Jul 31
I had an occasion to visit Gettysburg Pennsylvania this weekend for a little R&R. As expected, the area is rich in history and amazing stories: tragic and heroic. But I was also amazed how swamped the area is with ghost stories. The first hint came when it was posted on Facebook that we were going …
Jul 14
Sherman made the terrible discovery that men make about their fathers sooner or later… that the man before him was not an aging father but a boy, a boy much like himself, a boy who grew up and had a child of his own and, as best he could, out of a sense of duty …
Jun 15
Overheard at a gravesite: “And they all said ’I’m sorry for your loss,’ as if you were someone who could ever be taken from me. – Robert Brault,
May 10
The best portion of a good man’s life is his little, nameless unremembered acts of kindness and love. ― William Wordsworth
May 10
“I will not say, do not weep, for not all tears are an evil.” – J.R.R. Tolkien
Mar 20
… But today is the start of Spring and may it bloom all the greener. In this hour, I do not believe that any darkness will endure. ― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
Mar 20
A man will be imprisoned in a room with a door that’s unlocked and opens inwards; as long as it does not occur to him to pull rather than push. – Ludwig Wittgenstein
Feb 02
I want to grow old without facelifts… I want to have the courage to be loyal to the face I’ve made. Sometimes I think it would be easier to avoid old age, to die young, but then you’d never complete your life, would you? You’d never wholly know you. – Marilyn Monroe
Jan 28
The Shadow of the Past As part of my considerable Lord of the Rings collection, I have the Minds Eye audio adaptation of the books. In the first few chapters of the collection, the rendition includes Elves speaking. – Speaking with pitched Keebler Elves voices. At that moment, an aficionado of the book can instantly …
Jan 19
Most people don’t grow up. Most people age. They find parking spaces, honor their credit cards, get married, have children, and call that maturity. What that is, is aging. – Maya Angelou
Dec 28
Most of our pocket wisdom is conceived for the use of mediocre people, to discourage them from ambitious attempts, and generally console them in their mediocrity. – Robert Louis Stevensons
Nov 14
I have always found it quaint and rather touching that there is a movement [Libertarians] in the US that thinks Americans are not yet selfish enough. – Christopher Hitchens
Oct 27
Increasingly, politics leaves me infuriated. The October GOP induced government shut down and threatened debt ceiling default had me almost shaking with anger. This is a self inflicted wound that is the result of so many wrongs ranging from the control of the popular media by the rich few to political gerrymandering. I’m afraid that …
Oct 02
A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence. – David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, 1748
Sep 16
The folly of mistaking a paradox for a discovery, a metaphor for a proof, a torrent of verbiage for a spring of capital truths, and oneself for an oracle, is inborn in us. – Paul Valery
Aug 01
One man practicing kindness in the wilderness is worth all the temples this world pulls. ― Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums
Jul 01
If ever there was a slamming of the door in the face of constructive investigation, it is the word miracle. To a medieval peasant, a radio would have seemed like a miracle. ― Richard Dawkins
Jun 28
It’s free and it has Dinosaurs, other than that, Jurassic Park Builder for the iPad has no redeeming values as a game and yet, sadly, I keep ‘playing’ it. I put, ‘playing’ in scare quotes because there is virtually nothing in the game that requires any skill with the possible exception of the ‘The Code …
Jun 03
What is wrong with inciting intense dislike of a religion if the activities or teachings of that religion are so outrageous, irrational or abusive of human rights that they deserve to be intensely disliked?” -― Rowan Atkinson
May 02
The road must be trod, but it will be very hard. And neither strength nor wisdom will carry us far upon it. This quest may be attempted by the weak with as much hope as the strong. Yet it is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: Small hands do …
Apr 02
Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you …
Feb 01
The chief beauty about time is that you cannot waste it in advance. The next year, the next day, the next hour are lying ready for you, as perfect, as unspoiled, as if you had never wasted or misapplied a single moment in all your life. You can turn over a new leaf every hour …
Jan 05
This thing all things devours: Birds, beasts, trees, flowers; Gnaws iron, bites steel; Grinds hard stones to meal; Slays king, ruins town, And beats high mountain down. ― J. R. R. Tolkien, The Hobbit
Dec 28
Away for the Holiday We went to Vegas over Thanksgiving for six days. The holiday hasn’t felt very homey for a very long time and we wanted to take good advantage of a few days off, so we found a good deal with Southwest and headed to the desert lights, – after all, nothing says, …
Dec 05
Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge. ― Isaac Asimov
Nov 27
October found me back in Paris. – A city that has always been a delight to me. I’m home now, but the romance of the city lingers in my mind. I guess it goes to show that you just never know where life will take you. You search for answers. You wonder what it all …
Oct 15
All civilizations become either spacefaring or extinct. — Carl Sagan
Jun 30
When CNN was first created: the idea of 24 hour news held the promise of greater, in-depth news coverage. It has turned into tabloid reporting. I laugh when I hear people talk about the ‘liberal media’. All of these large media organizations are corporate owned and funded by other corporations. They serve the dollar, not …
Jun 06
I learned today that Ray Bradbury, my second favorite author, died on June 5th. He was 91. As Tolkien was to fantasy, so Ray Bradbury was to science fiction – both popularized their genres. And like Tolkien, Bradbury wrote prose like it was poetry. I still have the old, well loved books and even now, on …
Jun 01
It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall …
Jan 05
2002 – Welcome. Far above the Ephel Dúath in the West the night-sky was still dim and pale. There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the …
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