Archive for March, 2018

March 31, 2018

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March 30, 2018

Then, drinking, he discovered suddenly that no more of the liquid was entering his mouth. Swallowing, it was no longer passing down his throat, his throat and mouth filled now with a solid and unmoving column which without reflex or revulsion sprang, columnar and intact and still retaining the mold of his gullet, outward glinting in the moonlight, splintering, vanishing in the myriad murmur of the dewed grass. He drank again. Again his throat merely filled solidly until two icy rills ran from his mouth-corners; again the intact column sprang slivering, glinting, shivering, while he panted the chill of air into his throat, the jug poised before his mouth while he spoke to it: “Awright. Ah’m ghy try you again. Soon as you makes up yo mind to stay whar I puts you, Ah’ll leff you alone.” He drank, dilling his gullet for the third time and lowered the jug one instant ahead of the bright intact repetition, panting, indrawing the cool of air until he could breathe.”

March 29, 2018

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Of the desire to be alienated

March 28, 2018

“It’s like there’s a desire to be alienated—a desire to have a translation which you won’t quite understand, and that that will make you feel somehow closer to a language you don’t know.” Comment from Emily Wilson.

Of the desire to be alienated, I wonder if the existence of television provides one explanation: if television is the essence of the non-alienating, of the seducing, then you expect from things of real value, things like the Odyssey, a certain amount of inaccessability, of being alienating.

Sort of reminds of a news item from a few weeks ago: there was a report that found that people shared “fake-news” stories far more than real news stories. Why, because, fake news is entertainment, suprising and amazing and something you want to have others see, while true news is boring and complicated often and perhaps something you’d prefer to forget.

Therefore, a sort of prejudice evolves that the truth will be boring and beyond you, when you’re looking for the true and for things that are serious.

March 27, 2018

marshal yardarm tassle-bolt poem

NATO bombing of Yugoslavia

March 26, 2018

Question: Was the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in the mid/late 90’s authorized by the U.N?

Something I remember of that time: Republicans were saying it was a “wag-the-dog” type operation and that Clinton was trying, by means of this bombing, to distract the U.S. public from the Monica Lewinsky affair; meanwhile there was a general awareness that Rwanda had occurred earlier in the decade and that Western Powers had done nothing about that but really ought to have done something about that. There was an analaogy in the minds of many people of the West between Rwanda and Kosovo, I think is fair to say. I feel like the term “boots on the ground” may also have originated or gained currency during that time, Republicans having argued that an air war by itself couldn’t achieve anything; what you really needed was “boots on the ground.” (Here is ngrams viewer for boots on the ground. Here is ngrams viewer for Somalia,Rwanda. boots on the ground,Black Hawk Down)

Answer to foregoing question: apparently not: the bombing was not authorized by the U.N., which was a fact that arose during a dispute I had with a very pro-russian person, who sought to compare the Russian invasion of Crimea with the NATO bombing of Kosovo and environs, an idea that seemed wrong and even incredible to me on the face of it, but which I didn’t recall enough about to confidently deny.

March 25, 2018

This surprised me: Although it was the largest nuclear disaster since the Chernobyl disaster of 1986, and the radiation released exceeded official safety guidelines, there were no casualties officially reported to be caused by radiation exposure.

March 23, 2018

It was roughly the same size and weight as a Volkswagen Beetle, though flatter in shape… Glyptodon

March 22, 2018

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(36?) Just saw the movie Guadalcanal Diary in which, at one point, the character named Taxi cries out (transcribed exactly this way in the subtitles) “Yahoo! Mail.” Making me wonder if this could pertain to the origin of the free email service by that name: Wikipedia says not.

March 21, 2018

The spasm of any muscle is what Kundera understood as excitement, erection, “sin”; if these spasms can be slowed, they can be stopped, “sin” will be slowed and stopped… August

March 20, 2018

bubbles circles rings circles bubbles eyes cupped ringsto be read as if the words could not be combined into phrases.

March 19, 2018

Odysseus,Ulysses… I observe with interest that “Odysseus” begins meaningfully to spike right after the publication of Ulysses (1922).

March 18, 2018

Créer un poncif, cest le génie.
Je dois créer un poncif. –Baudelaire

March 17, 2018

vibora… “Aeroméxico investiga presencia de víbora en avión” (Informador)

March 16, 2018

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March 15, 2018

“φόβος γὰρ μνήμην ἐκπλήσσει, τέχνη δὲ ἄνευ ἀλκῆς οὐδὲν ὠφελεῖ.” Thucydides 2.87.4

“For fear drives memory out, and skill without courage avails not.”

March 14, 2018

(1) What a fair view of the immigration problem President Bush Senior exhibits in this youtube video of a primary debate (1980) he had with Reagan. (2) Reagan himself, during the debate, says this:

“Rather than talking about putting up a fence… Make it possible for them to come here legally with a work permit, and then while they’re working and earning here, they pay taxes here. And then when they want to go back they go back. Open the border both ways by understanding their problems.”

(He seems to envision the specter of a communist Mexico, and this as an incentive to assuage Mexico’s unemployment problem.) (3) Found on Vox on the occasion of the death of Nancy Reagan.

March 13, 2018

Interesting ngrams viewer result: Pale Blue Eyes,Candy Says

March 12, 2018

Even if the textual and historical arguments on both sides of the issue were evenly balanced, respect for the well­settled views of all of our predecessors on this Court, and for the rule of law itself, would prevent most jurists from endorsing such a dramatic upheaval in the law…..District of Columbia v. Heller/Dissent Stevens

Etaffeta

March 11, 2018

Amheric. I walked up to the couple pointing in the direction of their sandwich) — konjo? is it good? “etaffeta,” the man said, (“It’s delicious.”)