Month: June 2024

6.25.2024 – regardless of wars

regardless of wars
rumours of wars and the rise
and fall of nations

The Ojibways are probably the most numerous of the tribes that roam the vast Hinterland north of the fifty-first parallel; and regardless of wars, rumours of wars, and the rise and fall of nations, oblivious of the price of eggs, champagne, and razor blades, they wander the length and breadth of the land, which, with the one proviso of game being in plenty, is at once to them a kingdom and a paradise.

They overcome with apparent ease the almost insuperable difficulties incidental to a life in this land of violent struggle for existence.

By a process of elimination, the result of many generations of experience, they have arrived at a system of economy of effort, a reserving of power for emergencies, and an almost infallible skill in the detection of the weak points in Nature’s armour, that makes for the highest degree of efficiency.

From The Men of the Last Frontier by Grey Owl (Archibald Belaney) (1888-1938), Charles Scribners and Sons, New York, 1932.

What is the price of civilazation?

Take into regard of wars, rumours of wars …

the rise and fall of nations.

Pay attention to the price of eggs, champagne, and razor blades.

Stay in one place with the one proviso there is a Meijer or a Walmart filled with plenty.

This is at once to us, a kingdom and a paradise?

Something got lost in translation somewhere.

6.24.2024 – all the realm shall

all the realm shall
be in common when I am king,
… as king I will be

Be brave, then, for your captain is brave and vows reformation.

There shall be in England seven halfpenny loaves sold for a penny.

The three-hooped pot shall have ten hoops, and I will make it
felony to drink small beer.

All the realm shall be in common, and in Cheapside shall my palfrey go to
grass.

And when I am king, as king I will be —

Jack Cade in Henry VI, Part 2 – Act 4, scene 2 by William Shakespeare.

Big Bill wrote that 1591.

Jack Cade’s rebellion against Henry VI took place in 1450.

On Thursday, either of those two guys who want to be President could use the same lines.

Promise bread and circuses or fire and destruction and base that promise on that it will happen when … when I am king, as king I will be —

About Mr. Cade, Wikipedia says, On 12 July, 1450, in a garden in which he had taken shelter, Cade was overtaken. In the skirmish, Cade was fatally wounded and died before reaching London for trial. As a warning to others, Cade’s body underwent a mock trial and was beheaded at Newgate. Cade’s body was dragged through the streets of London before being quartered. His limbs were sent throughout Kent to various cities and locations that were believed to have been strong supporters of the rebel uprising.

6.23.2024 – live in a world with

live in a world with
more and more information
less and less meaning

In his opinion piece on the upcoming elections in Great Britain, I’ve seen all the ‘landslide’ polls – but they can’t tell us what’s really going on in this election, Mr. John Harris writes about political polls and polling, saying:

” ... So, for want of any other excitement, they have turned to another source of fun: opinion polls.

Has there ever been a campaign so dominated by them? For seven or eight years now, the most powerful polling companies have been developing so-called – and yes, I had to look this up – multilevel regression with poststratification (or MRP) surveys, which contact tens of thousands of voters, calculate results based on a range of granular demographic details, and result in findings that can be sifted constituency by constituency. The fact that YouGov used this method to unexpectedly predict 2017’s hung parliament has given it an air of quasi-scientific magic; now, the publication of one such poll after another is greeted in some quarters with a huge level of expectation.

The result is postmodern news that a certain kind of 20th-century social theorist would have loved. The Conservatives, the Telegraph screamed last week, are on track to “slump to just 53 seats”. The Labour party, it said, was predicted to win a mind-boggling 516. Here, it seemed, was full-blown Starmergeddon, and the advent of a one-party state. But no one had voted and nothing had actually happened. Nor, by definition, could anyone be certain that the predictions were in any way accurate. “‘We live in a world where there is more and more information, and less and less meaning,” said Jean Baudrillard in his 1981 masterpiece Simulacra and Simulation. In this election, that distinction hardly seems to matter.

Let us boil that down.

Multilevel regression with poststratification surveys, based on a range of granular demographic details, and result in findings that can be sifted constituency by constituency has given it [polling] an air of quasi-scientific magic.

I like that.

Who knows what questions were asked and how they were asked and in what order where they asked.

Tell me what you want to hear and I will design a poll that produces results that back it up.

Mr. Harris closes his article with, “We should treat all those polls with deep scepticism; the best thing, in fact, may be to marvel at their arcane machinations, occasionally recognise their prescience, and laugh.”

I would laugh long and hard if polls in America didn’t make me want to cry long and hard.

But here is what I find so interesting.

When his wife lost the election in 2016, former President Bill Clinton mused that it was just like Brexit.

Unexpected.

The Brits went went did something totally stupid and did it in a totally stupid way.

Now it looks like the British electorate is trying to set things right.

Who am I to doubt.

The polls all say so.

6.22.2024 – his uniform fit

his uniform fit
better than everybody
else’s uniform

“You would stay on the bench during batting practice simply to watch him — and just watching him walk, even that was special,” said Cleon Jones, who grew up in Alabama idolizing Mays and ended up sharing the outfield with him when the Giants traded Mays to the Mets in 1972.

“I’m telling you, even his uniform seemed to fit better than everybody else’s uniform,” Jones said. “The players held him with a reverence that felt almost spiritual.”

From the article, Remembering Willie Mays as Both Untouchable and Human by Kurt Streeter.

Not much to say but I think of Jim Harrison in his book The Road Home when his lead character meets Sioux Lakota warriors, veterans of the wars with Custer.

Mr. Harrison writes, ” … warriors with a lineage that owed nothing to the white man. We did not live upon the same earth that they did and we flatter ourselves when we think we understand them. To pity these men is to pity the gods.”

I also want to point out that Mr. Mays did not play in the Major Leagues until he was 20 years old.

Al Kaline and Robin Yount both started when there were 18.

I think of the record book with two more seasons added to it.

Mr. Streeter writes, “How great was he?

Six hundred sixty. That is how many home runs bolted off Mays’s bat during his career. When the Say Hey Kid retired at the end of the 1973 season, only Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron had more.

Mays ended 23 major league seasons with a total of 3,293 hits and held a .301 lifetime batting average, eye-popping for a player with such power. Twenty-four times, he was named to the All-Star team. Twelve times, he won the Gold Glove Award. Ten times, he drove in more than 100 runs.

He was named the National League’s most valuable player twice. If it were not for a need to spread the award among players, some experts say, he could have been the M.V.P. seven more times.

Numbers and accolades tell only part of his story. For it was how Mays played — the way he bent the confines of baseball to his will with his smarts, his speed, his style and his power — that set him apart as the most deeply beloved of stars.”

Mr. Mays also missed a season due to having to fulfill his military service.

And it should be pointed out I guess that Jackie Robinson was rookie of the year, his first year, …when he was 28.

The New York Times closes its Obituary with:

When he was selected for the Hall of Fame, Mays was asked to name the best ballplayer he had ever seen.

“I think I was the best ballplayer I’ve ever seen,” he replied. “I feel nobody in the world could do what I could do on a baseball field.”

Not too many could argue.

I mean, to quote Cleon Jones once more, “I’m telling you, even his uniform seemed to fit better than everybody else’s uniform.”