Diary (May 22, 2020)

Online diary of Karl Jones for Friday May 22, 2020.

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Diary

Song of the Day for Howard Kranz

Eighteenth in a series of songs for Howard and me to cover, or be inspired by, or something.

Force Field

Smash Mouth.

"Force Field" by Smash Mouth

Today's escape will consist of a mask
I found it in a bargain bin
Why do you ask
Rosy cheeks and a smile
There's no shame in my game of denial
Don't you touch, move along
Keep your hands inside
Ask enough from afar
Enjoy the ride
It don't get much better than this
There's the riff, here's the hook,
Where's the myth

Manning my stations
Taking control of the situation
Say hello to my force field

Beaten down on all fours
And they'll stare as they pass
Please don't feed or provoke
Or tap on the glass
Bet you never felt quite like that
You could say, don't complain where I'm at
Manning my stations
Taking control of the situation
Say hello to my force field

You won't see me cry (you won't you won't)
You won't see me die

The escapade still exists of the task
Of pullin' off a miracle out of my @$$
It don't get much better than that
A savvy fox, a loyal dog, a sunny cat

Manning my stations
Taking control of the situation
Say hello to my force field (Say hello to my force field)
Say hello to my force field (Say hello to my force field)
Say hello to my force field
Say hello to my force field

• Force Field @ YouTube
• Smash Mouth @ Wikipedia

The President of the United States is praising bloodlines

The President of the United States is praising bloodlines.

The Founding Fathers went to war over this idea.

• https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/trump-praises-famously-anti-semitic-henry-ford-s-good-bloodlines-1.8864761?fbclid=IwAR3UA053VszuyU1dUcDYhoVFikxRdf-A_oZqwSCoraEw-czsEq9SXgz9Da0
• Post @ Facebook

Correlation is never causation

At some level — a level inherently unknowable — Correlation is *never* Causation.

• Comment @ Facebook

Assumptions were made

"Assumptions were made."

(But then, when are they not?)

• Comment @ Facebook

Logico-magical contrapositive

Jonathan Swift and Edward Lear.

I first wrote "logical contrapositive" (which I *think* I remember from Philosophy 1001 in the mid-80s) with literal descriptive intent.

Fortunately I remembered in time that I'm trying to express myself in an "Edward Lear meets Jonathan Swift" manner, so I poked at the idea and sure enough, the phrases "magical realism" and "magical thinking" barked like a couple of bloodhounds and promptly brought me "logico-magical". Good doggies!

• Comment @ Facebook

Lear meets Swift way

If he brings Argument, you bring Rhetoric.

If he calls Bullshit, you declare Dada!

That's the "Lear Meets Swift" way!

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ScvAJG51V4

• Comment @ Facebook

Cats don't break elephant coffee creamers

Cats don’t break elephant coffee creamers.

Gravity breaks elephant coffee creamers.

Cats: never leave Earth without them (if you are taking elephant coffee creamers off-world).

• Comment @ Boing Boing

Joy to the Wheels

Social distandem bicycle.

Joy to the Wheels, the Road has come!
Let bikes go do their thing!
Let every path prepare them room
And wheels and tires spin
And wheels and tires spin
And wheels, and whee-hee-heels and tiii-errrsss-spin!

• Comment @ Facebook
• The 4.3m-long Social Distandem is one of the maddest bikes we’ve seen in a long time

Don't drink like that

DT's are a curse on humanity.

My mother had a massive stroke in 1997. I was there on a cot in her hospital room on the morning of day two when she went into DTs and started thrashing and crying and trying to pull needles from her arms.

She was a long-term steady-drip beer boozer, never crazy out of control, yet the beer was in control.

Was the liquor store a vital service, for her? Yes, it was.

Don't drink like that. Don't ever drink your life away.

Sculptor

I'm a sculptor. I need to build things to be happy.

[Said to next-door neighbor Amy.]

Fiction cross-reference

• Gnomon algorithm
• Gnomon Chronicles

Nonfiction cross-reference

• Karl Jones (nonfiction)