Still On Hiatus, But . . .

Tucson Weather Today

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WORD FOR TODAY

palimpsest
Noun
1. A manuscript or piece of writing material on which the original writing has been effaced to make room for later writing.
2. Something reused or altered but still bearing visible traces of its earlier form.

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Loretta Lynn

Born April 14, 1935

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“The trouble with being in the rat race is that even if you win, you're still a rat.”
--Lily Tomlin

On Hiatus

Info From The Web

Tucson Weather Today

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Grammarphobia points out that good writers ought to be aware that an adjective should not be used before a series of nouns unless it applies to them all. A phrase like “her late father and mother” will be understood as meaning that both parents are dead, but if only one is deceased, the order should be reversed: “her mother and late father.”

I'm not sure that I was ever aware of that grammar rule, but it makes sense and I intend to remember it.

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There is a website named American Doctors 4 Truth that presented a Youtube video that is supposed to be funny.

It ain't.

(Well, not much, anyway)

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A Help Wanted Ad at Prostitution Research might be helpful if you are in need of more income.

But probably not.

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WORDS FOR TODAY

antidisestablishmentarianism
the movement or ideology that opposes disestablishment

disestablishment
the separation of church and state

I did not know that . . . did you?

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BORN THIS DAY IN HISTORY

David Letterman

Born April 12, 1947

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Mr. President, the buzz saw that your healthcare bill ran into wasn't lobbyists and special interests it was tens of millions of Americans who were saying, 'Stop!'
--John Boehner

Mormonism, Politics, And Insanity

Tucson Weather Today

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Question: What Is Mormonism?

Answer: The doctrines and practices of the Mormon Church based on the Book of Mormon.


The Latter Day Saint movement, including Mormonism, originated in the 1820s in western New York. Restored by Joseph Smith, Jr., the faith drew its first converts while Smith was dictating the text of the Book of Mormon.


This book described itself as a chronicle of early indigenous peoples of the Americas, portraying them as believing Israelites, who had a belief in Christ many hundred years before his birth. Smith claimed that he translated over 500 pages in about 60 days, and that it was an ancient record translated "by the gift and power of God". During production of this work in mid-1829, Smith, his close associate Oliver Cowdery, and other early followers began baptizing new converts into the Christian primitivist church, formally organized in 1830 as the Church of Christ. Smith was seen by his followers as a modern-day prophet.

The following Articles of Faith were taken from mormon.org:

13 Articles of Faith

1.
We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.
2.
We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam’s transgression.
3.
We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.
4.
We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost.
5.
We believe that a man must be called of God, by prophecy, and by the laying on of hands by those who are in authority, to preach the Gospel and administer in the ordinances thereof.
6.
We believe in the same organization that existed in the Primitive Church, namely, apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists, and so forth.
7.
We believe in the gift of tongues, prophecy, revelation, visions, healing, interpretation of tongues, and so forth.
8.
We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.
9.
We believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God.
10.
We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes; that Zion (the New Jerusalem) will be built upon the American continent; that Christ will reign personally upon the earth; and, that the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisiacal glory.
11.
We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may.
12.
We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.
13.
We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul-We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.


Okay . . . but what is Faith?

According to Dictionary.com --

faith
noun
1. Strong or unshakable belief in something, esp without proof or evidence.
2. Belief that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence.

So, faith then is believing a thing without any logical reason for believing that thing.

How can I, a person who believes in logic, vote to put a candidate who professes to believe things without any logical reason for believing them into The White House as President of the United States of America?

And yet I suspect that voting for President Obama will merely help to continue the nation's current direction toward a government that will soon grow so big and so powerful that a future unscrupulous leader can (and will) be elected who then will turn that government into the most dangerous and unstoppable dictatorship the world has ever known.

And there will be no God The Holy Father to step in and miraculously intervene, no Mighty Moses to lead the oppressed people out of bondage into some glorious promised land.

There will be only Big Brother.

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WORD FOR TODAY

hallucinate
Verb
Experience a seemingly real perception of something not actually present, typically as a result of a mental disorder or of taking drugs.

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Faith: not wanting to know what is true.
--Friedrich Nietzsche

Just A Quick Thought

Tucson Weather Today

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Nude Woman with a Necklace

It is reported that Pablo Picasso said,
“Everything you can imagine is real.”

I have mused upon that statement and just can't seem to understand what he meant by saying it. Perhaps he meant to reinforce the overused proverb: reality is perception, which I have heard spouted many times. Many times. I've never been sure what that means, either.

I have read that Picasso took up writing as an alternative outlet and that between 1935 and 1959 he wrote over 300 poems. I have never read even one of those poems. I am now going to do some research and if possible read some of his poems.


For nearly half an hour I have been reading the poems of Pablo Picasso -- and as I suspected, I can make no more sense of them as poems than I could for his seemingly self-indulgent paintings and sculptures.

Why should it be that I can never seem able to grasp the meanings from the material outpourings of any proclaimed genius? Are their mental processes so vastly different from mine? It is always so, or so it seems to me. Perhaps all artistic geniuses are genuinely insane. And I am not.

Or is it that I do not appreciate fine art because I have not been properly educated -- have not sufficiently committed the myriad of details to memory, have not retained all the details not imparted to me by those who have dutifully retained them from those who earlier shared the most arcane of mysteries with classes of open-mouthed, open-minded students.

Perhaps . . .

And I wonder if Pablo Picasso could have ever understood my thoughts had I worked hard enough to give him the opportunity to encounter any of them.

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WORD FOR TODAY

grok
Verb
1. Understand (something) intuitively or by empathy.
2. Empathize or communicate sympathetically; establish a rapport.

Used in a sentence: "I do not grok works of art."

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BORN THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Harry Morgan

(Colonel Potter)

Born April 10, 1915
Died Dec. 7, 2011

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“It is better to be hated for what you are than loved for what you are not.”
--André Gide

Some Sincere Soul Searching

Tucson Weather Today

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For want of a better term, I have been indulging in a bit of what the religious tend to call soul searching, -- asking myself . . . what is really and truly important to me?

The first thing that occurred to me was my proclivity for judging others. To observe other people and compare their overt activities to what I, within my secret thoughts, believe to be proper or correct. As in...

Yesterday I was able to once again watch one of my all-time favorite movies, Gigot (pronounced JEE-go, I think) and was once again reminded of how easily a person (myself included, myself especially) can be lulled into self-righteousness. How we, unless always alert to human failings, sneer at the (zany antics, we call them) unfortunate foibles of those we brand as inferior to ourselves.

Gigot (Jackie Gleason) is, in this movie, a Parisian janitor who is mute and docile, a noble simpleton kicked around by uncaring society. Yet he is tenderly human: He frequents all local funerals and never fails to cry. When he finds a local prostitute (Katherine Kath) and her bright-eyed daughter Nicole (Diane Gardner) sheltering in his doorway he takes them into his home. The lumbering giant and wee Nicole become fast friends, and Gigot finally has a family. But how long will this happiness last?

I had seen this 1963 film only one time before, and thought that it was one of the most bittersweet movies I'd ever seen.

And I then remembered another time I had seen Jackie Gleason in an extremely sad role... that of an aging Army Master Sergeant Maxwell Slaughter in the Steve McQueen movie, Soldier In The Rain.

For those who have never seen it, below is a review of this oldie but goodie.

Film critic Craig Butler wrote about the film's theme, "An absorbing film that deserves to be much better known, Soldier in the Rain is a sometimes uneasy blend of comedy and drama that doesn't always quite come off, but has so much going for it that one is glad to overlook its flaws. A buddy picture set in the peacetime Army.

Soldier is concerned with how a strong friendship can develop between two people of differing personalities and aims. Jackie Gleason and Steve McQueen are different types, and the fact that they have such a strong bond may at first seem unlikely, but as the film progresses it somehow seems natural and inevitable. Blake Edwards and Martin Richlin have done an excellent job of adapting William Goldman's novel, and together with director Ralph Nelson have opted to emphasize the character aspects of the material over the plot.

Anyway, my soul-searching led me to the above thoughts, and for some reason I decided to include them in today's blog entry.


I had entered my seventies before I realized, with a surprising flash of insight, that I had spent a lifetime in ignorance of how I appeared through the eyes of most of the people interacting with me day by day, or at least week by week.

Less than two years ago, and for no apparent reason, I suddenly came to know without a doubt that the man (let's call him George) who delivered our wintertime heating fuel for most of my young adult years not only did not like me (though he successfully pretended to) but he actually disliked me... despised me. I was, you see, the antithesis of himself. He was a steady, hard working, church going, law abiding citizen everybody in town liked and respected.

I was not.

More to come at another time . . . in one form or another.

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WORD FOR TODAY

soul
noun
A soul -- in certain spiritual, philosophical, and psychological traditions -- is the incorporeal essence of a person.

I think of soul as being the basic me of my self. And that's all. I do not equate it with the idea of spirit as do some people, but merely the core of myself. No more than that.

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BORN ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Hugh Hefner

Born April 9, 1926

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A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.
--Oscar Wilde

What's Easter All Abut?

Yummy! Chocolate Candy Easter Eggs . . .

According to CNN, this year, Americans
will spend $2.1 billion on Easter candy.
That's 120 million pounds of the stuff.

11 oz.
Milk Chocolate Hollow Bunny
$9.99

The Way Things Are . . .

HAPPY EASTER

Imagine

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people living for today

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people living life in peace

You, you may say
I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people sharing all the world

You, you may say
I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
And the world will live as one


written by John Lennon

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Word For Today

pretentious
Adjective
Attempting to impress by affecting greater importance, talent, culture, etc., than is actually possessed.

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Kofi Annan

Born April 8, 1938

Also

Betty Ford

Born April 8, 1918

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Forget love; I’d rather fall in chocolate.
--Anonymous