"The only rock I know that stays steady, the only institution I know that works is the family."
— Lee Iacocca
"Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family. Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one."
— Jane Howard
"You don’t choose your family. They are God’s gift to you, as you are to them."
— Desmond Tutu
"Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light."
— Helen Keller
"Some people go to priests, others to poetry, I to my friends."
— Virginia Woolf
"I don’t need a friend who changes when I change and who nods when I nod; my shadow does that better."
— Plutarch
"Friends are the family you choose."
— Jess C. Scott
Monday, November 27, 2017
Friday, November 24, 2017
Stuff About Things Special Edition: Thanksgiving!
Okay, some facts about Thanksgiving. Hopefully not fake facts, you know, 'fake news,' info we must discount, disparage if it's inconvenient or inglorious. Although, there is a lot of bullshit out there; I've complained about that myself, so much 'news' is sensationalized, inflammatory crap; 24-hour, non-stop, red-faced crap! But bullshit and opinions have always been around, since the beginning of time, so I should probably get over it. There are facts too. Truth exists. Let's hope this Thanksgiving trivia is derived from historian consensus and accurate! From allparenting.com:
The first Thanksgiving was held in the autumn of 1621 and included 50 Pilgrims and 90 Wampanoag Indians and lasted three days.
Thanksgiving didn't become a national holiday until over 200 years later. Sarah Josepha Hale, the woman who actually wrote the classic song “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” convinced President Lincoln in 1863 to make Thanksgiving a national holiday, after writing letters for 17 years campaigning for this to happen.
What was on the menu? Not turkey. Likely venison, ducks, geese, oysters, lobster, eel, and fish. They probably ate pumpkins, but no pumpkin pies.
The first Thanksgiving was eaten with spoons and knives, no forks. Forks weren't introduced to the Pilgrims until 10 years later and weren't a popular utensil until the 18th century.
Thanksgiving is the reason for TV dinners. (Which I mentioned, coincidentally, in #382!) In 1953, Swanson had 260 tons of extra turkey and a salesman suggested they package it onto aluminum trays with other sides like sweet potatoes. The first TV dinner was born.
Thanksgiving was almost a fast, not a feast. The early settlers gave thanks by praying and abstaining from food, which is what they planned on doing to celebrate their first harvest. But then the Wampanoag Indians joined them and turned their fast into a three-day feast.
The first Thanksgiving was held in the autumn of 1621 and included 50 Pilgrims and 90 Wampanoag Indians and lasted three days.
Thanksgiving didn't become a national holiday until over 200 years later. Sarah Josepha Hale, the woman who actually wrote the classic song “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” convinced President Lincoln in 1863 to make Thanksgiving a national holiday, after writing letters for 17 years campaigning for this to happen.
What was on the menu? Not turkey. Likely venison, ducks, geese, oysters, lobster, eel, and fish. They probably ate pumpkins, but no pumpkin pies.
The first Thanksgiving was eaten with spoons and knives, no forks. Forks weren't introduced to the Pilgrims until 10 years later and weren't a popular utensil until the 18th century.
Thanksgiving is the reason for TV dinners. (Which I mentioned, coincidentally, in #382!) In 1953, Swanson had 260 tons of extra turkey and a salesman suggested they package it onto aluminum trays with other sides like sweet potatoes. The first TV dinner was born.
Thanksgiving was almost a fast, not a feast. The early settlers gave thanks by praying and abstaining from food, which is what they planned on doing to celebrate their first harvest. But then the Wampanoag Indians joined them and turned their fast into a three-day feast.
Wednesday, November 22, 2017
Jason Momoa on parenthood and his uncle Craig
Tender words, mostly, from Jason Momoa, aka Aquaman, aka Khal Drogo in Game of Thrones: "I really can't tell you what the hell I was doing before I had kids. Just fucking off. Wasting time. I think I was pretty reckless and definitely a bit out of control. Now I'm more focused. I probably love myself more and take care of myself more because I want to stick around.... I want to be remembered as, I hope, an amazing husband and a great father. My kids are my greatest piece of art. If I can pump them full of amazing stuff and surround them with beautiful art and music, then I'm going to live out my life watching them. They're already way smarter and just way better than me. God, I love it. It's beautiful. I want it to be the greatest thing I ever do: make good humans." — Men's Health magazine
Momoa, an only child, was raised in Norwalk, Iowa by a single mother. For a father figure, he had his uncle Craig. "He was kind of like my dad growing up, because my dad was in Hawaii. Craig was an all-around amazing man. He took care of his family, he was kind, he was strong, he was really funny. He was definitely the man I looked up to."
Uncles are important too. Very important. I've had some of the best. I'm grateful.
Momoa, an only child, was raised in Norwalk, Iowa by a single mother. For a father figure, he had his uncle Craig. "He was kind of like my dad growing up, because my dad was in Hawaii. Craig was an all-around amazing man. He took care of his family, he was kind, he was strong, he was really funny. He was definitely the man I looked up to."
Uncles are important too. Very important. I've had some of the best. I'm grateful.
Monday, November 20, 2017
Saturday, November 18, 2017
#382
Megan struggled to find an outfit for school yesterday. She was frustrated and blamed me, "Dad, you haven't done my laundry since the Paleozoic Era." Wow, good one. I said, "So it's been a million years?" She said, "At least." We looked it up. 250 million years, to be precise, give or take a few million. That's some nasty laundry. Actually, not true; after that long, it would be dust (only Twinkies last a quarter-billion years). Her clothes would be out of style anyway, if by some miracle intact. This isn't like jean jackets, platform boots, leg warmers, whatever makes a comeback from the '70s and '80s. These clothes belong at toga parties now, Halloween, museums.
As always, I 'm only entertaining myself – although I've had hundreds of readers lately and I appreciate that – and I was thinking about important and sophisticated things like foods fiercely opposed to decomposition, e.g. Twinkies, and I thought of... TV dinners. They were kind of a treat when I was a kid. So was a movie on TV like The Wizard of Oz (the 1939 version). This was before VCRs and video rental, before a new movie came out every second. For TV dinners we'd have Salisbury steak or Hungry-Man fried chicken. It makes me sad that M 'n' m have never scraped a brownie out of a tinfoil TV-dinner tray. Now everything is microwavable and plated in paper. You could poke holes in, bend, and crumple tinfoil. Grease was more fun on metal. That's how I remember it. I inflate and distort memories, but life was simpler and better for it. Kids today have so much they have less. And I don't want M 'n' m and the next generation to have 'less.'
I was interested, inspired, comforted, something, to hear that Bear Grylls – the SAS commando and sufferer of a parachuting accident that broke his back, among other toughnesses – is afraid of something. What scares him? Cocktail parties. That makes sense to me. Sometimes I thrive in social situations; sometimes I'm overwhelmed, awkward, overeager to be accepted and liked. I try too hard to please, to be nice, to be witty. (I suppose that's obvious; it's what I do here.) But I realize now – and I want M 'n' m to know – that other people are more worried about themselves (than you) in those situations, and that's fine and normal; they're judging themselves more than you. Relax. Be kind, calm, confident, stay within yourself. Even the seemingly over-comfortable and self-assured at cocktail parties have insecurities to mask, although they may be more evolved and practiced (than I am, at least). And that's okay. Of course, the other extreme exists: people who genuinely have limited interpersonal self-awareness (either by excessive personality or medical condition) but I don't think M 'n' m – or many teenagers, for that matter – fit this description; they worry about how they're perceived. Hopefully, young people are forming good values, and beginning to understand their strengths and weaknesses. Self-examining this way is a lifelong process – if you ask me – but it's a useful and meaningful one. My uncle Kirby always told his kids, before they left the house for a night out, "Don't forget who you are." I love that.
As always, I 'm only entertaining myself – although I've had hundreds of readers lately and I appreciate that – and I was thinking about important and sophisticated things like foods fiercely opposed to decomposition, e.g. Twinkies, and I thought of... TV dinners. They were kind of a treat when I was a kid. So was a movie on TV like The Wizard of Oz (the 1939 version). This was before VCRs and video rental, before a new movie came out every second. For TV dinners we'd have Salisbury steak or Hungry-Man fried chicken. It makes me sad that M 'n' m have never scraped a brownie out of a tinfoil TV-dinner tray. Now everything is microwavable and plated in paper. You could poke holes in, bend, and crumple tinfoil. Grease was more fun on metal. That's how I remember it. I inflate and distort memories, but life was simpler and better for it. Kids today have so much they have less. And I don't want M 'n' m and the next generation to have 'less.'
I was interested, inspired, comforted, something, to hear that Bear Grylls – the SAS commando and sufferer of a parachuting accident that broke his back, among other toughnesses – is afraid of something. What scares him? Cocktail parties. That makes sense to me. Sometimes I thrive in social situations; sometimes I'm overwhelmed, awkward, overeager to be accepted and liked. I try too hard to please, to be nice, to be witty. (I suppose that's obvious; it's what I do here.) But I realize now – and I want M 'n' m to know – that other people are more worried about themselves (than you) in those situations, and that's fine and normal; they're judging themselves more than you. Relax. Be kind, calm, confident, stay within yourself. Even the seemingly over-comfortable and self-assured at cocktail parties have insecurities to mask, although they may be more evolved and practiced (than I am, at least). And that's okay. Of course, the other extreme exists: people who genuinely have limited interpersonal self-awareness (either by excessive personality or medical condition) but I don't think M 'n' m – or many teenagers, for that matter – fit this description; they worry about how they're perceived. Hopefully, young people are forming good values, and beginning to understand their strengths and weaknesses. Self-examining this way is a lifelong process – if you ask me – but it's a useful and meaningful one. My uncle Kirby always told his kids, before they left the house for a night out, "Don't forget who you are." I love that.
Stuff About Things #9
"Sometimes when you come up the rough side of the mountain, it allows you to learn really valuable lessons and when you do fall in love with the process, the process will love you back."
— Matt Campbell, football coach at Iowa State
"There's always that doubt in the back of your mind about what you're doing, and I think you need that edge, I think you need that to be successful."
— Jim Boeheim, men's basketball coach at Syracuse
"Do the good that's in front of you, even if it feels very small."
— Sharon Salzberg
"Success isn't a result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire."
— Arnold H. Glasow
"An addiction to distraction is the end of your creative production."
— Robin Sharma
"The human attention span is now shorter than the attention span of the goldfish. It's down to eight seconds."
— Arianna Huffington
"I'm a big believer in micro-steps (to self-improvement).... I don't do anything perfectly, I'm a work in progress."
— Arianna Huffington
"I would recommend they read the latest science around the importance of sleep and pauses in the course of our day. Because we claim to be data driven, but we are ignoring the data. The prevailing culture still believes that being 'always on' is the way to succeed, that cutting down on sleep means we are more productive because we have more time available. So I would show them (students) the latest science and then I would bring together new role models, people in the arena, people they admire like Jeff Bezos (who strives to get eight hours of sleep for better clarity, decision-making, and so on)."
— Arianna Huffington, advocate for proper self-care, sleep, digital detoxing, walking, etc.
"You can't really run your life from your inbox."
— Arianna Huffington
"I was born and raised in Los Angeles, a California girl who lives by the ethos that most things can be cured with either yoga, the beach, or a few avocados."
— Meghan Markle, actress and girlfriend of Prince Harry
"The distinction between base avarice and honest ambition may be exceedingly fine."
— Reverend Noel Blackwell, 1853
"If you have everything under control, you're not moving fast enough."
— Mario Andretti
"Smile when it's raining, and when you're going through hell - keep going."
— Bear Grylls, survival advice
"I am ordinary, but I am determined."
— Bear Grylls
"... if you can help people feel stronger and more capable because of what you tell them, then it becomes worthwhile... in ways that are impossible to quantify."
— Bear Grylls
"I haven't always succeeded, and I haven't always had the most talent, but I have always given of myself with great enthusiasm – and that counts for a lot. In fact, my dad had always told me that if I could be the most enthusiastic person I knew then I would do well. I never forgot that. And he was right. I mean, who doesn't like to work with enthusiastic folk?"
— Bear Grylls
"Families are always great levelers."
— Bear Grylls
"If you think you're enlightened, go spend a week with your family."
— Ram Dass
"I have a lot of faith. But I am also afraid a lot, and have no real certainty about anything. I remembered something Father Tom had told me – that the opposite of faith is not doubt, but certainty. Certainty is missing the point entirely. Faith includes noticing the mess, the emptiness and discomfort, and letting it be there until some light returns."
— Anne Lamott
"Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be, since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be."
— Thomas a Kempis
"Don't judge someone just because they sin differently than you."
— internet meme
"Your emotions are the slaves to your thoughts, and you are the slave to your emotions."
— Elizabeth Gilbert
"Conviction is worthless unless it is converted into conduct."
— Thomas Carlyle
"No rain, no flowers."
— internet meme
"After playing poorly in her first match of the year (at the Australian Open held in January), in which she felt she had missed too many backhands, she went to the practice court and for two and a half to three hours hit 2,500 of them, by her estimation. If she missed one, she started over. She did roughly the same the next practice day."
— Vanity Fair article about Serena Williams
"Don't explain your philosophy – embody it."
— Epictetus
"Riches and rank have no necessary connection with genuine gentlemanly qualities. The poor man with rich spirit is in all ways superior to the rich man with a poor spirit.... He who has lost all, but retains his courage, cheerfulness, hope, virtue, and self respect, is still rich."
— Samuel Smiles, from his book Self-Help published in 1859
"Do you know what the word 'hero' meant in ancient Greek? Get this, it didn't mean 'tough guy' or 'killer of bad guys.' It meant 'protector.' A hero has strength for two. A hero's secret weapon? Love, compassion, empathy. Quite simply, a hero cares. And, very importantly, a hero is willing to do the work required to optimize, and build the strength to make a difference in their families, communities, and world. And you know what? Our world needs heroes today more than ever before. We need you to be a hero."
— Brian Johnson, creator of Philosophers Notes, check 'em out!
— Matt Campbell, football coach at Iowa State
"There's always that doubt in the back of your mind about what you're doing, and I think you need that edge, I think you need that to be successful."
— Jim Boeheim, men's basketball coach at Syracuse
"Do the good that's in front of you, even if it feels very small."
— Sharon Salzberg
"Success isn't a result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire."
— Arnold H. Glasow
"An addiction to distraction is the end of your creative production."
— Robin Sharma
"The human attention span is now shorter than the attention span of the goldfish. It's down to eight seconds."
— Arianna Huffington
"I'm a big believer in micro-steps (to self-improvement).... I don't do anything perfectly, I'm a work in progress."
— Arianna Huffington
"I would recommend they read the latest science around the importance of sleep and pauses in the course of our day. Because we claim to be data driven, but we are ignoring the data. The prevailing culture still believes that being 'always on' is the way to succeed, that cutting down on sleep means we are more productive because we have more time available. So I would show them (students) the latest science and then I would bring together new role models, people in the arena, people they admire like Jeff Bezos (who strives to get eight hours of sleep for better clarity, decision-making, and so on)."
— Arianna Huffington, advocate for proper self-care, sleep, digital detoxing, walking, etc.
"You can't really run your life from your inbox."
— Arianna Huffington
"I was born and raised in Los Angeles, a California girl who lives by the ethos that most things can be cured with either yoga, the beach, or a few avocados."
— Meghan Markle, actress and girlfriend of Prince Harry
"The distinction between base avarice and honest ambition may be exceedingly fine."
— Reverend Noel Blackwell, 1853
"If you have everything under control, you're not moving fast enough."
— Mario Andretti
"Smile when it's raining, and when you're going through hell - keep going."
— Bear Grylls, survival advice
"I am ordinary, but I am determined."
— Bear Grylls
"... if you can help people feel stronger and more capable because of what you tell them, then it becomes worthwhile... in ways that are impossible to quantify."
— Bear Grylls
"I haven't always succeeded, and I haven't always had the most talent, but I have always given of myself with great enthusiasm – and that counts for a lot. In fact, my dad had always told me that if I could be the most enthusiastic person I knew then I would do well. I never forgot that. And he was right. I mean, who doesn't like to work with enthusiastic folk?"
— Bear Grylls
"Families are always great levelers."
— Bear Grylls
"If you think you're enlightened, go spend a week with your family."
— Ram Dass
"I have a lot of faith. But I am also afraid a lot, and have no real certainty about anything. I remembered something Father Tom had told me – that the opposite of faith is not doubt, but certainty. Certainty is missing the point entirely. Faith includes noticing the mess, the emptiness and discomfort, and letting it be there until some light returns."
— Anne Lamott
"Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be, since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be."
— Thomas a Kempis
"Don't judge someone just because they sin differently than you."
— internet meme
"Your emotions are the slaves to your thoughts, and you are the slave to your emotions."
— Elizabeth Gilbert
"Conviction is worthless unless it is converted into conduct."
— Thomas Carlyle
"No rain, no flowers."
— internet meme
"After playing poorly in her first match of the year (at the Australian Open held in January), in which she felt she had missed too many backhands, she went to the practice court and for two and a half to three hours hit 2,500 of them, by her estimation. If she missed one, she started over. She did roughly the same the next practice day."
— Vanity Fair article about Serena Williams
"Don't explain your philosophy – embody it."
— Epictetus
"Riches and rank have no necessary connection with genuine gentlemanly qualities. The poor man with rich spirit is in all ways superior to the rich man with a poor spirit.... He who has lost all, but retains his courage, cheerfulness, hope, virtue, and self respect, is still rich."
— Samuel Smiles, from his book Self-Help published in 1859
"Do you know what the word 'hero' meant in ancient Greek? Get this, it didn't mean 'tough guy' or 'killer of bad guys.' It meant 'protector.' A hero has strength for two. A hero's secret weapon? Love, compassion, empathy. Quite simply, a hero cares. And, very importantly, a hero is willing to do the work required to optimize, and build the strength to make a difference in their families, communities, and world. And you know what? Our world needs heroes today more than ever before. We need you to be a hero."
— Brian Johnson, creator of Philosophers Notes, check 'em out!
Invictus by William Ernest Henley
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.
Tuesday, November 14, 2017
This book excerpt...
... is about surfing, which I've never done, but the book came highly recommended and I checked it out and here we are; I just found this very rich, philosophical, metaphorical, challenging. I haven't surfed but I've lived. Someday I hope to try surfing.
"But surfing has always had this horizon, this fear line, that made it different from other things, certainly from other sports I knew. You could do it with friends, but when the waves got big, or you got into trouble, there never seemed to be anyone around. Everything out there was disturbingly interlaced with everything else. Waves were the playing field. They were the goal. They were the object of your deepest desire and adoration. At the same time, they were your adversary, your nemesis, even your mortal enemy. The surf was your refuge, your happy hiding place, but it was also a hostile wilderness – a dynamic, indifferent world.... The ocean was... endlessly dangerous, power beyond measure. And yet you were expected, even as a kid, to take its measure every day. You were required – this was essential, a matter of survival – to know your limits, both physical and emotional. But how could you know your limits unless you tested them? And if you failed the test? You were also required to stay calm if things went wrong. Panic was the first step, everybody said, to drowning. As a kid, too, your abilities were assumed to be growing. What was unthinkable one year became thinkable, possibly, the next. My letters from Honolulu in 1966, kindly returned to me recently, are less distinguished by swaggering bullshit than by frank discussions of fear. 'Don't think I've suddenly gotten brave. I haven't.' But the frontiers of the thinkable were quietly, fitfully edging back to me."
— William Finnegan, Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life
"But surfing has always had this horizon, this fear line, that made it different from other things, certainly from other sports I knew. You could do it with friends, but when the waves got big, or you got into trouble, there never seemed to be anyone around. Everything out there was disturbingly interlaced with everything else. Waves were the playing field. They were the goal. They were the object of your deepest desire and adoration. At the same time, they were your adversary, your nemesis, even your mortal enemy. The surf was your refuge, your happy hiding place, but it was also a hostile wilderness – a dynamic, indifferent world.... The ocean was... endlessly dangerous, power beyond measure. And yet you were expected, even as a kid, to take its measure every day. You were required – this was essential, a matter of survival – to know your limits, both physical and emotional. But how could you know your limits unless you tested them? And if you failed the test? You were also required to stay calm if things went wrong. Panic was the first step, everybody said, to drowning. As a kid, too, your abilities were assumed to be growing. What was unthinkable one year became thinkable, possibly, the next. My letters from Honolulu in 1966, kindly returned to me recently, are less distinguished by swaggering bullshit than by frank discussions of fear. 'Don't think I've suddenly gotten brave. I haven't.' But the frontiers of the thinkable were quietly, fitfully edging back to me."
— William Finnegan, Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life
Monday, November 13, 2017
#381
I can't park in the garage right now because my space is full of other shit (a wheelbarrow for mulch, construction materials, sports gear, more sports gear) so this morning Meg and I headed down the driveway to a frozen minivan. It was 17 degrees. This is no biggie for January in Chicago but it's early November. We shivered and climbed into the van which wasn't any warmer. I exhaled a plume of breath and looked at it. The car turned over slowly. Meg shifted in her seat, trying not to touch anything frozen, but everything was frozen. She said, "Do you have butt-warmers?" I'm pretty sure she knew the answer. No. I don't have heated seats. Then I noticed she didn't have a coat. No coat! Actually, she had a coat but she was carrying it instead of wearing it... which, you know, makes total sense when it's freezing out, dude. Question: Why is this fashionable? Michael wore hoodies and stubbornly shunned jackets also. At their age, I remember rolling jeans, fixing turtlenecks, spraying hairspray, spraying cologne, but the winter jacket meant nothing; its presence or absence, its style or brand, announced nothing about you. (Except for the cool kids who skied and had lift tickets dangling like jewelry.) Anyway, as a parent, I draw on my own young experience for a kind of comparative understanding. This, of course, is often futile, irrelevant, illogical. Things change. If you wore a hoodie to my junior high back in '88, you'd hear snickers. Sweatpants were a no-no. As for butt-warmers and cars: I buy base models because I can't afford to pay extra. Or maybe I choose not to (that sounds better). As grueling as life is without heated seats, I survive so I can do other things: travel, eat sushi, get tickets to Hamilton or a Cubs game. I didn't go to Hamilton or a Cubs game this year. My arguments with M 'n' m often blow up in my face like this, also. But my money is finite, which is a fun problem to have most of the time; I get to make decisions and enjoy them. My goal is to help M 'n' m with college, and at the rate things are going, I'll be able to pay for one textbook and a pizza.
A question just popped into my head: How many words are there in the English language? I asked Google. Literally. Verbally. You know how it goes: I tapped the Google microphone icon on my smartphone, said the question, and a pleasant female voice replied: "The Second Edition of the 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary contains full entries for 171,476 words in current use, and 47,156 obsolete words. To this may be added around 9,500 derivative words included as subentries." I will ask Siri and Alexa and confirm consensus. Remember the days when you had to thumb through books to find answers? And sometimes you couldn't find an answer and were left to wonder. Yeah, that was the effin' stone age, man! How unenlightened we were. But we were thoughtful. And happy.
Meg had her first basketball tourney of the season over the weekend and did awesome. I love her.
A question just popped into my head: How many words are there in the English language? I asked Google. Literally. Verbally. You know how it goes: I tapped the Google microphone icon on my smartphone, said the question, and a pleasant female voice replied: "The Second Edition of the 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary contains full entries for 171,476 words in current use, and 47,156 obsolete words. To this may be added around 9,500 derivative words included as subentries." I will ask Siri and Alexa and confirm consensus. Remember the days when you had to thumb through books to find answers? And sometimes you couldn't find an answer and were left to wonder. Yeah, that was the effin' stone age, man! How unenlightened we were. But we were thoughtful. And happy.
Meg had her first basketball tourney of the season over the weekend and did awesome. I love her.
Friday, November 10, 2017
The Wisdom of Travis McGee via John D. MacDonald
My
favorite fictional character in a series of books is a guy called Spenser,
created by Robert B. Parker. My second favorite is Travis McGee, who
appeared in 21 novels by a genius named John D. MacDonald. MacDonald
passed away in 1986 but I'm grateful I can read and reread what he left
us, including these quotes from the inimitable Travis McGee:
"The only thing in the world worth a damn is the strange, touching, pathetic, awesome nobility of the individual human spirit."
"Education is something that should be apart from the necessities of earning a living, not a tool therefor. It needs contemplation, fallow periods, the measured and guided study of the history of man’s reiteration of the most agonizing question of all: Why?"
"All the little gods of irony must whoop and weep and roll on the floors of Olympus when they tune in on the night thoughts of a truly fatuous male."
"I can bend my own rules way, way over, but there is a place where I finally stop bending them."
"I know just enough about myself to know I cannot settle for one of those simplifications which indignant people seize upon to make understandable a world too complex for their comprehension."
"Every day, no matter how you fight it, you learn a little more about yourself, and all most of it does is teach humility."
"If there was one sunset every twenty years, how would people react to them? If there were ten seashells in all the world, what would they be worth? If people could make love just once a year, how carefully would they pick their mates?"
"Appreciate the therapeutic value of silence. It is the McGee version of being a loner: merely having some people about to whom you don’t have to constantly react."
"Somebody has to be tireless, or the fast-buck operators would asphalt the entire coast, fill every bay, and slay every living thing incapable of carrying a wallet."
"I wanted to be stable as all hell, but the world was on a slight tilt. It was like being yanked around an unexpected curve. You lean for a long time. My friend Meyer, the economist, says that cretins are the only humans who can be absolutely certain of their own sanity. All the rest of us go rocketing along rickety rails over spavined bridges and along the edge of bottomless gorges. The man who believes himself free of any taint of madness is a damned liar. The trouble is, you never know exactly what might tip you off those rails."
"I had thought that I was in fine balance.... I had even believed I had grown another little layer of hide over those places where I could be hurt."
"Acquaintance rather than friend. The dividing line is communication, I think. A friend is someone to whom you can say any jackass thing that enters your mind. With acquaintances, you are forever aware of their slightly unreal image of you, and to keep them content, you edit yourself to fit. Many marriages are between acquaintances. You can be with a person for three hours of your life and have a friend. Another one will remain an acquaintance for thirty years."
"I think there is some kind of divine order in the universe. Every leaf on every tree in the world is unique. As far as we can see, there are other galaxies, all slowly spinning, numerous as the leaves in the forest. In an infinite number of planets, there has to be an infinite number with life forms on them. Maybe this planet is one of the discarded mistakes. Maybe it's one of the victories."
"Newsmen have a very short attention span. It is a prerequisite in the business. That is why the news accounts of almost anything make sense to all ages up to the age of twelve. If one wishes to enjoy newspapers, it is wise to halt all intellectual development right at that age."
"We're all children. We invent the adult facade and don it and try to keep the buttons and the medals polished. We're all trying to give such a good imitation of being an adult that the real adults in the world won't catch on. Each of us takes up the shticks that compose the adult image we seek."
"Old friend, there are people — young and old — that I like, and people that I do not like. The former are always in short supply. I am turned off by humorless fanaticism, whether it's revolutionary mumbo-jumbo by a young one, or loud lessons from scripture by an old one. We are all comical, touching, slapstick animals, walking on our hind legs, trying to make it a noble journey from womb to tomb, and the people who can't see it at all that way bore the hell out of me."
"Up with life. Stamp out all small and large indignities. Leave everyone alone to make it without pressure. Down with hurting. Lower the standard of living. Do without plastics. Smash the servomechanisms. Stop grabbing. Snuff the breeze and hug the kids. Love all love. Hate all hate."
"Being an adult means accepting those situations where no action is possible."
"People take you at the value you put upon yourself."
"Nobody can ever get too much approval."
"At times it seems as if arranging to have no commitment of any kind to anyone would be a special freedom. But in fact the whole idea works in reverse. The most deadly commitment of all is to be committed only to one's self. Some come to realize this after they are in the nursing home."
And a quote about MacDonald from Lee Child, the creator of Jack Reacher, another unforgettable, resourceful, resilient, principled, tough character in fiction that is just rich and wise:
"The fight was never easy and, one feels, never actually winnable. But it had to be waged. This strange, weary blend of nobility and cynicism is MacDonald's signature emotion."
— Lee Child
"The only thing in the world worth a damn is the strange, touching, pathetic, awesome nobility of the individual human spirit."
"Education is something that should be apart from the necessities of earning a living, not a tool therefor. It needs contemplation, fallow periods, the measured and guided study of the history of man’s reiteration of the most agonizing question of all: Why?"
"All the little gods of irony must whoop and weep and roll on the floors of Olympus when they tune in on the night thoughts of a truly fatuous male."
"I can bend my own rules way, way over, but there is a place where I finally stop bending them."
"I know just enough about myself to know I cannot settle for one of those simplifications which indignant people seize upon to make understandable a world too complex for their comprehension."
"Every day, no matter how you fight it, you learn a little more about yourself, and all most of it does is teach humility."
"If there was one sunset every twenty years, how would people react to them? If there were ten seashells in all the world, what would they be worth? If people could make love just once a year, how carefully would they pick their mates?"
"Appreciate the therapeutic value of silence. It is the McGee version of being a loner: merely having some people about to whom you don’t have to constantly react."
"Somebody has to be tireless, or the fast-buck operators would asphalt the entire coast, fill every bay, and slay every living thing incapable of carrying a wallet."
"I wanted to be stable as all hell, but the world was on a slight tilt. It was like being yanked around an unexpected curve. You lean for a long time. My friend Meyer, the economist, says that cretins are the only humans who can be absolutely certain of their own sanity. All the rest of us go rocketing along rickety rails over spavined bridges and along the edge of bottomless gorges. The man who believes himself free of any taint of madness is a damned liar. The trouble is, you never know exactly what might tip you off those rails."
"I had thought that I was in fine balance.... I had even believed I had grown another little layer of hide over those places where I could be hurt."
"Acquaintance rather than friend. The dividing line is communication, I think. A friend is someone to whom you can say any jackass thing that enters your mind. With acquaintances, you are forever aware of their slightly unreal image of you, and to keep them content, you edit yourself to fit. Many marriages are between acquaintances. You can be with a person for three hours of your life and have a friend. Another one will remain an acquaintance for thirty years."
"I think there is some kind of divine order in the universe. Every leaf on every tree in the world is unique. As far as we can see, there are other galaxies, all slowly spinning, numerous as the leaves in the forest. In an infinite number of planets, there has to be an infinite number with life forms on them. Maybe this planet is one of the discarded mistakes. Maybe it's one of the victories."
"Newsmen have a very short attention span. It is a prerequisite in the business. That is why the news accounts of almost anything make sense to all ages up to the age of twelve. If one wishes to enjoy newspapers, it is wise to halt all intellectual development right at that age."
"We're all children. We invent the adult facade and don it and try to keep the buttons and the medals polished. We're all trying to give such a good imitation of being an adult that the real adults in the world won't catch on. Each of us takes up the shticks that compose the adult image we seek."
"Old friend, there are people — young and old — that I like, and people that I do not like. The former are always in short supply. I am turned off by humorless fanaticism, whether it's revolutionary mumbo-jumbo by a young one, or loud lessons from scripture by an old one. We are all comical, touching, slapstick animals, walking on our hind legs, trying to make it a noble journey from womb to tomb, and the people who can't see it at all that way bore the hell out of me."
"Up with life. Stamp out all small and large indignities. Leave everyone alone to make it without pressure. Down with hurting. Lower the standard of living. Do without plastics. Smash the servomechanisms. Stop grabbing. Snuff the breeze and hug the kids. Love all love. Hate all hate."
"Being an adult means accepting those situations where no action is possible."
"People take you at the value you put upon yourself."
"Nobody can ever get too much approval."
"At times it seems as if arranging to have no commitment of any kind to anyone would be a special freedom. But in fact the whole idea works in reverse. The most deadly commitment of all is to be committed only to one's self. Some come to realize this after they are in the nursing home."
And a quote about MacDonald from Lee Child, the creator of Jack Reacher, another unforgettable, resourceful, resilient, principled, tough character in fiction that is just rich and wise:
"The fight was never easy and, one feels, never actually winnable. But it had to be waged. This strange, weary blend of nobility and cynicism is MacDonald's signature emotion."
— Lee Child
Wednesday, November 8, 2017
It's that time again: Mantras and motivation... which, of course, is another M 'n' m
Just do it.
Start.
Push yourself.
Do work, Son.
One more.
Be a force for good.
My cup runs over. ― Psalm 23
If it disappoints you, think of it less.
Self-respect comes from hard work.
What you do defines you.
We gonna do this, or we just gonna talk about it?
The only easy day was yesterday. ― SEALs
If it doesn't suck, we don't do it. ― SEALs
There is no tomorrow. ― Apollo Creed
Hey, I didn't hear no bell! ― Mickey
Keep moving. ― Rambo
Keep making shots.
Discomfort is growth.
Train your will.
Pioneers take arrows.
Brother, stand the pain, escape the poison of your impulses. ― Rumi
The intelligent want self-control, children want candy. ― Rumi
Sell your cleverness and purchase bewilderment. ― Rumi
Be childlike, playful, and wise.
Free yourself from the tyranny of constant thought.
It's okay to live a life others don't understand.
Life is an attitude. Have a good one.
The painting isn't done in the middle.
Love more, worry less.
My song is love. ― Coldplay
Love is all around you. ― Tesla
There is nothing wrong with loving the crap out of everything. ― Ryan Adams
How may I serve?
Sprinkle kindness, scatter joy.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light. ― Dylan Thomas
This mustn't register on an emotional level. ― Sherlock Holmes
We won't get weak, that's not in us anymore. ― Rick, TWD
Confrontation's never been something we've had trouble with. ― Rick, TWD
Your bad habits are in the hallway doing push-ups.
Relax Luther, it’s much worse than you think. ― Ethan Hunt, Mission Impossible
Every warrior hopes a good death will find him. ― One Stab
But Tristan refused to speak of her. ― One Stab
The wind cannot defeat a tree with strong roots. ― The Revenant
You're okay. Keep fighting. ― Ronda Rousey
Comparisons are odious ― Jack Kerouac
I can do this all day. ― Captain America
We carry our own. ― Grandma Bev at Grandpa Swede's funeral
There is power in optimism.
There is power in gratitude.
There is power in ritual.
Make practice a practice.
Rust never rests.
Terror is a fine instructor.
Bet on him, if you like. ― Herger the Joyous
Grow stronger. ― Herger the Joyous
(I am not a warrior!) Very soon, you will be. ― Herger the Joyous
I’ve been through worse. ― Wolverine
A smooth sea never made a skilled mariner.
Which is the greater pleasure?
Enjoy every minute of it, Hon.
...but the dreamers of day are dangerous men... ― T. E. Lawrence
You can measure a man by the opposition it takes to discourage him.
Be comfortable being uncomfortable.
Don't avoid, or chase, confrontation.
I only harbor healthy thoughts.
Within us is the power of self-repair.
I honor the power within me.
Thank you for M 'n' m.
Thank you for ....
Great multitudes came to him, and he healed them all.
"Deep within man dwell slumbering powers; powers that would astonish him, that he never dreamed of possessing; forces that would revolutionize his life if aroused and put into action."
― Orison Swett Marden
"For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love, and of self-control."
― 2 Timothy 1:7
"Iron is full of impurities that weaken it, but, through forging, it becomes steel. It is the same with human beings."
― Morihei Ueshiba
"In the midst of winter I found within me an invincible summer."
― Albert Camus
"Some people hear their own inner voices with great clearness, and they live by what they hear. Such people become crazy, but they become legend."
― One Stab, Legends of the Fall
Start.
Push yourself.
Do work, Son.
One more.
Be a force for good.
My cup runs over. ― Psalm 23
If it disappoints you, think of it less.
Self-respect comes from hard work.
What you do defines you.
We gonna do this, or we just gonna talk about it?
The only easy day was yesterday. ― SEALs
If it doesn't suck, we don't do it. ― SEALs
There is no tomorrow. ― Apollo Creed
Hey, I didn't hear no bell! ― Mickey
Keep moving. ― Rambo
Keep making shots.
Discomfort is growth.
Train your will.
Pioneers take arrows.
Brother, stand the pain, escape the poison of your impulses. ― Rumi
The intelligent want self-control, children want candy. ― Rumi
Sell your cleverness and purchase bewilderment. ― Rumi
Be childlike, playful, and wise.
Free yourself from the tyranny of constant thought.
It's okay to live a life others don't understand.
Life is an attitude. Have a good one.
The painting isn't done in the middle.
Love more, worry less.
My song is love. ― Coldplay
Love is all around you. ― Tesla
There is nothing wrong with loving the crap out of everything. ― Ryan Adams
How may I serve?
Sprinkle kindness, scatter joy.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light. ― Dylan Thomas
This mustn't register on an emotional level. ― Sherlock Holmes
We won't get weak, that's not in us anymore. ― Rick, TWD
Confrontation's never been something we've had trouble with. ― Rick, TWD
Your bad habits are in the hallway doing push-ups.
Relax Luther, it’s much worse than you think. ― Ethan Hunt, Mission Impossible
Every warrior hopes a good death will find him. ― One Stab
But Tristan refused to speak of her. ― One Stab
The wind cannot defeat a tree with strong roots. ― The Revenant
You're okay. Keep fighting. ― Ronda Rousey
Comparisons are odious ― Jack Kerouac
I can do this all day. ― Captain America
We carry our own. ― Grandma Bev at Grandpa Swede's funeral
There is power in optimism.
There is power in gratitude.
There is power in ritual.
Make practice a practice.
Rust never rests.
Terror is a fine instructor.
Bet on him, if you like. ― Herger the Joyous
Grow stronger. ― Herger the Joyous
(I am not a warrior!) Very soon, you will be. ― Herger the Joyous
I’ve been through worse. ― Wolverine
A smooth sea never made a skilled mariner.
Which is the greater pleasure?
Enjoy every minute of it, Hon.
...but the dreamers of day are dangerous men... ― T. E. Lawrence
You can measure a man by the opposition it takes to discourage him.
Be comfortable being uncomfortable.
Don't avoid, or chase, confrontation.
I only harbor healthy thoughts.
Within us is the power of self-repair.
I honor the power within me.
Thank you for M 'n' m.
Thank you for ....
Great multitudes came to him, and he healed them all.
"Deep within man dwell slumbering powers; powers that would astonish him, that he never dreamed of possessing; forces that would revolutionize his life if aroused and put into action."
― Orison Swett Marden
"For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love, and of self-control."
― 2 Timothy 1:7
"Iron is full of impurities that weaken it, but, through forging, it becomes steel. It is the same with human beings."
― Morihei Ueshiba
"In the midst of winter I found within me an invincible summer."
― Albert Camus
"Some people hear their own inner voices with great clearness, and they live by what they hear. Such people become crazy, but they become legend."
― One Stab, Legends of the Fall
Tuesday, November 7, 2017
Jeremy Renner on parenting
"Renner was 42 when Ava was born. 'It was like seeing The Matrix,' he says. 'In a second, everything just opened up and made perfect sense.' He named her Ava because it's 'a classic Hollywood name' but also because it's a palindrome, like Renner. He has custody every other week, he says, and the rest of the time she's with his ex-wife.... I ask him the most fun parts of having a daughter. 'Everything's fun, man. Especially at this age.' She loves dance, gymnastics, musical instruments, swimming. Renner tries to keep her from being too girly: 'Like this Christmas,' he says, 'she got a princess castle, but she also got a tool set.' ... Friends say Ava is everything to Renner. 'She has her daddy wrapped around her finger,' (Renner's friend, Kristoffer) Winters says, 'The few times in life I've seen him cry were because he missed something of hers.' ... Renner says he would have loved to have more kids. 'I'd like to have eight running around,' he says. 'A gaggle, a little clan.' He thought about having another girl and naming her Hannah, also a palindrome. 'But at this point,' he says, 'that's not in my future.' I tell him you never know, but he shakes his head. 'It takes two,' he says. 'Doing it alone is not fun. You want to share the experience. You kind of want a partner. I've done so many amazing, cool-ass things in my life - but I think as we get older, there's more value in doing something with somebody.' ... 'I won't even let (Ava) watch Avengers. The only reason she knows I'm Hawkeye is because I'm on her pajamas.' ... 'Parenting is not a sexy thing. But when someone has fortitude, they're always going to be there. I'm the rock,' he says."
— Josh Eells, Men's Journal article about actor Jeremy Renner
— Josh Eells, Men's Journal article about actor Jeremy Renner
Sunday, November 5, 2017
#380
I'm envious of Michael. He plays an instrument and plays it well. The cello. Every time I hear it, his playing sounds more fluid, versatile, crisp. I don't know how to describe music. But I know his confidence as a musician grows every year. Because confidence comes from hard work, practice, getting shit done (in your chosen craft). Amen. Michael's orchestra had a concert a couple Saturdays ago and it was fantastic.
I watch Modern Family with the kids. If you're unfamiliar – because you live on Mars? – Modern Family is a TV show on Earth. It's loaded with goodness, but it isn't light on adult-y stuff either. The characters are vivid, various, and hilarious. And they're uniquely expressive and vulnerable in cutaway scenes where the characters talk directly to the camera; they talk to you, the audience; they open up, explain. They confess. They overshare. Naturally, I love it. Ferris Bueller talked to the camera too, and everyone loves Ferris... the sportos, motorheads, geeks, sluts, bloods, wasteoids, dweebies, dickheads. Ferris was my favorite movie as a teenager. Ferris Bueller's Day Off released in 1986. It isn't super-clean either. But it's pretty great.
Ed Rooney, School Principal: What is so dangerous about a character like Ferris Bueller is he gives good kids bad ideas. Last thing I need at this point in my career is 1,500 Ferris Bueller disciples running around these halls. He jeopardizes my ability to effectively govern this student body.
Grace, School Secretary: He makes you look like an ass, is what he does, Ed.
E: Thank you, Grace, but I think you're wrong.
G: Oh, he's very popular, Ed. The sportos, the motorheads, geeks, sluts, bloods, wasteoids, dweebies, dickheads, they all adore him. They think he's a righteous dude.
E: That is why I need to show these kids that the example he sets is a first-class ticket to nowhere!
G: Oh, Ed, you sounded like Dirty Harry just then.
E: Really? Thanks, Grace.
Jeannie Bueller: In a nutshell, I hate my brother....
Druggie at the Police Station: You ought to spend a little more time dealing with yourself, a little less time worrying about what your brother does. That's just an opinion.
J: What are you, a psychiatrist?
D: No.
J: Then why don't you keep your opinions to yourself.
D: There's somebody you should talk to.
J: If you say Ferris Bueller, you lose a testicle.
D: Oh, you know him?
Ferris Bueller: Never had one lesson!
Ferris Bueller: This is the part where Cameron goes Berserk.
By the way, there's a reason I mentioned Modern Family. Last night during the show, Megan said, "Dad, you are Phil Dunfy." Phil was having an especially bad episode. I was like, really? I felt insulted. Then I felt complimented. Then insulted, then complimented, then offended again. It's probably, exactly, how Phil would respond in a similar situation. Megan watched me process her comment. I was silent but I was reacting – happy, hurt, happy, hurt – and Meg read me and smiled. Busted. Phil is goofy but he's caring, creative, energetic, generally optimistic, and he tries hard to bond with people, especially his kids. Sometimes he's an idiot. Most of the time he's juvenile. Okay. Ouch. Oh well. Someone at work told me I was Phil Dunfy, also. Been called worse. Thank you for the compliment.
I'm closing in on #400. I intend to get there. Maybe then I'll stop. But why can't I always write? Even if I'm a scuffling minor-leaguer. Or little-leaguer. It's fun. Thanks for reading.
I watch Modern Family with the kids. If you're unfamiliar – because you live on Mars? – Modern Family is a TV show on Earth. It's loaded with goodness, but it isn't light on adult-y stuff either. The characters are vivid, various, and hilarious. And they're uniquely expressive and vulnerable in cutaway scenes where the characters talk directly to the camera; they talk to you, the audience; they open up, explain. They confess. They overshare. Naturally, I love it. Ferris Bueller talked to the camera too, and everyone loves Ferris... the sportos, motorheads, geeks, sluts, bloods, wasteoids, dweebies, dickheads. Ferris was my favorite movie as a teenager. Ferris Bueller's Day Off released in 1986. It isn't super-clean either. But it's pretty great.
Ed Rooney, School Principal: What is so dangerous about a character like Ferris Bueller is he gives good kids bad ideas. Last thing I need at this point in my career is 1,500 Ferris Bueller disciples running around these halls. He jeopardizes my ability to effectively govern this student body.
Grace, School Secretary: He makes you look like an ass, is what he does, Ed.
E: Thank you, Grace, but I think you're wrong.
G: Oh, he's very popular, Ed. The sportos, the motorheads, geeks, sluts, bloods, wasteoids, dweebies, dickheads, they all adore him. They think he's a righteous dude.
E: That is why I need to show these kids that the example he sets is a first-class ticket to nowhere!
G: Oh, Ed, you sounded like Dirty Harry just then.
E: Really? Thanks, Grace.
Jeannie Bueller: In a nutshell, I hate my brother....
Druggie at the Police Station: You ought to spend a little more time dealing with yourself, a little less time worrying about what your brother does. That's just an opinion.
J: What are you, a psychiatrist?
D: No.
J: Then why don't you keep your opinions to yourself.
D: There's somebody you should talk to.
J: If you say Ferris Bueller, you lose a testicle.
D: Oh, you know him?
Ferris Bueller: Never had one lesson!
Ferris Bueller: This is the part where Cameron goes Berserk.
By the way, there's a reason I mentioned Modern Family. Last night during the show, Megan said, "Dad, you are Phil Dunfy." Phil was having an especially bad episode. I was like, really? I felt insulted. Then I felt complimented. Then insulted, then complimented, then offended again. It's probably, exactly, how Phil would respond in a similar situation. Megan watched me process her comment. I was silent but I was reacting – happy, hurt, happy, hurt – and Meg read me and smiled. Busted. Phil is goofy but he's caring, creative, energetic, generally optimistic, and he tries hard to bond with people, especially his kids. Sometimes he's an idiot. Most of the time he's juvenile. Okay. Ouch. Oh well. Someone at work told me I was Phil Dunfy, also. Been called worse. Thank you for the compliment.
I'm closing in on #400. I intend to get there. Maybe then I'll stop. But why can't I always write? Even if I'm a scuffling minor-leaguer. Or little-leaguer. It's fun. Thanks for reading.
Stuff About Things #8
"You know that assignment you always get in high school when you’re reading Walden, to keep a journal? Well, I just kept doing that."
— John Hughes
"Relax. No one else knows what they're doing either."
— Ricky Gervais
"If somebody would ask what is it that you breathe that's not air, but that's what you need, it's art. I have to see it constantly. It's not even like 'O.K., I'm going to look at art in the evening'; it's all day long."
— Raf Simons, Chief Creative Officer at Calvin Klein
"Just think of all the things that have come and gone in our lifetimes, all the would-be futures we watched age into obsolescence – CD, DVD, answering machine, Walkman, mixtape, MTV, video store, mall. There were still some rotary phones around in our childhood – now it’s nothing but virtual buttons. We are the last generation to grow up with crappy video games, with actual arcades instead of quality home consoles. If you wanted to play, you had to leave the house and mix it up with the ruffians. That is, we are the last Americans to have the old-time childhood, wherein you were assigned a bully along with a homeroom teacher. Our childhood was closer to those of the 1950s than to whatever they’re doing today. It was coherent, hands-on, dirty, and fun."
— Vanity Fair magazine, Why Generation X Might Be Our Last, Best Hope by Rich Cohen
"I lived to see the jokes about the possibility of these motors displacing the horse fade away and automobiles fill the streets and cover the nations."
— W.E.B. Du Bois, 1868–1963, from The Autobiography of W.E.B. Dubois: A Soliloquy on Viewing My Life from the Last Decade of Its First Century
"I grew up in a simpler time, in an America where you didn't instantly download the newest hit single on your phone... no, sir, you bought 12 CDs for a penny, with the stipulation that you purchase the 8th CD at the regular club price. That CD was a rip-off, and their selection sucked, but it was a good way to stock up on greatest-hits albums.... I was the first in my family to go to online college... I'll never forget the day I received my diploma, because it went into the spam folder.... I proudly showed it off to my parents, after updating my Flash Player, since it was an animation. It turned out the attachment had a virus, and some guys in Nigeria demanded a thousand bucks or they'd delete all my files.... I have a wonderful woman I share my life with now, Lucy. I met her two nights ago on Tinder..."
— Vanity Fair magazine, a humor piece by Teddy Wayne
"You gotta really stay sharp.... You gotta be sharp."
— Tom Brady
"It's year-round, and I try to make a big commitment... I put a lot of effort in... I spend a lot of time working at it... it takes effort and discipline, but as long as I can do that I know I can be successful on the field."
— Tom Brady ... or ...
"Well, I'm always working on my techniques, my fundamentals, I mean, I think that's a daily thing for me because you don't wanna just... you know, I always think you can get a percentage or two off a week and over the course of five weeks, you're 10% off where you want to be, whether certain quarterbacking techniques or, you know, things like that, so you gotta really stay sharp. So I film a lot of those things so I can watch it daily, know really what I'm looking for, and, you know, you gotta be sharp.... I think everything keeps me up at night, the expectations are so high, the standards that have been set here are... they're just high, for everybody, and everybody wants to do a great job, and there's a lot of effort, and guys are putting in a lot of work.... I love being a part of it. I wake up everyday thinking about how I can help this team win and the work I need to put in so I can be really held accountable for what I do, so I can be really dependable for the team, and we've had a great thing goin' so hopefully we can keep doin' it.... I think (my lifestyle) is hugely important. I've just learned a certain way that works for me, and I try to incorporate those things into my daily life, and it's year-round, and I try to make a big commitment... I put a lot of effort in... I spend a lot of time working at it... it takes effort and discipline, but as long as I can do that I know I can be successful on the field."
— Tom Brady ... the guy is practically my age and still winning Super Bowls, and Super Bowl MVPs, he's won four – four! – Super Bowl MVPs, and don't forget he was drafted in the 6th round, he's not a perfect physical specimen, he has worked to get to the top... I was disappointed by 'deflategate' but his work ethic, discipline, and dedication to health and longevity is impressive
"Life is a blank canvas, and you need to throw all the paint on it you can."
— Danny Kaye
"A scorpion must sting. A wolf must hunt."
— Wonder Woman
"I didn't have any fear about being too personal. I said what I wanted to say; I was talking to myself."
— Charlotte Gainsbourg, on the songs she wrote for her 'revealing' fifth album, Rest
"Leaders set the culture. Federer gives lie to the notion that top athletes must have a nasty streak. For all the metaphors bestowed on the guy, you will not hear him likened to an 'assassin' or a 'cold killer' or, for that matter, a 'tiger.' Federer generally performs with a smile on his face and an unruffled demeanor. He treats his colleagues as opponents, not enemies. He's played his entire career absent controversy, much less scandal. This affects the entire tennis culture."
— Sports Illustrated magazine
"I'm not introverted the way some (politicians) have been, but I'm not an F.D.R. or a Bill Clinton either, who are just constantly in a crowd and relishing it. I like my quiet time. There's a writer's sensibility in me sometimes, where I step back. But I do think that I am generally optimistic. I see tragedy and comedy and pain and irony and all that stuff. But in the end I think life is fascinating, and I think people are more good than bad, and I think that the possibilities of progress are real."
— Barack Obama, Vanity Fair magazine
"Early in my presidency, I went to Cairo to make a speech to the Muslim world. And in the afternoon, after the speech, we took helicopters out to the pyramids. And they had emptied the pyramids for us, and we could just wander around for a couple hours at the pyramids and the Sphinx. And the pyramids are one of those things that live up to the hype. They're elemental in ways that are hard to describe. And you're going to these tombs and looking at the hieroglyphics and imagining the civilization that built these iconic images. And I still remember... thinking to myself, there were a lot of people during the period when these pyramids were built (who considered themselves) really important... people anguishing over their relative popularity or position... (but all that's left) today are the pyramids. Sometimes I carry with me that perspective, which tells me that my particular worries on any given day – how I'm doing in the polls or what somebody is saying about me, for good or for ill – isn't particularly relevant. What's relevant is: What am I building that lasts."
— Barack Obama, Vanity Fair magazine
"When I ran for Congress in 2007... I finished a fight in San Antonio, then flew to the Philippines to campaign. I wasn't prepared. I lost.... There's a lot of poverty in my province. I wanted to represent them. I came from the dirt like everyone else.... Some people thought I would not try again, but I came up with a better plan... and I won.... I schedule my training and fights around congressional recesses... I don't think about retiring right now. I want to fight more. I pray that, with God's will, I can. I didn't worry about my boxing career because I'm good at managing my time.... I've learned good lessons from my mistakes.... What I don't like about politics is the corruption.... Public service is my calling."
— Manny Pacquiao
"What looks like arid scrubland contains countless Indian burial grounds and other sites sacred to the tribes who lived there: the Nez Perce, the Umatilla, and the Yakama. For 13,000 years or so prior to the white man's arrival the place had been theirs. To them the American experiment is no more than the blink of an eye."
— Vanity Fair magazine
"(In Cambodia) I found a people who were so kind and warm and open, and, yes, very complex. You drive around here (Los Angeles), you can see a lot of people with many things, but not often expressing happiness. You go there, and you see the families come out with their blanket and their picnic to watch a sunset."
— Angelina Jolie
"Here we don't shout. We talk."
— Rith Pahn, in Cambodia, yelling is not just disrespectful, it's also considered a sign of weakness
"I was very worried about my mother, growing up, a lot. I don't want my children to be worried about me. I think it's very important to cry in the shower and not in front of them. They need to know that everything's going to be all right even when you're not sure it is."
— Angelina Jolie
"Let's embrace being not normal."
— Angelina Jolie
— John Hughes
"Relax. No one else knows what they're doing either."
— Ricky Gervais
"If somebody would ask what is it that you breathe that's not air, but that's what you need, it's art. I have to see it constantly. It's not even like 'O.K., I'm going to look at art in the evening'; it's all day long."
— Raf Simons, Chief Creative Officer at Calvin Klein
"Just think of all the things that have come and gone in our lifetimes, all the would-be futures we watched age into obsolescence – CD, DVD, answering machine, Walkman, mixtape, MTV, video store, mall. There were still some rotary phones around in our childhood – now it’s nothing but virtual buttons. We are the last generation to grow up with crappy video games, with actual arcades instead of quality home consoles. If you wanted to play, you had to leave the house and mix it up with the ruffians. That is, we are the last Americans to have the old-time childhood, wherein you were assigned a bully along with a homeroom teacher. Our childhood was closer to those of the 1950s than to whatever they’re doing today. It was coherent, hands-on, dirty, and fun."
— Vanity Fair magazine, Why Generation X Might Be Our Last, Best Hope by Rich Cohen
"I lived to see the jokes about the possibility of these motors displacing the horse fade away and automobiles fill the streets and cover the nations."
— W.E.B. Du Bois, 1868–1963, from The Autobiography of W.E.B. Dubois: A Soliloquy on Viewing My Life from the Last Decade of Its First Century
"I grew up in a simpler time, in an America where you didn't instantly download the newest hit single on your phone... no, sir, you bought 12 CDs for a penny, with the stipulation that you purchase the 8th CD at the regular club price. That CD was a rip-off, and their selection sucked, but it was a good way to stock up on greatest-hits albums.... I was the first in my family to go to online college... I'll never forget the day I received my diploma, because it went into the spam folder.... I proudly showed it off to my parents, after updating my Flash Player, since it was an animation. It turned out the attachment had a virus, and some guys in Nigeria demanded a thousand bucks or they'd delete all my files.... I have a wonderful woman I share my life with now, Lucy. I met her two nights ago on Tinder..."
— Vanity Fair magazine, a humor piece by Teddy Wayne
"You gotta really stay sharp.... You gotta be sharp."
— Tom Brady
"It's year-round, and I try to make a big commitment... I put a lot of effort in... I spend a lot of time working at it... it takes effort and discipline, but as long as I can do that I know I can be successful on the field."
— Tom Brady ... or ...
"Well, I'm always working on my techniques, my fundamentals, I mean, I think that's a daily thing for me because you don't wanna just... you know, I always think you can get a percentage or two off a week and over the course of five weeks, you're 10% off where you want to be, whether certain quarterbacking techniques or, you know, things like that, so you gotta really stay sharp. So I film a lot of those things so I can watch it daily, know really what I'm looking for, and, you know, you gotta be sharp.... I think everything keeps me up at night, the expectations are so high, the standards that have been set here are... they're just high, for everybody, and everybody wants to do a great job, and there's a lot of effort, and guys are putting in a lot of work.... I love being a part of it. I wake up everyday thinking about how I can help this team win and the work I need to put in so I can be really held accountable for what I do, so I can be really dependable for the team, and we've had a great thing goin' so hopefully we can keep doin' it.... I think (my lifestyle) is hugely important. I've just learned a certain way that works for me, and I try to incorporate those things into my daily life, and it's year-round, and I try to make a big commitment... I put a lot of effort in... I spend a lot of time working at it... it takes effort and discipline, but as long as I can do that I know I can be successful on the field."
— Tom Brady ... the guy is practically my age and still winning Super Bowls, and Super Bowl MVPs, he's won four – four! – Super Bowl MVPs, and don't forget he was drafted in the 6th round, he's not a perfect physical specimen, he has worked to get to the top... I was disappointed by 'deflategate' but his work ethic, discipline, and dedication to health and longevity is impressive
"Life is a blank canvas, and you need to throw all the paint on it you can."
— Danny Kaye
"A scorpion must sting. A wolf must hunt."
— Wonder Woman
"I didn't have any fear about being too personal. I said what I wanted to say; I was talking to myself."
— Charlotte Gainsbourg, on the songs she wrote for her 'revealing' fifth album, Rest
"Leaders set the culture. Federer gives lie to the notion that top athletes must have a nasty streak. For all the metaphors bestowed on the guy, you will not hear him likened to an 'assassin' or a 'cold killer' or, for that matter, a 'tiger.' Federer generally performs with a smile on his face and an unruffled demeanor. He treats his colleagues as opponents, not enemies. He's played his entire career absent controversy, much less scandal. This affects the entire tennis culture."
— Sports Illustrated magazine
"I'm not introverted the way some (politicians) have been, but I'm not an F.D.R. or a Bill Clinton either, who are just constantly in a crowd and relishing it. I like my quiet time. There's a writer's sensibility in me sometimes, where I step back. But I do think that I am generally optimistic. I see tragedy and comedy and pain and irony and all that stuff. But in the end I think life is fascinating, and I think people are more good than bad, and I think that the possibilities of progress are real."
— Barack Obama, Vanity Fair magazine
"Early in my presidency, I went to Cairo to make a speech to the Muslim world. And in the afternoon, after the speech, we took helicopters out to the pyramids. And they had emptied the pyramids for us, and we could just wander around for a couple hours at the pyramids and the Sphinx. And the pyramids are one of those things that live up to the hype. They're elemental in ways that are hard to describe. And you're going to these tombs and looking at the hieroglyphics and imagining the civilization that built these iconic images. And I still remember... thinking to myself, there were a lot of people during the period when these pyramids were built (who considered themselves) really important... people anguishing over their relative popularity or position... (but all that's left) today are the pyramids. Sometimes I carry with me that perspective, which tells me that my particular worries on any given day – how I'm doing in the polls or what somebody is saying about me, for good or for ill – isn't particularly relevant. What's relevant is: What am I building that lasts."
— Barack Obama, Vanity Fair magazine
"When I ran for Congress in 2007... I finished a fight in San Antonio, then flew to the Philippines to campaign. I wasn't prepared. I lost.... There's a lot of poverty in my province. I wanted to represent them. I came from the dirt like everyone else.... Some people thought I would not try again, but I came up with a better plan... and I won.... I schedule my training and fights around congressional recesses... I don't think about retiring right now. I want to fight more. I pray that, with God's will, I can. I didn't worry about my boxing career because I'm good at managing my time.... I've learned good lessons from my mistakes.... What I don't like about politics is the corruption.... Public service is my calling."
— Manny Pacquiao
"What looks like arid scrubland contains countless Indian burial grounds and other sites sacred to the tribes who lived there: the Nez Perce, the Umatilla, and the Yakama. For 13,000 years or so prior to the white man's arrival the place had been theirs. To them the American experiment is no more than the blink of an eye."
— Vanity Fair magazine
"(In Cambodia) I found a people who were so kind and warm and open, and, yes, very complex. You drive around here (Los Angeles), you can see a lot of people with many things, but not often expressing happiness. You go there, and you see the families come out with their blanket and their picnic to watch a sunset."
— Angelina Jolie
"Here we don't shout. We talk."
— Rith Pahn, in Cambodia, yelling is not just disrespectful, it's also considered a sign of weakness
"I was very worried about my mother, growing up, a lot. I don't want my children to be worried about me. I think it's very important to cry in the shower and not in front of them. They need to know that everything's going to be all right even when you're not sure it is."
— Angelina Jolie
"Let's embrace being not normal."
— Angelina Jolie
John Hughes and Writing
"I grew up outside Chicago. I went to one of the high schools where John Hughes set all of those iconic teen movies. I studied them as a religious scholar might study the Bible, searching for answers, clues. The Breakfast Club was not one of my favorites, but it was said to define my generation. In that movie, Hughes... says more than he probably intended, which is the way with art. Now and then, you are telling the future without meaning to."
— Rich Cohen, Vanity Fair magazine
I'm from the same generation referred to above, and I grew up outside Chicago, and I loved and studied Hughes films, also. We watch Christmas Vacation every year, and so does everyone else; that's another screenplay written by John Hughes, based on his short story in National Lampoon magazine, Christmas '59. I didn't know what the word 'virgin' meant until I overheard its use in The Breakfast Club, which my parents were watching with my uncle at the time. I was listening from another room and 'virginity' was a hot topic in the film; you know this if you've seen it. Hughes's teen films are classics, but so are Planes, Trains, & Automobiles and Home Alone, and before those, Mr. Mom and National Lampoon's Vacation, the first in the series starring Chevy Chase.
At the young age of 59, Hughes had a severe heart attack and passed away. A long life isn't guaranteed.
"John Hughes never stopped writing. He was notorious for this trait, especially in the 1980s, when he churned out screenplays faster than Hollywood could make them into movies. The script for Sixteen Candles came forth in a two-day burst during the 1983 preparations for The Breakfast Club, so impressing his studio overseers that it jumped the line to become Hughes’s directorial debut, in 1984.... Writing was, for Hughes, not so much a profession as a condition of life. The thoughts that germinated in his brain took a direct path to his hands, which filled notebooks, floppy disks, and hard drives with screenplays, stories, sketches, and jokes. When he wasn’t writing creatively, he was writing about how much writing he was doing. A spiral-bound logbook from 1985 finds Hughes keeping track of his progress on Ferris Bueller. The basic story line, he notes, was developed on February 25. It was successfully pitched the following day. And then he was off: “2-26 Night only 10 pages … 2-27 26 pages … 2-28 19 pages … 3-1 9 pages … 3-2 20 pages … 3-3 24 pages.” Wham-bam, script done. All in one week.... At some point, Hughes 'stopped and looked around,' and he realized that he didn’t want to make movies anymore. He wanted to be at liberty to spend as much time with his family as he pleased, to work the farm he owned 75 miles northwest of Chicago, and to exult in the resolutely uncoastal ethos of his beloved Midwest. And by 1990, with the release of his highest-grossing movie, the Macaulay Culkin sado-slapstick comedy Home Alone, which Hughes wrote and produced but did not direct, he had the means to put Hollywood and the movies behind him. For all his success in pictures, Hughes’s directing years turned out to be an aberration in his life - a shortish stretch that required him to do uncharacteristic things like be in L.A. and keep the company of actors. The one normal aspect of this period for him, consistent with the rest of his life, was the compulsive writing. It was a habit that dated back, appropriately enough, to his teen days. 'You know that assignment you always get in high school when you’re reading Walden, to keep a journal?' he said in a 1988 interview. 'Well, I just kept doing that.' ... Hughes, his sons say, reveled in grandfatherhood.... he now viewed it as his primary duty to be, in his younger son’s words, 'the curious, engaged grandpa in the seersucker.' The creative writing he continued to do was, therefore, not necessarily for public consumption. In recent years, he worked in a variety of formats: memoir, short fiction, and, yes, screenplays. But he was content, (his son) John III said, to 'pump the stuff out for his own satisfaction, comfortable with it never going anywhere.' He’d had his say, and it was time for others to have theirs. This mind-set was, as contradictory as it may sound, consistent with the one that led Hughes to become the sympathetic voice of teendom in the 1980s. One of his major hobbyhorses – 'a constant topic,' in (his son) James’s words – was the attention-hogging egotism of his own generation, the baby-boomers. In his view, the boomers did not know when to step aside and cede the stage. 'He was kind of upset not to see more people of his generation passing the baton,' John III said. 'He wanted to give youth a voice.'"
— David Kamp, Vanity Fair magazine
— Rich Cohen, Vanity Fair magazine
I'm from the same generation referred to above, and I grew up outside Chicago, and I loved and studied Hughes films, also. We watch Christmas Vacation every year, and so does everyone else; that's another screenplay written by John Hughes, based on his short story in National Lampoon magazine, Christmas '59. I didn't know what the word 'virgin' meant until I overheard its use in The Breakfast Club, which my parents were watching with my uncle at the time. I was listening from another room and 'virginity' was a hot topic in the film; you know this if you've seen it. Hughes's teen films are classics, but so are Planes, Trains, & Automobiles and Home Alone, and before those, Mr. Mom and National Lampoon's Vacation, the first in the series starring Chevy Chase.
At the young age of 59, Hughes had a severe heart attack and passed away. A long life isn't guaranteed.
"John Hughes never stopped writing. He was notorious for this trait, especially in the 1980s, when he churned out screenplays faster than Hollywood could make them into movies. The script for Sixteen Candles came forth in a two-day burst during the 1983 preparations for The Breakfast Club, so impressing his studio overseers that it jumped the line to become Hughes’s directorial debut, in 1984.... Writing was, for Hughes, not so much a profession as a condition of life. The thoughts that germinated in his brain took a direct path to his hands, which filled notebooks, floppy disks, and hard drives with screenplays, stories, sketches, and jokes. When he wasn’t writing creatively, he was writing about how much writing he was doing. A spiral-bound logbook from 1985 finds Hughes keeping track of his progress on Ferris Bueller. The basic story line, he notes, was developed on February 25. It was successfully pitched the following day. And then he was off: “2-26 Night only 10 pages … 2-27 26 pages … 2-28 19 pages … 3-1 9 pages … 3-2 20 pages … 3-3 24 pages.” Wham-bam, script done. All in one week.... At some point, Hughes 'stopped and looked around,' and he realized that he didn’t want to make movies anymore. He wanted to be at liberty to spend as much time with his family as he pleased, to work the farm he owned 75 miles northwest of Chicago, and to exult in the resolutely uncoastal ethos of his beloved Midwest. And by 1990, with the release of his highest-grossing movie, the Macaulay Culkin sado-slapstick comedy Home Alone, which Hughes wrote and produced but did not direct, he had the means to put Hollywood and the movies behind him. For all his success in pictures, Hughes’s directing years turned out to be an aberration in his life - a shortish stretch that required him to do uncharacteristic things like be in L.A. and keep the company of actors. The one normal aspect of this period for him, consistent with the rest of his life, was the compulsive writing. It was a habit that dated back, appropriately enough, to his teen days. 'You know that assignment you always get in high school when you’re reading Walden, to keep a journal?' he said in a 1988 interview. 'Well, I just kept doing that.' ... Hughes, his sons say, reveled in grandfatherhood.... he now viewed it as his primary duty to be, in his younger son’s words, 'the curious, engaged grandpa in the seersucker.' The creative writing he continued to do was, therefore, not necessarily for public consumption. In recent years, he worked in a variety of formats: memoir, short fiction, and, yes, screenplays. But he was content, (his son) John III said, to 'pump the stuff out for his own satisfaction, comfortable with it never going anywhere.' He’d had his say, and it was time for others to have theirs. This mind-set was, as contradictory as it may sound, consistent with the one that led Hughes to become the sympathetic voice of teendom in the 1980s. One of his major hobbyhorses – 'a constant topic,' in (his son) James’s words – was the attention-hogging egotism of his own generation, the baby-boomers. In his view, the boomers did not know when to step aside and cede the stage. 'He was kind of upset not to see more people of his generation passing the baton,' John III said. 'He wanted to give youth a voice.'"
— David Kamp, Vanity Fair magazine
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)