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Ok, That Went Pretty Well

April 21, 2006 – 10:32 pm

Here are a couple of photos from Chinese president Hu Jintao’s vist to the White house. During the reception on the South Lawn (we decided to snub Hu and crew by not throwing a state banquet in their honor; after all, he is only the leader of the world’s most populous nation) Hu was manhandled by President Bush, and heckled by an adherent of Falun Gong. While introducing the Chinese national anthem, an announcer mistakenly referred to the People’s Republic of China as the “Republic of China”, which of course is Taiwan. And once everyone went inside, Dick Cheney apparently fell asleep.

I have to wonder if the whole thing was a prank; I rather hope it was. You can just imagine them all trying to keep a straight face. I still don’t think it tops Bush père vomiting in the lap of Japanese Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa back in 1992, though.

What a pack of cards.

Posted in Politics | Comments (1)

Mens Sana in Corpore Kayoed

April 20, 2006 – 2:42 pm

From my old friend P.M. “Nick” Nicholes, who lives with his family in magnificent isolation in Lennep, Montana (pop. about 8) along the Musselshell River, near the Crazy Mountains, comes word of a brand-new way to test oneself in both brain and brawn: chessboxing.

Posted in Chess, Society and Culture | Comments (1)

Burning Bush

April 19, 2006 – 12:29 pm

My friend Jess Kaplan has sent me a link to an essay by Carl Bernstein that, not unsurprisingly, calls for a Congressional investigation, possibly leading to impeachment proceedings, of George Bush. You can read it here. While Bernstein’s credentials on the subject of ousting Republican presidents are, of course, unimpeachable, one must be wary to some extent, because of his visceral, Krugmanesque loathing for Bush the man.

Posted in Politics | Comments (2)

Sphinx

April 18, 2006 – 11:09 pm

Something recently brought to my mind the enigmatic Voynich Manuscript, and I thought it would be worth a mention here, for those of you who haven’t heard of it. It is one of the world’s odder artifacts.

Posted in General | Comments (5)

Peer Pressure

April 17, 2006 – 11:04 pm

Today, having been summoned for jury duty, I spent a few hours as a cog in the machinery of American justice. Admittedly, a case could be made that my contribution was actually quite minor: I showed up at 8:45 a.m. at the Supreme Court building at 360 Adams Street in downtown Brooklyn; sat in a large room, reading, until lunchtime; took a very enjoyable stroll (accompanied by an equally enjoyable sandwich) down to the lovely Brooklyn Promenade overlooking New York Harbor, where I dined al fresco in the delightful spring sunshine; returned to the Central Jury room at 2; sat there reading until the end of the day, at which point I was discharged. Still, despite the fact that my name was not called even once other than to send me packing, I exited the building with that special glow of inner satisfaction that only those who, like me, have sacrificed in the service of their country can really understand. Not pride, mind you, but just the knowledge that one has done one’s Duty, and done it well.

Posted in General, Society and Culture, Politics | Comments (5)

Alison Calder Pollack,
June 4, 1935 – March 28, 2006

April 14, 2006 – 10:58 am

My mother, Alison, died in Oceanside, California on March 28th after, as they say, a brief illness. She was seventy years old.

My mother with little Nick
Alison with my son Nick, 1988

Posted in Alison, Pretty Good Posts | Comments (9)

Experts Stunned as Pollack Turns 50

April 13, 2006 – 1:45 pm

Brooklyn, NY, April 13 (AP) –

In a startling development that medical researchers familiar with the history of his early adulthood called “completely unexpected” and “totally out of left field”, software developer and erstwhile recording engineer Malcolm Pollack celebrated his 50th birthday today.

The portly PubSub programmer’s hemicentennial was greeted with happy surprise in other quarters as well.

“We sure never saw this coming, but hey, we’ll take it!” said Hugo Grasping, a spokesperson for the Internal Revenue Service.

Brewery and distilled-spirits stocks rose sharply as the shocking news made its way around the trading floor. Dougall MacCallan, marketing strategist for John Dewar and Sons, reached by phone in his office in Spittal of Glenshee, Perthshire, was obviously gladdened by the news.
“There’s nae poackits in a shroud,” he chuckled.

Elsewhere, employees at the Dogfish Head brewery, in Milton, Delaware, briefly interrupted their celebration to talk to reporters.
“Whoooo-hooo!!!!!” said one. “Baby needs a new pair of shoes.”

Posted in General, Pretty Good Posts | Comments (13)

Sound Reasoning

April 11, 2006 – 11:44 pm

For fans and foes of Daniel Dennett, here is a page that has links to several audio files of recent interviews with the feisty philosopher. They are big files, so they take a minute to download and get running.

Posted in Darwin and Biology, Reason and Philosophy | Comments (0)

Unnatural Acts

April 10, 2006 – 10:56 pm

In a previous post about C.S. Lewis’s book Miracles we began to look at his treatment of the Natural vs. the Supernatural. In Chapter 3 Lewis rolls out the argument that serves as the necessary underpinning for the rest of the book; he calls it The Cardinal Difficulty of Naturalism.

Posted in Pretty Good Posts, Mind and Brain, Reason and Philosophy | Comments (3)

Then Play On

April 9, 2006 – 11:28 pm

I know today’s post was supposed to follow on the previous item about C.S. Lewis, but in this morning’s email was a very interesting note from my friend Gus Spathis.

Posted in Music and Recording, Society and Culture, Reason and Philosophy, Technology, Pretty Good Posts | Comments (7)

More Than This

April 8, 2006 – 9:26 pm

It is always with happy anticipation that I begin reading a book; I wouldn’t have taken it up in the first place had I not some reason to think that I would profit by it, and when the writer is someone I admire as much as C.S. Lewis, I know that I will be in the company of a man of immense erudition, elegant refinement of style, and – perhaps most fascinating to me – one who is both a skeptic and a believer. So it was with great interest that I opened his book Miracles, which deals directly with a question that has been vexing me no end lately – the question of Natural vs. Supernatural.

Posted in Reason and Philosophy, Books | Comments (1)

With Friends like That…

April 6, 2006 – 10:23 pm

Having got up and off to work earlier than usual today, gone off to Don Alias’s funeral (a sad affair) up in Harlem at midday, strained my brain for hours afterward writing code, then spent the evening at the kwoon, I’m just too tired to write much tonight. So I will just pass along an interesting item from the New York Times’s website (with a tip of the hat to Eugene): The Gospel of Judas, a manuscript dating back to the fourth century A.D. or so, has just been translated. One of the “Gnostic Gospels“, it paints Judas in a more favorable light; in fact it depicts him as Jesus’s most valuable ally, as the one who made his sacrifice possible. Read more here.

Posted in Society and Culture, Marginalia | Comments (0)

Bang the Drum Slowly

April 5, 2006 – 9:44 pm

In a further example of what is becoming a depressing trend, another musical friend has left the building. Percussionist Don Alias was only 66.

Posted in General | Comments (3)

Man of Action

April 4, 2006 – 10:28 pm

In the mail yesterday came an envelope from my good friend Jess Kaplan, who is, due to his sharp and perpetually curious mind, a constant source of fascinating material. Inside was a printout of a lengthy essay, by one Arthur M. Young, on the subject of science and consciousness. I am embarrassed to say that I had not heard of the man, because when I looked him up I discovered him to be, quite obviously, one of the brighter lights of the twentieth century, a restless and productive polymath who, among other accomplishments, invented the magnificent Bell helicopter – a task he apparently set himself simply as an exercise for the training of his mind and the growth of his wisdom.

Posted in Mind and Brain, Reason and Philosophy, Science | Comments (5)

Heavy Weather

April 3, 2006 – 10:46 pm

I’ve been a bit out of touch, as readers will understand, and have just noticed two recent items in the scientific news. Both have to do with the climatic effects of largish objects colliding with the Earth.

Posted in General | Comments (3)

April, Come She Will

April 2, 2006 – 9:51 pm

It was a beautiful spring day in New York; much-needed balm, as I was deeply weary and full of dark thoughts.

I went for a long walk in Prospect Park, where the sun was shining in a clear blue sky, the air was fragrantly astir, and the daffodils were blooming. I saw thousands of smiling happy people – gamboling and frolicking in the Long Meadow, thumping away at Drummer’s Grove, playing at the ballfields, pedaling their bikes, sitting on the benches, tossing footballs, pushing strollers, and sleeping on the grass. There were Jamaicans playing cricket, and Russians playing chess. I saw Muslim women in hijab, Lubavitchers in long black pants, and sunbathers in bikinis. Two middle-aged white guys were playing Gypsy guitar music, very well indeed, while a few feet away attractive young woman was telling the equally attractive young man she was playing Frisbee with that she was sorry she didn’t speak German so that they could understand one another better. She said she felt badly about it, but the only languages she spoke were French, Spanish, English, Italian, Arabic, and a little Farsi.

And there were children everywhere, in all sizes, shapes, and colors – in strollers, on foot, slung upon their daddy’s shoulders fast asleep, laughing and shouting and crying, and eating ice creams, and nursing at their mother’s breasts, and drinking at the fountains, and flying kites, and running around and falling down and getting right back up.

And all the time the Sun was shining on down, same as always. And tomorrow it’s supposed to rain, same as always.

I feel much better now.

Posted in General, Pretty Good Posts | Comments (4)

Back In Black

April 1, 2006 – 10:26 pm

I’m home in Brooklyn once again, and should be able to resume thinking and writing after this mensis horribilis.

Sorry, all, to have let things lapse so badly around here; the place feels neglected. I’ll open the windows tomorrow and let a little spring air in.

Posted in General | Comments (0)

Bye, Mom

March 28, 2006 – 11:59 pm

It’s over. My mother died today at 12:10 p.m. Pacific time. My father and I were on our way to the hospital; her best friend, Shirley, was at her bedside.

She had not really been conscious since late Sunday night; since yesterday afternoon she had been in a deepening coma.

It is a great relief that this awful time is over, and that her long years of pain and struggle are at an end. I will write a proper farewell to this extraordinary woman as soon as I can find the right words.

A remarkable thing happened later this afternoon.

Posted in Alison | Comments (12)

Kind of a Hard Day

March 28, 2006 – 4:11 am

For better or for worse, this page has temporarily been taken over by my family’s crisis. I know that there are many of you who have been checking in here to see how things are going. So:

My mother is now in an unresponsive state, and is in a Cheyne-Stokes respiratory pattern. She is receiving intravenous saline, morphine to control her pain (at 5 mg/hr.), and no nutrition.

The last coherent words she exchanged with anyone were with me, as I left her room late on Sunday night. She is already gone; perhaps she will still be breathing in the morning.

The staff at Tri-City Medical Center, in Oceanside, California, and her doctors, Daniel Vicario, James Brinkman, and Chris Lewis, are nothing short of saintly. I have seen quite the opposite often enough to appreciate it.

Thank you all. Added to my list of topics to visit upon resuming normal operations here is the book “Miracles”, by C.S. Lewis.

Posted in Alison | Comments (3)

12:09 A.M., Room 220, Ramada Inn, San Marcos, CA

March 26, 2006 – 3:10 am

I really don’t want to use this space for family updates, but these past few days I have been so completely occupied by family matters that I have had no opportunity for preparing any posts, certainly not the sort of posts I want to be writing.

When I dashed back out to California on Thursday, I had every reason to imagine that my mother would already be gone by the time I got here. However, since all involved have decided to give up on treatment and switch to palliative care, she has bounced back a bit, and although she is terribly weak and frail both physically and emotionally, she is able again to speak with us.

Posted in Alison | Comments (3)

Curtain

March 23, 2006 – 1:30 am

I may not be posting again for a day or two. The situation in California has declined very suddenly, and the end is at hand. My father and brother are with my dear mother, but she is now beginning the private part of her journey, and is already slipping beyond earthly awareness. I am flying back to be with them tomorrow.

Ah, my heart… how very sad this is.

Posted in Alison | Comments (4)

How It’s Done

March 22, 2006 – 12:55 am

So to cheer up, I decided to read some Perelman. Here, from Are You Decent, Memsahib?, is young maharaja Lam Chowdrie proposing to buxom stripper Sherry Muscatel:

“Oh, moon of my delight… Life has bruised your wings, my little shama thrush. All I ask is a simple boon. Let me spend the rest of my life catering to your smallest whim.”

Posted in General | Comments (1)

al Coda

March 21, 2006 – 11:15 pm

This is another sad day for my family. Though my mother has fought valiantly to endure a last-ditch round of chemotherapy, today she and her doctors (James Brinkman and Daniel Vicario, who have cared for her as if she were their own mother) have agreed that her battle is unwinnable, further suffering pointless, and that hospice care is what is needed. She may have a week or two.

It is proving to be difficult for me to get back to any real writing here during this difficult time. Though there is much that I want to get back to, I simply can’t focus properly right now. Dennett et al.will be dealt with in due course.

Posted in General, Alison | Comments (3)

Cold Spring, NY

March 20, 2006 – 11:48 am

Today marks the vernal equinox, but you’d never know it around here. There’s a chill wind blowing, and it’ll be down in the twenties tonight. Quite a contrast from San Diego, where I spent most of last week.

I blame that bloody groundhog.

Posted in General | Comments (2)

The Long Bomb

March 19, 2006 – 10:27 pm

I’ve been away, and haven’t properly attended to my duties here for weeks now. There is much that I want to write about; in particular I want to air a few thoughts about Daniel Dennett’s new book, Breaking the Spell, and about some of the questions it raises. But meanwhile…

Posted in Tomfoolery | Comments (0)

Eye of the Storm

March 18, 2006 – 11:49 pm

Back in good old Brooklyn again tonight, for a little while at least. The outlook is grim in California, but I will resume normal operations tomorrow, at customary levels of pith, insight and wit, for as long as circumstances allow.

Thanks to all for your patience and support.

Posted in General | Comments (0)

Gone, But Not Forgotten

March 17, 2006 – 2:08 am

I’m in California still, looking after my gravely ill mother, and opportunities for thinking the longish thoughts needed to generate an interesting post are scarce.

I would, however, like to take a moment to remember, on the first anniversary of his cruelly premature death, my good friend, the gifted bassist Wayne Pedzwater. Here is the post that I wrote immediately following his memorial service.

If you should see this, Patty, know that you are in my thoughts.

Posted in Music and Recording, Alison | Comments (1)

No Moss Gathered

March 13, 2006 – 11:31 pm

Once again, I am afraid to say, waka waka waka might lie fallow for a day or two. I must hie back to California first thing in the morning to help with my parents’ deteriorating circumstances, and have been rather frantically attending to my many other duties and obligations in preparation for being away for a few days.

I have here a good opportunity to practice what I have just preached in the previous post.

Posted in General | Comments (3)

Pressure Points

March 12, 2006 – 8:50 pm

In times of stress, our breath tends to rise in the chest. The shoulders lift and tighten. The jaw clenches.

Over the past thirty years of kung fu (and other inner work), I’ve devoted a good deal of attention to this. When I watch inexpert students sparring, the signs are always there, and always the same. The students are nervous: they are putting their skills to the test, and they might receive a painful blow at any moment. Also, their egos are on the line, and they are being watched. I can see the tension in their shoulders, the stiffness and jerkiness of their movements, the quick and shallow breaths, the lack of connected power in their techniques.

Posted in Martial Arts, Inner Work, Pretty Good Posts | Comments (2)

Oh No You Didn’t

March 12, 2006 – 12:55 am

If you are interested in logic and philosophy, or are just plain argumentative, here is an interesting site that I found out about over at Bill Vallicella’s place: The Fallacy Files.

Onto the sidebar it goes.

Posted in General, Reason and Philosophy | Comments (1)

Walter Browne Throws One Down

March 11, 2006 – 11:40 pm

I was poking around online the other day and came across this outstandingly brilliant game by the great American grandmaster Walter Browne. When I was a teenager I used to come into New York with my friends to play in tournaments at the old McAlpin Hotel at Herald Square; Browne was always the one to watch. You could always tell where his board was by the crowd gathered round.

This is a game from one of those tournaments, way back in 1973. Enjoy.

Posted in Chess | Comments (3)

The More Things Change

March 10, 2006 – 2:45 pm

A Zen saying:

Before enlightenment,
I chopped wood and carried water.
After enlightenment,
I chopped wood and carried water.

Posted in Inner Work | Comments (4)

Crab Nebula

March 9, 2006 – 2:43 pm

And here is a story about something you have seen before (I’m quite sure about that, because until a few days ago, nobody had) – a lobster covered with “silky white fur”.

Kind of looks like he should be holding a pair of maracas. I’d like to know what that “fur” is made of; as I recall it is only mammals that grow hair.

Posted in General | Comments (1)

C’est la Vie?

March 9, 2006 – 12:19 pm

There is a buzz and twitter on the network today from NASA; according to the Drudge Report, they are about to announce that there appear to be geysers of liquid water on Saturn’s moon Enceladus.

If true, this is a big deal.

Posted in Science | Comments (0)

Bright Idea

March 8, 2006 – 7:52 pm

I’m sure we have all, at one time or another, had the experience of being dazzled by a bright light. The other day it happened to me, and I noticed something quite surprising about it.

Posted in Mind and Brain, Darwin and Biology, Pretty Good Posts | Comments (1)

Cowboy Leg Beautiful Pole

March 8, 2006 – 6:16 pm

I had to share this, which came to me by way of Eugene Jen.

Bon appétit.

Posted in Language, Marginalia | Comments (2)

Are We Not Men?

March 7, 2006 – 11:56 pm

My friend Jess Kaplan, who often sends me interesting tidbits, has called my attention to a curious item from Turkey. It’s a story about a group of siblings who some are saying exhibit retrograde evolution.

Posted in Darwin and Biology, Science | Comments (1)

The Bright Side

March 6, 2006 – 11:59 pm

I’ve finally taken up Daniel Dennett’s latest effort, Breaking the Spell : Religion as a Natural Phenomenon. The book is an attempt to apply the methods of evolutionary psychology and sociobiology to a critical examination of the possible reasons for our fondness for religion. It has unsurprisingly ruffled a few feathers, something Dennett seems to relish.

Posted in Darwin and Biology, Reason and Philosophy, Books, Mind and Brain | Comments (7)

OK, We’re Back

March 5, 2006 – 11:55 pm

First of all, thanks once again to all of you. We’re back in Brooklyn now, after a brief trip to San Diego to visit my ailing mum.

I’m going to write one more rather personal post here, before returning to the usual bloat and blather.

Posted in General, Alison | Comments (4)

Back Soon

March 3, 2006 – 1:04 pm

Very sorry not to have been providing any “content” here the past few days. I’ll be back on Sunday.

Meanwhile, here is a link, from my friend Jess Kaplan, to an essay that makes some interesting points on the value of promoting democracy in foreign cultures. In particular:

America basically inherited its institutions from the Anglo-Saxon tradition and thus its experience over 230 years has been about limiting despotic power rather than creating power from scratch.

Discuss.

Posted in General | Comments (0)

Thank You All

March 1, 2006 – 12:26 am

Many, many thanks to all of you who have commented and emailed with kind words of solace and comfort. I am blushing a bit – I never meant this site to tilt so far toward the private and personal, but one writes about what is in one’s thoughts, and my thoughts have been occupied by little else since hearing the bad news about my mother. I had no idea, frankly, that so many of my friends and relatives had been visiting this site. Thank you all for that as well; it’s easy to get the feeling that writing a blog, for all its world-wide visibility, is little more than shouting up a drainpipe.

I’ll write what I can in the days to come, and I’ll try to get back to the usual pretentious rubbish as soon as possible.

Thank you again.

Posted in Alison | Comments (3)

Public Access

February 28, 2006 – 12:21 am

I’ve been rather torn about whether to write in this space about some very sad things that have been happening lately. My staid British upbringing tends to make me think that airing one’s personal sorrows in public is somehow ill-mannered, but weighing against that is my feeling that it is perfectly in keeping with the aim of this weblog to discuss universal human experiences, especially in the context of our struggle for inner growth and our wish to find meaning and harmony in our lives.

Last Friday I learned that my mother, who had been afflicted by nausea for a couple of weeks, has been diagnosed with advanced stomach cancer, and that the prognosis is very grim.

Posted in Inner Work, Alison | Comments (11)

Hollow Man

February 26, 2006 – 11:12 pm

Here’s another example of the bizarre lengths that people will go to to construct a personality worthy of that precious commodity, other people’s attention.

In this article from the Rocky Mountain News we meet on David “Race” Bannon, Ph.D., who has written a book detailing his dashing exploits as a covert enforcer for Interpol. If the name sounds familiar, it means that you remember the cartoon series “Jonny Quest”, in which Race Bannon was a tow-headed he-man who was assigned to the protection of the adventurous and peripatetic Quest family.

Posted in General | Comments (1)

Dark Days

February 26, 2006 – 5:36 pm

Again, waka waka waka was dark yesterday. In fact there may be several quiet days coming up this week, as a family medical crisis has diverted my attention, and requires that I travel to California.

I’ll try to post as the opportunity arises, but frankly it might be several weeks before normal operations resume.

Posted in General | Comments (1)

But Seriously…

February 24, 2006 – 11:46 pm

You’ve heard this a million times: Life is short. Live every moment.

But I’m going to say it again, myself, and I really, really mean it:

Life is short. Live every moment.

Posted in Pretty Good Posts, General | Comments (3)

De Gustibus

February 23, 2006 – 11:42 pm

One difficulty in developing a coherent philosophical account of consciousness is that the foundation upon which it rests – our subjective experience itself – is not as solid as we take it to be. We tend to think that the features of our inner life – our representation of the world, and the qualia that compose it – are stable and beyond dispute, and that our conscious “now” is a definite, pointlike event – as if there is an inner screen upon which consciouness plays, with Us as the viewer, and that whatever goes up on that screen is a matter of unambiguous fact.

Posted in Mind and Brain, Reason and Philosophy, Science | Comments (1)

Watch Your Back

February 22, 2006 – 6:43 pm

The practice of inner work begins with an attempt to observe ourselves. As I have discussed in earlier posts (here and here), it is very difficult for us to notice the edges of our conscious awareness. The more it ebbs, the less we realize it. Most of the time, we do not remember ourselves.

Posted in Inner Work, Pretty Good Posts | Comments (3)

Harboring the Enemy

February 21, 2006 – 11:58 pm

I have been a bit cut off the past few days – I’ve been out of town, and have lost my Internet connection at home. I missed the papers for a couple of days. So I am rather poorly informed as regards a story that seems to be all over the place – the impending takeover of major port facilities by a corporation based in the United Arab Emirates.

Posted in General, Politics | Comments (1)

With Regrets

February 20, 2006 – 11:23 pm

It’s almost eleven PM, and we’ve just got back to Brooklyn from our dacha in the remotest East, only to find that our Internet access is down. I am currently connected using the only available telephone connection, which is a short wire in an inconvenient corner of the room, and I do not propose to linger. Yes, I could draft a post offline, and connect briefly to upload it, but the fact is that I’m rather weary anyway, and so will just offer a bit of shameless filler tonight to keep up appearances.

Posted in Shameless Filler | Comments (1)

Far East

February 19, 2006 – 11:58 pm

I’m in Wellfleet, Massachussets this weekend, with my wife and son. Wellfleet is a picturesque fishing village on the narrow end of Cape Cod, and is a very popular spot in the summertime. In the winter, though, it is almost deserted. The beaches are empty, the restaurants are closed, the beautiful freshwater ponds are rimmed with ice, and the low forests of scrub oak are forlorn and leafless. The pleasure boats that usually dot the beautiful harbor are gone, and the whale-watch crews have relocated to Baja for the season.

Posted in Cape Cod | Comments (1)