New
Birth Brass Band tuba player Kerwin James, who walked out of devastated
New Orleans with his instrument on his back, passed away Friday at a
Houston hospital.
When the news of his passing hit James’s native Treme neighborhood in New Orleans, a spontaneous parade erupted on St. Phillip Street. Have a look
A few days ago in my local video store I struggled at length to retrieve my too-fat wallet from my back hip pocket.
I was annoyed and so was the 17-something clerk waiting for me to pay and be gone. It made me think of the Seinfeld episode in which George deals, unsuccessfully in the end, with his fat wallet jammed full with bits and pieces of paper once he considered worth holding on to.
Trying to ease my way with the exasperated clerk I asked if she knew about that Seinfeld episode and received in reply a puffy breath and blank stare. Whatever.
The experience makes me reflect anew about how much Seinfield has become, to those of us of a certain age, a cultural reference. "Not that there's anything wrong with that."
Remember Festivus? The holiday 'for the rest of us." It comes around every year December 23rd, features the Festivus Pole, Airing of Grievences and Feats of Strength.
Seems a perfect solution to those tired of the bogus "War On Christmas" carping by wingnut punditry.
Richard Dawkins' opening talk, in a session called
Meme Power at the TED Global (Technology, Entertainment and Design) conference, explored the ways in which humans invent their own
realities to make sense of the infinitely complex worlds they are in--
worlds made more complex by ideas such as quantum physics which is
beyond most human understanding.
Well, duh!
How else to explain Numerology, Phrenology and Scientology?
Link
Maybe Aldous Huxley is right in his book, Doors of Perception,
when he suggests that there is an infinity of information and stimuli
washing over us in a barrage and it is our mind's responsibility to
filter out anything that impairs our ability to survive.
Tnx and a tip of the hat to Chris Abraham
Find it. Listen. It's worth it. Start here
October 5
Today is the Anniversary of Monty Python's Flying Circus! The Flying Circus debuted this day, 35 years ago, on television at 10:50 PM on BBC-1. The world was never the same. (October 5, 1969)
I've been thinking about going as Michael Jackson. He's been known to turn a trick or two.
On the otherhand, perhaps I'll ignore the whole thing like I usually do.
Like their mournful and scratchy music and hidious dancing, the Irish brought the custom of Halloween to America in the 1840's.
But, custom of trick-or-treating is thought to have originated not with the Irish Celts, but with a ninth-century European custom called souling.
On November 2, All Souls Day, early Christians would walk from village to village begging for "soul cakes," made out of square pieces of bread with currants. The more soul cakes the beggars would receive, the more prayers they would promise to say on behalf of the dead relatives of the donors.
At the time, it was believed that the dead remained in limbo for a time after death, and that prayer, even by strangers, could expedite a soul's passage to heaven.
Native Americans stand on the Mall near the Capitol during opening ceremonies today of the National Museum of the American Indian.
A beautiful, if unusual building for Washington, DC.
