I became insane with long intervals of horrible sanity.
Edgar Allen Poe

The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.
- H. L. Mencken

Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so
-Bertrand Russell

What I have been telling you, from alpha to omega, what is the one great thing the sigil taught me — that everything in life is miraculous. For the sigil taught me that it rests within the power of each of us to awaken at will from a dragging nightmare of life made up of unimportant tasks and tedious useless little habits, to see life as it really is, and to rejoice in its exquisite wonderfulness. If the sigil were proved to be the top of a tomato-can, it would not alter that big fact, nor my fixed faith. No Harrowby, the common names we call things by do not matter — except to show how very dull we are ...
-James Branch Cabell

January 30, 2013 - 12:15 p.m.

MMMsausages

Wow I slept late today. It was my first opportunity to since the WfUV pledge drive started and I took advantage of it. I went to sleep around 1 AM then woke up at 7:30 like I do for school. I went back to bed and my alarm woke me at 8:30 so I could post the WFUV question of the day on the Facebook group. It was songs about cowboys or Indians. I suggested "Oklahoma Hills" by Woody Guthrie and "Long Island Cowboy" by Red Molly." Then I went back to sleep and didn't get up till 10:45. I made up for all that sleep deprivation.

Now you'd think after getting sleep I'd feel better. I didn't just the opposite. When I was up at 8:30 my eye hurt like there was something in it. When I woke up for good I had a bad headache. I took acetaminophen and washed my eyes out. I'm starting to feel better now.

I was good after school yesterday. I stayed in my office to grade my first quiz and set up the spreadsheets for this semester's grade books. I have too many students, over thirty in each class. Grading is going to take forever

I did something unusual yesterday I made lunch my big meal. I went to Whole Foods and had a mix of jerk and tandori chicken and roasted plantains. I even had tiramisu for dessert. When I got home I had a late dinner of grilled Taylor ham and cheese while I did my laundry.

I got frustrated last night when I tried to buy a ticket to see Aoife O'Donovan at the Rubin Museum. They do what too many places do now, make you register. When I did it said I had to change my password. I must registered the last time I bought a ticket years ago. The problem is that I didn't know my old password. My usual ones didn't work. It said the new one had to include a special symbol and I never use those. There was no place to say, you forgot your password. I started from scratch and found a place for people that forgot their password. It sent me an email to reset it I followed the link. The password reset didn't work. It just got hung up. I might have to go to the museum in person to buy my ticket. Too many places do things like that. Why make everyone register? Why make you use a higher security password than a bank does? Do I care if someone else uses my account to buy a ticket? It isn't like they'd have my credit card information. They'd still have to spend their own money. It's a museum. How many people buy things from the regularly? I can see registering for Amazon but not a museum unless you are a member.

I think I'm going to finally write something I kept promising you but not writing, making sausages. You often hear people say things like "you'd never eat a sausage if you knew how they were made." Not me. I want to know how to make sausages. I know it's made of odds and ends, part of the animal we don't usually eat. That's the beauty of sausage. They let us not waste those parts. They make the unpalatable palatable. I want to know more. I want to know how they make air dried sausages. How different sausages differ. The more I learn about something the more I appreciate it; not just sausage.

That's why I loved art and music appreciation. What are they but showing how sausages are made? Once I learned about sonata allegro form I enjoyed movements that used it more. I knew what to listen to. I loved Schickele Mix, Peter Schickele's radio show on music He was his usual funny self while giving incredible music lessons. He taught me how to listen to harmony. I would not love many of the bands I'm a fan of nearly as much if I didn't know what to listen for. I love talking to musicians and finding out what they are trying to do and how.

It works that way with sports too. I enjoy a baseball game more when I can see how the defense repositions itself. There is pleasure I watching a hitter work the count. These things are lost to you if you don't know about them.

I love science because it teaches me what to look for in the universe. I see a fog and don't just see white but the condensation nuclei, the dew point, and thermodynamics. There is so much going on.

When I'm sick I think about what's going on in my body. it doesn't make up for being sick but it is entertaining.

Like Cabell's title character Jurgen I love nothing more than watching the workings of my own mind. That's what Wise Madness is about. If that isn�t making sausages what is? It's making something tasty out of unsavory ingredients.

Now I'll make my first omelet in a week. That will be good.


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please hold me accountable.





Memories: Not that Horrid Song - May 29, 2018
Wise Madness is Now In Session - May 28, 2018
The NFL and the First Amendment - May 27, 2018
On The Road Again - May 26, 2018
Oliver the Three-Eyed Crow - May 25, 2018



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Horvendile January 30, 2013
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