World without rocks

 

There's a famous anecdote about Samuel Johnson. It's said that he was so irritated by a mention of George Berkeley's assertion that there is no reality except for what is perceived that he kicked a rock and said, "Thus I refute Berkeley." 

What's the problem with arguing on the internet? Some people think it's that no one respects experts anymore and that leads them to spread misinformation. But in truth, most experts are fatuous idiots and liars, and it's actively a good thing that people ignore them.

A more serious problem is that there's no way to appeal to objective reality. You're not face to face with anyone. You're not sharing space with them. Cyberspace isn't space. So you do see people assert some things and deny other things in a way that would entirely collapse if they weren't alone with their reflections.

Men in white

I'm reading a Ray Bradbury collection called A Medicine for Melancholy. Not for the first time, but for the first time in a long time. And one thing about Bradbury is that he can launch into a bunch of different kind of stories.

When it was published, "The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit" probably wasn't what people were expecting from Bradbury, known to be a science fiction guy. It's about a half-dozen men who all go in on buying a gleaming white suit that none of them could afford on their own. Ultimately it's a very affecting story about friendship.

Could he have published it now? If he weren't already established as a big name, I mean. I don't know. The main characters are all Chicano. While wokeness isn't really rampant among American Latinos, editors might hesitate, saying that they'd "prefer a story like this from someone in the community." To which this hypothetical Ray Bradbury might respond, "Okay, but I'm the one who did write it, so how about evaluating it on its own terms?"  So again, I don't know what would happen.

Remember what I said about Bradbury's versatility? The next story in the collection is "Fever Dream", a scary story about a boy at the start of adolescence who gets sick. But that's not all, as the ad say.

Plant corner

Monkey puzzle trees are quite interesting both because of their unusual crisscross branches and because they're conifers native to the Southern hemisphere. They're not the only conifers from the Southern Hemisphere, but conditions in the southern temperate zones have almost certainly shaped them into what they are now. In any case, as they're endangered, may they soon be unendangered.

It's theorized that they're spiky branches evolved as a defense against dinosaurs. Crazy to think about how aspects of such a long-ago world are still with us today.

We got a jumper

 

I love this song. It's got an aggressively angular sound you wouldn't necessarily associate with Simon & Garfunkel, but they wear it well. It's also a really good example of storytelling in song. A real "you are there" feel, and an ending that raises some question. 

This blog post about it is very good too. (Remember blogs?) "Another Paul" has always been able to draw a lot out of the Simon songs he writes about. Marilyn Manson is an interesting addition to the mix.

Cat's entertainment

Well, the known animal kingdom just got a little bigger, and it's always cool when you can find out about that. The tilcayo tiger cat was just discovered in Bolivia. Its Latin binomial is leopardus tilcayo, which sounds not unlike a Chicano rapper with an Ancient Roman theme.

One of the researchers who discovered the tilcayo notes that it's "smaller than a housecat." But how can that be when it's of the genus "leopardus"? Well, actual leopards, which mostly live in Africa, have the genus "panthera." The "leopardus" genus describes South American native cats, most of the species being quite small. 

Anyway, here's hoping the tilcayo tiger cat's habitat remains sufficiently intact for them to thrive.

Melancholy Danes

Take a look at the picture of the Helsingor train station. It was built in a time of great artistry and craftsmanship, definitely. But there's something more about it.

"Helsingor" has an English cognate in "Elsinore", i.e. where Hamlet takes place. And Helsingor knows this, which is why right outside the station stand statues of Hamlet and Ophelia. The linked blogger describes them as "bearing grotesque expressions." His face looks a little wimpy, although the same can't be said of his muscular legs. She has a thousand yard stare and a jaw that looks ready to fall off.

The nineteenth century is when Shakespeare's reputation went from "a great playwright" to "the Great Playwright." By the latter part of the century, Denmark knew how big he'd gotten and about their connection to what was widely considered his greatest play. They picked a classy way to cash in.

Happy accidents

You might remember a man named Bob Ross, a Floridian Air Force veteran with a white guy afro who attained what might be called a viral fame in the last ten years or so of his shortish life. He wasn't PBS's first happy-go-lucky painting instructor―that was Bill Alexander―but he defined that role for the public and is a rich subject for parody.

A friend today told me about Bob Ross Painting Parties, which I hadn't heard of before. It seems to have started in the late 2010s and is still going on. People get together, project Bob Ross videos on the wall, and have a go at painting.

If you're an actual artist this probably sounds more like dressing up as Brad and Janet for Rocky Horror screenings than what you do, and you're not wrong. But the crucial phrase here is "people get together." Social traditions have been disappearing and shrinking much faster in the 21st century than new ones can be created. So if a new one springs up, why carp about the sillier aspects? May the painting parties spread like wildfire from YMCA to church basement to parks in the summertime. Let a million Bobs bloom.