Tuesday, November 1. 2005
A wide-ranging interview with Harold Bloom The great Bloom discusses himself, aging, literature, wisdom, and, of course, Shakespeare: "He (Hamlet) is simply not the nicest guy in the world. He is as much a villain as he is a hero. He transcends these categories as he transcends any category. He knows too well, he understands too well, he has thought his way to the end of thought. As I read Shakespeare, even though he is humane, he has thought his way into the abyss, into nothingness. Even though Hamlet moves us because there are intimations of transcendence, nevertheless they are of... And I think Shakespeare knows it. I think it's the darkest literary work I have ever read and its implications are shattering." Read entire interview.
Our second installment of Nathan's diary: Click the Aliyah Diary category on upper left to learn what this is about. (Got to remind him to translate all of these Hebrew words into English, in parentheses, for us goyim.) Oct 14, 2005: Yom Kippur and Ariel
A seven year old's comment touches me and makes Yom kippur, although
I must wait until break-fast at her house to have the day fulfilled.
How to picture Yom Kippur in Ra'anana? the streets are empty of moving cars, instead filled with joyful children on bikes, rollerblading, playing. Some adults too are on wheels. I split my time between Kinor David and Shivtei Israel, sneaking off for a nap at 1 and missing the reading of Job (which I read by myself). Kinor David is nonstop praying from 730 am to a bit after 600 pm. At Kinor, they have put my Hebrew name on the white plastic chair I am to occupy: Naftali Sheinberg, in Hebrew. I do believe that for generations, my predecessors had prayed to see their names written like this in a land like this. But, a bit too much religion for me at least in one day. A bit more comfortable at Shivtei, despite the choir; Danny Beller the rabbi has an insouciant sense of humor, and I can slip out without being discovered. I recall being in a choir at age ten with Michael Osband's father; given a short solo, I warbled
the tears into it, singing to the women's section. Later, at break, Osband's pere dumps on me for stealing the show. I wasn't naive about this; I knew that I would sing into the hearts of the women. Perhaps like Amichai, I found the mehitza more enticing than foreboding.
I also thought about the Torah and one haftorah readings for these holidays: Rosh Hashanah starts with the birth of Isaac, and next reading is about Abraham's' near murder of his only son. The word's are short, powerful, Hebraic nomad language. I picture Sergio Leone, who did the Eastwood Spaghetti westerns, doing the laconic portrayal of these pre-cowboy laconic guys in desolate Beer-sheva. God: "Lech lecha", the same words he commands Abraham some 30 years earlier to leave his father's house, journey 1,000 or so "klicks" from fertile Crescent to desolate Beer-sheva basin, God now uses to command Abraham to kill his only son with Sarah (as he once told him to send his only, only soon, Ishmael into the wilderness with his mother). And Abraham's response: the obedient, "Hineni," a Steppin Fetchit kind
of, "Here I is, Boss." Then the reading on Yom Kippur: after God kills Aaron's two sons for the sin of ..... getting too close to God, He goes about business, telling Moses to tell Aaron how he needs to go into the mitbe'ach, the holy sanctuary, only after special cleansing of body and soul and the sacrifice of two rams (I think, rams); one to be butchered near the alter, the other sent into Azalzel, the wilderness which I believe shares a zipcode with where Ishmael was sent. Or at least the same ecosystem. Also, to sprinkle a dab of blood on the horns of the altar (Aaron shouldn't forget whom these two rams are a substitute for). I gather that some of the atmosphere of the mitbe'ach was a charnel house and the Cohanim, well, shochetim.
Continue reading "Guest Author: Aliyah Diary, Part 2"
Monday, October 31. 2005
 Miramichi Inn
A group of Maggie's Farm friends recently returned from a week at the above, with nothing but praise for the lodging and the sporting opportunities, despite having had lousy weather. It's a definite re-do for next October. They donated a spot for the conservation charity we support (Ducks Unlimited) too. Merci bien, Andre. Miramichi Inn.
Bird Hunting Kevins has a fine catalog which focuses on high-quality Southern bird hunting gear. Also, never underestimate LL Bean's hunting gear - it's how the company got started. And to save money, it's a good idea to check Sierra Trading Post for your gear needs, first. You will make some impulse buys there, and keep the economy rolling. They have some good deals on Aigle wellies right now. Got to ask The Barrister to do a piece on wellies...he is the Wellie Maven.
Friday, October 28. 2005
Making Music vs. Listening to Recordings It's about time that someone wrote a book about the effects of recorded music on music, and the way we listen to music, who makes the music, and the way music is performed. Robert Philip has done it: Performing Music in the Age of Recording. From a NYROB review by Rosen: "Before 1900 in Europe and America, it was at home that music was most often experienced, by family members who played some instrument or sang, and by, willingly or unwillingly, the rest of the family and friends. (In Western society among the lower middle class and upward, most music was made by women, who were generally expected to learn to cook, sew, and play the piano. The majority of professional musicians may have been male, like the majority of professional cooks, but most of the cooking and piano play-ing was the lot of women. Music, like breakfast and dinner, was part of life at home.) More exceptionally, music could be heard in some public places—concert hall, opera house, or church. The public realm was essentially a complement to the private. It set standards and added glamour. By the twenty-first century, all this has changed. Both private and public music are being displaced by recordings. Few people make music themselves at home anymore. Because of more cramped living space, it is now inconvenient to house a piano, a once indispensable piece of furniture for any household with even modest pretensions to culture and the instrument that for more than a century was the mainstay of classical music. Outside the big cities, live public music is disappearing as well. Most of the smaller towns that used to have a classical concert series have lost that, and if they are too insignificant to sponsor a popular rock group event, their public music must be confined to clubs. Even live symphony and opera broadcasts have been largely eliminated. At home today we play records. Classical and pop radio stations play records. And often ballet companies and theatrical productions play records in place of hiring musicians. Robert Philip's Performing Music in the Age of Recording is a brilliant analysis of how this has affected performance style. It is also incidentally, for much of the time, the best account I know of how musical life in general has changed since the introduction of vinyl and long-playing records in the 1950s, which made it possible for records to invade everyone's home." Read entire review here.
Thursday, October 27. 2005
 The Story of the Ford Edsel
Watching Ford and GM struggling today brings to mind the story of the Ford Edsel. The Edsel story is a case study in how not to develop and introduce a new product. That's not exactly the problem that the big American motor companies have today - it's bad contracts and their turning themselves into de-facto finance and healthcare corporations - but they have not been wise for many years. Detroit is suffering: Click here: RealClearPolitics - Commentary - Public Sector Unions Still Living in a Dream World by Tom Bray From a piece by A. Young: The early 1950s were a euphoric period for automakers. In 1955 Americans bought a record 7,169,908 new cars. This auto-buying frenzy was just one aspect of the postwar economy that Vance Packard described in The Status Seekers, published in 1959 1 In Packard's view, automobiles evolved from mere transportation vehicles just after World War II to symbols of middle-class affluence in the first half of the 1950s. The V-8 engine reigned supreme and horsepower was the watchword. In this heady market atmosphere Ford Motor Company conceived a new car that they hoped would help the company surpass General Motors in overall market share.
Read entire.
Wednesday, October 26. 2005
Tomato vs. Vinegar, etc. To us in the Northeast, the barbecue wars of the South can seem like quaintly endearing rivalries - until you experience two things: 1. the true intensity and competitiveness of the regional barbecue wars (see Instapundit) and, 2. the total lusciousness of each one of these forms of commingled fat, smoke and meat. I hesitate to state that I prefer the Carolina-style pulled pork to the others, but I've never had a barbecue I didn't like. The pulled-pig I had in Kentucky may have been the best, a whole hog smoked in a freshly-dug hole in the ground for about 24 hours. You yank hunks of meat off the hog with your hands like a cave-man. Our red-state readers hardly need a basic lesson in the regional barbecues, and in pits vs. smokers, and dry rubs vs wet sauce, or even pork vs the blasphemous Texas beef brisket, but I needed a primer, especially after a conversation last week about vinegar-based sauce vs. tomato-based - North Carolina's famous east-west division. A barbecue primer here. Another piece with recipes here. Hungry already. Too bad this stuff is so scarce in the Northeast. I've had enough sushi for a lifetime, and the very thought of more of it is nauseating: from now on, I will call it "bait," not food. I think I just liked the wasabi and the ginger.
Knowing and not-knowing It is common for people to both know and yet not know something at the same time. Sometimes we call it "not noticing," or "avoidance" or "denial"; sometimes we call it "repression" or "forgetting,"and sometimes we call it "ignoring reality." Sometimes we must call it plain "stupid." There are many levels of "not knowing," including the always-challenging "not knowing that you're not knowing" (as in the charming Elvis ditty here: I Forgot to Remember to Forget Her. ) There's usually a pretty good reason for "not knowing" something we subliminally know, or suspect: it's almost always to avoid anxiety, worry, pain, loss, shame, guilt, weakness, inconvenience, conflict with others, conflict within ourselves, and other sorts of discomforts. When we refuse to know what we know, and we act on our "not-knowing", it usually works out badly. Still, it happens all the time, to the best of us. And we all know far more than we want to be aware of about ourselves, and about what goes on around us. "No brain, no pain". When I was in my analysis, which all psychoanalysts must undergo to cleanse the scalpel, so to speak, my analyst used to refer to "un-thought thoughts," which I find to be a very valuable concept in life and in my work as a shrink. Such unthought-thoughts can effect us in all sorts of sneaky ways, beneath our awareness or beyond our willingness to confront them directly. They effect us because there is ultimately no escape from the ideas in our heads, except death. Or maybe good therapy. But there are many such thoughts that we need to know, and need to face, to be fully in reality. Still, we all waste energy avoiding some of our thoughts. I advise people to sometimes turn off their car radios, put down the book, don't have that second Scotch, step away from that computer monitor (but not Maggie's Farm), turn off the boob tube, listen to those thoughts that drop down in the middle of the night - and confront them. It's not fun, but it is worthwhile: we have a lot to tell ourselves, if we would only listen. It's analogous to prayer: sometimes we need to shut the hell up and listen. Therefore it is fascinating to me, but not surprising, to see that there is a defineable neurophysiological correlate to such common occurences: why not blame it on your brain and let yourself off the hook? Science Daily.
Tuesday, October 25. 2005
Hedgehogs and Foxes What are the chances of two articles in one week both referring to Archilochus and Isiah Berlin writing on Tolstoy's philosophy invoking the hedgehog/fox idea upon the intellectual world? From Thomas Albert Howard's review of John Lukacs Book: A Hedgehog and a Fox, Remembered Past: On History, Historians, and Historical Knowledge: "Invoking an obscure line from the Greek poet Archilochus, Isaiah Berlin made famous
in an essay on Tolstoy’s philosophy of history the distinction between the hedgehog
and the fox. “The fox knows many things,” Archilochus wrote, “but the hedgehog
knows one big thing.” Some intellectuals are foxes, in Berlin’s interpretation, capable
of mastering “scattered or diffused [ideas], moving on many levels, seizing upon the essence of a vast variety of experiences.” Intellectual hedgehogs, by contrast,
“relate everything to a single central vision, one system less or more coherent,” which
derives from “a single, universal, organizing principle.” Part fox and part hedgehog,
always intellectually engaging, often unpredictable, John Lukacs bears witness to
the usefulness of Berlin’s distinction—and its limitations." Read the rest: "http://www.mmisi.org/ir/40_02/howard.pdf This piece from last week's Art section of the New York Times: "The philosopher Isaiah Berlin famously divided writers and thinkers into foxes and hedgehogs. Foxes are interested in many things, hedgehogs in one. Foxes move from one problem to another. Hedgehogs dig deep. Dante and Proust were hedgehogs. Molière and Pushkin were foxes. Einstein was a hedgehog. Shakespeare was a fox." Elizabeth Murray is a hedgehog. Stirring Up a Commotion on Canvas - New York Times 
Friday, October 21. 2005
The Origin of Music Fascinating subject, fascinating review of a doubtless fascinating, speculative book by Mithen on the origins of music: "...late in evolutionary history, as pressures for complex social living increased, our own true, compositional language emerged from Hmmmm. Sentences were now made up of words, which in turn were comprised of infinitely-recombinable segments. Once this transition was completed, what was left of Hmmmm? Primarily, music. No longer needed for daily Hmmmm communication, music developed for others uses, first and foremost in the supernatural realm: “With the emergence of religious belief, music became the principal means of communicating with the gods.” " Read entire scholarly review by King
Thursday, October 20. 2005
What were the Irish Sweepstakes? I know they were a big deal in NY through the 50s - illegal gambling but fully tolerated by the mainly Irish law enforcement of NYC. Answer here.
Gun Control: Truth and Myth The Gun Protection Bill will pass. By Stossel, a fine piece: "I wanted to know why the laws weren't working, so I asked the experts. "I'm not going in the store to buy no gun," said one maximum-security inmate in New Jersey. "So, I could care less if they had a background check or not." "There's guns everywhere," said another inmate. "If you got money, you can get a gun." Talking to prisoners about guns emphasizes a few key lessons. First, criminals don't obey the law. (That's why we call them "criminals.") Second, no law can repeal the law of supply and demand. If there's money to be made selling something, someone will sell it." Read entire.
Wednesday, October 19. 2005
Something Sweet from Africa The music of Youssou N'Dour. I own some and highly recommend. Review here.
I found some interesting statistics: 25% of search engine requests are for porn.
12% of websites are porn sites.
8% of all emails are porn-related (2.5 billion/day)
Number of websites offering illegal child porn: 116,000
Adults admitting to an internet sexual addiction: 10%
Male/female breakdown of porn site visitors: 72%/28%
People admitting to visiting porn sites at work: 20% Alas, no blogger can compete with the power of raw animal instinct, can they? One can only envy their website traffic. More numbers and stats here. Interesting numbers, accurate or not, but can anything be said about them, other than that there are lots of people who are looking to have their sexual imaginations stimulated in a fairly effortless way? Which is a true "Duh." Depending on one's degree of mental inhibition (which is highly variable from person to person), people commonly and routinely experience every sort of sexual fantasy, including the bizarre, deviant, uncomfortable, and immoral, so, in a sense, the brain is the ultimate porn site as decreed by the amoral laws of biology. (As the old joke goes: What is the dirtiest part of a person? The brain. Or the modern version: The brain is the primary erogenous zone.) Is inhibition of sexual thoughts and fantasy good or bad, healthy or unhealthy? Neither - these are just personality differences and differences of choice (in the sense of choice of what thoughts one is willing to welcome and to entertain), generally speaking. There is a lot to be said for "thought control," but only when it is self-administered. Mind you, we are talking about fantasy here - not action. Turning fantasy into action is an entirely different subject, because many, if not most, ideas and images are best left in the mental realm where consequences are few (other than shame or guilt about one's wicked or wierd thoughts, which is also normal), assuming that one has a modicum of post-adolescent judgement, maturity, and self-control. After all, we aren't ordinary animals and we can make choices. But enjoying porn isn't action, really. Do sexual thoughts occupy and distract people's minds more than they like to admit in "studies"? For sure. Is it "sick" to use porn sites as a fantasy aid? No, not intrinsically, but if any human behavior is compulsive, including golf or chess, it could be a problem or a symptom. Can it be a poor substitute for real human interaction? Sure, but not everyone is a South Beach party-gal or -guy - thank God. Is it harmless fun? Probably, except when it's predatory, of course, which is not only evil but can be illegal... and that last group of 20% had better watch out - they could lose their jobs if Big Brother is watching. Is porn a little sad and lonely? Sure. Does it feel a little sleazy? Sure - it feels like slumming to most people. Is porn morally and spiritually pure from a Christian standpoint? Well, that's outside my jurisdiction today, but it's not an unreasonable subject for a lively discussion. (Photo: If I could remember where I found that photo, I'd credit the clever person. All that the keyboard lacks is a Maggie's Farm button.)
Tuesday, October 18. 2005
Hey, Bird Dog, You must think you have some fancy intellectual blog for the elite and deep thinkers, etc., but let me tell you that you are just dreaming. The oppressed, victimized masses of America don't care about E.H. Gombrich or fly fishing or Iraq or chain saws or birds or the Constitution. They just want some free health care and some financial security and some retirement and gay marriage and free organic government food supplies and free gas and electric and cable, while you go on and on about freedom and the wonders of life and creation, in your biased and undemocratic and wacko Christian way. People like you are the problem with this country and the reason America is such a mess while your "evil Cuba" continues to be a wonderful place to live in from what I hear, and it's what we are trying to re-create here in Vermont. When we Dems take over from you Nazis we will tax your types into the stone age, and that will put an end to your enjoyment of "God's creation." You Maggie's Farmers are just a bunch of self-satisfied oil-intoxicated Jesus-loving war-mongering fast-living capitalist pigs. Anonymous, in Burlington, VT Dear Anonymous, Ouch. You got me where it hurts. Give me a few minutes to re-think all of my beliefs and opinions. But, while I am doing so, why don't you get a job? You emailed me at 10:23 this morning...did you just wake up? Sincerely, Bird Dog (Editor Dog-in-Chief)
Bad Calls in baseball, and in life From Cafe Hayek: Perfect justice means an infinite number of cameras with an infinite number of umpires conferring for an infinite amount of time to get it right. And you would have to examine every play not just dramatic ones. That is not an ideal, it's a curse. It is the same force that partly explains our litigiousness and regulatory zeal. Every inequality must be redressed. Taken to an extreme, such a worldview inevitably puts more power in the hands of the arbiters (lawyers and politicians and umpires) at the expense of the other participants, including the fans. It also changes the incentives. It encourages participants to put in effort at pleasing or avoiding the arbiters in ways that are unhealthy.
Read entire. He is right, of course, but do not ever discount the enjoyable righteous indignation in booing a bad call. That's part of the fun of the game.
Monday, October 17. 2005
A Dumb Old Canada Joke In the midst of trying to decide what to name Canada, at the time of nationhood - well, commonwealth-hood, no consensus could be reached. New England? New France? Quipihana? The Nice Country? Ducksville? Dullsville? Al Sharaaf? People's Republic of Nouveau England? So the decision was reached to draw letters from Dick's hat. Here's how it went: C, eh? N, eh? D, eh?, etc. And speaking of Canada, and not joking, did you know that all of Canada has gone to bilingual - except - guess where?
Quebec. Seulement Francais.
To you PC guilty and feckless Canadian liberals: Bienvenu a Canada. You got rolled again, suckers.
 The Connetquot River
See photo of a stretch of the river posted yesterday. Had a fine introduction to the famed Connetquot River on Long Island, NY, by my dear pal N on Sunday, at an outing with the extraordinary but very low-profile Anglers' Club of New York. This unique stream, about one hour from downtown Manhattan, is an oasis of peace in the middle of development-run-amuck suburban Long Island, and runs from the relatively stream-less central part of the island down to Great South Bay and the Atlantic Ocean through a splendid and wild 3400-acre park, It is known for its sea-run Brown and Rainbow trout which can achieve impressive size. But it is also stocked, of course, as is every trout stream in the Northeast, by necessity. The fishing is organized along English-style beats to which you are assigned, by reservation. High waders are essential. Fly-fishing only, barbless hooks only, and mostly catch-and-release. We did bring dinner home, though - the big Brown, in photo, who barely fit in a net. As a truly casual fly-fisherman, with borrowed gear, seven hours of casting of all varieties raised my level of technique quite a bit, which isn't saying much. Is it wrist, or arm, or just "feel"? Well, in the end, everything is just "feel", I guess. The wine at lunch seemed to help, but the week of heavy rain in New England did not, as the river was overflowing its banks, and the color of strong English tea from the tannin so that when you were almost up to your armpits in the water, you had to watch your step by feeling your way with your feet through the October-cold water so as not to trip over a submerged log, and thus end your day - or your life. But challenging is always a good thing. Too much easiness not good for Indian brave. We did catch and release quite a few nice fish, despite the challenges. And how wonderful it is to spend a day literally immersed in God's creation. Baptism by trout.
Sunday, October 16. 2005
 A Manitoba country church, up Rte. 6 quite a piece from Winnipeg (SUV in motion - or hand in motion, maybe).
Saturday, October 15. 2005
Michael Yon We, like most of the blogosphere, are impressed by Michael Yon. His latest post is about how one becomes an "embed" in Iraq, and what his life in Iraq is like, as an independent reporter who is willing to approach danger. Here.
Friday, October 14. 2005
Stock Tip Many are giving the same advice: Buy Walmart. It will not be this cheap in five years. Went into my first Walmart last week, in Winnipeg, of all places. Jammed with people. Shelves full of cheap but useful crap from China. Tons of cheerful employees. Not my cup of tea, but the concept obviously works. Yes, I am adding to my ownership of Walmart, based on the lengths of the check-out lines. Gas and oil will peak and settle - not to worry. Markets do work, in time.
How many times? How many times have I done our readers a great favor and saved them tons of hard-earned money by letting them know about Sierra Trading Post, a wonderful deep-discount source for high-quality outdoor, outdoor sports, and hunting gear, plus clothing, winter underwear, gloves, boots, and shoes, and everything else? When the bug for gear and for stuff hits you, this is where to go for a healthy release which will not break the budget. Heck, what is more American than shopping for good cheap stuff when that mean old spiritual emptiness comes to call? Go ahead, give in to the impulse, and keep the economy running strong. (This is not an advt., and I am not an investor.)
George Carlin on New Orleans:
"Been sitting here with my ass in a wad, wanting to speak out about the
bullshit going on in New Orleans. For the people of New Orleans... First
we would like to say, Sorry for your loss. With that said, Let' s go
through a few hurricane rules: (Unlike an earthquake, we know it's coming)
#1. A mandatory evacuation means just that...Get the hell out. Don't blame
the Government after they tell you to go. If they hadn't said anything, I
can see the argument. But they said get out... so if you didn't, it's your
fault, not theirs. (We don't want to hear it, even if you don't have a car,
you can get out.)
#2. If there is an impending emergency, stock up on water and
non-perishables. If you didn't do this, it's not the Government's fault
you're unprepared and starving.
#2a. If you run out of food and water, find a store that has some.
(Remember, shoes, TV's, DVD's and CD's are not edible. Leave them alone.)
#2b. If the local store has been looted of food and water, leave your
neighbor's TV and stereo alone. (See #2a) They worked hard to get their
stuff. Just because they were smart enough to leave during a mandatory
evacuation doesn't give you the right to take their stuff...it's theirs, not
yours.
#3. If someone comes in to help you, don't shoot at them and then complain
no one is helping you. I'm not getting shot to help save some dumbass that
didn't leave when told to do so.
#4. If you are in your house that is completely under water, your belongings
are probably too far gone for anyone to want. If someone does want them,
let them have them and hopefully they'll die in the filth. Just leave!
It's New Orleans, for crying out loud - so find a voodoo warrior and put a
curse on them.)
#5. My tax money should not pay to rebuild a 2 million dollar house, a
sports stadium or a floating casino. Also, my tax money shouldn't go to
rebuild a city that was built below sea level. You wouldn't build your
house on quicksand would you? If you want to live below sea-level, do your
country some good and join the Navy's submarine force.
#6. Regardless of what the Poverty Pimps Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton want
you to believe, The US Government didn't create the Hurricane as a way to
eradicate the black people of New Orleans; (Neither did Russia as a way to
destroy America). The US Government didn't cause the global warming that
allegedly caused the hurricane (We've been coming out of an ice age for over
a million years).
#7. The government isn't responsible for giving you anything. This is the
land of the free and the home of the brave, but you gotta work for what you
want. McDonalds and Wal-Mart are always hiring, so get a damn job and stop
spooning off the people who are actually working for a living. President
Kennedy said it best..."Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what
you can do for your country."
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