O intrepid driver

O intrepid driver through the snow
That falls profuse and heavy on the land:
The memory of thy days in Buffalo
Shall guide thee still to destinations grand.
For wisely thou hast furnished all thy wheels
With motive shafts, to give them added force.
Thy Subaru the tempest hardly feels,
But makes its way undaunted like a horse.
So, whether thy friend Paddy thou wouldst see,
Or wouldst take faithful Bruno to the vet,
The nets that sullen Time propels at thee
Shall not ensnare thy feet, or make thee fret.
For, as thou takest Virtue as thy crown,
Thou hast no need to fear the season's frown.

Anecdote, Feb. 25, 2010

In Texas, at least during the period from the 1960's to the 1980's, and evidently before that, there was a rather strange and subtle importance placed on personal appearance and style. Naturally, in such a culture, wakes and other remembrances of newly deceased persons were held with open caskets. I remember being warned by my parents before my grandmother's wake, that everyone would talk about how good she looked, and, unsurprisingly, 'good-looking as ever' was one of the most common comments that I heard at the event. At the time, in Denton, there were no bars, only private clubs, but I was able to buy a one-day membership at a place near the funeral home to get away for a while. I drove her green Oldsmobile out of Texas. It was a very nice car. On a good day you could almost drive it with your eyes closed. I wouldn't recommend it, but some have tried.

Winter Break

We're finishing up our 'snowmageddon' break, which makes me think back to Annie's first winter break at christmas, which makes me think back to my freshman winter break back in Buffalo in the snow. It was about a month long, and I would spend a few hours working through the Theatetus before heading out into the snow to meet my old buddies and start the festivities. I did a pretty nice job on the Theatetus, but could not quite pull it into an essay before the deadline, then freaked out and handed in something like a verbose outline right at the end of the year. I remember one time during the vacation that we ran out of beer money and went and gave blood to pick up a few bucks. There was a lot of snow. Not like the year before that, which was the blizzard of '77. Good times.

On Measurement

Did you ever feel like you were a subject in a lab that all kinds of scientists were measuring with all kinds of rulers and scales, and think to yourself, 'If you would all just give me a minutes' worth of peace, I might be able to invent a ruler that could measure myself.' Of course, it would not serve any purpose in the measurement of any other person, but I had no interest in that anyway, at the time of the thought. I am not sure when it happened.

A Hundred to One

I was going to write a book about the US Senate called '100 Haircuts', but I decided to get one instead.

Thanks, more than Praise

I drink more than I should, smoke even more. and don't have a lot of money in the bank.

I don't play my cards very carefully, because I always want to see the end of the hand.

I have a few friends, and am very glad to see them on occasion.
Jim, Johny, Peter? What is your name?

Brainw(e)ave

John Waters MUST do the Sarah Palin bio-pic, and soon!

They came in pairs

once up a time when they worked too much and did not meet a lot of girls.

Anecdote, Feb.4 2010

We started the trip when I was 6, on a flight from San Francisco-Montreal-Paris. I don't remember the first leg, but we landed in snow in Montreal about midnight, and had to change planes. My dad wrapped my little sister in 'the Lufthansa blanket' and carried her to the next plane. The blanket made the complete journey around the world over the next 18 months. After we had taken off for the overnight flight from Montreal, a cheese snack was served, and I informed my mother that the odor of the cheese would not be acceptable to the children in the cabin. She was sympathetic, but had little appreciation for the terrors in store. Both of my sisters and I proceeded to retch violently for the first few hours of the flight, until we were all exhausted. I can't remember falling asleep, but I remember waking with an empty, crumpled, barf-bag under my head which I held up triumphantly to my mother. Once we got to Paris, we made our way to a large hotel, with a great deal of luggage. I strode directly to a large marble surface, so as not to soil the carpets, bent over, and retched the remains of any previous life onto the floor. The family spent the next few days nursing themselves on hot cocoa with skin on top under duvets somewhere in the hotel. And we will always have Paris.

Today's Verse: 4 February 2010

Trust has a price in the marketplace
But it doesn't in my heart
In the marketplace
You buy a man
Measure him in hours
Everything he may comprise
All that may within him lie
His breath, his come, his blood, his bile
Belong to you a little while
In the marketplace
You buy the guy
You've got him by the hour
Together you're an enterprise
Together a transaction
Aspire to what you've bargained for
You may get satisfaction
In the marketplace
You stand to gain
Or lose or come out even
You think you know the risks you take
You think that you can choose them
I wasn't there when Jesus died
I didn't watch him suffer
That was for free I understand
As was the final supper
In the marketplace
I bought a man
To serve me and to labor
Soon after that I felt I'd slid
Adrift in lassitude, and savoured
Reason come undone and all asunder
My mind became a fragile pane
Of clear transparent wonder
Everybody's out to lunch
The matron has absconded
I don't recall what was agreed
The terms and the conditions
I've lost the contract and the man
Who told me what was in it
And now I find me face to face
With commitments I've engaged in
But can't determine which was me
And which was him
And what makes up the difference
Instants aren't mathematical
Passion doesn't speak in hours
While I burgeon and hallucinate
Exploding like a flower
Passion's lessons you can't teach
Trust must play its part
Which has a price in the marketplace
But it doesn't in my heart

Aphorism, Feb. 3, 2010

While we are quick to note the peaks of the world that we have scaled, would like to scale, or have failed to scale, how many dare to acknowledge the peaks of their own imaginations left unexplored. or unexplorable.

Anecdotal. Feb. 3, 2010

Have been working with my student on the complex plane and Euler's invention of complex exponentiation. I remember having offered a fairly lame disquisition on the nature of Euler's e on this blog at some time in the past, and have had considerable opportunity to revisit my thoughts during the past year of teaching the material. There are a couple of numbers that are considered 'transcendental', two of them are 'e' and 'pi' and Mr. Euler, of the 10-Franc note (unless I am mistaken) connected the two of them in the majesty of his mind in what is known as Euler's formula (one of many)
e^(pi*i) +1 = 0.
Which may be the most elegant masterpiece of all of human history. I really like it.

Verse, Feb. 1

If someone said to you 'come with me',
would you think there was a place that they wanted to be?
And if someone said 'I think I see what you see',
would you think that they saw what you wanted them to see?

If I told you that I would call you in a month, maybe,
would you think that I was just a big baby?
Or was I just being really stupid and lazy,
which is always an easy way to avoid being crazy?

So if you called and I answered "I'm here",
and you were surprised that I was suddenly so near,
then you would just have to trust that you have nothing to fear,
and I'll only try to say things that you need to hear.