Ffolkes,
There may be many out there who read this, (which shows just how optimistically silly a mood I’m in; I can count, and, only a few hardy souls brave these pages each day…), who will question my use of the infamous pinhead to start out the day, but, to look at the expression on Albert’s face, he knows exactly why Zippy is at the top, as well as the answer to his query, which, naturally, is delivered in a piteously querulous voice, filled with apprehension and angst…. how else? I know for a fact Albert had a very silly side; I have a graphic example, to go along with ample text evidence, which has been presented here previously…. My graphic proof is, of course, this picture….
Previously, I’ve related what Albert said about Life, to wit: “After figuring out the shape and characteristics of space and time, wearing plaid with fuzzy slippers is easy.” (Or something like that….) There’s graphic proof, or suggestive evidence, anyway, of this one, too…. See?….
I’m really not making fun of Albert; I don’t have the chops to carry that off, obviously…. In fact, my irreverence is taken from him, and his own attitudes about living, as I understand those attitudes from my reading about him…. Sadly, he died when I was five, well before I had any chance to realize how wise he was; most of my knowledge of him comes from what he left behind, the legacy of what he wrote, and what others wrote about him…. That alone has been sufficient for me to realize he was one of the two or three wisest men who lived in the twentieth century, not only for his work in helping mankind to understand the physical world, but, for his insights into human nature, and life at large…. Plus, he was damn silly at times, obviously with a great sense of humor, and a keen appreciation for the absurdity inherent in reality…. The latter is a sure way to get MY attention, as y’all know….
Now, a large portion of that legacy, of information of his life, in the form of papers, letters, and pictures, of him, by him, and about him, covering much of his early life, is a much larger body of information, available to anyone who can access the internet. Princeton University, with which Einstein was closely connected for much of his adult life in the United States, has digitized ALL of the papers they had in their possession, and with the approval of the Einstein estate, have posted them online, without restrictions, for anyone to read…. Much of it is in its original German, the language of Albert’s youth, in which language he wrote his personal letters all his life; for those who don’t speak or read German, an English translation of each document is made available….
You can find it all at this address:
http://einsteinpapers.press.princeton.edu/vol1-doc
I, for one, will be spending a great many hours, happily perusing as many of those pieces of Albert’s mind at different points in his life as I can tolerate, both in German, (when I can follow it…. it’s been a long time, and I learned it well after he learned to write it; it will be thick, for sure, but, I’ll have a translation right there to help…. Yay!….), and in English…. Mostly the latter, I’m sure; it has been a VERY long time since I read any German…. But, who knows? Maybe it will break loose a whole big bunch of memories, or give me reason to find someone to speak it with me…. For now, I’ve meandered quite enough… we’ve got a lot of silly to get to today, I think….
Shall we Pearl?
“It is a profitable thing, if one is wise, to seem foolish.” — Aeschylus
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Ffolkes, nobody has a stranger view of the universe than this man…. For your viewing pleasure, I give you now, the world’s most DIFFERENT mind….
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“He asked me if I knew what time it was. I said, `Yes, but not right now.'” — Steven Wright
It isn’t every day I delete a rant which I’ve completely finished, but. yesterday, that’s exactly what I did…. I had it polished, buffed, and fitted out with appropriate pearls, all fresh crap straight out of my head, taking aim at myself, the Asininnies, aka the BRC and the Dogma Dogs (yes, that’s their new name…), the drones, and all us fools caught here on this particular plane of existence. Accurate aim, too, I think, though, the longer it’s gone, the better it gets, of course….
Dumb ass that I am, I failed to close the program I wrote it in, which then auto-saves whatever I’ve written there, so, when I inadvertently clicked the shut down button, forcing programs to shut down, all I’d done in the last eight hours, two or three minutes at a time, then breaking for pain, well… it all just went away, to wherever electrons go when they’re not given a memory address to stay in, so we can find them later….. SIGH….
Now what? I know…. I’ll go extreme….
“Hiccuping & trembling into the WASTE DUMPS of New Jersey like some drunken CABBAGE PATCH DOLL, coughing in line at FIORUCCI’S!!” — Zippy the Pinhead
Now, THAT is monumentally silly! Sad, yet, silly…. Sort of like today’s Pearl, come to think of it…. I suppose now I’ll have to make a pearl here, to keep from breaking into a song, which would then turn into a rant, against Mary Poppins, or some such idiotic icon of her level of respectability…. If what we’ve seen so far is any indication, we’ll do fine, as long as we can keep from sucking milk up our noses…. Let’s not think about it coming, or going, in ANY other direction, okay?…. Instead, let’s go find some pearls, of the random silly variety….
Birth, n.: The first and direst of all disasters. — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”
“Nobody HAS to do anything.” — McCabe’s law
“Always watch where you are going. Otherwise, you may step on a piece of the Forest that was left out by mistake.” — Pooh’s Little Instruction Book, inspired by A. A. Milne
“Be good to your friends, or they may develop psychokinetic powers and destroy Tokyo.” — Smart Bee
“Where do we keep all our chainsaws, mom?” — Calvin & Hobbes
“A bowl of oatmeal tried to stare me down — And won.” — John Prine
HASH, x. There is no definition for this word — nobody knows what hash is. — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”
Enough! Any sillier, and we’d start circling the drain, clockwise….
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Nobody does silly better than this poet….
Isabel met an enormous bear,
Isabel, Isabel, didn’t care;
The bear was hungry, the bear was ravenous,
The bear’s big mouth was cruel and cavernous.
The bear said, Isabel, glad to meet you,
How do, Isabel, now I’ll eat you!
Isabel, Isabel, didn’t worry.
Isabel didn’t scream or scurry.
She washed her hands and she straightened her hair up,
Then Isabel quietly ate the bear up.
Once in a night as black as pitch
Isabel met a wicked old witch.
the witch’s face was cross and wrinkled,
The witch’s gums with teeth were sprinkled.
Ho, ho, Isabel! the old witch crowed,
I’ll turn you into an ugly toad!
Isabel, Isabel, didn’t worry,
Isabel didn’t scream or scurry,
She showed no rage and she showed no rancor,
But she turned the witch into milk and drank her.
Isabel met a hideous giant,
Isabel continued self reliant.
The giant was hairy, the giant was horrid,
He had one eye in the middle of his forehead.
Good morning, Isabel, the giant said,
I’ll grind your bones to make my bread.
Isabel, Isabel, didn’t worry,
Isabel didn’t scream or scurry.
She nibbled the zwieback that she always fed off,
And when it was gone, she cut the giant’s head off.
Isabel met a troublesome doctor,
He punched and he poked till he really shocked her.
The doctor’s talk was of coughs and chills
And the doctor’s satchel bulged with pills.
The doctor said unto Isabel,
Swallow this, it will make you well.
Isabel, Isabel, didn’t worry,
Isabel didn’t scream or scurry.
She took those pills from the pill concocter,
And Isabel calmly cured the doctor.
~~ Ogden Nash ~~
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I’m not entirely sure what this pearl is trying to say, but, it all seems pretty important, so, I’m letting SB do what it wants with it…. Maybe there will be a point, but, given today’s theme, it’s somewhat in doubt…. making it a perfect ending pearl….
“Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.” — Oscar Wilde (1856-1900)
“Common and vulgar people ascribe all ill that they feel to others; people of little wisdom ascribe to themselves; people of much wisdom, to no one.” — Epictetus
“The doctrine of human equality reposes on this: that there is no man really clever who has not found that he is stupid.” — Gilbert K. Chesterton
“The only lifelong, reliable motivations are those that come from within, and one of the strongest of those is the joy and pride that grow from knowing that you’ve just done something as well as you can do it.” — Lloyd Dobens and Clare Crawford-Mason, Thinking About Quality
“Integrity needs no rules.” — Smart Bee
“We keep, in science, getting a more and more sophisticated view of our essential ignorance.” — Warren Weaver
“The United States is a nation of laws: badly written and randomly enforced.” — Frank Zappa
Oops! Sorry, ffolkes, that last one slipped by me for a moment…. It’s too true to be cut, so, I’ll just find one more pearl, to finish this off properly, and leave it where it is, as a nod to its excellence…. Here’s the right one to end with….
“Time as he grows old teaches many lessons.” — Aeschylus (525-456 BC) — Prometheus, 981
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My brain is clear, my conscience, though challenged, is clean, and, I don’t even like Jesus just now; I suppose I make a damn poor Amurrican. Since that’s a moniker I hope never to have applied to me, in any fashion, I’m outta here, before it occurs to someone just how silly this all is…. Oh, right. I guess it’s a bit late for that, isn’t it? Oh, well…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes, if I can’t talk myself out of it again….
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole, Mark, and Theresa…
and everyone else, too…
When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.
Which is Why….
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes,
I just sits.
gigoid, the dubious
PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.
À bientôt, mon cherí….
Image may be NSFW.
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Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
