Not the case of course yet interestingly mind-bending to think of Greece as the source of the human race —Diogenes:

Λανθάνουσι δ᾽ αὑτοὺς τὰ τῶν Ἑλλήνων κατορθώματα, ἀφ᾽ ὧν μὴ ὅτι γε φιλοσοφία, ἀλλὰ καὶ γένος ἀνθρώπων ἦρξε, βαρβάροις προσάπτοντες…

“These authors forget that the achievements which they attribute to the barbarians belong to the Greeks, with whom not merely philosophy but the human race itself began” (Translation, R.D. Hicks)

It does seem to be the case, however, that the earliest known examples of homo sapiens outside of Africa were found in Greece — Apidima Cave.

Where do crumbs come from?
From out of the sun?
Do they fall like snow
From a giant hot bun?
Where do they come from?
Do they fly, do they run?
Are they mined like gems?
Are they grown like plums?

Every day I sweep the shop floor clean
Till the corners are clear and the tile grout gleams,
But as soon as I finish, as soon as I’m done,
I turn around and what’s this? I find another crumb.

Where, O where, I ask, do they come from?

Do they shoot from the lamp?
Do they roll down the ramp?
Do they sprout from the floor?
Do they walk through the front door?

Hundreds and thousands, maybe a million,
I find in the cracks and corners of the kitchen.
A giant army that is waiting to come,
An army to attack and cover me with crumbs.

Sometimes I want to weep and weep
there are so many of them left to sweep.
And in the place I have recently swept
Several more have sneakily crept.

Where, I ask, do you all come from?
from a star?
from afar?
from a mountain?
from a fountain?

I realize, of course, it’s often the case
That crumbs come out of my own hands and face.
They came when I cut and they came when I ate;
They came from my bowl and they came from my plate.
But sometimes there seems no way to explain
How my counters have gotten so covered in grains!

All I know, I must confess,
Is that crumbs need cleaning,
As they make a big mess.
And I guess that’s the moral,
I guess that’s the end,
Of crumbs we make many
And to crumbs we must bend.
[Picture of perpetually harassed attendant stooping to sweep crumbs in dust pan.]

I got the blues,
Cause I got sticky shoes.

Don’t know what to do,
Don’t know how I got so glued,
But man do I have the blues,
Because I have sticky shoes.

(Feel like I got nothing to lose,
that’s how stuck I am by these shoes.)

What do I have under there, gum?
Is that why I can’t jump or run?
Is that the cause of the suctiony sound
whenever I lift my foot from the ground?

I’m about to have a fit,
Because of what my shoe has under it.

Man I got some news —
this is not what I would choose
Man I’ve got the blues —
because I’ve got some sticky shoes.

“Une échelle de fer, cramponnée à la paroi, conduisait à son extrémité supérieure. Je demandai au capitaine à quel usage servait cette échelle. « Elle aboutit au canot, répondit-il. — Quoi ! vous avez un canot ? répliquai-je, assez étonné…” “cramponnée à la paroi” (source)

Attendant, having initially judged the sandwich’s tincture to be too dark, now judged it to be within accepted parameters. (He likes them to be “well within” the parameters, while these were just “within”.)

Attendant’s new art project: to be called “Tincture of Sandwich.” In which pieces of toast, at various stages of toasting, from not toasted at all to charred black, are set along the wall like small canvases.

Further, using a specially altered toaster, in the way of a prepared piano, he would create interesting Mark Rothko like effects.

Future exhibitions could include bagels held up by rusty nails or pinned down by railroad ties, while toppings and spreads of various kinds drop and seep from them down the walls.

Prospective title of exhibition: “Bagel Wounds.” Potentially, whole room could be made to resemble a counter top, as if what is called Space-time were this, as if we ourselves were slid endlessly back and forth across this counter of space.

Customer told attendant that no one from India does yoga while latter wiped coffee grounds from fluted rubber fridge door insulation.

The Customer that reminds of an old girlfriend — the customer that is a Construction worker asking if he can charge his phone. The Construction worker having left backpack and white hard hat in patio chair, running for the bus he nearly missed. The construction worker is handed special glasses to safely see the complete solar eclipse, but his friend saying, no, he didn’t want to look through the glasses, didn’t want to see.

Quantum Entanglement of hairbuns: yesterday’s hairbun seen in the mirror, today’s hairbun projecting from a window of the bus. (These hairbuns have a link in space-time, which only the Chinese and myself know about.) “The hairbun of yesterday in the mirror of today.” (book title). (We should have National Hairbun Center to sort all this out. When you see a person with a hairbun, watch out, as they may be transferring the contents of their minds to a satellite. When you see someone with a ponytail really watch out, for those are the “enforcers”.).. Couldn’t see any other part of that bus passenger aside from that “uploading” bun.

Attendant remarks that, when the smell of urine becomes overpowering for miles around, you’ll know he’s been held up at gunpoint (a number of hold ups having been committed recently in the area, though not this place yet). Attendant reviews plans in event of mass-shooter attack: first, barrage of stale cookies; second, serve him the “brioche”; finally, ask him if he’d like a “refill with that” and splash his face with hot coffee — the decaf.

“targeted killing” for non-state actors (Times)

Customer felt that Non-Force could triumph over Force and so lamented that which was forceful in himself;

However, customer felt also there was a kind of force that was Good, and a kind that was Bad, and so lamented, too, that he was not forceful enough in a good way, or for good things against bad things;…

Did “The Good” need to be made stronger and more forceful? or did “The Good” require no strength and the abdication of force, pondered aloud the earnest customer?

It was proposed that “The Good” required Courage, which was a kind of force, but of a very different sort than, say, physical Strength. (Did we call this “Moral force?”)

Courage, much more forceful than physical strength, was also much harder to attain than physical strength, it was added. (We needed courage, –But for what? it was asked further…. implying that courage and moral force were attained through having knowledge — knowledge about which were the right things to fear, about which were the right things to be brave about, about whether physical force was appropriate or not, which was when things started sounding platonic to the attendant.)

Chance Sweepings

Ngrams: triceratops,tyrannosaurus. (Was moved by the preceding to check this out, and am now made to wonder afresh how these species have became so linked together in the public imagination.)

Interested to find, also, that the ‘ops’ in triceratops is the Ancient Greek ‘ops‘ –face.

Here is Jurassic period,Jurassic Park, exactly what you’d guess.

(A taxonomy of stains and spills is conceived — though probably Stains are to be considered a mere phylum of the Kingdom of Spills, as they are nothing but Dried Spills.)

(Name for a band: Kingdom of Spills)

A veritable Linnaeus of splashes and squirts, a Novum Organon of overflows and overruns ; of unwelcome dry and wet discharges of all sorts… Of splotches, of blotches, of smudges, of smears…

Outline of the motions of the wet towel, dried now, on the fridge door — on the counter top, on the door of the milk fridge;– phantom towels;– the fossil footprints of former wipes and former wiping motions — Tyrannosaurus Smudge (another band name) and “Tricerospots” (opening for Smudge) and other such fossils……..Chance Sweepings]

……………… Mate
………………..Hanshan
………………….whip-round
…………………..Pensacola Mountains
inner german borderSuperblockGSA
Cryovolcanoboonie ….hatcondonation
Gulf of Alaskapetrif….ied manAutop
ensubsidenceperq….uisition Georgia
na Cavendishannu….riaSolutrean Hyp
othesis(Post article)Adam Worth
Taishan flounce speculum
“Pepe” Mujica

………………..
At this point in its existence, it’s not clear that “Chance Sweepings” is really the sort of book that could profitably be read from cover to cover, on which account I’ve made this “coffee table version” to facilitate whimsical skimming and browsing. Links lead to small chunks of the text in no particular sequence. The “linear” or sequential version can be found here. Still much work to do on this.

La rhétorique se trouve partout : elle gâte les tableaux comme les livres. Ce qui fait la différence entre les livres des gens de lettres et ceux des hommes qui écrivent seulement parce qu’ils ont quelque chose à dire, c’est que dans ces derniers la rhétorique est absente ; elle empoisonne, au contraire, les meilleures inspirations des premiers. (Delacroix, 1844) (Google)

Idea for Col. Pike corridor: a “hilarious” tribute to the Pentagon — rows of wooden columns of shells and missiles, a homage to war and peace; lamp posts made to look like missiles, county police dressed like soldiers, zoning for “bombed out” store fronts, etc.

Reading this passage in Chandler made me wonder how familiar Faulkner was with the Napoleonic wars and was this the source for his Major de Spain (Campaigns of Napoleon, pp.702):

One notable casualty was the brave cuirassier commander, General d’Espagne, killed by an Austrian saber stroke, a grievous loss to the French cavalry.

(This refers to Jean-Louis-Brigitte Espagne at the battle of Aspern-Essling). Cursory searches for “Major de Spain General d’Espagne” in Google and JSTOR turn up nothing obvious nor does “Faulkner Napoleon.”

If the reference is intended, I would say it is also intended to be ironical, with many levels of comedic difference between the persons of Major de Spain (absurdly American) and General d’Espagne (authentic, heroic, European), — the transliteration itself suggests as much– though I must say, I don’t have a clear memory of the fictional de Spain just now.

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w …………a R
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This was an effort to see if there were any correspondences between the same-named chapters of A Strange Commonplace with respect to two recurring motifs: types of clothing and what I called “family dynamic” (were the chapter’s characters brothers, lovers, parents, or what.). In bold is the chapter title and (1) (2) refers to the book the chapter occurs in. Result was: I found no such correspondences.

Clothes

In the Bedroom (1) homburg, fedora; lingerie, stockings; white silk scarf with blue polka dots (2) loose shoes; furry coat, dress, green dress.

Success (1) dark suit, elegant tie, gleaming white shirt (2) dark business suit and white blouse; gold-ball earings, jacket, skirt, shoes stockings.

Born Again (1) coat, dress, slip, flats, pink chenille bathrobe, worn corduroy slippers; lingerie drawer; white chemise from wedding day (2) “you need clean clothes”

Lovers Not even a passing or general reference to any type of clothing in either (1) or (2).

Another Story (1) A suede jacket (in a box). (2) “to find you gone with all your clothes and things gone”, “I look in your empty closet and my heart feels as if it is going to break.” A doll with three outfits.

Movies: No clothes mentioned in (1) or (2).

Pair of Deuces: (1) Borsalino, baseball caps, powder blue worsted suit, white sun dress. (2) Blue suede jacket, (dress, skirt, blouse, panties, run in stocking, t-shirt) “he wanted her out of her clothes” ; “She hated to buy clothes for Bill, whatever she bought him, even underwear and socks, was always wrong.”

In Dreams: (1) “a dark suit, starched white shirt, small patterned navy blue time, and navy blue polo coat”, grey suede gloves, black watch cap, woman’s suit jacket, white brassiere, “a white shirt, fashionably faded and tattered jeans, and highly polished boots.” (2) skirt, pale blue silk suit, “naked save for her white cotton anklet and white canvas shoes”, “white nylon uniform” (said to be waitresses but seems like a nurse’s), “pink polyester uniform”

On The Roof: (1) oxford gray suit, gray homburg, black wingtip shoes, black socks, black garters, white shirt, dark blue tie, gold tie clasp. (2) dark suit, white shirt, carefully knotted tie; blouse, skirt, half-slip, brassiere.

A Familiar Woman: (1) purple velvet dress, black gabardine suit, shorts, suede jacket, long flowered skirt; “would change his clothes prior to making drinks”; “refuse to remember owning or wearing these clothes.” (2) skirt, blouse.

In the Diner: (1) pink polyester uniform, white crepe-soled shoes; (2) navy blue overcoat, snap-brim fedora, silk scarf snow-white with blue polka dots, “black dress with golden things on it”,

Happy Days: (1) none. (2) hat, silk scarf, skirt.

Claire: (1) none. (2) slip (taken on and off), hospital gowns, paper slippers that say mickie and minnie, blouse, pumps, “New York clothes”.

Rockefeller Center: (1) black velour dress, silver stitching on the bodice, stockings (2) grey homburg, camel hair polo coat, snap brim felt hat, Adam hats.

Brothers: (1) pajamas and overcoat, stained homburg. (2) “cheap one-button lounge suits”, hipster sunglasses, purple tie.

A Small Adventure: (1) an expensive dark suit that needed cleaning and pressing, a white shirt with a dirty collar, panties, slip; (2) underwear, “she didn’t, at least, have to get dressed.”

Another Small Adventure: (1) no underwear but hat and scarf (2) “office clothes” dark suit, white blouse.

Cold Supper: (1) shoes, shoe laces, housecoat, onyx and gold earings, best underwear, silk stockings (carefully gartered), overcoat, taught black dress with gold threading, persian lamb coat. (2) stained housecoat, tattered stockings, “sweaty dirty dress”.

Pearl Grey Homburg: (1) pearl grey homburg (like new), oxford grey shadow stripe suit (2) pearl grey homburg (soiled), long flowered skirt, “her clothes, of course, would all be gone,” heavy black woolen sweater, Hanes briefs (unopened), “they often shared each other’s clothes, even shoes and underwear,” black french garter belt and nylons, black gabardine suits, chignons.

An Apartment: (1) flower print housecoat, high-heeled pumps (times two). (2) none.

Saturday Afternoon: (1) none; (2) none.

Snow: (1) navy blue overcoat, pearl gray homburg, white silk scarf with blue polka dots; (2) black silk blouse, bright green skating costume with matching fur-trimmed tam (skirt), scarf and coat, upturned collar, dressed and undressed.

The Jungle: (1) crotch of metallic jeans, (2) shoes, adjusting, fixing, taking off clothes.

Rain: (1) black and silver evening dress that needs cleaning, wingtip shoes oozing and dissolving; (2) shoes ruined by the rain, sodden overcoats.

The Alpine: (1) scarves, “clothes”. (2) mother’s pants, skirt.

A Wake: (1) Hugo Boss or Armani suit, purple velvet dress with black silk dress, black pumps and stockings, black gabardine suit; (2) black and grey argyle socks, dark grey suit, white shirt, navy blue tie, bluchers, “articles of apparel”, black dress, badly fitting suit, purple velvet dress, skirt, little black dress.

Family dynamics

In the bedroom (1) straying husband, faithful wife, a daughter (2) straying husband, faithful wife, a son.

Success. (1) a single man, a straying wife (in an open relationship) (2) coworkers, married to other people, about to begin an affair.

Born Again. (1) a presumably straying husband and faithful wife with a daughter (2) a straying husband (with a single woman), a straying wife (in retaliation) with a single man.

Lovers (1) Woman long estranged (but not divorced) from husband, no kids, a male companion (2) Woman with a male companion who divorced her first husband, who has gone on to remarry and have three kids.

Another Story (1) Singles: a man, a friend from the past, the friend’s girlfriend at that time. (2) A trio: straying husband, wife, and daughter.

Movies: (1) a family of three from the standpoint of the grown son. (2) a “fake” family of three in the movies, (Hal, Peggy, Scotty).

Pair of Deuces: (1) old man with a son and daughter-n-law; (2) husband, wife and daughter/ husband and wife.

In Dreams: (1) a family of three, husband, wife, and son. (2) a single guy.

On The Roof: (1) father (having left his former wife and child) and new wife. (2) husband and wife.

A Familiar Woman: (1) Man and wife ( partner). (2) Husband, wife, two kids; man’s second wife; two widows.

In the Diner: (1) no relatives. (2) son, father, mother.

Happy Days: (1) no relatives. (2) father, mother, daughter / single woman.

Claire: (1) divorced man / incestuous: father, daughter, uncle. (2) single woman.

Rockefeller Center: (1) man first single then married (2) two seniors married to other people, at least one with kids

Brothers: (1) man, wife, daughter/ man, wife, daughter, son .(2) two married couples.

A Small Adventure: (1) married couple. (2) woman, son, ex-husband / married couple.

Another Small Adventure: (1) A married couple (2) single woman (maybe).

Cold Supper: (1) man, wife, son (Joey) (2) man, wife, son (Charlie).

Pearl Gray Homburg: (1) father, wife, daughter, son; (2) single people.

An Apartment: (1) unknown, single woman. (2) unknown, old man.

Saturday Afternoon: (1) old man with grown son (dating) and daughter (apparently single) and a teenaged grandson (wife/ mother absent); (2) old man with son (engaged), daughter (one guesses, divorced), and highschool aged grandson (wife/ mother absent).

Snow: (1) mother, father, son; (2) (unknown)

The Jungle: (1) single man (unknown); (2) married woman.

Rain: (1) dreamer (2) fathers and sons.

The Alpine (1) father, mother, son (suggested); (2) mother, father, son.

A WAKE: (1) single woman; (2) man, his girlfriend, ex-wife, her husband,

ngrams: Captain Ahab,Ichabod Crane
ngrams: Song of Roland
ngrams: Citizens United,Roe v. Wade
ngrams: Euripides,Aeschylus,Sophocles,Aristophanes

I’ve chose “Chance Sweepings” as the title of what I’m somewhat improbably calling the first volume of my autobiography because (1) it evokes what has been my main means of employment during my prime working years, and (2) suggests something of the shambolic, desultory character of the work itself, which, at least as of this writing, doesn’t go anywhere, and resembles more than anything a sort of collage or pile.

There was also, however, a recollection of a Heraclitus fragment that involved a ‘heap of random sweepings’ and I now see, after a superficial investigation into it, that there is significant dispute about what Heraclitus said and meant. The fragment is 124, which I recall as being something like:

“The most beautiful order in the world is a heap of random sweepings”

(You can find various versions of that translation about) And I’ve always taken it to be a statement that Nature’s order is capable of greater beauty than the sort we humans create (or in terms of human creations, that the unplanned will be the most beautiful, as is sometimes the case, for example, with city blocks). But this paper from 1941 reveals that considerable revision of the source text for the quote (a Theophrastus work) is needed to arrive at that formulation; and that the unrevised version, which says something quite different, makes sense if taken in its context.

I will not give its version of the translation of the quote, which is not nearly so pithy as the above, and which I don’t in fact understand very well, but the paper itself is quite short: Note on Heraclitus, Fragment 124, John B. Mcdiarmid.

Came across in Chandler this example of a sentence structure I don’t care for and seem to come across fairly frequently (The Campaigns of Napoleon, pp. 594):

Indeed, the pleasures of the chase proved considerably more eventful and certainly more dangerous for senior personnel than many a battle field.

I want this to instead read something like:

Indeed, the pleasures of the chase proved considerably more eventful and certainly more dangerous for senior personnel than the occupational perils of the battle field.

It’s not the lack of an exactly parallel structure per se that bothers me, but the logical problem that Chandler seems to want to contrast the dangers of a leisure activity (hunting) with the dangers of an occupational activity (battle) yet winds up comparing the dangers of the pleasures of a leisure activity with the dangers of an occupational activity. This seems to me not just non-parallel in form but also a little unequal in content.

But then I will think of “austere composition” and of how I must really prefer Chandler’s sentence to my own, as being more natural —

(The austere style) does not in the least shrink from using frequently harsh sound-clashings which jar on the ear ; like blocks of building stone that are laid together unworked, blocks that are not square and smooth, but preserve their natural roughness and irregularity.

And more:

its clauses (are) not parallel in structure, or sound, nor slaves to a rigid sequence, but noble, brilliant, free.

In the end, we know exactly what Chandler meant, which is the precondition for writing a post of this kind.

A cold-blooded dedication to stopping climate change means having the willingness to step away from our comfortable shibboleths, accept the criticism that comes with that, and place ourselves squarely behind a plan that has a chance of working. Building out renewable energy will get us part of the way there, but we’ve got more to do and not much time to do it.…We Need a Massive Climate War Effort—Now