Wednesday, March 31, 2004 3:33 PM
Presbyterian Poets Society
The Wrinkle in Time link in my previous entry led to a sermon for St. Andrew's day, 2003, at the Riviera Presbyterian Church in Miami.
I belong to no church, but have a vague recollection of being confirmed in the Presbyterian church in early adolescence. That ceremony meant nothing to me then, and means nothing to me now. It was the culmination of fitful attendance at Presbyterian Sunday School, which I recall, reluctantly, only as a course of training in ugliness, lies, and stupidity.
There seems, however, to be a paradox here. The same religion I so detested seems to have inspired in others works of beauty, truth, and intelligence.
To wit, three poets, each with a Presbyterian background:
It may be that I am becoming reconciled to the religion that was urged upon me in my youth... becoming, at last, a Riviera Presbyterian.
For more details,
click on the above picture.
Wednesday, March 31, 2004 2:18 AM
Literary Archaeology
"Mrs. Who's spectacles shone out
at them triumphantly,
'And the light shineth in darkness;
and the darkness
comprehended it not.' "
-- A Wrinkle in Time
See, too,
Shining Forth and
Wednesday, March 31, 2004 12:25 AM
To Be
A Jesuit cites Quine:
"To be is to be the value of a variable."
-- Willard Van Orman Quine, cited by Joseph T. Clark, S. J., in Conventional Logic and Modern Logic: A Prelude to Transition, Woodstock, MD: Woodstock College Press, 1952, to which Quine contributed a preface.
Quine died in 2000 on Xmas Day.
From a July 26, 2003, entry,
The Transcendent Signified,
on an essay by mathematician
Michael Harris:
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Kubrick's |
Harris's |
From a December 10, 2003, entry:
Putting Descartes Before Dehors
"Descartes déclare que c'est en moi, non hors de moi, en moi, non dans le monde, que je pourrais voir si quelque chose existe hors de moi."
For further details, see ART WARS.
The above material may be regarded as commemorating the March 31 birth of René Descartes and death of H. S. M. Coxeter.
For further details, see
Plato, Pegasus, and the Evening Star.
Tuesday, March 30, 2004 3:11 PM
The Horn at Midnight
(See the two previous entries.)
HORATIO
I think it lacks of twelve.
HAMLET
No, it is struck.
HORATIO
Indeed? I heard it not:
then it draws near the season
Wherein the spirit held
his wont to walk.
A flourish of trumpets,
and ordnance shot off, withinWhat does this mean, my lord?
............................................
HORATIO
Look, my lord, it comes!
Enter Ghost
HAMLET
Angels and ministers of grace
defend us!
___________________________
In memory of
Peter Ustinov and Alistair Cooke
From today's New York Times:
Mr. Cooke's daughter contacted Mr. Cooke's biographer to inform him of her father's death at midnight [on the night of March 29-March 30, 2004].
ANGEL
On Peter Ustinov, also from the New York Times:
"He received [an Emmy for his role] as Socrates in 'Barefoot in Athens' in 1966."
The Times on "Barefoot in Athens":
"Socrates falls from grace, and becomes the lone voice of democracy amongst the corruption of his fellow Athenians in this television adaptation of Maxwell Anderson's play."
MINISTER OF GRACE
On Alistair Cooke in today's Times:
"At Jesus College, Cambridge, Mr. Cooke edited a literary magazine, put on plays and acted in them as a co-founder of the Cambridge Mummers, and pursued a rigorous social life....
Quiller-Couch taught him about writing."
GRACE
For more on Jesus College, Quiller-Couch, Socrates, and grace, see
Tuesday, March 30, 2004 1:45 AM
Something is Rotten
"... the administration's reaction to Richard Clarke's Against All Enemies provides more evidence of something rotten in the state of our government."
-- Paul Krugman as Marcellus
in today's New York Times
Krugman is among those now using the ominous phrase "abuse of power." He closes with a Nixon-related thought:
"Where will it end? In his new book, Worse Than Watergate, John Dean, of Watergate fame, says, 'I've been watching all the elements fall into place for two possible political catastrophes, one that will take the air out of the Bush-Cheney balloon and the other, far more disquieting, that will take the air out of democracy.' "
Tuesday, March 30, 2004 12:00 AM
Banach's Birthday
"A mathematician is a person who can find analogies between theorems; a better mathematician is one who can see analogies between proofs and the best mathematician can notice analogies between theories. One can imagine that the ultimate mathematician is one who can see analogies between analogies."
-- Stefan Banach, according to MacTutor.
The quotation is perhaps taken from Through a Reporter's Eyes: The Life of Stefan Banach, by Roman Kauza (a.k.a. Roman Kaluza).
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"What we today call 'Banach spaces'
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Sunday, March 28, 2004 12:12 PM
American Heaven
Headlines from today's Google News:
Singer Jan Berry, 62; Half of Surf Music Duo
Screeching for heaven at Mach 7
"The promise of 70 virgins in paradise and the equivalent of about $20 was all it took to convince a Palestinian teenager to turn himself into a suicide bomber..."
A more modest paradise, from a Jan Berry obituary today:
With Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, William Jan Berry co-wrote the lyrics for "Surf City" with its lines about taking the station wagon to a place where there are "two girls for every boy."*
* Theological footnote for feminists:
In some other regions of American Heaven, there may be two boys for every girl.
Sunday, March 28, 2004 12:00 PM
Real Enemies, Part II
"Even paranoids have real enemies."
-- Saying attributed to Delmore Schwartz
Hamas leader says Bush
is the 'enemy' of God and Islam
-- Headline, USA Today, March 28, 2004
Saturday, March 27, 2004 4:24 PM
Real Enemies, Part I
"Even paranoids have real enemies."
According to the Washington Post and Newsday today, the President's persecutors now include
Paul O'Neill,
formerly Bush's Treasury Secretary
Richard A. Clarke,
formerly Bush's counterterrorism chief
Rand Beers,
Bush's counterterrorism chief after Clarke
Flynt Leverett,
former member of the Bush national security staff
Richard Foster,
Bush Medicare accountant
John DiIulio,
former director of Bush's faith-based initiatives
"Others who have fallen out of favor over Iraq include former economic adviser Lawrence Lindsey, retired Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni and former Army chief of staff Gen. Eric Shinseki. All voiced concerns about either the expense or number of troops needed to occupy Iraq. All were treated dismissively by the White House. All are gone, but their estimates proved accurate....
Not every White House attempt at damage-control works. Last summer, White House officials tried to pin the blame on CIA Director George Tenet for not waving Bush off his State of the Union claim that Saddam was seeking uranium in Africa for nuclear weapons.
Political analysts rushed to proclaim Tenet a goner, but those obituaries proved premature."
-- Tom Raum in Newsday today
Tuesday, March 23, 2004 2:00 AM
President Queeg
"Over the weekend, Richard A. Clarke, Bush's former counterterrorism coordinator, said Bush focused too little attention on al Qaeda before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and too much on Iraq afterward.
Clarke detailed his allegations in a book released yesterday. In it, he echoes criticism of Bush's judgment and fixation on Iraq that were leveled by former Treasury secretary Paul H. O'Neill in his book, which was published in January."
-- Jim VandeHei, Washington Post,
March 23, 2004
"Pity poor George Bush. For some reason, he has been beset by delusional aides who, once they leave the White House, write books containing lies and exaggerations and -- this is the lowest blow of all -- do not take into account the president's genius and all-around wisdom."
-- "Bush, Clarke and A Shred of Doubt,"
Richard Cohen, Washington Post,
March 23, 2004
"He was no different than any officer in the wardroom -- they were all disloyal. I tried to run the ship properly, by the book, but they fought me at every turn.
... Naturally, I can only cover these things from memory... If I've left anything out, why, just ask me specific questions and I'll be glad to answer them... one-by-one..."
(With apologies to Paul Krugman... See Krugman's column on President Queeg from March 14 last year -- abstract or full text.)
Monday, March 22, 2004 10:00 PM
The Hairy Palm Academy
The previous two entries were prompted by a picture in the Washington Post of Spain's Interior Minister, a member of the secular arm of the Legion of Christ.
Both entries mentioned a school run by the Legion of Christ, the Royal Palm Academy. As the following excerpt from my March 20 entry indicates, a different sort of palm might also be honored by the Legion -- the hairy palm.
"Los Legionarios de Cristo... es una organización fundada en 1941 en Méjico por el padre Marcel [Marcial] Maciel (rehabilitado por el Vaticano en 1958 tras ser acusado de ayudarse en sus visiones con ampollas de morfina; también fue acusado de pederastia, le gustaba masturbar a jovencitos y que ellos le masturbaran a él)."
Related readings from The New York Review of Books, issue dated April 8, 2004:
God in the Hands of Angry Sinners, by Garry Wills, on the Legion of Christ and on Mel Gibson flogging his God,
and a related article, a review of
Solitary Sex: A Cultural History of Masturbation.
It seems the founder of the Legion of Christ, like many other Catholic priests, may have regarded masturbation as a group sport rather than solitary recreation.
For further details, see an ABC News 20/20 story dated April 26, 2002:
When approached by ABC News's Brian Ross in Rome with questions of allegations against Father Marcial Maciel, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger became visibly upset and actually slapped Ross's hand.
-- ABCNEWS.com
Sunday, March 21, 2004 1:20 AM
Quid Pro Quack
(Headline of today's
Maureen Dowd column)
Quiddity:
The essence, nature, or distinctive peculiarity, of a thing; that which answers the question, Quid est? or, What is it?
-Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
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The above rather cryptic sequence of pictures may be regarded as a memorial to Queen Juliana of the Netherlands, who died at about the time I found the central picture, "Royal Palm Student." For further details, click on the individual pictures, each of which is taken from a past log24 entry. Also of some relevance: the palm at the end of A Mass for Lucero and the Stevens poem on The Palm at the End of the Mind.
Saturday, March 20, 2004 1:00 AM
Christendom Today
From PP Nunca Mas! --
From today's Washington Post:
Security Officials Try to Forge
'Europe-Wide Response' After Attacks
By John Burgess
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, March 20, 2004
European Union officials acknowledged Friday that mistrust between intelligence agencies posed a serious challenge.
"We have to build trust."
-- Michael McDowell, Ireland's justice minister
________________________
Reasons for distrust, from a page on Ángel Acebes, Spain's Interior Minister, at PP Nunca Mas! --
Acebes
(today's Washington Post)
En cuanto a su faceta espiritual, Acebes es miembro de la inquietante organización religiosa Legionarios de Cristo (de su brazo seglar, Regnum Christi).
Los Legionarios de Cristo... es una organización fundada en 1941 en Méjico por el padre Marcel [Marcial] Maciel (rehabilitado por el Vaticano en 1958 tras ser acusado de ayudarse en sus visiones con ampollas de morfina; también fue acusado de pederastia, le gustaba masturbar a jovencitos y que ellos le masturbaran a él).
Those who distrust members of Opus Dei (so memorably described in the recent bestseller The Da Vinci Code) may also distrust members, like Acebes, of the secular arm of the Legion of Christ.
If, on the other hand, one applies the "by their fruits ye shall know them" test to the Legion of Christ, one finds, for example,
The Royal Palm Academy in Naples, Florida.
This school seems to excel both academically and spiritually.
Royal Palm Student
Friday, March 19, 2004 2:35 PM
Geometry of the 4x4 Square:
http://log24.com/theory/geometry.html
"There is such a thing as a tesseract."
— A Wrinkle in Time
Thursday, March 18, 2004 4:23 PM
Rainbow's End
From the
Norma Ballistics Calculator:
See also
Readings for St. Patrick's Day.
Wednesday, March 17, 2004 11:59 PM
State of Grace
Saint Mercedes McCambridge, who won an Oscar for "All the King's Men," died on March 2, 2004.
From an entry for that date:
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O the days of the Kerry dancing.... For further details, |
From today's New York Times:
Charlotte Mercedes Agnes McCambridge was born on March 16, 1916, in Joliet, Ill. ... She began giving her birth date, though, as St. Patrick's Day 1918. In explaining the discrepancy, a spokeswoman said, "She's an actress," adding: "She was a little bit Irish. And she decided she wanted to be two years younger."
What the hell, she's younger now.
Wednesday, March 17, 2004 8:00 PM
William H. Pickering,
Dec. 24, 1910 - March 15, 2004
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Wednesday, March 17, 2004 4:31 PM
Readings for
St. Patrick's Day
Books:
Finnegans Wake (1939)
Gravity's Rainbow (1978)
Masks of the Illuminati (1981)
Quotations:
"Nature does not know extinction;
all it knows is transformation.
Everything science has taught me,
and continues to teach me,
strengthens my belief in
the continuity of our
spiritual existence
after death."
-- Wernher von Braun
"I faced myself that day
with the nonplused apprehension
of someone who has
come across a vampire
and has no crucifix in hand."
-- Joan Didion, "On Self-Respect,"
in Slouching Towards Bethlehem
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"For every kind of vampire, -- Thomas Pynchon, Inscribed
In Latin, NORMA Multa renascentur quae iam cecidere, cadentque Many terms will be born again All, all must perish -- but, surviving last, "Norma was the latin word for what we now call a carpenter's square. It was used to construct lines which were at right angles to another line, so the created line was said to be 'normal.' The norma was also used as a standard to compare if objects, like a wall, might be erect (perpendicular to the ground) and so those that met the standard were called 'normal' and this use extended to the 'typical' element of any type of set. Eventually normal came to mean anything that 'met the |
"317 is a prime,
not because we think so,
or because our minds are shaped
in one way rather than another,
but because it is so,
because mathematical reality
is built that way."
-- G. H. Hardy,
A Mathematician's Apology
Tuesday, March 16, 2004 1:06 PM
Anschaulichkeit
In memory of John W. Seybold, who died at 88 on Sunday, March 14, 2004....
Seybold is said to have originated the application of the phrase "what you see is what you get" (WYSIWYG) to computerized typesetting.
The date of Seybold's death was also the date of Einstein's birth.
The entry "Clarity and Certainty" for that day contains a discussion by Einstein of the fact that the altitudes of a triangle have a point in common.
A March 14 search for a clear diagram of that fact yielded the above illustration, to which I returned today after reading of Seybold's WYSIWYG philosophy. The illustration is taken from an article by a British teacher of geometry that contains the following:
"Dick Tahta wrote... of geometry as involving the direct apprehension of imagery, gazing as into the eyes of a beloved and a certain intuition-seeing (Anschauung).....
His sentences have tremendous power, and yet the terms he uses are slippery and seem unexplainable. What is, or what might be, 'direct apprehension of imagery'? What is evoked by the powerfully metaphorical 'gazing as into the eyes of a beloved'? 'Intuition' is a tremendously difficult term.... The combination 'intuition-seeing' seems to represent an attempt to convey a meaning for the German 'Anschauung,' and echoes the original title of the text Anschauliche Geometrie by Hilbert and Cohn-Vossen which was published in English as Geometry and the Imagination."
From the same article:
"... for Lacan 'mathematics ... is constantly in touch with the unconscious'....
Commentators on Lacan frequently write that... he argued that the human being is captivated by an image....
The object, in a sense, gazes back."
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"Anschaulichkeit" is in my Cassell's German-English dictionary, with the meanings "visual or graphic quality, clearness, vividness, perspicuity." For "anschaulich," this dictionary gives "visual, clear, vivid, graphic, concrete; (Phil.) intuitive, perceptual." For "Anschauung" it has
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The final meaning above, theological contemplation, suggests that the altitude-intersection diagram above may be used for a meditation on the Trinity. This is, of course, silly , but no sillier than the third-rate lucubrations of the damned charlatan Lacan.
And so let us pray that Einstein on his birthday was joined by Seybold in rapturous contemplation of the Trinity as revealed‡ in the physicist's "holy geometry book."
For a less silly geometrico-theological metaphor, see "Scalene Trinities" from The Mind of the Maker, by Dorothy Sayers.
‡ For a related revelation, see A Contrapuntal Theme.
