With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.
The good life, as I conceive it, is a happy life. I do not mean that if you are good you will be happy - I mean that if you are happy you will be good.
Too much sanity may be madness and the maddest of all, to see life as it is and not as it should be.
I enjoy paying taxes. With them I buy civilization.
October 06, 2008 - 12:32 p.m.
Not only did I not update on Sunday, on Saturday I forgot to write about Friday night. So let's travel back through the mists of time to that forgotten epoch.
I did something I've been meaning to do for ages, go to the Hudson River Museum for the free Friday evening planetarium show and telescope observing. The museum is in Yonkers, which of course is where I'm staying. I had been to the museum a few times for concerts but never to the planetarium. I was surprised that there was observing before the 7 PM planetarium show. It was still twilight but just fine for observing the crescent moon. You might think it is best to observe the full moon but the crescent is far more dramatic. As the sun is hitting the lunar service at an oblique angle the surface features cast large shadows. That makes it look far more three dimensional than when the sun is overhead. You have to see it to appreciate it. Photographs don’t do it justice.
The sky show wasn't one of the modern produced theatrical productions filled with effects that teach you nothing about observational astronomy. It was an old fashioned pointing out how to find objects in the night sky show. The only thing missing was the green arrow. It broke and was replaced by a laser pointer. After the show we went out once again to look through the 12" reflector telescope. When I got out there it was being used by an astronomy professor from Fordham. He commented on my WFUV cap. We looked at Jupiter. When the planetarium director came out with some families I let the families go first and wait4ed for them to leave to look. We saw a colorful double star system whose name is eluding me.
I already wrote about Saturday so now I'll fast forward to Sunday. After playing Wii with Larry and Diana I went to the Uptown Coffeehouse in nearby Riverdale. I went to see the Budgiedome alumni, David Massengill and Jack Hardy aka the Folk Brothers aka the Baloney Brothers. I sometimes forget how good they are. You can't beat great songwriting. Early on they did the song that I most missed at the Budgiedome, David's The Road to Fairfax County. I have known that song for 20 years, originally from the Roches version. There were times it was my favorite Roche's song. It is hauntingly beautiful.
On the Road to Fairfax County
(David Massengil)O once I loved an outlaw
He came and stole my heart,
O how I count the hours
Since we were torn apart.On the road to Fairfax County
I spied a highwayman
He wanted all my money
My heart beat like a drumI gave him all my money
And sweet he smiled at me,
His beauty I took pity
Beneath a black oak tree.We kissed but for an hour
The sun was newly warm,
The clouds were as the flowers,
That bloom but for a morn.He gave back all my money
And bowed most gallantly,
He promised for to meet me
That night beneath the tree.We'd flee to some far island
And there we would be wed,
And freely we would live there
With no price upon his head.One night I went to meet him
With my inheritance,
He kissed me 'neath the half moon
And joyful we did dance.O love betrays all secrets
It whispers in the breeze,
The sheriff he did follow
With all his deputies.Like hounds rushing to slaughter
The fox whose luck is run,
He stood erect and cursed them,
"Goddamn you, everyone!"They seized him in a fury
And heeding not my plea,
They hung him from the oak tree
Where he made love to me.O once I loved an outlaw
He came and stole my heart,
O how I count the hours
Since we were torn apart.
Anyone notice the similarity to 1952 Vincent Black Lightning aka the greatest song ever written?
This morning WFUV Morning question of the day was "Name songs about librarians, book, or authors." As soon as I got to my office I emailed in My Baby Loves a Bunch of Authors by Moxy Früvous. I was delighted when a few minutes later I heard it on the radio.
I gave my first test today. I haven't stared grading them yet. As usual there were some people who clearly had never done the homework and were totally clueless. They didn't know what the questions meant even though they were supposed to have done many questions of the same type for homework.
I'd write more but I have to get to my late class to give them the test.
The Hereafter is Here - October 11, 2008
My Dinner with Andre Pete and Maura - October 10, 2008
We are the Drunken Smartass Champions my friends - October 10, 2008
Make me happy and read this (at leas don't make me sad by not reading it) - October 08, 2008
The International Jewish Banking Conspiracy - October 07, 2008
Email me: GordonLew at gmail
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License. Horvendile October 06, 2008
