Ffolkes,
I decided yesterday not to go see the doc about my dizziness unless it gets worse. It’s not worse, but it’s also not gone. I’ll have to spend another day just taking it easy, to see if it gets worse or better. Not bad enough yet to put myself in the hands of the medical community; let some really sick folks go first. But meantime, it’s making it hard to write, especially if I have to think about it (which is a foregone conclusion when composing). So today you will be treated to another fairly large strand of Pearls, picked out with my usual sense of non-purpose, wrapped in bright, shiny paper, (bows not included; budget cuts, y’know?), presented here for your edification, and hopefully, your pleasure…..
“Creation science” has not entered the curriculum for a reason so simple and so basic that we often forget to mention it: because it is false, and because good teachers understand exactly why it is false. What could be more destructive of that most fragile fact of their sacred trust by granting equal treatment to a doctrine not only known to be false, but calculated to undermine any general understanding of science as an enterprise?” — Stephen Jay Gould, “The Skeptical Inquirer”, Vol. 12, page 186
Fanatic: Someone who, having lost sight of his goal, redoubles his efforts. (When I saw this, I got an immediate mental image of the current crop of candidates for the Republican nomination for next year. In my image, they were standing in a group, arms around each other, big smiles, and a huge cloud of ignorance over their heads. All of them seem to fit this definition…..)
And if we do but watch the hour,
There never yet was human power
Which could evade, if unforgiven,
The patient search and vigil long
Of him who treasures up a wrong.
— Lord Byron (1788-1824)
— Mazeppa, Stanza 10
If you cheat, you’ll eventually punish yourself.
“True friendship is like sound health, the value of it is seldom known until it be lost.” — Charles Caleb Colton
And this the burden of his song
Forever used to be,–
I care for nobody, No. not I,
If no one cares for me.
— Isaac Bickerstaff (1735-1787)
— Love in a Village, Act i, Sc. 2
IMMORAL, adj. Inexpedient. “Whatever in the long run and with regard to the greater number of instances men find to be generally
inexpedient comes to be considered wrong, wicked, immoral. If man’s notions of right and wrong have any other basis than this of
expediency; if they originated, or could have originated, in any other way; if actions have in themselves a moral character apart from, and nowise dependent on, their consequences — then all philosophy is a lie and reason a disorder of the mind.” — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”
This last Pearl presented me with a tough decision regarding its inclusion. The attraction of many of the entries in “The Devil’s Dictionary” depend on witty sarcasm, and sometimes outrageously honest descriptions of human nature, to make their point sharply. This one, however, is much more profound, and much less tongue-in-cheek than is customary for Mr. Bierce. It took me three readings to see the hidden depths, and to find that the underlying concept has that valued characteristic of raising as many questions as it answers. More serendipity, yay!….. I have pushed the limits a bit; this kept growing on me. But all in all, I think it works, and I managed to keep from tossing my cookies, which is good for all of us…… Y’all take care out there…..
and sometimes
I just sits.
gigoid
Kowabunga!
gigoid 