where to buy modafinil south africa This morning I was starting my fire with bits of newspaper, and it so happened that a copy of The New York Times from some months ago contributed to these pyrogenics. No headlines are quite so interesting as old headlines – I sometimes find that it takes me a few extra minutes to get the […]
Category Archives: Dumb Stuff
Cicero, Latin, Ted Cruz, & Google.
21-Nov-14A friend posted on Facebook the following rant after the idiocy of Ted Cruz, who rather obviously never reads Cicero and is full of it, quoting the First Catilinarian against Obama: A friend posted this about Ted Cruz invoking the 1st Catilinarian: sponte sua mihi in mentem maledictio illa subit, quae apud Plautum legitur: ‘abi […]
Charles Darwin, finally approaching a publisher with his Origin of Species: Publisher John Murray, fearing a financial fiasco, had balked at the 500-page manuscript, and initially asked that Darwin cut it down and focus the work on pigeons because “everybody is interested in pigeons.” From Archaeology magazine. So good I hope it’s true.
Varro on Beyonce.
04-Feb-13I’ve been reading Varro’s De Re Rustica in the midst of my daily labors (mostly cutting and carrying wood), and seeing new mother Beyonce looking rather fit at the Superbowl last night minded me of this passage: “Ut te audii dicere,” inquit, “cum in Liburniam venisses, te vidisse matres familias eorum affere ligna et simul pueros, […]
Apologia Pro Carolo Gustavo Jung.
08-Jan-13There are some rules in the intellectual world which are pretty reliable for detecting bloviating stupidity, or blathering solipsism (or however you want to render b.s.), and one of them is this: if someone launches a five-thousand word attack on a noted author, and almost never quotes a line from the voluminous works of that […]
Bad Credit Plastic Surgery.
03-Jan-13Without a doubt the most striking thing about listening to the radio in Miami are the plastic surgery ads. With financing options. “Breast aug $199 a month. Lipo $299 a month. Bad credit? No problem! We specialize in people with credit problems!” There’s even a website, BeautyLoans.org.
Again, the Absurdity.
31-Mar-12Another display of the universe’s fearsome absurdity came on October 9th, 1992, when a meteor streaked across the entire eastern United States, breaking up over Kentucky and being filmed in Pittsburgh and elsewhere while streaking to its destiny of knocking out a taillight on a parked 1980 Chevy Malibu in a driveway in Peekskill, New […]
The Hodges Meteorite.
31-Mar-12A notable page from the chronicles of absurdity is the Hodges Meteorite, which on November 30th, 1954, formed a fireball visible in mid-day across three states, on its way to Talladega County, Alabama, where it crashed through the roof of a suburban home in Oak Grove. It bounced off a wooden console radio, and struck […]
On the name “Kingman.”
24-Mar-12For whatever reason, I find “Kingman” one of the most appealing names of all the Route 66 towns – if I were getting a Route 66 tchotchke, I think I would try to get one from Kingman. I don’t know why.
Bob Dylan, Conscience of a Generation.
05-Nov-15Central A few weeks ago I was cleaning up after a party at my house and came upon a paper bag full of books which a guest had apparently left as a gift. They were all recent books, the kind of stuff that makes me hate being in bookstores – I always feel like I have […]