Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Frederik Pohl: Nov. 26, 1919 to Sept. 2, 2013

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There will be numerous obituaries appearing in the next few days, so I won't write anything extensive. except to say that whenever I saw...
Sunday, September 1, 2013

Loren Eiseley: the unpredictable

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"Physicists, it now appears, are convinced that a principle of uncertainty exists in the submicroscopic realm of particles and that out...
Wednesday, August 28, 2013

The Rubaiyat: Quatrain LXXII

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Another quatrain bemoaning the end of Spring or Youth. First Edition: Quatrain LXXII Alas, that Spring should vanish with the Rose! Th...
Monday, August 26, 2013

Jerome Bixby's Man from Earth, an SF film

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Jerome Bixby is probably best known for his short story, "It's a Good Life," which became a Twilight Zone episode in 1961, as...
8 comments:
Sunday, August 18, 2013

Tao Te Ching: Chapter 33--Knowing Oneself

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33. He who knows others is learned;     He who knows himself is wise. He who conquers others has power of muscles;     He who conquers ...
4 comments:
Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Eric Hoffer: from Reflections on the Human Condition

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Something to irritate almost everybody .  .   . "#33  It is the malady of our age that the young are so busy teaching us that they h...
4 comments:
Saturday, August 10, 2013

Loren Eiseley: on stability

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"Life is never fixed and stable.  It is always mercurial, rolling and splitting, disappearing and re-emerging in a most unpredictable f...
Sunday, August 4, 2013

Wallace Stevens: The House was Quiet and the World Was Calm

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The House Was Quiet and the World Was Calm The house was quiet and the world was calm. The reader became the book; and summer night Wa...
Monday, July 29, 2013

The Rubaiyat: Quatrain LXXI

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This is the fifth linked quatrain that focuses on wine.  It refers back directly to LXIX in which he laments that his devotion to the grape ...
4 comments:
Friday, July 19, 2013

Iron Sky: an SF film?

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The question in the title of this post really means that I wondered whether to call it a film or farce.  It's brought to you by the same...
4 comments:
Saturday, July 13, 2013

Baltasar Gracian: on trivia

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No. 121 "Do not make a business of the trivial.  Just as some can make a tale out of anything, so others can make a business of every...
2 comments:
Monday, July 8, 2013

Kenko: on instabiliity

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No. 25 "The world is as unstable as the pools and shallows of Asuka River.  Times change and things disappear; joy and sorrow come an...
1 comment:
Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Eric Hoffer: on desire

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"7.  Every intense desire is perhaps basically a desire to be different from what we are.  Hence probably the imperiousness of the desi...
4 comments:
Saturday, June 29, 2013

Thomas Mann's The Black Swan

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Thomas Mann:  The Black Swan This short novel by Thomas Mann is one of his more unusual works, which really isn't saying much for an ...
Sunday, June 16, 2013

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam: Quatrain LXX

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This quatrain is a classic example of rationalization.  He has promised to give up wine, but now second thoughts appear--a very common occu...
Monday, May 27, 2013

Simon Ortiz: May 27, 1941

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                 Earth Woman                                                                                                               ...
2 comments:
Tuesday, May 14, 2013

I'm back, mostly. . .

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It's been awhile since my last post here.  I guess it was an unplanned but necessary vacation.  I expect to be back with a few posts sho...
4 comments:
Saturday, February 9, 2013

Three SF films

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Warning:  I will discuss endings and significant plot elements.     These are three films that I have just recently viewed.  As you can se...
2 comments:
Saturday, January 5, 2013

The Rubaiyat: Quatrain LXIX

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This is another quatrain that concerns itself with the grape, but in this one he wonders if perhaps he's made a mistake. First Editio...
6 comments:
Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Langston Hughes: Does it matter?

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New Year The years Fall like dry leaves From the top-less tree Of eternity. Does it matter That another leaf has fallen? -- Langsto...