Happy New Year, my old and new friends. I wish you all well. May 2014 be one of the best years of our lives.
Write me and tell me more about yourselves.
Happy New Year
May 2014 be one of the best years of our lives.
Category: UNCATEGORIZED
2013 in review
The WordPress.com stats prepared a 2013 annual report for Stillness of Heart.
The WordPress.com stats prepared a 2013 annual report for Stillness of Heart.
Here’s an excerpt:
The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 11,000 times in 2013. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 4 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.
Click here to see the complete report.
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Recommended reading / viewing / listening
Bush’s storms loom over Obamaland / Heroin labeled ‘Obamacare’ / Life lessons from Pinterest / The Civil War in Florida / A new exomoon
This week: Bush’s storms loom over Obamaland / Heroin labeled ‘Obamacare’ / Life lessons from Pinterest / The Civil War in Florida / A new exomoon
Most of these great items come from my social media networks. Follow me on Twitter, Tumblr, LinkedIn, MySpace, and Facebook for more fascinating videos, photos, articles, essays, and criticism.
1. Echoes of George W. Bush blues in Barack Obama’s 2nd term
By Alex Isenstadt and Carrie Budoff Brown | Politico | Dec. 19
“They’re two presidents dogged by crises largely of their own making, whose welcome with Americans has worn thin after two marathon elections.”
2. Dick Cheney in Nixonland
By Jon Wiener | The Nation | Dec. 19
“When our most hated vice president visits the library of our most disgraced president, you look forward to a good night.”
3. Found heroin labeled ‘Obamacare’
By Lucy McCalmont | Politico | Dec. 20
“This probably isn’t the Obamacare PR push the White House had in mind.”
4. Important Life Lessons From Pinterest’s Top Pins of 2013
By Erin Gloria Ryan | Jezebel | Dec. 19
“Pinterest is to physically impossible crafts, recipes, and photographs for the homebound and quixotic what Cosmo is to physically impossible sex positions for the recently deflowered.”
5. Florida’s Cattle Wars
By Phil Leigh | Disunion :: The New York Times | Dec. 19
“[T]he Confederacy increasingly looked to a seemingly unlikely source, Florida, as a source of beef for its armies.”
6. Our Thirteen Most-Read Blog Posts of 2013
By Nicholas Thompson | The News Desk :: The New Yorker | Dec. 12
“There’s a certain randomness, or at least unpredictability, to Web traffic. You’re never absolutely certain that a blog post will take off until it does.”
7. How Diplomacy Helped Cause an F-18 Crash
By Dan Lamothe | The Complex :: Foreign Policy | Dec. 19
“[A] series of miscommunications and judgment mistakes … ultimately forced the $60 million fighter — call sign ‘Victory 206’ — into the North Arabian Sea.”
8. Astronomers may have found the first-ever exomoon seen by humans
By James Plafke | Geek.com | Dec. 18
“The planet and moon, located 1,800 light years from Earth, are around four times the mass of Jupiter, and half the mass of Earth, respectively.”
9. Auld Lang Syne NYE tradition thanks to cigar firm
The Scotsman | Dec. 19
“Guy Lombardo, a bandleader who was nicknamed America’s Mr New Year’s Eve, was searching for a song to bridge a gap between radio broadcasts.”
10. Afraid to spend money: The psychological trauma of long-term unemployment
By Adriene Hill | Marketplace Your Money | May 2013
“How do you take control of your finances when, after six years of under- and un-employment, you suddenly have a job?”
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Listen to This Chilling Audio as Crowd at Boston Symphony Learns President Kennedy Is Dead
I had heard this recording years ago, but I didn’t know the backstory until now.
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Recommended reading / viewing / listening
The value of apostrophes / Obama and Nixon / Cicada secrets / Boston Marathon bombing PTSD / A long-lost WWII Marine’s diary
Most of these great items come from my Twitter or Facebook feeds. Follow me on Twitter, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and Facebook for more fascinating videos, photos, articles, essays, and criticism.
1. WW2 Marine’s diary: A brief look at a brief life
By Janet McConnaughey | Associated Press | May 27
“Before Cpl. Thomas ‘Cotton’ Jones was killed by a Japanese sniper in the Central Pacific in 1944, he wrote what he called his ‘last life request’ to anyone who might find his diary: Please give it to Laura Mae Davis, the girl he loved. Davis did get to read the diary — but not until nearly 70 years later. …”
2. How Timbuktu’s manuscripts were saved from jihadists
By Sudarsan Raghavan | The Washington Post | May 26
“The scholarly documents depicted Islam as a historically moderate and intellectual religion and were considered cultural treasures by Western institutions — reasons enough for the ultraconservative jihadists to destroy them.”
3. Why Efforts to Bring Extinct Species Back from the Dead Miss the Point
Scientific American | May 27
“A project to revive long-gone species is a sideshow to the real extinction crisis”
4. There Are Plenty of Reasons Why Parents May Read More With Their Daughters
By Nanette Fondas | The Atlantic | May 21
“Understanding a new study that finds girls get more reading time with their parents than boys.”
5. As Boston recovers from Marathon attack, emotional trauma may be just setting in
By Marissa Miley | GlobalPost | May 24
“PTSD and related stress disorders can take weeks or months to develop — and local organizations are prepared to help.”
6. Obama’s speechwriter: from intern to top wordsmith
By Darlene Superville | Associated Press | May 25
“Current and former White House colleagues, all Obama campaign veterans, praise [Cody] Keenan’s writing skills and work ethic and what they describe as his sense of fairness, modesty and willingness to help.”
7. The Man Who Knew Too Much
By Marie Brenner | Vanity Fair | May 1996
“Angrily, painfully, Jeffrey Wigand emerged from the sealed world of Big Tobacco to confront the nation’s third-largest cigarette company, Brown & Williamson. Hailed as a hero by anti-smoking forces and vilified by the tobacco industry, Wigand is at the center of an epic multibillion-dollar struggle that reaches from Capitol Hill to the hallowed journalistic halls of CBS’s 60 Minutes.”
8. The secrets of cicada survival
By John Matson | Salon | May 24
“A new brood is set to emerge this summer for the first time in 17 years. What’s taken them so long?”
9. Why Obama Is Not Nixon
By Elizabeth Drew | NYR Blog :: The New York Review of Books | May 18
“Compared to Watergate, on the basis of everything we know about what are the current ‘scandals’ amount to a piffle. Watergate was a Constitutional crisis.”
10. Are Apostrophes Necessary?
By Matthew J.X. Malady | Slate | May 23
“Not really, no.”
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Recommended reading / viewing / listening
“Morning-after” pill / Clinton’s 2016 challenges / Shakespeare the businessman / King of nerds may reign again / Friday blues
Most of these great items come from my Twitter feed or Facebook news feed. Follow me on Twitter, Tumblr, and Facebook for more fascinating videos, articles, essays and criticism.
1. Judge strikes restrictions on ‘morning-after’ pill
By Jessica Dye | Reuters | April 5
“A federal judge on Friday ordered the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to make ‘morning-after’ emergency contraception pills available without a prescription to all girls of reproductive age, while blasting top Obama administration officials for interfering with the process.”
2. Hillary Clinton Would Not ‘Clear the Field’ for 2016
By Tod Lindberg | The New Republic | April 5
“When Colin Powell stepped down as secretary of state, he had a 77 percent job approval rating. But by 2005, Powell was yesterday’s man, content to amble downhill from the peak of his career. Clinton isn’t at all about nostalgia and gratitude; her best years may lie ahead of her.”
3. British class system alive and growing, survey finds
Reuters | April 3
“British people can now aspire to and despise four new levels of social classes, according to a new survey conducted by researchers in partnership with public broadcaster the BBC.”
4. For Cuba’s traveling dissidents, an anxious return
By Nick Miroff | GlobalPost | April 3
“Will Castro opponents face retaliation back home?”
5. When It’s Brains, It Pours ($$$$$): Obama’s Big (Neuro) Science Project
By Gary Stix | Talking back :: Scientific American | April 3
“There will be no lunar one small step or a genomic three-billion nucleotides within the next four years.”
6. Hobbit ring that may have inspired Tolkien put on show
By Maev Kennedy | The Guardian | April 1
“Lord of the Rings author was researching the story of the curse of a Roman ring for two years before starting Bilbo Baggins tale”
7. Three days that saved the world financial system
By Neil Irwin | The Washington Post | March 29
“How the world’s top central bankers hopscotched across Europe, wining and dining, to save the global economy.”
8. Study shows Shakespeare as ruthless businessman
By Jill Lawless | Associated Press | March 31
“Researchers from Aberystwyth University in Wales argue that we can’t fully understand Shakespeare unless we study his often-overlooked business savvy.”
9. Secret Service Prostitution Scandal: One Year Later
By Shane Harris | Washingtonian | March 25
“That wild night in Cartagena rocked the elite secret service and embarrassed the White House. Was it a one-time incident or part of a pattern of agents behaving badly?”
10. The Cash-Strapped King of the Nerds Plots a Comeback
By Hal Espen and Borys Kit | The Hollywood Reporter | March 28
“[Harry Knowles, the] founder of the once-renegade movie site [Ain’t It Cool], who earned the admiration of Peter Jackson and Steve Jobs, is struggling for money and relevance in the wild media landscape he helped to create.”
******************
TUNES
Tonight I’m spending some time with the blues, specifically with the Texas Blues Café. Check out the line-up and then listen here.
1. Electrofied — Bad Case Of The Blues
2. Dr. John — Cold Shot
3. Robert Earl Kean — Throwin’ Rocks
4. Will Tang — Love Bites
5. Nasty Ned and the Famous Chili Dogs — Out On The Town
6. Matt Schofield — Siftin’ Thru the Ashes
7. Andrew Strong — To Many Cooks
8. The Vaughan Brothers — Good Texan
9. Lady Antebellum — Love Don’t Live Here Anymore
10. John Campbell — Epiphony
11. Bonnie Raitt — Pride And Joy
12. Micheal Burks — Fire And Water
13. Three-legged Fox — Soul Thief
14. Paul Thorn — Long Way From Tupelo
*Instrumental out by Nick Moss & The Flip Tops — The Rump Bump
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2012 in review
It’s been my best year ever. Thank you all for your interest.
WordPress.com prepared a 2012 annual report for Stillness of Heart.
Here’s an excerpt:
600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 7,900 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 13 years to get that many views.
It’s been my best year ever. Thank you all for your interest. Click here to see the complete report.
Tell your friends!
Tell your friends!
Recommended reading / viewing / listening
Her affair with JFK / Female sex drive / Style on the campaign trail / Artist faces Facebook millions / Jupiter’s moon / Miscarriage lawsuit after Costa Concordia
Most of these great items come from my Twitter feed or Facebook news feed. Follow me on Twitter and on Facebook for more fascinating videos, articles, essays and criticism.
1. Woman recounts her affair with JFK when she was 19
By Cynthia R. Fagen | The New York Post | Feb. 5
“Their sex was ‘varied and fun.’ He could be seductive and playful and sometimes ‘acted like he had all the time in the world. Other times, he was in no mood to linger.’ ”
2. Female Sex Drive Decline Tied To Hormones, Evolution
By Jennifer Abbasi | The Huffington Post | Feb. 1
“[R]elationship duration was a better predictor of sexual desire in women than both relationship and sexual satisfaction.”
3. Why Are We So Obsessed With the Presidential Candidates’ Style?
By Noreen Malone | The Cut :: New York Magazine | January 2012
“Middle-aged and older white men in business-formal attire don’t tend to be the objects of sartorial fascination.”
4. Graffiti artist David Choe set for Facebook windfall
BBC News | Feb. 3
“A U.S. graffiti artist who painted Facebook’s offices is set to become a multi-millionaire when the social network begins trading as a public company.”
5. Latino voters favor protecting the environment
By Sara Ines Calderon | NewsTaco | Feb. 2
Among the findings, “76% of Latino voters voiced support for maintaining environmental protections.”
6. Tiny volcanic moon controls Jupiter’s auroras
By Lisa Grossman | New Scientist | Feb. 3
“Sometimes the puppets control the puppeteer. It seems volcanic outbursts on Jupiter’s moon Io control brilliant auroras on its parent planet.”
7. Lana Del Rey and the new culture of failure
By Stephen Deusner | Salon | Feb. 2
“The controversial pop sensation is somehow more interesting for her spectacular flameouts than her music”
8. Costa Concordia Lawsuit: Passenger Sues Cruise Line Over Miscarriage
The Huffington Post | Feb. 5
“[H]er doctors claim the ‘intense psychological stress suffered both during the night-time evacuation and when her lifeboat smashed up against rocks as it headed for the nearby shore’ is to blame.”
9. The Virgin Father
By Benjamin Wallace | New York Magazine | Feb. 5
“Trent Arsenault has never had sex, but he’s the father of fifteen children — and counting. The more he antagonizes the FDA, and unnerves television audiences across America, the more his in-box is flooded with requests for his sperm.”
10. Top five regrets of the dying
By Susie Steiner | The Guardian | Feb. 1
“A nurse has recorded the most common regrets of the dying, and among the top ones is ‘I wish I hadn’t worked so hard’. What would your biggest regret be if this was your last day of life?”
**************
TUNES
My soundtrack for today included:
1. PUSH Sarah McLachlan
2. PURPLE RAIN Prince
4. NO ORDINARY LOVE Sade
5. TAKE MY BREATH AWAY Berlin
6. PERFECT GIRL Sarah McLachlan
7. MELTDOWN Lisa Gerrard & Pieter Bourke
8. CANDY PERFUME GIRL Madonna
9. #1 CRUSH Garbage
10. BABY DID A BAD, BAD THING Chris Isaak
Tell your friends!
Homo universalis
One of my guiding principles is that we’re all capable of self-improvement at any age, particularly intellectual self-improvement. Sometimes that faith is the only thing that enables me to sleep through the night and get out of bed in the morning.
That’s Latin for “universal man” or “man of the world,” if Wikipedia can be relied on for a proper translation.
I glide through a small, comfortable life — trying not to bother anyone, trying to be pleasant and polite, non-judgmental and sympathetic, charming and humble, trying to be intellectually honest and self-aware of my limits and flaws, every day edging closer to fulfilling all my ambitions.
One of my guiding principles is that we’re all capable of self-improvement at any age, particularly intellectual self-improvement. Sometimes that faith is the only thing that enables me to sleep through the night and get out of bed in the morning. I’ve always been blessed with a hunger for knowledge, a curiosity that often flares into full-blown passion for new arenas of experience, a curiosity perhaps sparked by a bittersweet frustration that I don’t know as much about literature, science, mathematics, history and culture as I think I should.
Perhaps that’s why I’ve always embraced wholeheartedly people like Theodore Roosevelt and Michelangelo, those who lived their lives desperately hungry for more of the world to absorb into their hearts and minds, constantly reaching out to make more of it their own.
A friend once called me a polymath. Other friends have called me a Renaissance man. I politely laughed off both compliments. I’m certainly no genius. I’d hardly consider myself intelligent, compared to the accomplishments and capabilities of the other men and women in my life.
As I understand it, polymaths and Renaissance men and women possess an immensity of talent to complement that fiery passion to achieve great things in multiple fields, professions, etc. As my quiet life sadly illustrates — in which I’ve been not much more than a minor writer, historian, editor, painter and arts critic — I have very much of the latter and very little of the former.
Perhaps later life will prove otherwise, as I’m slowly exploring how to become a proper pianist, an amateur boxer, an effective apiarist and gardener, an expert numismatist and philatelist, a stellar professor of American Civil War and Roman and Spanish imperial history, a sympathetic and effective psychologist, an historical novelist, a decent speaker, writer and translator of Spanish and Latin, and a less-than-atrocious golfer, photographer, and salsa dancer. My mandate is to be more than a simple-minded, well-meaning hobbyist.
But if none of that works out, perhaps this particular man of the world will be content being someone who’s fun to spend time with, whose passion for history is inspiring, whose writing makes the heart soar, who’s always interesting, always relaxing, always enriching. Always happy.
I’d settle for that last one, above and beyond all the rest.
Stillness of Heart 
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