9thdoctor

What's the meaning of all these black-eye pictures? I recall seeing this one, and immediately inquiring whether Johnny Depp is left-handed. He's not, but the accusation was that he threw his cell phone at her.

And the fur flies. On that note, let's have Noam Chomsky, Alan Dershowitz, and Sam Harris. https://samharris.org/the-limits-of-discourse/

Yeah, let's scratch the Hitler one. Irving would enjoy meeting him, and I wouldn't want to be the originator of pleasure for any of those three. Are we assuming that Bronte and Austen will have read Bushnell? In their after-lives? I suppose if we're going to have an Aristotle-Aquinas-Ayn Rand meetup, then we'll have to allow such impossibilities.

But with only three attendees, and given that Tara Smith isn't going to add anything to Rand's contributions...why again? A couple more: Proust, Tchaikovsky, and Wilde. Let's see who hooks up with who. And a bit of a stomach-turner: Gobineau, Hitler, and David Irving. Here the idea is that Hitler will hate the Frenchman Gobineau for originating his (anti-semitic) ideas, and so will boast about how many Jews he killed, to the surprise (NOT) of Irving, who thinks (NOT) that Hitler didn't order or even know about the Holocaust. On second thought, I'd rather not attend that dinner party.

1776? None of those three had been born yet. Typo? Or a joke I'm totally not getting?

Excellent. Then let's mix it up. Naturally there must be Aristotle, Aquinas, and Rand. And how about Hume, Kant, and...alright, Rand again. Bet no food gets digested at that meal.

I got Eco and Woolf, who's the third one?

Well, I'd really like Eco, Pynchon, and Wodehouse. But we know a lot about each of them, even Pynchon for all his reclusiveness. Why waste the opportunity? Is this like the genie in the bottle, where you only get three wishes? And (natch) can't wish for more wishes? Then, how about Shakespeare, Jonson, and Bacon? Let's settle this authorship question once and for all. And do they all have to be English speakers? Can we hand out Babel fish? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_races_and_species_in_The_Hitchhiker's_Guide_to_the_Galaxy#Babel_fish Then let's pull in St. Paul, the author of the Gospel of John, and Julian the Apostate. That one ought to be fun to watch. And it could all be conducted in Greek. Which I don't speak. So I'd be the only one in need of the Babel fish.

This made me think of the show Live from Here, where they take requests via Twitter. The requests are to be of songs no one in the band has ever played before. And it comes off well. And I can't find any examples on YouTube. Oh well, here's one of their best bits, Breathy Acoustic Covers: Now what I want them to do is a segment of AC/DC songs. For Those About to Rock (with cannon obbligato), You Shook Me All Night Long, Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, but above all, it must include Big Balls.

Terfel is top of the heap. I've seen him quite a few times live. He did a recital with orchestra, and once the written program was done he prompted the audience for requests. How that could work with an orchestra...I don't know, they need to have the sheet music on their stands, right? Well anyway, someone called out, believe it or not, "play Freebird". Then the first violin actually played a bit of the melody (If I leave here tomorrow...). But obviously that wasn't going to go far, and we got Loch Lomond instead.

And what about ManBearPig?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Life_Children's_Refuge_case I find no reference to pedophilia on this Wiki page. If I were to attribute a nefarious angle to the case, it would be along the lines of: religious fanatics kidnap children to indoctrinate them. What am I missing?

I say let's abandon Tax Day first.

What's all this? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Life_Children's_Refuge_case Where's the child rape angle that's got people Eff Uing each other? Great to see you back, Daunce.

I just learned from Stephen Boydstun that Ted Keer passed away recently. http://forum.objectivismonline.com/index.php?/topic/20690-the-logical-leap-by-david-harriman/&do=findComment&comment=354790 I'm still too shocked to say much...just wow, what a loss.

I've read a fair amount of Kafka, but not the story you referenced. And maybe Manon Lescaut would have made for better reading if I didn't know ahead of time what was going to happen (I get the feeling you aren't familiar with the operas). I think what you describe (crosswords and Easter eggs) is certainly part of what keeps the more challenging writing engaging. Particularly if/when it ties to the real world, otherwise it's just annoying. Example: you learn a lot about the history of the 14th century by reading Eco's The Name of the Rose. But above all it's a hell of a story, and the history lessons are perfectly integrated into it. I could name some Science Fiction novels I've tried to get through that were set in (often well-furnished!) alternate worlds, and I tuned out well before finishing. Foundation, Dune...I'll leave it there. I'm curious to see your reaction to an author I've discovered fairly recently, Tim Dorsey. He's not a "literary" writer, his models are Elmore Leonard and John D. MacDonald, I'd say. They're vigilante thrillers...sort of. If only Robert Bidinotto could write vigilante thrillers like these. He's really funny, there's even a bit of Pynchon in the mix (e.g. character naming). Vigilante comedies might be a better genre label. Crucially, he has genuine wordsmithing chops. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Dorsey The reason I'm interested in your reaction is that he aims to be a local flavor, specifically Florida. I'd like to know how well his work travels. Your Easter eggs reference made think of him, he's always working in local trivia, history, geography, and so on. Does it connect with someone from Illinois...by way of Brazil and wherever it was you had that American cracker childhood? I suggest you start with his first book, then move to the second, then the fifth. There's a story arc that runs through these three. The last (The Stingray Shuffle) is his best. They're all available on Audible, and done really well. https://www.audible.com/pd/Mysteries-Thrillers/Florida-Roadkill-Audiobook/B005CQ4H7Y?ref=a_a_search_c3_lProduct_1_2&pf_rd_p=e81b7c27-6880-467a-b5a7-13cef5d729fe&pf_rd_r=4VWMG7TBDSZDY25XPKX7&

I started it years ago, got bored and didn't finish it. Someone's using it to teach writing? In English? Maybe I got a bad translation (whatever was free for Kindle through Amazon), but as I recall the prose style was very clunky. But anyway, Massenet did an operatic adaptation too, not just Puccini. It's quite a contrast.

The version I've heard substitutes an ant for the monkey, and instead of "is it hurting, darling?" he says "take it, bitch!".

Indeed, Thomas Becket (for example) wore a hair shirt under his vestments. This only became known after his murder. He walked his talk. If these people (making this protest) want to quietly pay more taxes, they're free to do that too. But this exercise is all about getting attention in order to score political points, so we all know that's a non-starter.

These people are all free to walk their talk. They are allowed to pay more, and can even make a spectacle of themselves doing it. They can publish their tax returns, showing that they paid more than the normal calculation calls for. And publish the alternate calculation side by side. This is faux virtue signaling. Imagine a medieval monk who felt his monastic order didn't enforce a strict enough rule anymore. There were plenty of these back then. But rather than starting his own order (like St. Francis) he called for reform, and specifically: imposition of more fasts. But he didn't actually observe the fasts; he would only start once everyone else had it imposed on them too. That's what these big-mouths are like. And they want people to think they're worthy of sainthood.

Sounds like "shirt-sleeves to shirt-sleeves in 3 generations". But more on the Macro level, I suppose.

I thought it was spelled Bannon.

And if that fails, forward them this: https://www.yahoo.com/news/faa-apos-t-stop-people-002852255.html There ought to be a law!