10.13.2023 – I took ideas people

I took ideas people
understood, gave in way they
did not understand

“It was just something I wanted to do,.”

“It wasn’t anything thought out. It was just personal to me … I wanted to make sure I took ideas people understood and gave it to them in a way they just did not understand.”

So says designer Thom Browne in an article about him titled, Fashion designer Thom Browne: ‘Men should be able to wear anything’ by Edward Helmore in the Guardian.

The theme of his collection this year, according to the article is:

The theme of his collection this season is Moby-Dick, because he read it as a boy. It includes a dark green, below-the knee Harris tweed skirt for men. It’s a manifesto, something to wear to a corporate office. “I think we live in a world where men should be able to wear anything,” he says. “I don’t really care if anybody wants to wear it, but I think it looks good, and it’s an interesting proposition for anyone who does.”

Read that last bit over again.

It includes a dark green, below-the knee Harris tweed skirt for men.

“I think we live in a world where men should be able to wear anything.”

Well boy howdy if he wanted to take something I thought I understood and give it in a way I did not understand Mr. Browne achieved that with his skirt for men.

On the other hand, had he called it a kilt, it would only be about 1000 behind the times.

For some reason, the entire article brought this Calvin and Hobbs comic strip to mind.

Why do I write?

I think I can embrace both thoughts here.

I want to take ideas people understood and give it back to them in a way they just did not understand.

And …

I just want to make your day a little more surreal.

So remember this.

If you send a chocolate back in time just 15 minutes, it means that 15 minutes ago you had two chocolate bars.

Since you might have been in your lab messing around with time travel, and you got a chocolate bar when you already had one, you would know that in 15 minutes, you had to send that chocolate bar in time.

What happens if you eat that chocolate bar?

Or, consider this, if John Conner had been a woman, she could have been pregnant with herself.

10.11.2023 – computers often

computers often
in reality too dumb to
avoid hurting us

Inspired by the guest Opinion Essay, “Autonomous Vehicles Are Driving Blind” by Julia Angwin a contributing Opinion writer to the New York Times and an investigative journalist and the passage, “There’s an irony here: So many headlines have focused on fears that computers will get too smart and take control of the world from humans, but in our reality, computers are often too dumb to avoid hurting us.”

Ms. Angwin writes, “For all the ballyhoo over the possibility of artificial intelligence threatening humanity someday, there’s remarkably little discussion of the ways it is threatening humanity right now. When it comes to self-driving cars, we are driving blind.”

Ms. Angwin explains, “The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration regulates the hardware (such as windshield wipers, airbags and mirrors) of cars sold in the United States. And the states are in charge of licensing human drivers. To earn the right to drive a car, most of us at some point have to pass a vision test, a written test and a driving test. The A.I. undergoes no such government scrutiny before commanding the wheel.”

I am reminded of The Glass in the Field by James Thurber from Fables for Our Time and Famous Poems Illustrated: as in appeared in The Thurber Carnival.

A short time ago some builders, working on a studio in Connecticut, left a huge square of plate glass standing upright in a field one day. A goldfinch flying swiftly across the field struck the glass and was knocked cold. When he came to he hastened to his club, where an attendant bandaged his head and gave him a stiff drink. “What the hell happened?” asked a sea gull. “I was flying across a meadow when all of a sudden the air crystallized on me,” said the goldfinch. The sea gull and a hawk and an eagle all laughed heartily. A swallow listened gravely. “For fifteen years, fledgling and bird, I’ve flown this country,” said the eagle, “and I assure you there is no such thing as air crystallizing. Water, yes; air, no.” “You were probably struck by a hailstone,” the hawk told the goldfinch. “Or he may have had a stroke,” said the sea gull. “What do you think, swallow?” “Why, I–I think maybe the air crystallized on him,” said the swallow. The large birds laughed so loudly that the goldfinch became annoyed and bet them each a dozen worms that they couldn’t follow the course he had flown across the field without encountering the hardened atmosphere. They all took his bet; the swallow went along to watch. The sea gull, the eagle, and the hawk decided to fly together over the route the goldfinch indicated. “You come, too,” they said to the swallow. “I–I–well, no,” said the swallow. “I don’t think I will.” So the three large birds took off together and they hit the glass together and they were all knocked cold.

Moral: He who hesitates is sometimes saved.

10.10.2023 – not much about him

not much about him
known and by implication
not much worth knowing

I asked Joyce who he was.

She was dismissive.

It was an unfortunate younger son, she said.

Killed in the war.

Not much known about him and, by implication, not much worth knowing.

Rather in the same way that being told not to laugh makes you laugh more, her dismissal of this mysterious young man piqued my curiosity.

Years later, in 2008, I came across his name again while I was working on a documentary about the last day of the First World War.

It was on the wall of another war memorial, this time in one of the Somme battlefields.

Just a name, not a grave.

H. W. B. Palin.

One of many thousands ‘Known Only Unto God’.

From the preface to Great-Uncle Harry: A Tale of War and Empire by Michael Palin.

Yes, theeeee Michael Palin.

Not much known about him and, by implication, not much worth knowing.

My Wife and I had to make the drive from our home in Bluffton to the big city of Charleston, SC.

Along the way we passed an abandoned frame church.

Not more that 50 feet long but with a front stoop and steeple and boarded up windows.

The type of wooden frame building that is starting to balloon out on the side as its roof squashes the place flat.

The walls are holding on by old prayers I guess.

Who knows the stories of this building.

The weddings.

The funerals.

The church board fights.

The drama.

The sweet moments.

The Christmas programs.

The Easter Sermons.

The Final service at the building.

Not much known about the place and, by implication, not much worth knowing.

But a lot of life was lived in there.

10.9.2023 – not wear in public,

not wear in public,
I don’t want people to think
I’m a weird person

“I will not wear those in public,” he said. “I don’t want people to think I’m a weird person.”

So said Jared Watson, an assistant professor of marketing at the New York University Stern School of Business about Croc’s Shrek Crocs with ears.

As quoted in the article, Crocs Cowboy Boots? ‘Don’t Overthink It.’ by Callie Holtermann.

Ms. Holtermann writes, “Many apparel brands would risk undermining their credibility with a stream of gag products, said Jared Watson, an assistant professor of marketing at the New York University Stern School of Business. But Crocs has found a way to poke fun
at people who already think the shoes are ugly. “With that sort of mentality of hate-consumption or hate-engagement, Crocs has had this opportunity to really push those boundaries,” he said.“

As soon as the cowboy boot idea came up, it was game over. “That meeting took us about 12 minutes,” Ms. Cooley, the company’s chief marketing officer said.

All I can say is … if you are looking for the pair of boots to wear when you die with your boots on … these just might do the trick and fit the bill at the same time.

All I can say, who think anyone who would wear these MIGHT be a weird a person?

“

9.27.2023 – after years almost

after years almost
innocuous desuetude
and put in the way

Sorry this is really hammered into place, but I just had to get innocuous desuetude into a haiku.

The words come from a speech by Grover Cleveland in a special message to congress on March 1, 1886, when he said:

And so it happens that after an existence of nearly twenty years of almost innocuous desuetude these laws are brought forth–apparently the repealed as well as the unrepealed–and put in the way of an Executive who is willing, if permitted, to attempt an improvement in the methods of administration.

As I understand President Cleveland was speaking out on the Tenure of Office act that had been passed to make it illegal for a President to fire a Cabinet Officer.

The whole thing had been arranged to get President Andrew Johnson if he dared fire Secretary of War Edwin Stanton (This was the 1st President Johnson having taken office after Mr. Lincoln was shot just as the 2nd President Johnson took office after Mr. Kennedy was shot – Lesson: DO NOT HAVE A VICE PRESIDENT NAMED JOHNSON) and when the 1St Johnson DID fire the Secretary of War, he was impeached under the Tenure of Office act.

The impeachment failed in the Senate by 1 vote.

It wasn’t until Mr. Clinton got caught not-having-sex with an intern in the Oval Office was another President impeached.

And no one ever ever thought any President would be impeached twice but there you go.

So anyway, I guess some folks, 20 years after the 1st President Johnson, came after Mr. Cleveland because of the Tenure of Office act.

A law that Mr. Cleveland said, “… after an existence of nearly twenty years of almost innocuous desuetude …“

Desuetude or the state of being no longer used or practiced.

I kind like that.

Like Democracy in America almost innocuous desuetude .