We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
Took Mrs. BD to the Balanchine/Stravinsky program with the New York City Ballet last weekend. One of her Christmas presents. I thought it was a heck of a show, even though I am neither a balletomane nor a Stravinsky fan (Mrs. BD is a dance fan, regardless of style or tradition.) I do find Balanchine's style more accessible to me than classical ballet or modern dance.
NYC is the world center of dance for a good reason - tons of fans, and not all gays by any means. NYCB is almost always sold out, and there are ways to get reasonably-priced tickets.
The lobby of the David Koch theater last weekend, with cool balloon decor:
Costco on a Saturday morning is an American place. I made my every 5-6-month pilgrimage yesterday. Of course it was busy, and filled with people of every size (including an obese woman in an electric cart whose equally-obese aide could barely keep up with the cart), age, class, color - and every language known. Lots of cute little kids or all sorts of cute races.
All filling their baskets with their preferred products of American abundance at reasonable prices and in high volume. It's a kick to go for staples, but 2-3 times per year is enough for me. Mrs. BD gives me a list, but I do whatever I want.
Heard at the cheese place there, a mom to a little girl: "Honey, let's get Dad some good cheeses. He loves cheese. He's like a mouse." Of course I make some impulse buys, like their Kerry Gold Irish cheese. Good stuff, like cheddar but better than cheddar. And a pack of their amazing ribeyes of course. $50 for a 5-pack of thick and fatty ribeyes? Since Mrs. BD and I share one ribeye for a supper, that's a $5 delicious and protein-packed supper for this couple which lifts weights and exercises daily. If you exercise hard, you need that nutritional fat. Nothing to do with that silly cholesterol nonsense.
Word to the wise: their house brand (Kirkland) extra virgin olive oil is as good as anything anywhere.
It's a complicated topic. I know that I was fortunate, or some might term it "privileged", to be raised in a stable middle or upper-middle class two-parent family with plenty of travel, worldly exposure, and ivy League education. I had parents who set a good example for responsibility, affection, discipline, and self-discipline. I was also advantaged by an IQ over 100 (with which only 50% are blessed) and a fully-functional, somewhat-athletic body.
I know that I have never made the most of these gifts, but have made a good life given circumstances, chance, opportunities, and life's exigencies. I had choices. I had college classmates die of drug overdoses. Character traits and talents are far more important in managing life than IQ. I am bright enough, but without special talents, and lacking in a high level of ambition. I just like to be content and to pursue my various interests in a serene environment.
Had I been born to a single crack-addicted mother in Baltimore, God knows where my life might have gone financially and otherwise. Likely not too well, because it was only external discipline which kept me on productive tracks. I needed that because, despite some innate curiosity, I am someone who would always prefer sports, fishing, hunting, etc. than sitting in a classroom or office. Since I do like to make money, I might have been a drug-dealer although, being me, I might have had conscience issues with that. Who knows?
Nothing in life is distributed fairly, especially parents and genetics. In my case, I credit my parents for making the efforts and sacrifices to set us kids up as best they could. Doing the same for my own offspring has been my main goal and satisfaction. At the same time, my life has been rich in many other non-financial ways.
Russel Brand shows how to do a serious and earnest interview based on his own curiosity. In other words, he doesn't want to make his own points. Wants to learn. An exciting conversation, I feel, and rather deep for Youtube.
I like his point that learning new things is painful because it kills something in yourself. I do not know what they mean when talking about equality, though. What is equality?
The great cartoonist Roz Chast put her campy irony aside to produce a heartfelt and mostly hilarious cartoon book about the aging and decline of her parents. OK, lots of gallows humor.
If you have or have had declining parents, it's required reading and you will recognize everything except Brooklyn (unless you grew up in Brooklyn - the 7th largest city in the USA if it were still its own city).
"This commencement address will never be given, because graduation speakers are supposed to offer encouragement and inspiration. That's not what you need. You need a warning."
Eloquent. Extraordinary. Timeless. Paradigm-shifting. Classic. Six decades after it first appeared, Leonard Read’s “I, Pencil” evokes such adjectives of praise. Rightfully so, for this little essay opens eyes and minds among people of all ages. Many first-time readers never see the world quite the same again.
After last weekend's exciting trip to the Super Bowl, I was having some conversations with a good friend about our various superstitions. Invariably, big games include a conversation about how we're going to be managing ourselves, or how we behaved.. I've never hid, nor have I pretended to not have, my superstitions. They are a part of how I enjoy the game.
I told a workmate, prior to leaving, that I was seriously considering not attending since my nieces felt I was a jinx. After all, the team did quite well with me lying on the floor in front of my TV, why change what works? He laughed and said "You're the most rational person I know. I had no idea you were so superstitious. You do know you have no impact on the outcome of the game, right?" I looked at him and said "Maybe I don't. Maybe." Then I smiled and gave him a nod. Of course I have no impact. But I'll never believe I don't.
In 1997, I traveled to Scottsdale with friends to watch Syracuse play Kansas State in the Fiesta Bowl. Syracuse took an early lead, relinquished it, and made a strong comeback in the second quarter. Things looked pretty good. I decided to go to the bathroom, and it was all downhill from there. My good friend was with me, and he explained to me my little trip was the problem. Obviously, I had to take care of business before the game starts, and just deal with it after that. Over the years, we've developed a good repertoire of what works and what doesn't. In 2003, when Syracuse won the Men's Basketball National Championship, I was communicating with him every step of the way. No missteps could take place on the part of anyone in our group, and none did.
Rule 1 Stand up straight with your shoulders back Rule 2 Treat yourself like you would someone you are responsible for helping Rule 3 Make friends with people who want the best for you Rule 4 Compare yourself with who you were yesterday, not with who someone else is today Rule 5 Do not let your children do anything that makes you dislike them Rule 6 Set your house in perfect order before you criticize the world Rule 7 Pursue what is meaningful (not what is expedient) Rule 8 Tell the truth – or, at least, don’t lie Rule 9 Assume that the person you are listening to might know something you don’t Rule 10 Be precise in your speech Rule 11 Do not bother children when they are skateboarding. Rule 12 Pet a cat when you encounter one on the street
I enjoy them greatly. It's like being back in college, except that his thinking is so far-ranging that it doesn't really fit in a syllabus. OK, he gets minor things wrong sometimes but so does everybody. One heck of a talker, and it's a delight to listen to a genius talker.
One of my favorite Petersonisms is "The university should be the most intellectually unsafe and dangerous place in the world." Right, same as church. Another: "You can't fix your own car and you've never held a job but you think you can fix something as complex as society?" I have found a few things which have been useful refreshments to my own thinking in Peterson's rigorously systematic approach to topics, so here they are:
1. His focus on "levels of analysis." He often says "It depends on which level of analysis you subject this to."
2. His insistence on multivariate analysis of data. Yes, that is scientific but civilians often don't think that way. We civilians find it easier to think "One cause, one effect."
3. His confidence and comfort in the ideas of the transcendent and of the ineffable.
4. His repeatedly asserting the role of "framing" and "narrative" in perception and thought. Presenting people with new frames is threatening and disturbing. It is something that Psychologists and philosophers do for a living.
5. His talking about Logos, the Word, at the beginning, which creates order out of chaos. The world is made of meaning, not matter. Meaning illuminates the world. "Let there be light."
6. "Abstraction is sometimes more useful and real than material reality. Look at the power of numbers."
7. His "tragic" view of humanity: We are weak, flawed, ugly, short-lived, malevolent, foolish, and live in or with suffering - but we aspire for the stars, in our own ways, nonetheless. Or we do not.
Do you find his talks illuminating and, if so, how? Put in the Comments, please.
Here'a a ten year-old Peterson talk on art, dance, chess, and music. For a master of words ("The divine gift"), the guy has huge admiration for things that can not be put into words, meaning beyond reason:
A somewhat disparaging article says Peterson’s been described as “the stupid man’s smart person,” which is a good enough euphemism for saying “effective public intellectual.” It's because he preaches "Count your blessings and get yourself together" rather than social change.
However, he is a polymath and speaks on all sorts of subjects including what seems to be his favorite theme: myth and religion. He is not a political conservative, as far as I can tell. He does believe in accepting facts and truth, though, which can sound conservative these days, and he questions everything. Also, he detests victimology as a psychological cancer.
For some strange reason, the destination that formed in my mind for this shopping excursion was “CostCo.” A vague mention of a friend about the “great deals on small televisions” put it in my mind like a BuyMe earworm. This small mental disorder was even stranger since the last thing I need in my life is another, smaller television. On second thought, the absence of a real need was probably why I really wanted one. In America, as noted above, if you don’t need it, you gotta have it.
On the border between the two areas was a vast shopping mall in which both the hamburger- and organic, gluten-free-bread-eating classes, worried about the state of their bowels in thirty years’ time, were catered for, though the mall mainly attracted the typical British shopper, that is to say insolvent in pursuit of the unnecessary.
These wonderful guys miss the extent to which shopping is recreational for many people. Don't despise the recreational shoppers. Looking at stuff and buying stuff can be a lifestyle. I think it has been thus since the dawn of urbanism. Or even before that. Much as I hate shopping (including going to the market for bread, cookies, and vegetables), I find the sheer abundance of Costco to be a real kick. So you go home with 4 months worth of toilet paper. That's not a bad thing.
I think Sapolsky is a smart Harvard professor, but by having an ax to grind here he makes countless logical and factual errors. I do not have time to go through them one by one.
That is a deep psychological truth. The deep psyche has no sense of time. Memories, for example, can affect us as if they were happening today. ("effect" and "affect" always challenge my grammatical memory.)
My topic however, is the internet. This thing has become a gigantic repository of everything, and it is all basically accessible to anybody. Even the FBI can't really "lose" old emails. There is no need to get paranoid about it because nobody gives a damn about most of us, but it is a strange development that much of our lives have become searchable.
It's like living in a small town, where everybody knows everything that goes on and especially the secrets. How easy was it to find out about Trump's goumada?
A friend and I were discussing this over drinks the other night, and we agreed that we were glad that the shameful things and misdemeanors we had done in reckless youth were pre-internet. We both grew into straight-arrow adults after our careless phases, so that worked.
If anybody can find it, there was a Calvin and Hobbes toon in which Calvin as a 6 year-old (?) was documenting a false childhood for himself in case he ever decided to run for president or something. Genius. Hobbes took a photo of Calvin pretending to read a book.
A fake past is a cool idea, but how does anybody turn over a new leaf when the past is always dragged behind them? It makes it difficult to do or say stupid things, which means it makes it difficult to be normal.
The great cartoonist Roz Chast put her campy irony aside to produce a 
Nobody writes a beach-reading book with the wit and dark craziness as Carl Hiassen, but he has a new book coming: