden  and also by Wikileaks has caused such a flap inside the various governmental agencies. There is so much that I (and most U.S. citizens) don't know about the undercover workings and the probable carefully guarded absolutely Top Top Secrets (never to be released) of the government of the United States in Washington, D.C.

Do you remember the movie "Conspiracy Theory" starring Mel Gibson and Julia Roberts? How it first made us laugh at the kooky ideas so painstakingly evinced by Jerry Fletcher (Mel Gibson) and then as more information is revealed how it made you wonder if perhaps, just maybe, there really does exists within our huge, huge government bureaucracy many more conspiratorial goings-on behind their sinister super-secrecy shroud than is generally known, or even suspected.

I, for one, still think and feel that way. At times.

Don't you?


I heard or read somewhere that ethics is sometimes called moral philosophy, and is concerned primarily with the question of the best way to live.

Wikiedia states that the main branches of ethics are meta-ethics, normative ethics, and applied ethics.

And that:

Meta-ethics concerns the nature of ethical thought, such as the origins of the words good and bad, and origins of other comparative words of various ethical systems, whether there are absolute ethical truths, and how such truths could be known.

Normative ethics are more concerned with the questions of how one ought to act, and what the right course of action is. This is where most ethical theories are generated.

Applied ethics go beyond theory and step into real world ethical practice, such as questions of whether or not abortion is correct. Ethics is also associated with the idea of morality,

It seems to me that the very concept of ethics is merely a mystical product dreamed up for intentional obfuscation, manufactured by manipulation of language, and is no more than a highly effective means of mind-control by those of a cabal of ultra-intelligence beings who wield the real (hidden) power behind the apparent power of all official government figureheads.

If that makes me appear somewhat paranoid, then so be it.

Such a group of super-geniuses could indeed exist, and most probably does exist -- based in the immediate area of Minnesota, perhaps. That makes sense. Just look at the that state's record for voting into power the most unlikely candidates one could imagine. Jess Ventura, Al Franken, Michelle Bachman, and too many more celebrities to mention here.

Of course, that doesn't prove anything. The theory of some unknown behind-the-scenes dark menace controlling the actions and thoughts of human beings merely resides within the questionable recesses of my own brain.

The brain of a sometime fiction writer.

Note: As I mentioned previously, my blog entries are essentially unedited First Drafts.


Often Mistakenly Attributed To Shakespeare

Oh what a tangled web we weave
When first we practice to deceive.
--Sir Walter Scott (Marmion, 1808)


Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast,
To soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak.
--William Congreve (The Mourning Bride, 1.1) 

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TRIVIA

On average, 12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents daily.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day, July 15 in 1903, the newly formed Ford Motor Company took its first order from Chicago dentist Ernst Pfenning: an $850 two-cylinder Model A automobile with a tonneau (or backseat). The car, produced at Ford's plant on Mack Street (now Mack Avenue) in Detroit, was delivered to Dr. Pfenning just over a week later.

Dr. Pfenning's order turned out to be the first of many, launching Ford on its way to profitability. Within two months, the company had sold 215 Fords, and by the end of its first year the Mack Avenue plant had turned out some 1,000 cars.

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WORD FOR TODAY

evince [ih-vins]
verb
to show clearly; make evident or manifest

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Forest Steven Whitaker

(born July 15, 1961)

Forest Whitaker is an American actor, producer, and director. He has earned a reputation for intensive character study work for films such as Bird and Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, for his work in direct-to-video films and for his recurring role as ex-LAPD Lieutenant Jon Kavanaugh on the award-winning television series, The Shield. Whitaker won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe and a BAFTA for his performance as Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in the 2006 film The Last King of Scotland.

Arianna Huffington

(born July 15, 1950)

Arianna Huffington is a Greek-American author and syndicated columnist. She is best known for her news website The Huffington Post. At one time a liberal democrat she later became a popular conservative commentator in the mid-1990s, after which she adopted liberal political beliefs in the late 1990s. She is the ex-wife of former Republican congressman Michael Huffington.

Jesse Ventura

(born July 15, 1951)

Jesse Ventura (born James George Janos) is an American politician, actor, author, veteran, and former professional wrestler who served as the 38th Governor of Minnesota from 1999 to 2003.

Kim Alexis

(born July 15, 1960)

Kim Alexis is an American model and actress. She was one of the top models of the 1980s. In 1983 she became the face of Revlon's premium Ultima II line, replacing Lauren Hutton. Alexis hosted health shows in the early 1990s on the Family Channel and Lifetime. She appeared in the 1998 movie Holy Man with Eddie Murphy. Alexis also appeared with Mike Ditka in the last episode of Cheers, "One for the Road" in 1993.

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You want a friend in Washington? Get a dog.
--Harry S. Truman

NASA TV
   

Phun With Philosophy

 Tucson Weather Today

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I have lately been delving into the complexities of ontology.

Ontology is the philosophical study of the nature of being, existence, or reality, as well as the basic categories of being and their relations. Traditionally listed as a part of the major branch of philosophy known as metaphysics, ontology deals with questions concerning what entities exist or can be said to exist, and how such entities can be grouped, related within a hierarchy, and subdivided according to similarities and differences.

Clearly, to accept the above definition, there must be agreement as to what an entity is or is believed to be, and what existence is or is believed to be.

An entity is something that exists by itself, although it need not be of material existence. In particular, abstractions and legal fictions are usually regarded as entities. In general, there is also no presumption that an entity is animate.

Existence has been variously defined by sources. In common usage, it is the world we are aware of through our senses, and that persists independently without them. Others define it as everything that is, or simply everything

Foolishness . . .semantic nonsense. Meaningless screechings as of sightless bats darting aloft in frenzied flurries of instinctual feeding flight.

What high concepts exist within the microscopic ken of those amoebic denizen residing within the relative expanse of an ancient dried-up splotch of condor droppings on a flat rock in the Andes, and how insignificant must they have seemed to a gathering of Neanderthals crouched around a fortunate campfire.

What is to come of such fine philosophies of human egotism when individual memories inevitably fade into eternal night?

What indeed?

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WORD FOR TODAY

dissemination
noun
To disseminate, in terms of the field of communication, means to broadcast a message to the public without direct feedback from the audience.

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BORN ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY


Yul Brynner

Born July 11, 1920
Died Oct. 10, 1985

Russian stage and film actor. He was best known for his portrayal of Mongkut, king of Siam, in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The King and I, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Actor for the film version; he also played the role more than 4,500 times onstage. He is also remembered as Rameses II in the 1956 Cecil B. DeMille blockbuster The Ten Commandments, General Bounine in Anastasia and Chris Adams in The Magnificent Seven. Brynner was noted for his distinctive voice and for his shaven head, which he maintained as a personal trademark long after adopting it for his initial role in The King and I. He was also a photographer and the author of two books.

ALSO


Leon Spinks

Born July 11, 1953
Age: 58 years old

Former American boxer. He had an overall record of 26 wins, 17 losses and 3 draws as a professional, with 14 knockout wins, and was the former World Boxing Council and World Boxing Association heavyweight champion of the world. While still an amateur, he also became a member of the United States Marine Corps. Spinks defeated 36-year-old Muhammad Ali for the undisputed heavyweight championship in what was regarded as one of the bigger upsets in boxing...

ALSO


E.B. White

 Born July 11, 1899
Died Oct. 01, 1985

Elwyn Brooks White, usually known as E. B. White, was an American writer. He was a long-time contributor to The New Yorker magazine and a co-author of the widely used English language style guide, The Elements of Style, which is commonly known as "Strunk & White." He also wrote famous books for children, including Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little.

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There is more wisdom in your body than in your deepest philosophy.
--Friedrich Nietzsche

More On Reading And Writing

Tucson Weather Today

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I am just finishing reading the novel: Welcome To Hard Times by E.L. Doctorow. Didn't care much for it.

Last night I started reading the next book on my list: HELL by Robert Olen Butler. I bought this novel from a used bookstore a few weeks ago and just found out that it appears to be a first edition and is signed on the inner title page by the author.

Of course, I have no way of knowing if the signature was truly inscribed by Robert Olen Butler himself, but then again, I have no way of knowing it is not.

Here is snapshot of the Title Page

(Click the image to enlarge)

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There is an interesting Essay titled: On Getting Paid: Literary Magazines and Remuneration. Here is the first paragraph:

David Lynn began his Editor’s Notes for the Autumn 2004 issue of The Kenyon Review with some necessary questions: "How much is a fine story worth? What monetary value does a superb poem possess? How much -- and this is the inexorable point -- should authors be paid for their long, solitary work?"

Here is the link in case you are interested in the subject of payment to authors for literary work and would like to read the article.

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BORN ON THIS DAY

Sheldon Leonard

Born February 22, 1907

Died January 10, 1997

Sheldon Leonard's name served as a namesake for the main characters Sheldon Cooper and Leonard Hofstadter in the funny American sitcom The Big Bang Theory, as the writers are fans of his work.

(Today is also the birthday of President George Washington)

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I have lately been musing about what is termed philosophy.

The philosophical statement "I think, therefore I am" is meaningless, in my opinion. Even the followup witticism "I think, therefore I think I am" has no real meaning when one thinks about it. Neither statement is, in itself, an actual provable fact. Both statements say nothing about one's state of being except as a temporary belief at a particular instant of time, and even then is merely an audible representation of a subjective chemical reaction and is therefore a questionable conclusion.

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Most people work just hard enough not to get fired and get paid just enough money not to quit.
--George Carlin