Happy Chanukah and Merry Christmas (Maybe not to all, but certainly to most.)
Marty
P.S. I saw the new Bob Dylan movie, “A Complete Unknown.” I think it’s good. My critical Review?
Dylan was kept one-dimensional…a caricature of what little we’ve seen of him in the media, and he has kept a lot of who he is from the media. The movie doesn’t seem to go beyond that. And they probably exaggerate the roles of Joan Baez and Pete Seeger, but hey, it’s Hollywood, not an in-depth documentary. Here’s one area in which they fail to get past the surface: I don’t think that once in the movie do they show Dylan joking around with anyone and laughing. I would imagine that with Joan Baez, for instance, it wouldn’t be possible to spend much personal time without horsing around, telling jokes (and who in that era didn’t have a good time making fun of Nixon?) and laughing. These are bright, complex, thoughtful people after all…not cartoon characters. But there’s a lot of old music to reminisce about and elicit old memories, and while I’m no judge of acting skills, they all appear to do a good job. Edward Norton even looks a good deal like Pete Seegar, but with much better oral hygiene.
I’ll leave this quote from The Portable Curmudgeon right where it is; it is so very appropriate this election year.
Then we can continue on to Principles.
”President”
When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President; I’m beginning to believe it.” Clarence Darrow
“Principles”
You can’t learn too soon that the most useful thing about a principle is that it can always be sacrificed to expediency.
W. Somerset Maughm
Principles have no real force except when one is well fed. Mark Twain
It is easier to fight for one’s principles than to live up to them. Alfred Adler
I like persons better than principles and I like persons with no principles better than anything else in the world.
Oscar Wilde
“Progress”
What we call progress is the exchange of one nuisance for another nuisance. Havelock Ellis
All progress is based upon a universal innate desire on the part of every organism to live beyond its income.
Samuel Butler
Progress celebrates Pyrrhic victories over nature and makes purses of human skin. Karl Kraus
Progress is the mother of problems. G.K. Chesterton
“Promiscuity”
A promiscuous person is someone who is getting more sex than you are. Victor Lownes