tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-58833812026-02-14T00:52:58.873-08:00<b>To ONE OF CALIFORNIA'S DISTINGUISHED SONS, in whom THE INTERESTS OF FREEDOM, HUMANITY, and EDUCATION have found an able advocate and munificent benefactor, THIS VOLUME IS MOST RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED by his friend, THE AUTHOR.</b>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger217125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883381.post-43687373784491099412017-05-22T12:45:00.001-07:002017-05-22T12:45:18.065-07:00

Insofar as it is fun to point out the utter hypocrisy of General Flynn, presumed traitor and foreign agent,&nbsp; former cheerleader who loudly proclaimed at the Republican convention that being under FBI investigation makes one unfit for office, claiming protection of the fifth amendment and refusing to comply with a Congressional subpoena for personal papers related to said (ahem, cough cough,

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883381.post-77686664023704321182017-05-10T23:56:00.001-07:002017-05-10T23:56:43.959-07:00

Of course Trump could get away with it. Four of the past five previous Republican administrations have engaged in fairly dire Constitutional crimes (not even discussing the 2000 Presidential election) with diminishing consequences, aided in part by Republican Congressional delegations with succeedingly smaller interests in Constitutional governance and greater ones in power at any cost.I'll leave

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883381.post-2299501803857235752016-12-18T14:28:00.002-08:002016-12-18T14:28:08.939-08:00

n 1812, we were tripped into a war that did not enjoy the full support of a majority of the American polity, one that quickly turned into a disaster. The schoolbook history pretends this war was was a victory, because we happened to win the biggest and last battle of the war, which was actually fought *after* the peace treaty settling the war had been signed (thanks to communication delays

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883381.post-5971020532999096112016-02-05T10:10:00.003-08:002016-02-05T10:10:38.634-08:00

emailzheimers. The inability to find a message in your inbox you left as a reminder to yourself, due to forgetting the keywords upon which to search and dredge it up out of the archives.

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883381.post-85846880993257036932016-01-11T08:22:00.003-08:002016-01-11T08:22:58.912-08:00

David BowieThere are many eulogies for David Bowie today, and many personal reminiscences, and I cannot say that I have much to add to the discussion of his musical or cultural legacy in the broadest sense. I liked a lot of Bowie, loved some of his work (probably not yours - my favorite LP is Low, a hit-free record; I always thought “Let’s Dance” was literally a joke by Bowie, maybe to settle a

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883381.post-27994465212296883822015-10-29T06:29:00.000-07:002015-10-29T06:29:11.621-07:00

The fix might not be in, but the mechanics for making the fix are all in place.Republican voters this Presidential cycle, do you think your vote counts? You might want to think again and consider the potential manipulations and shenanigans in your party's rules and voting schedule. I won't lay out conspiracy theories here or pick the potential winners and losers of this system; you can do that

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883381.post-83971853448974666862015-09-15T08:09:00.001-07:002015-09-15T08:09:18.444-07:00

Today, September 15th, is Larry Yount Day, in honor of the patron saint of September Call-Ups. For those of you not familiar with the older brother of Hall of Famer Robin Young, Larry is the guy in baseball history who out-did the fictional Moonlight Graham. Larry got called into a meaningless game for the Houston Astros in the 9th inning on this date in 1971 for his major league debut.

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883381.post-26553819875333803812015-04-04T12:52:00.002-07:002015-04-04T12:52:33.200-07:00

One last stab at trying to wrap it all up before the series conclusion starts tomorrow.Will the series end in 1969, or will it bleed into 1970? Will we see a years-after scene of some sort? Will it end on a trite New Year's Eve, or will the series do one last time-jump of some sort?Important events of 1969 yet to come after Season 7 Episode 7: the Manson Family murders, the Beatles crossing Abbey

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883381.post-58846699357903559912014-02-17T19:09:00.003-08:002014-02-17T19:09:44.396-08:00

The origins of this sport were in tobogganing. Can you recognize the modern bobsled as a toboggan? You cannot. A bobsleigh was invented by putting sled runners on a toboggan, as a novelty for mountain resort guests. It was primarily popular at St. Moritz and a few competing resort areas in Switzerland and Germany. Next they added on a steering wheel. Then they put on the space cowling to cut down

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883381.post-68742167933348168822012-09-12T06:19:00.000-07:002012-09-12T06:19:11.924-07:00

Today is the 72nd anniversary of the discovery of the cave paintings at Lascaux. There are other paleolithic paintings, and many were known prior to Lascaux, but the sheer volume, the imagery, the immediacy, and the "signatures" (traced hands) at Lascaux are still sui generis. Here we have a time tunnel to 15,000 BC, to see how humans thought, how dominating the world around them was, as they

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883381.post-86798889347340411602012-07-24T08:25:00.003-07:002012-07-24T10:52:30.320-07:00

5. She went to Swarthmore. OK, for three semesters, but I strongly suspect Swarthmore of her era did not provide her with the kind of updrafts for her to spread her particular wings and fly. But I love that she started out there, and she had the sense to move on. (And I point out to future generations, she did not leave Swat with the intent of transferring; she dropped out, ostensibly to focus

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883381.post-82466862060142264002012-05-15T19:32:00.001-07:002012-05-15T19:32:57.363-07:00

extruberescence - (n) - an architectural feature, usually an addition, which does not match the original style of the building to which it is attached, in an unattractive and particularly noticeable manner. Also: a general term for an architectural crime. Example: "Ooo, what a lovely Craftsman!" "Wait, what's that extruberescence on the side of the house?" "MY GOD, it's a vinyl-sided hot

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883381.post-51628677079679578002010-07-15T09:40:00.000-07:002010-07-15T09:40:08.914-07:00

Here's another neologism I'm predicting will take off soon: studytainment. Def: the unhappy hybrid between the act of studying and a distracting multitasking enjoyable recreational activity, such as listening to an iPod or watching a movie, simultaneously. This will eventually evolve to some kind of designed approach that will bleed into actual curriculum, becoming as commonplace as the idea, say

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883381.post-81502187276635308712010-05-18T20:51:00.000-07:002010-05-18T21:55:27.088-07:00

Jonathan Richman Live at the Henry Miller Memorial Library, May 16, 2010 I've loved Jonathan Richman for years and for various reasons, but I have to admit I never really got him, I don't think, until I finally saw him live. As a punker, I adored the early Modern Lovers, having found "Government Center" on the Troublemakers weirdo compilation and a much-copied tape of the original Modern

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883381.post-88807179706271132652010-01-05T18:01:00.000-08:002010-01-05T18:02:50.025-08:00

I'm skeptical about the literary value of the so-called social media -- movies being made from blogs notwithstanding, it does not seem like the sort of thing that lends itself to complicated ideas, or even simple ideas -- but I would make a great exception for this twitter feed, which is just asking to be made into an epic novel followed by a film trilogy.

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883381.post-91035975120383881792009-01-15T11:49:00.001-08:002009-01-15T11:53:52.467-08:00

Documenting one of my neologisms, in the vain (?) hope of preserving credit of authorship: Cyberformication (n) to cyberformicate (v) - the strange feeling your website is being crawled. By extension, any sixth sense concerning electronic media being invaded by uninvited parties, such as computer virus infections, robots, etc. "Imelda felt her spine shudder at the thought of her blog being

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883381.post-56662373431242044462008-11-25T12:49:00.000-08:002008-11-25T12:51:46.992-08:00

I just checked my google web history trends, and discovered the only hour of the day I haven't made a search since they invented this thing -- and I, idiot that I am, have tracked the web history as long as I can -- is 3 AM. I note this includes searches done in different time zones, so 3 AM may simply be a boundary condition for my consciousness. I wonder if Hillary Clinton is ready to google

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883381.post-78955597689793640372007-09-28T09:25:00.000-07:002007-09-28T10:19:43.726-07:00

The War is a documentary film, but one that reminds me not so much of a brilliant scholarly work, a single-volume history, a collection of primary material artfully organized, or even a popularized retelling of a story so much as a clips show. There's nothing about the story that hasn't been done better elsewhere, and possibly even more economically if you cut out all the commercials on the

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883381.post-64767413207731183482007-09-17T11:01:00.000-07:002007-09-17T14:30:03.134-07:00

Oh the bemusing juxtapositions one gets when one's reading list is selected by a three-year old semi-randomly based on the cover. A few weeks ago my little Oprah picked out James A. Garfield by Ira Rutkow ("Look, Daddy, it's Abraham Lincoln!" -- he recognized Garfield from the 'Presidents of the United States' place mat but couldn't quite place him), Orbit by John Nance ("Hey Daddy, it's

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883381.post-50809237966886532672007-08-06T10:55:00.000-07:002007-08-06T11:11:12.550-07:00

Jonathan Lethem, 2006 Two things: OK, here's how it goes. Fiction itself is probably 10,000 years old, since the first story embellishment took place around a hunting campfire. Written verse is half that old, and the novel is only a couple of hundred years old and may or may not itself be dying out (pity the poor best-selling poets of yore). Music follows a somewhat parallel history, with

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883381.post-43597775127042223112007-06-08T18:19:00.000-07:002007-06-08T20:10:00.440-07:00

So, in full disclosure mode, I'm not much of a Sopranos fan in that I've only seen season 1 and parts of season 2, thanks to the spottiness of "free HBO weekends" on my satellite provider and a general ennui with television phenomena. While I can't say as I was a bowled over as most TV critics apparently are/were by the saga, I have enjoyed the show when I've seen it largely for its

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883381.post-85826985341614655222007-05-03T15:29:00.000-07:002007-05-03T16:03:11.249-07:00

Forty Signs of Rain Fifty Degrees Below Sixty Days and Counting The Years of Rice and Salt Kim Stanley Robinson I've recently finished the 40-50-60 trilogy from Kim Stanley Robinson with the kind of reluctant anticipation of one who was given a paperback of the first book without foreknowledge that it was part of a set. In the particular instance, the three books are very much on the installment

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883381.post-37660121976241204452007-03-28T09:25:00.000-07:002007-03-28T09:38:19.174-07:00

The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier (2005) A vague third-hand understanding of various ancestor-worshipping cultures' understanding of the idea that there are two levels of the after-life, one where we go as long as somebody on earth remembers us and which resembles this world, the other completely unknown. An even vaguer understanding of the paradoxes of modern scientific

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883381.post-87639603882368591842007-03-09T18:18:00.001-08:002007-03-09T18:19:47.409-08:00

If it says Libby, Libby, Libby On the libel, libel, libel You can swear it, swear it, swear it On your Bible, Bible, Bible Cause Karl wanted to sell the War on Babel, Babel, Babel Although double you em dees were never on the table, table, table And that Rove now laughs his ass at the jokey, jokey, jokey That it's Libby, Libby, Libby, In the pokey, pokey, pokey That's why Libby, Libby, Libby Made

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883381.post-76457526796278536882007-03-06T16:06:00.000-08:002007-03-06T16:50:11.577-08:00

Patriotic Treason: John Brown and the Soul of America, by Evan Carton (2006) I confess that, prior to reading this book, I had the popular image of John Brown in my mind of a half-crazed religious zealot who had the right cause (the abolition of slavery) and the wrong technique (half-cocked schemes of violent revolution starting with a raid on Harper's Ferry's federal armory to arm the thousands

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0