I know what you mean. I was part of "the Hippie Nation" even though I was young compared to most of that crowd. There was an abiding belief that we could change the world, but it ultimately amounted to very little. Many of them "grew up" and gave in to the material world, the regular job, the suburban home with a two-car garage. Some stayed stuck in the 1960s. (The crowd I hang with is a little bit like that. So am I, really. Which is why we all hang out together.)
I remain of the opinion that our main failure as a society was in devaluing education -- something I noticed in the 1970s. We're now two generations of kids raised in an education system that became largely just a day-care for kids while their parents were at work. Even colleges became more about socializing and partying. More day-care. The people running the world now were raised in a system that didn't teach them history or expose them to other cultures or teach them to think critically. The end result squats in the Oval Office.
Something I learned quite a while back hits the nail on the head: "If you add a teaspoon of sewage to a barrel of wine, now you have a barrel of sewage. But if you add a teaspoon (or even a gallon) of wine to a barrel of sewage, you still have a barrel of sewage." Shit always wins.
Heh, yeah, if all I had was a phone, I wouldn't do much commenting, let alone blogging. I need a full keyboard, mouse, and big screen (preferably two). I've heard of people writing novels on a phone, and it boggles my mind.
Technically, I think we're the "Baby Boomer" generation. Born between 1946 and 1964. As you say, we've had other labels pasted on us, and I quite agree about the consumerism that took over. Stockholders view as failing any company that doesn't squeeze out every dime or its perceived accomplish growth goals. Unchecked capitalism.
Potatoes and onions; have fun! It appears summer is here. I’m able to enjoy having open windows again.
I'm not sure I have a favorite Cockburn album. It's more that some of his tunes are among my over-all soft rock favorites. "Burden of the Angel/Beast" and "Pacing the Cage" topping that list. I like some of his sillier songs, too: "If I Had a Rocket Launcher" or "Peggy's Kitchen Wall" or "Tie Me at the Crossroads". "Breakfast in New Orleans Dinner in Timbuktu" has "Last Night of the World", which is another favorite tune.
Does living on a hill mean, when you do get weather, that you get the brunt of it? Do you get many lightning strikes? My neighborhood is on slightly higher ground than some surrounding neighborhoods, but not enough that I've seen significant difference. A minor freeway runs past a long block away, and it's much lower that surrounding ground, so one thing that will never be a problem here is flooding.
Minnesota has been in a drought condition for the last few years. Perhaps that's extended to Michigan? We seem to be coming out of it, so maybe we'll get more rain this year. I'm not sure how our snowfall was this past winter, but it's a big part of our water budget.
We were supposed to have rain all day, but apparently that forecast evaporated. Maybe a light sprinkle this afternoon. No other rain forecast until the 16th. The drought may continue.
I'm generally glad I never had kids. Not a world I'd want to bring anyone into. At this point, I've largely written off humanity. Too few smart ones, too many dumb ones. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran pastor who was murdered by Hitler, wrote an eloquent letter from prison that starts off:
"Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice. [...] Evil always carries within itself the germ of its own subversion in that it leaves behind in human beings at least a sense of unease. Against stupidity we are defenseless."
True then; true now. Our current political/social situation is, I think, very much due to stupidity. We sometimes manage to reach for the stars, but the stupid always drag us back down. As a species, we suffer from what's called "crab bucket mentality".
I avoid the news as much as possible. Some of the bloggers I subscribe to here write about current events, but journalism died many years ago. Edward R. Murrow is spinning rapidly in his grave. Not to mention Walter Cronkite and many other notables from the past. The "news" is now just another vector for selling ad time.
Sorry, I'm feeling especially cynical this morning. It's been a rough couple of weeks. Don't mind me, have a good weekend.
I think Bonhoeffer recognized a basic truth: that some people are willfully stupid, and there's not much to be done about it. They are predisposed to accept what they're told without questioning it. Humans vary in all their physical characteristics, and that includes thinking ability. Being able to measure "IQ" is a bit of a fantasy, but it seems self-evident there is a distribution of intelligence as there is with more obvious traits, like height, for instance. There was a reason we were both put into honors classes in high school.
I go further than blaming pop culture (though I agree it's part of the mindlessness). I blame our modern culture overall, especially the way we've devalued education. Taking it seriously and teaching children to think for themselves, to think critically, would go a long way in getting us back on track. But it would take, in addition to determining to course correct, generations to take effect, and lack of a long view is another cultural problem.
With pop culture, I think a key turning point happened during the 1980s, the "Me" decade. There has been an emphasis on selfishness ever since. Example: people seeing no problem with picking your flowers. Lack of respect for others is the other side of selfishness.
It's sunny today, and despite some coming days with clouds, it looks like we're in for a long stretch of sunny spring weather. Hopefully it will come your way, too, and you can spend time outside. Have a good weekend.
I'm not familiar with Dudley, Hovhaness, or Mckennitt. I'll add them to my list of musicians to check out. I've been a Moody Blues fan since high school. A friend of mine is seriously into them and sees them any chance he gets. We saw them in concert a few years back (what remains of them, anyway). I liked Knopfler since Dire Straits (amazing guitar player). Love his latest album, "One Deep River". I like Cockburn's older stuff but haven't been whelmed by his most recent.
More light rain this evening; supposed to be rainy most of the day tomorrow. Are you interested in climate or weather? I've largely given up on the former but have always loved the latter. We've shot ourselves in the foot so often on climate that I've grown weary of the talk, talk, talk. By most indicators, we're doomed. As you probably know better than me, growing seasons have changed in the last decades. It's just a matter of time before Greenland and Antarctica melt.
Yeah, cloudy days are depressing, especially when we don't get a good thunderstorm to clear the air. The "heat island" effect is quite real. I've watched on weather radar as a storm approaches and splits in two to miss the Twin Cities. 😫
SEP is a great resource, isn't it? In depth articles and no ads. Enjoy Zeno!
Baseball is it for me, too, and I can relate about football. I'm "don't care" about most sports but have an antipathy towards football.
From the digital innards to the garden. Not a bad progression.
I agree with "poorly executed system". Were I king, one of my first actions would be eliminating the stock market and seriously altering the banks. I do think (love of) money is the root of much evil. Unfettered capitalism rarely works out for a society.
I suspect it's the love of complexity that mathematicians love in jazz. I lean away from music in which lyrics are more significant than the music because my defective hearing makes lyrics inaccessible to me. (Likewise podcasts and audio books.)
In fact, I suspect my misanthropy comes from my perceptions. From an early age I saw one version of humanity in the books I read and quite another in the quotidian world. I've always found the difference jarring.
I looked for your "Happy Easter Jesus" post, but didn't see anything like that in your posts archive. I scrolled down though your Activity feed to the beginning of April and didn't see anything there, either. 🤷🏼♂️
To me, "Followers" versus "Subscribers" is another weirdness about Substack. Being the former only means Substack gives some priority to their Notes in the Notes feed (and there's a "Following" category that I'd think would filter the Notes feed for *only* those you Follow but which doesn't seem to do so). The latter is what presents their posts to your email or notifications and puts them in your Inbox. The whole Notes vs Posts thing here is just weird. The way comments work differently between them is annoying. And I spend as little time as possible in Notes.
I don't know what dialogue jazz is. If you mean jazz singing, no, not really. I prefer instrumental jazz. If you like Metheny, you might like John Scofield, Bob James, or Al Di Meola. On my walks two weeks ago, I was enjoying "Live At Montreux 2011: Carlos Santana & John McLaughlin" — McLaughlin is another you might check out. There's a Japanese all-female high-energy jazz supergroup, "The Jazz Avengers", with YT videos that I've been watching lately. I'm not normally big on saxophones but these gals blow me away.
FWIW, this week I'm listening to "Little Big Town". Country/Rock (they based their band on a love for Fleetwood Mac and do sound a bit like them). The vocal harmonies they do are what really stands out. Do you like any country music?
I'm aware of the connection between bad hearing and dementia but also that cognitive exercise — which I've been doing all my life — can be a counter. I guess time will tell. Being so hard of hearing makes me focus on people's faces, and I *think* I'm good at reading them, but how would I really know?
When I was married, my stepdaughter commented that I seemed to like meeting new people (true observation). I'd been chatting up the "limo" (van) driver who drove us from the airport to Disney World. So, I can relate to your program. As misanthropic as I am, people still fascinate me. Such variation. And you made me remember the owner of the liquor store near me that I used to stop at on the way home from work when I needed to buy beer. Very grumpy, even hostile, and cold. Took months before he decided I was okay. Sometimes they just have to recognize that you're not some random customer just passing through.
Most of my reading is science fiction with a big chunk of murder mysteries and detective stories. Or technical material in some way. Most "literary" fiction bores me. I did finally get around to reading "Moby Dick" but stuff like that is rare. How about you?
There is a Following category "button" at the top of the Notes feed, but I don't think it works right. I'm pretty sure many of the Notes in that feed are NOT people I'm following. I've said before that, the longer I'm here, the more underwhelmed I am by the software. Agree about meeting interesting people, though!
Oh, okay, I don't have much (read: hardly any) training in music, so I didn't know dialogue jazz was called that. I did wonder if that's what it meant. That Japanese jazz supergroup I mentioned, "The Jazz Avengers" do that in almost every tune (usually between two sax players but not always), and I do love it. It's not uncommon in rock when there are two lead guitar players. Generally speaking, I most like music with lots of instruments, so groups like Fleetwood Mac, Dave Matthews, Springsteen, or Tedeschi Trucks. Complex arrangements.
Agatha Christie (Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, and others) is rightfully called the Queen of Crime. She's an excellent writer, and anything she wrote is worth reading. (Or in your case, listening to.) Others you might like: Dorothy L. Sayers (Lord Peter Wimsey), Ngaio Marsh (Roderick Alleyn), P.D. James (Adam Dalgliesh), Ellery Queen (Ellery Queen), Harry Kemelman (Rabbi Small), Catherine Aird, or Margery Allingham. The last two don't have a crime-solving character. I'm a big fan of Sayers and Marsh. I assume you've read Sherlock Holmes. You might also enjoy the Arsène Lupin stories by Maurice Leblanc. All of these are from the genteel past, so no explicit sex scenes, and any violence is muted or only referred to.
I don't spend much time in Notes (a brief dipping of the toe once in a while), so didn't see your Note. I tracked it down and read the review. Seems more about society than mathematics. (Zeno's Paradox, for instance, was resolved by calculus, which the Greeks didn't know.) It's certainly true that scientific views and practices reflect, to one degree or other, the social and political views of the holders. Math is often seen as the "purest" science, and strictly mathematical proofs are about as free of that as science can be. As the review touches on, people *use* (usually questionable) math to prove whatever point they want to prove. In general, humans are very good at using "logic" to rationalize their beliefs. However, strict mathematical proofs rarely lend themselves to the messy world of humanity.
Re Zeno's Paradox, there's a joke about an infinite number of mathematicians walking into a bar. The first one asks for a pint of beer, the second for a half-pint, the third for a quarter-pint, and so on. The bartender says, "You guys are crazy," and pours two beers. Which is indeed the sum of that infinite series (1+½+¼+⅛+... = 2).
My dad had a backyard garden every year, and my parents loved veggies, but I never developed much taste for them. I do love spicy Tex-Mex and salsas. I used to add a dash of habanero sauce to certain dishes, but as I've aged, I've had to tone things down from hot to medium. I've never liked catsup, because it's too bland.
OTOH, most egg dishes make me (literally) gag, and I'd rather be waterboarded than eat a fried egg (I do like quiche, and I can choke down scrambled eggs if they have a lot of other stuff in them). I think it's the sulfur, which may also account for why dark leafy greens also make me gag.
"Diplomatically blunt", yeah, I can relate. As you say, the intent is good, not malicious. My ex- was capable of cruelty, and I've never understood the impulse. When I get something wrong, I *want* someone smarter to correct me, so I've also never really understood why many would rather go on being wrong than corrected. I did learn very early to never, never correct the spelling in a girlfriends love letter.
I had to look up "circumhorizontal arc" but it didn't really help understand what you mean. Per Wikipedia is seems associated with ice halos? I particularly celebrate the Winter Solstice because it means the returning of the light. And I somewhat mourn the Summer Solstice because it means the dying of the light. I love sunlight and hate those long dark winter nights. Equinoxes are cool because of how everywhere on Earth the Sun rises/sets directly east/west. The ancients used to use it for aligning their constructions.
I have stuff to do today and a "party" (more just us old farts hanging out) tonight, so that's probably it for me today. Possibly for the weekend, too. All week, it's taken me the entire morning to read the posts I'm subscribed to, comment on them, and reply to comments. I enjoy it a great deal, but I'm regretting the time away from other projects. I need to find a better life/Substack balance, so I'm going to try to do other things this weekend. Great chatting, though, and, like MacArthur, "I will be back."
Circumzenithal arc. Back to Wikipedia. Upside down rainbow caused by ice crystals. But I still don't understand how it ties into Solar seasons or what the woo part is. I do get a big kick out of Sun dogs.
My first venture into Apple was with a Classic iPod I wanted to take music with me on walks or trips. Originally, I just copied all my CDs to it, but over time started buying music from Apple. Then I got an iPad and finally an iPhone (in part because my iPod was on its last legs). And then another iPad. Between all the ebooks and music, I'm stuck in the Apple world, though — other than when I'll be forced to get another iPhone — I won't buy anything from Apple.
Other than YouTube and their search engine, I never used Google products, so nothing to disentangle there. (Oh, and a Gmail account associated with my YouTube channel.) It's Amazon I'm trying to disengage from now. Unfortunately, I "bought" a bunch of movies from them, so I'm a little trapped. I need to find out if cancelling my Prime subscription still gives me access to "my" movies. I have an Amazon Music sub, but plan to explore other options.
I think my tastes have expanded as I've gotten older. I've learned to like things I didn't before. Onions, for one. And I'm all-in on the hoppy IPA beers now. The first time I had one, I thought I was drinking a pine tree.
It again sounds like you've had quite an interesting and varied life.
Sounds like you had fun "playing in the dirt". The highlight of my weekend was the Twins sweeping the Angels (their first sweep of the season) and getting above .400 for the first time this season. I suspect the coming four games in Cleveland will bring them back down, though. But at least we got some fun games to watch. Being a Twins fan is an exercise in stoicism.
There's a joke in computer science circles that the answer to every question begins with, "It depends on what you mean..." True in many areas, actually. In this case, "much of my personal tech life" depends on what one means by "much". I've arguably been a techie for most of my life in terms of interests. I started playing with electronics as far back as 1965. I started programming in 1977. I've been in the PC world since the early 1980s and only bought my iPod in 2005.
I've always had a perception of style over substance with Apple. Their products never measured up to the PC/Windows world for my hobby programming or my corporate work. My interest in them is music and ebooks. My disengagement with them comes from their awful customer service. And that a subscription to Apple News (which was ad-free for a year) started including ads.
It's similar with Amazon. Even worse customer service (they've *lied* to me). I view giant companies as inevitable in this world and don't reject them because they're giant. Nearly everyone caved to the scary wannbe God-King, so I don't fault them (much) for trying to protect their employees (and, yes, their personal fortunes as well, but CEOs are beholden to stockholders, so "it's complicated"). But all of that makes it very easy for the balance to tip into the "Nope, not doing this anymore" zone.
I like all music, especially live music, but mostly listen to jazz and softer rock. How about you?
Your upward arc somewhat aligns with my more pessimistic "sawtooth" vision of humanity. We slowly rise to some peak but then crash down under the weight of our own foolishness. I wonder if human culture isn't self-limiting because homo sapiens rarely live up to their name.
I love garlic; always have. I used to make a spaghetti sauce that had an entire bulb of the stuff. I've loved garlic bread since I was a kid. None in your kitchen. Don't care for it?
I noticed that the Substack phone app doesn't make it easy to find a new comment. I had to start with the post, then click into comments. It helped that I could click the [⮁] button and select "Newest first" to show the newest comments. But it took me a while to figure out; I'm glad you did, too.
I didn't know that about yogurt, but now that you mention it, I think BentleyMom does the same when she makes kefir. I do know sourdough requires a starter. (BTW: got the news yesterday. B'dog's tumor was benign. Still might grow back in time, though.)
All four grandparents immigrated from different parts of Norway. My parent were first-generation Americans.
Teaching dance! Quite the work history you got there, JT. Figuring MPH is "simply" a matter of distance ÷ time, of course, but the trick can be figuring out what those are (and converting the units to miles and hours — I would guess that with dancers it would be more a case of feet-per-second or something).
I've always been a truth speaker (obviously, truth as I saw it). It was 30-some years ago, and any analysis of my own behavior would at this point be hopelessly biased and clouded by time. I can say I've always tried to be as civil as possible, but I was a little hot-tempered when I was younger. (To be honest, I still am but have learned to not subject others to it.)
Sounds like we share a fondness for Solar-based occasions. I'm not much one for holidays, especially ones greeting card companies made up, but I've long observed the Solstices and Equinoxes. And I love a good thunderstorm.
For what little it's worth, most of the time on cruises is spent wandering around the ship or doing stuff on shore expeditions. The cabins are mostly for sleeping, changing clothes, showering, etc. And the food. Oh my, the food. Everyone gains 20+ pounds.
Your mottos work for me. And anyone who loves dogs learns to live with tracked in dirt and dog hair. There's a line about how you can judge someone's character by how much dog hair they have on them.
I could eat better (although I suppose I do eat healthier than many). I don't do vegetables, really dislike the "dark, leafy greens". Mostly a bread, meat, and potatoes kind of guy. Love most grain products, including beer. Never was much into exercise, though I don't mind hard work, and I do love walking. Tough about your painpal, I can relate. I was walking four or five miles every day, but my knees and lower back decided they weren't up to that. After years of not walking, I'm slowly building back into it when I can. Couple miles every two or three days. Walking Bentley is different because she's slow and stops often to sniff, so that's rarely an issue for me. On my own, I try for 4 MPH, but even back when I was going long, the best was about 3.8 MPH. Aging sucks. And, yeah, I can well imagine that it really stinks to have that taken away by external events.
Like you, I have a small circle that between their busy lives and families I see about once a month or less often. Which works fine for me. BentleyMom is my local "sister" (my actual sister lives in L.A.). I text with both fairly often, but BentleyMom has such a heavy work load we're lucky to get together for lunch or dinner once a month. (Which works for me and, I think, her, as we're both introverts.)
No pathology report yet, but Bentley seems to be on the mend. I'm told she picked up her ball for the first time since surgery, which we take as a good sign.
Parties. I always end up enjoying them, but convincing myself to go is a chore. I find myself looking for acceptable excuses not to go.
Heh, I can relate to the "You're odd" thing big time. All my life there have been two key bits of feedback I get from people. [1] "Wow, you're so smart!" Followed by [2] "Wow, you're kind of a freak!" A high school friend (a few years after HS) once said to me, "You go out of your way to be different, don't you!" No, not really, I just am. I've never liked swimming in the main stream.
It was up to 73 here today, and I got a nice walk in. Fairly brisk because I've had three days off — 3.64 MPH. Might be the best I can do anymore. Hopefully I won't have to take tomorrow off for pushing it today.
The reference to fate went over my head. People have asked if it's pronounced "weird" or "word", and I answer "yes". 😄 But the handle is originally meant as "word".
The issue with the web UI was fixed after a few hours. That's not uncommon. Some update isn't checked very well (or at all, I sometimes think), but once noticed it gets fixed relatively quickly.
Enjoy your gardening! Substack has to be secondary to the things that really matter in life. I keep getting more sucked into it than I like — it's such an interesting place filled with such interesting people — and have to remind myself to walk away more readily.
I seem to feel okay today, so will try for a walk later and see how it goes. Hope you have a good day outside and don't feel it too much tomorrow.
Yeah, it does help to have a handle when one has public exposure. In my case, I didn't want anything on my old blog (est. 2011) to get back to my company, but I never actually wrote much that would have been problematic. But back in the old days (before the web) I used my real name, and since the only access I had was through my corporate email, I got dinged a few times from people complaining to my company about something I'd said they didn't like. I actually got banned from using the internet at one point, but by then I'd established personal access. Sweet that the townspeople protected your identity. Nice to be cared about like that!
Oh, okay. I knew "wyrd" had an older connotation, but didn't know much about it. I was mostly keying off the 'y'='i' to match "Smythe". I spent days trying to figure out a good handle for my blog, and when my mind stumbled on "Wyrd Smythe" I immediately knew I'd found it. (Likewise the title, "Logos con Carne".)
Have a great day gardening. Give your mutt a pat from me.
I manage to see sis and her hubby every few years or so. They like traveling a lot more than I do, so they usually come here. I was way a Cali guy while I lived in L.A. and for a few years after, but I'm thoroughly a Minni guy now. Love it here; would never move back.
Beer is vegan! 😁 Are you alcohol-free or just don't like beer?
[Drat, just managed to exit the reply I was doing and lost everything I'd typed. I can never remember it exactly, so: Reply, Take 2. 😡]
Yes, Minnesota (or Minnesnowta). Before global warming it wasn't uncommon to have a week or two with high temps below -20°. Those seem a thing of the past. We had some days with a low near -20° but they had warmer highs. I'll put some links to Notes I posted with some charts if you're curious.
My mom was from Escanaba, MI, and my dad from Marinette, WI, so we have roots in the area. My dad's dad was a minister in rural MN, and his brother taught theology at a Lutheran seminary in Minneapolis. Dad was a minister, first, in NYC, then in Minneapolis, and finally in Los Angeles. They're all among the dear departed now.
The Germans make good beer and long ago created the Reinheitsgebot law (purity law) saying it can only be called beer if it has *only* barley and hops (and water). They didn't know about yeast, yet. I vastly prefer Reinheitsgebot beers. I have friends who brew, and loved seeing the American craft beer industry explode. We finally recovered from Prohibition. Used to be tons of breweries, and now they're back. (In fact, there were too many, and a lot have fallen by the wayside or been absorbed by bigger ones.)
But I can relate. Not everything is for everyone.
I love champagne, usually have several bottles chilling in the fridge, but save it for celebrating special occasions (for a somewhat loose definition of "special").
Yeah, a cruise ship would be hard for you. The rooms are small enough, but the bathrooms are really tiny. Trains are even worse. The bathroom is a phonebooth-sized stall with a toilet but is also the shower.
Heh. It occurs to me that most people alive today have probably never been in a phonebooth. I wonder how many have even used a payphone.
"I have a touch of OCD" is a frequent metaphor people use that, from what I understand, isn't appreciated because it erases the suffering those with bad OCD experience. Yet the metaphor does communicate something and seems true-ish in my case. I seem to sublimate it into my work, my writing, and especially my coding (which has to be just so), but doesn't show up much in my rather casual and sloppy lifestyle.
A friend I've had since the mid-1980s was diagnosed with Asperger's some years ago (and everyone who knew him thought, "Ah, that explains a lot!"), and we do share some traits. Since at least high school I've been a raging curmudgeon, rabid misanthrope, and serious introvert, plus I suffer from a hearing deficit that isolates me socially, so it's hard to separate all that from any spectrum-related isolation or social difficulty. In the right circumstances, I love talking with people and enjoy meeting new ones. At the same time, like all introverts, it's exhausting (as well as exhilarating) for me.
I envy your weekend! Some back issues make it hard for me to get much walking in anymore, though I do what I can (and have nice places to walk). I especially like walking with a dog. It makes me feel more human, somehow, than walking alone does. So, I really enjoy when I dog-sit my little friend Bentley. Which I'll likely do once she heals from her surgery. BentleyMom could definitely use a break. It's been a rough haul for both of them.
May not be around much this week. There's an expression, "Being nibbled to death by ducks," and recently I feel like the ducks are winning.
I've been stung by those tiny yellow jacket wasps that live in holes in the ground. One of my only phobias is razor edge cuts and needles, so most of my life I was phobic about stinging insects. But getting stung a few times made me realize it's not that bad. I managed to get over needles by fully realizing that I've hurt myself worse stubbing my toe.
Heh, I was in Honors English (and Honors Math) classes throughout high school, too. I was one of those rare birds who loved school (admittedly in part because it was pretty easy for me).
I dunno about certified, but I probably do qualify as some sort of polymath. *Everything* interests me. Life is short, so I have to pick and choose, but *everything* interests me.
These two posts from my old blog might help compute the jump:
I found some connection in my mind about the Missouri Synod and Germans. Checked Wikipedia and found: "The Missouri Synod emerged from several communities of German Lutheran immigrants during the 1830s and 1840s." Now I just wish I could figure out where that mental connection came from.
Those connections happen a lot. I don't remember past events well (I enjoy rereading books because I can never remember the plot details) but I remember what I took from them. Many years ago, I was walking my dog and wondering what kind of trees we were seeing. Definitely weren't any tree I recognized (which isn't saying all that much). My mind handed me "Linden trees". I looked it up later and discovered that's what they were. But to this day I don't understand how I knew. I have no memory of learning about them. Maybe some description of their distinctive leaves I read in some book? My brain is weird, and I've come to suspect I might be on the edge of the spectrum.
For being about writers, Substack isn't very good at comment engagement. It drives me crazy how hard it can be to reply to a comment, especially when you reply to a Note. Being actually in a post comment section is a bit easier. I've learned to take a screensnap or text copy of something I want to reply to as a reference.
Read with interest your bit of a bio. We do share some traits, though our life paths have been rather different. I *almost* got into college radio but too many other interests came first. It's fun to speculate about the lives one almost had. If other realities exist with copies of us that made other choices, I'm pretty sure I became a standup comedian in one of them. Your Archive shows a small enough set of posts that I'll likely visit sooner rather than later (for a broad definition of "sooner").
I was a science geek from a young age. I stumbled into theatre arts my second year of high school and discovered I had an artistic side. I started writing back then (including some really bad poetry, which seems canonical for high school). And filmmaking requires scripts. I hadn't really thought about this, but I've been writing since HS.
Only ever got as far as the periphery of the film industry. There are no cab drivers or wait persons in Los Angeles. *Everyone* is a wanna be writer, actor, musician, or (in my case) director. I decided I wasn't willing to spend many years grinding away at rare bits and pieces in hope of *someday* ... *maybe* ... directing a film. Late in college I got into programming and loved it as much as anything else (still do), so I ended up doing technical work that eventually led to designing software. And now am happily retired!
Educated as a journalist sounds interesting. What's your background and history?
I had to look up Tre Ore, it was a new term to me. The Lutheran churches my dad preached in, and any I've visited since, don't use Latin much at all. Was it the German aspect that connects more with that? A German Lutheran church in America or was it literally a German church?
Heh. I'm often just glad I'm old and won't have to have my mind and spirit crushed by what's going on these days much longer. Just my luck, despite a devotedly unhealthy approach to life, I'll probably have to stick around for way more years. It's depressing how much I don't recognize the world (or especially this country) anymore. Makes me very discouraged about humanity.
I subscribed in part just as a show of support and interest and in part because we've done so much chatting. Just seems appropriate. And it "bookmarks" a blog so I have a handle for, when I've got some time, going and reading their "back catalog". There are maybe a dozen blogs that aren't that active but where I'd like to eventually get around to reading what they wrote.
I like your writing style. For example: "I think the first is a misunderstanding, the second isn’t true, the third is debatable, and the fourth is probably irrelevant." It's easy to follow and entertaining, such is hard to do when breaking down theories about quantum physics, which, I think, is almost always a rabbit hole. But such an interesting one!
Yes, exactly. Ive also seen a few new TOEs on Curt Jaimungal's podcast that propose a deterministic picture of things. Personally I think what QM tells us is that the manner is which we can observe subatomic processes is inherently indeterministic but that doesn't necessarily imply indeterminism as a fundamental feature of reality.
Depressing? How so? I glossed over that part because it requires a lot of explanation about how Special Relativity works, and those using the simultaneity of distant events as support for the BUH are generally read in on it. If you're interested in learning more, I wrote a series of 25 (short) posts on my other blog that go into a lot of detail about SR.
In general, if you ever have questions, I'm happy to try to answer them.
I've been interested in science almost literally all my life. My parents told me that my first words were "star" and "light" (the first one being the star on the top of our Christmas tree). Early science fiction fed that interest and led to a lot of reading about it.
Dad was a Lutheran minister; mom was a music teacher and choir director. But they were mellow about it and let me make my own decisions (I went through an atheist phase in high school, for example). I don't align with Christianity (or any worldly religion), but I do ascribe to a teleological universe. Probably closer to Spinoza's conception, but certain events have made me wonder about something more directly involved with humanity.
If one grants the notion that (at least) six events with 1:10,000 (1:10⁴) odds are required for intelligent life, then the odds of intelligent life are 1:10²⁴. Which is more than the 10²² stars in the visible universe (assuming 10¹¹ stars per galaxy and 10¹¹ galaxies). So, it's possible we're it. In the entire universe (let alone in just this galaxy). Intelligent life may be very special (not that we've made much of it, sad to say). And it does make me wonder.
Heh, well, there was nothing metaphysical intended. The really short version is: Imagine you're looking at three posts that are in a line. You're looking at them from the side such that the two further posts are directly behind the closest post. Fix that image in your mind. The posts represent three distant events you would judge to be "simultaneous" because they're all aligned from your POV.
Now imagine taking two steps to the right. Now the posts aren't aligned. The closest (call it A) is LEFT of the middle one (B), and the furthest (C) is RIGHT of it. From this POV you'd judge the order of the same events as A first, B second, and C third.
Return to the center and take two steps to the left. Now you see the closest post (A) to the RIGHT of the middle and the furthest (C) to the LEFT of it. From this POV you'd judge the events as C first, B second, and A third.
The three POVs represent observers with different velocities relative to the posts. The center position is at rest with regard to them, and the left and right positions represent observers moving (in opposite directions) relative to the posts. This is the shifting of simultaneity of distant events due to relative motion. Those who ascribe to the BUH see this as meaning all three events must always exist for this to work. But it ignores that light has to travel from the events to the observer, and this necessarily happens after the events happen, so they're all comfortably in the observer's past.
I dunno if that helps any, but it's the simplest version I've come up with.
Yes, ALC. The LCU (Lutheran Church in America) was also pretty mellow, but those Missouri Synod folks were rabble rousers. And that division of three different Lutheran organizations was an early clue for me that the "worldly church" left something to be desired. I mean, come on, you're all Lutherans! The bigger divisions between other Christian churches amplified that big time. I came to really appreciate the Jewish point of view that one's relationship with God is between you and God. No ministers arbitrate. Rabbis are just experts for consultation. I also like the Jewish notion that, if God exists, He is so far beyond our understanding that it's pointless to even try. Just accept (or don't).
My parents were free thinkers and understood instinctively I think that one has to walk one's own path. There are many ways up the mountain. The point is the climb.
I think Spinoza is attractive to committed atheists. Einstein, for instance. It allows for a sort of vague teleology without committing to a Father/God figure. And I'm definitely more of an agnostic with deist leanings and occasional theist suspicions. Some weird events in my life are either very strange coincidences or God winking at me. I fully acknowledge they're most probably memorable coincidences, but 🤷🏼♂️.
Yeah, until we have a working TOE, who knows what's really going on. I've long wondered if there isn't a whiff of Ptolemy's epicycles in quantum mechanics. The gotcha is the need to explain the appearance of the Born rule in our measurements.
Yeah, phones aren't very good for viewing images (let alone videos). In this case, you aren't missing much. Just a bunch of temperature graphs. I enjoy visualizing data that interests me. I used to do that a lot for work, and the habit stuck.
Minn is very different from SoCal. Took me three years to adjust to it when we moved there and three years to adjust to being back. I'm thoroughly Minnesnowtan now (been back since 1984). You're right about the fun of high culture. Minneapolis has a bit of that, but it's not something I crave anymore. As you say, definitely not my thing.
Ugh, ticks. The one critter in all creation I'd banish and damn the consequences. Bentley and I were wandering in one of the wilder sections of a local park, managed to get turned around and semi-lost, and ended up tramping along some almost-trails (probably used only by deer). At one point, I looked down, and there were a dozen crawling on her back. Another dozen on my sweatpant legs. Hate those damn things. And now there are these Lone Star ticks... [shudder]
Ha! What brand of beer did it turn out your neighbor drinks? Beer brewing is ancient — goes back at least to the ancient Egyptians — but yeasts were discovered only after microscopes. The old Germans only knew that you needed some of the foam from the last batch brewed to make the current batch work. There is a legend, probably true, that they called that foam "God is good". The Germans had (and have) so many distinct styles of beer, there's no guessing what your granddad drank. One mark of a good beer is that it doesn't need to be ice cold to enjoy.
Tuesday's walk did impact Wednesday's, and I think I need to take a day or two off. I managed 3.6 MPH Tuesday, but only 3.3 yesterday. I use Google Earth to create "paths" which gives me precise mileage (and, very cool, an elevation profile as well). I use a stopwatch to time the walk. The MPH is just a matter of a bit of math. The hardest part of which is converting minutes and seconds to hours [(minutes ÷ 60) + (seconds ÷ 3600)].
I don't even remember now, but, yeah, something I said upset someone, they realized my email address was for a well-known corporation and complained to them. Just one more time speaking my mind had a price. 🤷🏼♂️
6 hours, wow! I can well imagine you're paying the price. On the rare occasions I throw a party, there's about two or three days of cleaning, shopping for food, and otherwise preparing. I'm good through the party, but the next couple days I spend on the couch "reading" (mostly napping).
Also, wow, you still had some snow. I haven't seen any of that stuff for weeks here. We had several late snowstorms followed by warm enough weather to melt the snow. I finally put my shovels back in the garage last week. April often brings a snowstorm or two, but it's clear we're beyond that.
Hope you're not feeling too burnt out by yesterday's efforts. There are certain things — but only certain things — I miss about being young.
I know what you mean. I was part of "the Hippie Nation" even though I was young compared to most of that crowd. There was an abiding belief that we could change the world, but it ultimately amounted to very little. Many of them "grew up" and gave in to the material world, the regular job, the suburban home with a two-car garage. Some stayed stuck in the 1960s. (The crowd I hang with is a little bit like that. So am I, really. Which is why we all hang out together.)
I remain of the opinion that our main failure as a society was in devaluing education -- something I noticed in the 1970s. We're now two generations of kids raised in an education system that became largely just a day-care for kids while their parents were at work. Even colleges became more about socializing and partying. More day-care. The people running the world now were raised in a system that didn't teach them history or expose them to other cultures or teach them to think critically. The end result squats in the Oval Office.
Something I learned quite a while back hits the nail on the head: "If you add a teaspoon of sewage to a barrel of wine, now you have a barrel of sewage. But if you add a teaspoon (or even a gallon) of wine to a barrel of sewage, you still have a barrel of sewage." Shit always wins.
Why not the dryer? Energy use?
This post's comment section is getting long, so how about we move the conversation to the more recent post in this Newsletter? Meet me over here:
https://logosconcarne.substack.com/p/where-is-the-platonic-realm/comment/115238964
FWIW, the post itself is:
https://logosconcarne.substack.com/p/where-is-the-platonic-realm
Heh, yeah, if all I had was a phone, I wouldn't do much commenting, let alone blogging. I need a full keyboard, mouse, and big screen (preferably two). I've heard of people writing novels on a phone, and it boggles my mind.
Technically, I think we're the "Baby Boomer" generation. Born between 1946 and 1964. As you say, we've had other labels pasted on us, and I quite agree about the consumerism that took over. Stockholders view as failing any company that doesn't squeeze out every dime or its perceived accomplish growth goals. Unchecked capitalism.
Potatoes and onions; have fun! It appears summer is here. I’m able to enjoy having open windows again.
I'm not sure I have a favorite Cockburn album. It's more that some of his tunes are among my over-all soft rock favorites. "Burden of the Angel/Beast" and "Pacing the Cage" topping that list. I like some of his sillier songs, too: "If I Had a Rocket Launcher" or "Peggy's Kitchen Wall" or "Tie Me at the Crossroads". "Breakfast in New Orleans Dinner in Timbuktu" has "Last Night of the World", which is another favorite tune.
Does living on a hill mean, when you do get weather, that you get the brunt of it? Do you get many lightning strikes? My neighborhood is on slightly higher ground than some surrounding neighborhoods, but not enough that I've seen significant difference. A minor freeway runs past a long block away, and it's much lower that surrounding ground, so one thing that will never be a problem here is flooding.
Minnesota has been in a drought condition for the last few years. Perhaps that's extended to Michigan? We seem to be coming out of it, so maybe we'll get more rain this year. I'm not sure how our snowfall was this past winter, but it's a big part of our water budget.
We were supposed to have rain all day, but apparently that forecast evaporated. Maybe a light sprinkle this afternoon. No other rain forecast until the 16th. The drought may continue.
I'm generally glad I never had kids. Not a world I'd want to bring anyone into. At this point, I've largely written off humanity. Too few smart ones, too many dumb ones. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran pastor who was murdered by Hitler, wrote an eloquent letter from prison that starts off:
"Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice. [...] Evil always carries within itself the germ of its own subversion in that it leaves behind in human beings at least a sense of unease. Against stupidity we are defenseless."
True then; true now. Our current political/social situation is, I think, very much due to stupidity. We sometimes manage to reach for the stars, but the stupid always drag us back down. As a species, we suffer from what's called "crab bucket mentality".
I avoid the news as much as possible. Some of the bloggers I subscribe to here write about current events, but journalism died many years ago. Edward R. Murrow is spinning rapidly in his grave. Not to mention Walter Cronkite and many other notables from the past. The "news" is now just another vector for selling ad time.
Sorry, I'm feeling especially cynical this morning. It's been a rough couple of weeks. Don't mind me, have a good weekend.
I think Bonhoeffer recognized a basic truth: that some people are willfully stupid, and there's not much to be done about it. They are predisposed to accept what they're told without questioning it. Humans vary in all their physical characteristics, and that includes thinking ability. Being able to measure "IQ" is a bit of a fantasy, but it seems self-evident there is a distribution of intelligence as there is with more obvious traits, like height, for instance. There was a reason we were both put into honors classes in high school.
I go further than blaming pop culture (though I agree it's part of the mindlessness). I blame our modern culture overall, especially the way we've devalued education. Taking it seriously and teaching children to think for themselves, to think critically, would go a long way in getting us back on track. But it would take, in addition to determining to course correct, generations to take effect, and lack of a long view is another cultural problem.
With pop culture, I think a key turning point happened during the 1980s, the "Me" decade. There has been an emphasis on selfishness ever since. Example: people seeing no problem with picking your flowers. Lack of respect for others is the other side of selfishness.
It's sunny today, and despite some coming days with clouds, it looks like we're in for a long stretch of sunny spring weather. Hopefully it will come your way, too, and you can spend time outside. Have a good weekend.
I'm not familiar with Dudley, Hovhaness, or Mckennitt. I'll add them to my list of musicians to check out. I've been a Moody Blues fan since high school. A friend of mine is seriously into them and sees them any chance he gets. We saw them in concert a few years back (what remains of them, anyway). I liked Knopfler since Dire Straits (amazing guitar player). Love his latest album, "One Deep River". I like Cockburn's older stuff but haven't been whelmed by his most recent.
More light rain this evening; supposed to be rainy most of the day tomorrow. Are you interested in climate or weather? I've largely given up on the former but have always loved the latter. We've shot ourselves in the foot so often on climate that I've grown weary of the talk, talk, talk. By most indicators, we're doomed. As you probably know better than me, growing seasons have changed in the last decades. It's just a matter of time before Greenland and Antarctica melt.
Yeah, cloudy days are depressing, especially when we don't get a good thunderstorm to clear the air. The "heat island" effect is quite real. I've watched on weather radar as a storm approaches and splits in two to miss the Twin Cities. 😫
SEP is a great resource, isn't it? In depth articles and no ads. Enjoy Zeno!
Baseball is it for me, too, and I can relate about football. I'm "don't care" about most sports but have an antipathy towards football.
From the digital innards to the garden. Not a bad progression.
I agree with "poorly executed system". Were I king, one of my first actions would be eliminating the stock market and seriously altering the banks. I do think (love of) money is the root of much evil. Unfettered capitalism rarely works out for a society.
I suspect it's the love of complexity that mathematicians love in jazz. I lean away from music in which lyrics are more significant than the music because my defective hearing makes lyrics inaccessible to me. (Likewise podcasts and audio books.)
In fact, I suspect my misanthropy comes from my perceptions. From an early age I saw one version of humanity in the books I read and quite another in the quotidian world. I've always found the difference jarring.
Enjoy your day!
I looked for your "Happy Easter Jesus" post, but didn't see anything like that in your posts archive. I scrolled down though your Activity feed to the beginning of April and didn't see anything there, either. 🤷🏼♂️
To me, "Followers" versus "Subscribers" is another weirdness about Substack. Being the former only means Substack gives some priority to their Notes in the Notes feed (and there's a "Following" category that I'd think would filter the Notes feed for *only* those you Follow but which doesn't seem to do so). The latter is what presents their posts to your email or notifications and puts them in your Inbox. The whole Notes vs Posts thing here is just weird. The way comments work differently between them is annoying. And I spend as little time as possible in Notes.
I don't know what dialogue jazz is. If you mean jazz singing, no, not really. I prefer instrumental jazz. If you like Metheny, you might like John Scofield, Bob James, or Al Di Meola. On my walks two weeks ago, I was enjoying "Live At Montreux 2011: Carlos Santana & John McLaughlin" — McLaughlin is another you might check out. There's a Japanese all-female high-energy jazz supergroup, "The Jazz Avengers", with YT videos that I've been watching lately. I'm not normally big on saxophones but these gals blow me away.
FWIW, this week I'm listening to "Little Big Town". Country/Rock (they based their band on a love for Fleetwood Mac and do sound a bit like them). The vocal harmonies they do are what really stands out. Do you like any country music?
I'm aware of the connection between bad hearing and dementia but also that cognitive exercise — which I've been doing all my life — can be a counter. I guess time will tell. Being so hard of hearing makes me focus on people's faces, and I *think* I'm good at reading them, but how would I really know?
When I was married, my stepdaughter commented that I seemed to like meeting new people (true observation). I'd been chatting up the "limo" (van) driver who drove us from the airport to Disney World. So, I can relate to your program. As misanthropic as I am, people still fascinate me. Such variation. And you made me remember the owner of the liquor store near me that I used to stop at on the way home from work when I needed to buy beer. Very grumpy, even hostile, and cold. Took months before he decided I was okay. Sometimes they just have to recognize that you're not some random customer just passing through.
Most of my reading is science fiction with a big chunk of murder mysteries and detective stories. Or technical material in some way. Most "literary" fiction bores me. I did finally get around to reading "Moby Dick" but stuff like that is rare. How about you?
There is a Following category "button" at the top of the Notes feed, but I don't think it works right. I'm pretty sure many of the Notes in that feed are NOT people I'm following. I've said before that, the longer I'm here, the more underwhelmed I am by the software. Agree about meeting interesting people, though!
Oh, okay, I don't have much (read: hardly any) training in music, so I didn't know dialogue jazz was called that. I did wonder if that's what it meant. That Japanese jazz supergroup I mentioned, "The Jazz Avengers" do that in almost every tune (usually between two sax players but not always), and I do love it. It's not uncommon in rock when there are two lead guitar players. Generally speaking, I most like music with lots of instruments, so groups like Fleetwood Mac, Dave Matthews, Springsteen, or Tedeschi Trucks. Complex arrangements.
Agatha Christie (Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, and others) is rightfully called the Queen of Crime. She's an excellent writer, and anything she wrote is worth reading. (Or in your case, listening to.) Others you might like: Dorothy L. Sayers (Lord Peter Wimsey), Ngaio Marsh (Roderick Alleyn), P.D. James (Adam Dalgliesh), Ellery Queen (Ellery Queen), Harry Kemelman (Rabbi Small), Catherine Aird, or Margery Allingham. The last two don't have a crime-solving character. I'm a big fan of Sayers and Marsh. I assume you've read Sherlock Holmes. You might also enjoy the Arsène Lupin stories by Maurice Leblanc. All of these are from the genteel past, so no explicit sex scenes, and any violence is muted or only referred to.
I don't spend much time in Notes (a brief dipping of the toe once in a while), so didn't see your Note. I tracked it down and read the review. Seems more about society than mathematics. (Zeno's Paradox, for instance, was resolved by calculus, which the Greeks didn't know.) It's certainly true that scientific views and practices reflect, to one degree or other, the social and political views of the holders. Math is often seen as the "purest" science, and strictly mathematical proofs are about as free of that as science can be. As the review touches on, people *use* (usually questionable) math to prove whatever point they want to prove. In general, humans are very good at using "logic" to rationalize their beliefs. However, strict mathematical proofs rarely lend themselves to the messy world of humanity.
Re Zeno's Paradox, there's a joke about an infinite number of mathematicians walking into a bar. The first one asks for a pint of beer, the second for a half-pint, the third for a quarter-pint, and so on. The bartender says, "You guys are crazy," and pours two beers. Which is indeed the sum of that infinite series (1+½+¼+⅛+... = 2).
Have a great May Day!
My dad had a backyard garden every year, and my parents loved veggies, but I never developed much taste for them. I do love spicy Tex-Mex and salsas. I used to add a dash of habanero sauce to certain dishes, but as I've aged, I've had to tone things down from hot to medium. I've never liked catsup, because it's too bland.
OTOH, most egg dishes make me (literally) gag, and I'd rather be waterboarded than eat a fried egg (I do like quiche, and I can choke down scrambled eggs if they have a lot of other stuff in them). I think it's the sulfur, which may also account for why dark leafy greens also make me gag.
"Diplomatically blunt", yeah, I can relate. As you say, the intent is good, not malicious. My ex- was capable of cruelty, and I've never understood the impulse. When I get something wrong, I *want* someone smarter to correct me, so I've also never really understood why many would rather go on being wrong than corrected. I did learn very early to never, never correct the spelling in a girlfriends love letter.
I had to look up "circumhorizontal arc" but it didn't really help understand what you mean. Per Wikipedia is seems associated with ice halos? I particularly celebrate the Winter Solstice because it means the returning of the light. And I somewhat mourn the Summer Solstice because it means the dying of the light. I love sunlight and hate those long dark winter nights. Equinoxes are cool because of how everywhere on Earth the Sun rises/sets directly east/west. The ancients used to use it for aligning their constructions.
I have stuff to do today and a "party" (more just us old farts hanging out) tonight, so that's probably it for me today. Possibly for the weekend, too. All week, it's taken me the entire morning to read the posts I'm subscribed to, comment on them, and reply to comments. I enjoy it a great deal, but I'm regretting the time away from other projects. I need to find a better life/Substack balance, so I'm going to try to do other things this weekend. Great chatting, though, and, like MacArthur, "I will be back."
Circumzenithal arc. Back to Wikipedia. Upside down rainbow caused by ice crystals. But I still don't understand how it ties into Solar seasons or what the woo part is. I do get a big kick out of Sun dogs.
My first venture into Apple was with a Classic iPod I wanted to take music with me on walks or trips. Originally, I just copied all my CDs to it, but over time started buying music from Apple. Then I got an iPad and finally an iPhone (in part because my iPod was on its last legs). And then another iPad. Between all the ebooks and music, I'm stuck in the Apple world, though — other than when I'll be forced to get another iPhone — I won't buy anything from Apple.
Other than YouTube and their search engine, I never used Google products, so nothing to disentangle there. (Oh, and a Gmail account associated with my YouTube channel.) It's Amazon I'm trying to disengage from now. Unfortunately, I "bought" a bunch of movies from them, so I'm a little trapped. I need to find out if cancelling my Prime subscription still gives me access to "my" movies. I have an Amazon Music sub, but plan to explore other options.
I think my tastes have expanded as I've gotten older. I've learned to like things I didn't before. Onions, for one. And I'm all-in on the hoppy IPA beers now. The first time I had one, I thought I was drinking a pine tree.
It again sounds like you've had quite an interesting and varied life.
Sounds like you had fun "playing in the dirt". The highlight of my weekend was the Twins sweeping the Angels (their first sweep of the season) and getting above .400 for the first time this season. I suspect the coming four games in Cleveland will bring them back down, though. But at least we got some fun games to watch. Being a Twins fan is an exercise in stoicism.
There's a joke in computer science circles that the answer to every question begins with, "It depends on what you mean..." True in many areas, actually. In this case, "much of my personal tech life" depends on what one means by "much". I've arguably been a techie for most of my life in terms of interests. I started playing with electronics as far back as 1965. I started programming in 1977. I've been in the PC world since the early 1980s and only bought my iPod in 2005.
I've always had a perception of style over substance with Apple. Their products never measured up to the PC/Windows world for my hobby programming or my corporate work. My interest in them is music and ebooks. My disengagement with them comes from their awful customer service. And that a subscription to Apple News (which was ad-free for a year) started including ads.
It's similar with Amazon. Even worse customer service (they've *lied* to me). I view giant companies as inevitable in this world and don't reject them because they're giant. Nearly everyone caved to the scary wannbe God-King, so I don't fault them (much) for trying to protect their employees (and, yes, their personal fortunes as well, but CEOs are beholden to stockholders, so "it's complicated"). But all of that makes it very easy for the balance to tip into the "Nope, not doing this anymore" zone.
I like all music, especially live music, but mostly listen to jazz and softer rock. How about you?
Your upward arc somewhat aligns with my more pessimistic "sawtooth" vision of humanity. We slowly rise to some peak but then crash down under the weight of our own foolishness. I wonder if human culture isn't self-limiting because homo sapiens rarely live up to their name.
I love garlic; always have. I used to make a spaghetti sauce that had an entire bulb of the stuff. I've loved garlic bread since I was a kid. None in your kitchen. Don't care for it?
Enjoy your time in the garden!
I noticed that the Substack phone app doesn't make it easy to find a new comment. I had to start with the post, then click into comments. It helped that I could click the [⮁] button and select "Newest first" to show the newest comments. But it took me a while to figure out; I'm glad you did, too.
I didn't know that about yogurt, but now that you mention it, I think BentleyMom does the same when she makes kefir. I do know sourdough requires a starter. (BTW: got the news yesterday. B'dog's tumor was benign. Still might grow back in time, though.)
All four grandparents immigrated from different parts of Norway. My parent were first-generation Americans.
Teaching dance! Quite the work history you got there, JT. Figuring MPH is "simply" a matter of distance ÷ time, of course, but the trick can be figuring out what those are (and converting the units to miles and hours — I would guess that with dancers it would be more a case of feet-per-second or something).
I've always been a truth speaker (obviously, truth as I saw it). It was 30-some years ago, and any analysis of my own behavior would at this point be hopelessly biased and clouded by time. I can say I've always tried to be as civil as possible, but I was a little hot-tempered when I was younger. (To be honest, I still am but have learned to not subject others to it.)
Sounds like we share a fondness for Solar-based occasions. I'm not much one for holidays, especially ones greeting card companies made up, but I've long observed the Solstices and Equinoxes. And I love a good thunderstorm.
For what little it's worth, most of the time on cruises is spent wandering around the ship or doing stuff on shore expeditions. The cabins are mostly for sleeping, changing clothes, showering, etc. And the food. Oh my, the food. Everyone gains 20+ pounds.
Your mottos work for me. And anyone who loves dogs learns to live with tracked in dirt and dog hair. There's a line about how you can judge someone's character by how much dog hair they have on them.
I could eat better (although I suppose I do eat healthier than many). I don't do vegetables, really dislike the "dark, leafy greens". Mostly a bread, meat, and potatoes kind of guy. Love most grain products, including beer. Never was much into exercise, though I don't mind hard work, and I do love walking. Tough about your painpal, I can relate. I was walking four or five miles every day, but my knees and lower back decided they weren't up to that. After years of not walking, I'm slowly building back into it when I can. Couple miles every two or three days. Walking Bentley is different because she's slow and stops often to sniff, so that's rarely an issue for me. On my own, I try for 4 MPH, but even back when I was going long, the best was about 3.8 MPH. Aging sucks. And, yeah, I can well imagine that it really stinks to have that taken away by external events.
Like you, I have a small circle that between their busy lives and families I see about once a month or less often. Which works fine for me. BentleyMom is my local "sister" (my actual sister lives in L.A.). I text with both fairly often, but BentleyMom has such a heavy work load we're lucky to get together for lunch or dinner once a month. (Which works for me and, I think, her, as we're both introverts.)
No pathology report yet, but Bentley seems to be on the mend. I'm told she picked up her ball for the first time since surgery, which we take as a good sign.
Parties. I always end up enjoying them, but convincing myself to go is a chore. I find myself looking for acceptable excuses not to go.
Heh, I can relate to the "You're odd" thing big time. All my life there have been two key bits of feedback I get from people. [1] "Wow, you're so smart!" Followed by [2] "Wow, you're kind of a freak!" A high school friend (a few years after HS) once said to me, "You go out of your way to be different, don't you!" No, not really, I just am. I've never liked swimming in the main stream.
It was up to 73 here today, and I got a nice walk in. Fairly brisk because I've had three days off — 3.64 MPH. Might be the best I can do anymore. Hopefully I won't have to take tomorrow off for pushing it today.
The reference to fate went over my head. People have asked if it's pronounced "weird" or "word", and I answer "yes". 😄 But the handle is originally meant as "word".
The issue with the web UI was fixed after a few hours. That's not uncommon. Some update isn't checked very well (or at all, I sometimes think), but once noticed it gets fixed relatively quickly.
Enjoy your gardening! Substack has to be secondary to the things that really matter in life. I keep getting more sucked into it than I like — it's such an interesting place filled with such interesting people — and have to remind myself to walk away more readily.
I seem to feel okay today, so will try for a walk later and see how it goes. Hope you have a good day outside and don't feel it too much tomorrow.
Yeah, it does help to have a handle when one has public exposure. In my case, I didn't want anything on my old blog (est. 2011) to get back to my company, but I never actually wrote much that would have been problematic. But back in the old days (before the web) I used my real name, and since the only access I had was through my corporate email, I got dinged a few times from people complaining to my company about something I'd said they didn't like. I actually got banned from using the internet at one point, but by then I'd established personal access. Sweet that the townspeople protected your identity. Nice to be cared about like that!
Oh, okay. I knew "wyrd" had an older connotation, but didn't know much about it. I was mostly keying off the 'y'='i' to match "Smythe". I spent days trying to figure out a good handle for my blog, and when my mind stumbled on "Wyrd Smythe" I immediately knew I'd found it. (Likewise the title, "Logos con Carne".)
Have a great day gardening. Give your mutt a pat from me.
Dog hair as a food group. 😂 Totally.
I manage to see sis and her hubby every few years or so. They like traveling a lot more than I do, so they usually come here. I was way a Cali guy while I lived in L.A. and for a few years after, but I'm thoroughly a Minni guy now. Love it here; would never move back.
Beer is vegan! 😁 Are you alcohol-free or just don't like beer?
[Drat, just managed to exit the reply I was doing and lost everything I'd typed. I can never remember it exactly, so: Reply, Take 2. 😡]
Yes, Minnesota (or Minnesnowta). Before global warming it wasn't uncommon to have a week or two with high temps below -20°. Those seem a thing of the past. We had some days with a low near -20° but they had warmer highs. I'll put some links to Notes I posted with some charts if you're curious.
My mom was from Escanaba, MI, and my dad from Marinette, WI, so we have roots in the area. My dad's dad was a minister in rural MN, and his brother taught theology at a Lutheran seminary in Minneapolis. Dad was a minister, first, in NYC, then in Minneapolis, and finally in Los Angeles. They're all among the dear departed now.
The Germans make good beer and long ago created the Reinheitsgebot law (purity law) saying it can only be called beer if it has *only* barley and hops (and water). They didn't know about yeast, yet. I vastly prefer Reinheitsgebot beers. I have friends who brew, and loved seeing the American craft beer industry explode. We finally recovered from Prohibition. Used to be tons of breweries, and now they're back. (In fact, there were too many, and a lot have fallen by the wayside or been absorbed by bigger ones.)
But I can relate. Not everything is for everyone.
I love champagne, usually have several bottles chilling in the fridge, but save it for celebrating special occasions (for a somewhat loose definition of "special").
Links to probably boring temperature charts:
https://substack.com/@wyrdsmythe/note/c-111433457
https://substack.com/@wyrdsmythe/note/c-111433974
https://substack.com/@wyrdsmythe/note/c-111434528
https://substack.com/@wyrdsmythe/note/c-111434643
Yeah, a cruise ship would be hard for you. The rooms are small enough, but the bathrooms are really tiny. Trains are even worse. The bathroom is a phonebooth-sized stall with a toilet but is also the shower.
Heh. It occurs to me that most people alive today have probably never been in a phonebooth. I wonder how many have even used a payphone.
"I have a touch of OCD" is a frequent metaphor people use that, from what I understand, isn't appreciated because it erases the suffering those with bad OCD experience. Yet the metaphor does communicate something and seems true-ish in my case. I seem to sublimate it into my work, my writing, and especially my coding (which has to be just so), but doesn't show up much in my rather casual and sloppy lifestyle.
A friend I've had since the mid-1980s was diagnosed with Asperger's some years ago (and everyone who knew him thought, "Ah, that explains a lot!"), and we do share some traits. Since at least high school I've been a raging curmudgeon, rabid misanthrope, and serious introvert, plus I suffer from a hearing deficit that isolates me socially, so it's hard to separate all that from any spectrum-related isolation or social difficulty. In the right circumstances, I love talking with people and enjoy meeting new ones. At the same time, like all introverts, it's exhausting (as well as exhilarating) for me.
I envy your weekend! Some back issues make it hard for me to get much walking in anymore, though I do what I can (and have nice places to walk). I especially like walking with a dog. It makes me feel more human, somehow, than walking alone does. So, I really enjoy when I dog-sit my little friend Bentley. Which I'll likely do once she heals from her surgery. BentleyMom could definitely use a break. It's been a rough haul for both of them.
May not be around much this week. There's an expression, "Being nibbled to death by ducks," and recently I feel like the ducks are winning.
I've been stung by those tiny yellow jacket wasps that live in holes in the ground. One of my only phobias is razor edge cuts and needles, so most of my life I was phobic about stinging insects. But getting stung a few times made me realize it's not that bad. I managed to get over needles by fully realizing that I've hurt myself worse stubbing my toe.
Heh, I was in Honors English (and Honors Math) classes throughout high school, too. I was one of those rare birds who loved school (admittedly in part because it was pretty easy for me).
I dunno about certified, but I probably do qualify as some sort of polymath. *Everything* interests me. Life is short, so I have to pick and choose, but *everything* interests me.
These two posts from my old blog might help compute the jump:
https://logosconcarne.com/2012/08/23/my-life-2-0/
https://logosconcarne.com/2012/09/10/my-life-3-0/
I found some connection in my mind about the Missouri Synod and Germans. Checked Wikipedia and found: "The Missouri Synod emerged from several communities of German Lutheran immigrants during the 1830s and 1840s." Now I just wish I could figure out where that mental connection came from.
Those connections happen a lot. I don't remember past events well (I enjoy rereading books because I can never remember the plot details) but I remember what I took from them. Many years ago, I was walking my dog and wondering what kind of trees we were seeing. Definitely weren't any tree I recognized (which isn't saying all that much). My mind handed me "Linden trees". I looked it up later and discovered that's what they were. But to this day I don't understand how I knew. I have no memory of learning about them. Maybe some description of their distinctive leaves I read in some book? My brain is weird, and I've come to suspect I might be on the edge of the spectrum.
For being about writers, Substack isn't very good at comment engagement. It drives me crazy how hard it can be to reply to a comment, especially when you reply to a Note. Being actually in a post comment section is a bit easier. I've learned to take a screensnap or text copy of something I want to reply to as a reference.
Read with interest your bit of a bio. We do share some traits, though our life paths have been rather different. I *almost* got into college radio but too many other interests came first. It's fun to speculate about the lives one almost had. If other realities exist with copies of us that made other choices, I'm pretty sure I became a standup comedian in one of them. Your Archive shows a small enough set of posts that I'll likely visit sooner rather than later (for a broad definition of "sooner").
Hope you're having a nice weekend!
It was, as they say, an “interesting” time.
(I’ll respond to your longer comment here tomorrow.)
I was a science geek from a young age. I stumbled into theatre arts my second year of high school and discovered I had an artistic side. I started writing back then (including some really bad poetry, which seems canonical for high school). And filmmaking requires scripts. I hadn't really thought about this, but I've been writing since HS.
Only ever got as far as the periphery of the film industry. There are no cab drivers or wait persons in Los Angeles. *Everyone* is a wanna be writer, actor, musician, or (in my case) director. I decided I wasn't willing to spend many years grinding away at rare bits and pieces in hope of *someday* ... *maybe* ... directing a film. Late in college I got into programming and loved it as much as anything else (still do), so I ended up doing technical work that eventually led to designing software. And now am happily retired!
Educated as a journalist sounds interesting. What's your background and history?
I had to look up Tre Ore, it was a new term to me. The Lutheran churches my dad preached in, and any I've visited since, don't use Latin much at all. Was it the German aspect that connects more with that? A German Lutheran church in America or was it literally a German church?
Heh. I'm often just glad I'm old and won't have to have my mind and spirit crushed by what's going on these days much longer. Just my luck, despite a devotedly unhealthy approach to life, I'll probably have to stick around for way more years. It's depressing how much I don't recognize the world (or especially this country) anymore. Makes me very discouraged about humanity.
I subscribed in part just as a show of support and interest and in part because we've done so much chatting. Just seems appropriate. And it "bookmarks" a blog so I have a handle for, when I've got some time, going and reading their "back catalog". There are maybe a dozen blogs that aren't that active but where I'd like to eventually get around to reading what they wrote.
Yup. Going to be here for a while! Thanks.
You’re quite welcome.
Like string theory: “not even wrong.”
Yes, exactly.
I like your writing style. For example: "I think the first is a misunderstanding, the second isn’t true, the third is debatable, and the fourth is probably irrelevant." It's easy to follow and entertaining, such is hard to do when breaking down theories about quantum physics, which, I think, is almost always a rabbit hole. But such an interesting one!
Thank you, I'm glad you liked it! 😊
Yes, I agree, very interesting indeed.
Great piece, I've always been bothered by the BU and it's nice to see such a well formed argument against it. I will only nitpick that your point 4:
"The universe is not deterministic because quantum mechanics"
Is only true for certain interpretations of QM and the most we can say with certainty is that the universe is unpredictable.
Thank you, I glad you enjoyed it.
Do you mean things like the MWI or pilot wave theory?
Yes, exactly. Ive also seen a few new TOEs on Curt Jaimungal's podcast that propose a deterministic picture of things. Personally I think what QM tells us is that the manner is which we can observe subatomic processes is inherently indeterministic but that doesn't necessarily imply indeterminism as a fundamental feature of reality.
Depressing? How so? I glossed over that part because it requires a lot of explanation about how Special Relativity works, and those using the simultaneity of distant events as support for the BUH are generally read in on it. If you're interested in learning more, I wrote a series of 25 (short) posts on my other blog that go into a lot of detail about SR.
In general, if you ever have questions, I'm happy to try to answer them.
I've been interested in science almost literally all my life. My parents told me that my first words were "star" and "light" (the first one being the star on the top of our Christmas tree). Early science fiction fed that interest and led to a lot of reading about it.
Dad was a Lutheran minister; mom was a music teacher and choir director. But they were mellow about it and let me make my own decisions (I went through an atheist phase in high school, for example). I don't align with Christianity (or any worldly religion), but I do ascribe to a teleological universe. Probably closer to Spinoza's conception, but certain events have made me wonder about something more directly involved with humanity.
If one grants the notion that (at least) six events with 1:10,000 (1:10⁴) odds are required for intelligent life, then the odds of intelligent life are 1:10²⁴. Which is more than the 10²² stars in the visible universe (assuming 10¹¹ stars per galaxy and 10¹¹ galaxies). So, it's possible we're it. In the entire universe (let alone in just this galaxy). Intelligent life may be very special (not that we've made much of it, sad to say). And it does make me wonder.
Heh, well, there was nothing metaphysical intended. The really short version is: Imagine you're looking at three posts that are in a line. You're looking at them from the side such that the two further posts are directly behind the closest post. Fix that image in your mind. The posts represent three distant events you would judge to be "simultaneous" because they're all aligned from your POV.
Now imagine taking two steps to the right. Now the posts aren't aligned. The closest (call it A) is LEFT of the middle one (B), and the furthest (C) is RIGHT of it. From this POV you'd judge the order of the same events as A first, B second, and C third.
Return to the center and take two steps to the left. Now you see the closest post (A) to the RIGHT of the middle and the furthest (C) to the LEFT of it. From this POV you'd judge the events as C first, B second, and A third.
The three POVs represent observers with different velocities relative to the posts. The center position is at rest with regard to them, and the left and right positions represent observers moving (in opposite directions) relative to the posts. This is the shifting of simultaneity of distant events due to relative motion. Those who ascribe to the BUH see this as meaning all three events must always exist for this to work. But it ignores that light has to travel from the events to the observer, and this necessarily happens after the events happen, so they're all comfortably in the observer's past.
I dunno if that helps any, but it's the simplest version I've come up with.
Yes, ALC. The LCU (Lutheran Church in America) was also pretty mellow, but those Missouri Synod folks were rabble rousers. And that division of three different Lutheran organizations was an early clue for me that the "worldly church" left something to be desired. I mean, come on, you're all Lutherans! The bigger divisions between other Christian churches amplified that big time. I came to really appreciate the Jewish point of view that one's relationship with God is between you and God. No ministers arbitrate. Rabbis are just experts for consultation. I also like the Jewish notion that, if God exists, He is so far beyond our understanding that it's pointless to even try. Just accept (or don't).
My parents were free thinkers and understood instinctively I think that one has to walk one's own path. There are many ways up the mountain. The point is the climb.
I think Spinoza is attractive to committed atheists. Einstein, for instance. It allows for a sort of vague teleology without committing to a Father/God figure. And I'm definitely more of an agnostic with deist leanings and occasional theist suspicions. Some weird events in my life are either very strange coincidences or God winking at me. I fully acknowledge they're most probably memorable coincidences, but 🤷🏼♂️.
Yeah, until we have a working TOE, who knows what's really going on. I've long wondered if there isn't a whiff of Ptolemy's epicycles in quantum mechanics. The gotcha is the need to explain the appearance of the Born rule in our measurements.
https://open.substack.com/pub/curtjaimungal/p/the-impossible-test-for-universal
I love coincidences like this, it's like Curt heard us talking.
Heh, yeah, it is rather on point. Maybe he’s eavesdropping.
I think personal letters to widows of friends are very important!
Indeed.
[Reply to JT's last two replies above.]
Yeah, phones aren't very good for viewing images (let alone videos). In this case, you aren't missing much. Just a bunch of temperature graphs. I enjoy visualizing data that interests me. I used to do that a lot for work, and the habit stuck.
Minn is very different from SoCal. Took me three years to adjust to it when we moved there and three years to adjust to being back. I'm thoroughly Minnesnowtan now (been back since 1984). You're right about the fun of high culture. Minneapolis has a bit of that, but it's not something I crave anymore. As you say, definitely not my thing.
Ugh, ticks. The one critter in all creation I'd banish and damn the consequences. Bentley and I were wandering in one of the wilder sections of a local park, managed to get turned around and semi-lost, and ended up tramping along some almost-trails (probably used only by deer). At one point, I looked down, and there were a dozen crawling on her back. Another dozen on my sweatpant legs. Hate those damn things. And now there are these Lone Star ticks... [shudder]
Ha! What brand of beer did it turn out your neighbor drinks? Beer brewing is ancient — goes back at least to the ancient Egyptians — but yeasts were discovered only after microscopes. The old Germans only knew that you needed some of the foam from the last batch brewed to make the current batch work. There is a legend, probably true, that they called that foam "God is good". The Germans had (and have) so many distinct styles of beer, there's no guessing what your granddad drank. One mark of a good beer is that it doesn't need to be ice cold to enjoy.
Tuesday's walk did impact Wednesday's, and I think I need to take a day or two off. I managed 3.6 MPH Tuesday, but only 3.3 yesterday. I use Google Earth to create "paths" which gives me precise mileage (and, very cool, an elevation profile as well). I use a stopwatch to time the walk. The MPH is just a matter of a bit of math. The hardest part of which is converting minutes and seconds to hours [(minutes ÷ 60) + (seconds ÷ 3600)].
I don't even remember now, but, yeah, something I said upset someone, they realized my email address was for a well-known corporation and complained to them. Just one more time speaking my mind had a price. 🤷🏼♂️
6 hours, wow! I can well imagine you're paying the price. On the rare occasions I throw a party, there's about two or three days of cleaning, shopping for food, and otherwise preparing. I'm good through the party, but the next couple days I spend on the couch "reading" (mostly napping).
Also, wow, you still had some snow. I haven't seen any of that stuff for weeks here. We had several late snowstorms followed by warm enough weather to melt the snow. I finally put my shovels back in the garage last week. April often brings a snowstorm or two, but it's clear we're beyond that.
Hope you're not feeling too burnt out by yesterday's efforts. There are certain things — but only certain things — I miss about being young.