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Weak XLVII

20 November 2010

No. 8,391 (cartoon)

You’re drunk and lascivious.

Others fantasize, but I’m living the life!

21 November 2010

Real versus Conceptual Apples

After an introductory conversation last night, Tao brought up the subject of apples.

“When you see an apple,” she began, “do you really experience the apple, or do you only experience the idea of the apple?”

I hadn’t thought about such a question since I read Aldous Huxley’s The Doors of Perception decades ago. I didn’t have to spend a lot of time thinking before I replied. I realized that I live in a world with lots of concepts and relatively few experiences. That’s served me well as an artist (or has it?), but leaves a lot of room for expanding my horizons.

Tao and I enjoyed an interesting visit; it proved to be a very good night for experiences.

22 November 2010

(Don’t) Listen to Your Inner Voices

“Listen to your inner voices,” Sandra advised after I told her about recent deliberations.

“That’s crazy talk!” I replied. “That’s how most insane people got that way.”

“Come to think of it,” Sandra replied after a long pause, “listening to your inner voices might not be such a great idea for you.”

And that was the last mention of listening to anyone’s inner voices; whew!

23 November 2010

If I Stop Thinking

Eric stopped abruptly in the middle of a rambling monologue.

“I can’t remember what happens next,” he explained.

“It’ll come to me if I stop thinking,” he added after an awkward pause.

The story did not come to Eric. It may be one of those cases where he stopped to think then couldn’t start again.

24 November 2010

Listening Is for the Birds

Huey’s getting a bit older older, as evidenced by his first hearing aids.

“Too many Jeff Beck shows?” I asked.

“No,” he replied, “too many shotguns fired next to my ear in a crowded duck blind.”

Huey said he wasn’t initially impressed with the devices, especially when he’d been charged four thousand dollars for them. Things got worse on a morning walk, when the hearing aids made strange noises. It took him a while to realize that he was listening to birds for the first time in many years. He’s concluded that he’d gladly have paid fifty thousand dollars for them.

I’m not sure I’d pay fifty thousand dollars to hear birds, but then I shouldn’t have to worry about losing my hearing any time soon. I never went to a single Jeff Beck concert.

25 November 2010

Thanksgiving, 1935

Today is Paul’s seventy-fifth birthday; he told me that he was born on Thanksgiving in 1935. His mother’s timing displeased the men in the family, who had no one to prepare their Thanksgiving feast for them. (Apparently, men didn’t learn to cook until after 1935.)

I don’t know what got into me, but I decided to fact check Paul’s story, and discovered that 25 November fell on a Monday that year, three days before Thanksgiving. I think it would be cruel and pointless to tell him, so I won’t. And anyway, why ruin a good story?

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©2010 David Glenn Rinehart