quote of the day may: on us

"If we did all the things we are capable of, we would literally astound ourselves."
~Thomas Edison

quote of the day may: on food

Michael Pollan has made many good points about our culture's relationship to food. He notes there less actual food in supermarkets now and more "food-like products." He offers many insights and tips in his book In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto, such as "Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly Plants." But this is my favorite quote:

"Don't eat anything your
great-great grandmother
wouldn't recognize as food."

quote of the day may: on smarty pants

"You know it's one thing about intellectuals: they prove that you can be absolutely brilliant and have no idea what's going on."

~Alvy Singer (Woody Allen) in Annie Hall

quote of the day may: on buffett

Warren Buffett is the most famous, rich, charitable, Nebraskan ukalalle-playing businessman in the world. He is cool and I am a fan. Here are some of his words of wisdom:

"If you're in the luckiest 1 per cent of humanity, you owe it to the rest of humanity to think about the other 99 per cent."

"We believe that according the name 'investors' to institutions that trade actively is like calling someone whoe repeatedly engages in one-night stands a 'romantic'."

"A public opinion poll is no subsititute for thought."

quote of the day may: on nature

Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.
Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees.
The winds will blow their own freshness into you...
while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.
~John Muir

quote of the day may: on memorial day

Abraham Lincoln delivered "The Gettysburg Address" for the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery on November 19, 1863. He was wrong about people forgetting what what said at the site that day. Now regarded as one of the most famous speeches in American history, it seems fitting to read his words on Memorial Day:



"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that tall men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this; but, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate-we cannot consecrate-we cannot hallow-this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion- that we here highly resolve that these here shall not have died in vain-that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth for freedom- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

quote of the day may: on pancakes

A fantastic crimp on pancakes from one of my favorite shows, The Mighty Boosh:

Eggs, milk and flour
pancake power
look at its milky yellow sunshine face.
Flip it now flip it good- ooh!
Flip it now flip it good- ooh!
Some are salt
Some are sweet
Some are fruit
Some are meat
The time we used the chive it really came alive!
Edible frisbees, springtime Tuesdays
I like to boogie.

quote of the day may: on TV

This is from Neil Postman, a famous cultural/media critic from his 1984 book. I wonder what he would say about television now...

"I raise no objection to televison's junk. The best things on television are its junk, and no one and nothing is seriously threatened by it. Besides, we do not measue a culture by its output of undisguised trivialities but by what it claims as significant. Therein is our problem, for television is at its most trivial and, therefore, most dangerous when its aspirations are high, when it presents itself as a carrier of imporant cultural converstaions. The irony is here is that this is what intellectuals and critics are constantly urging televison to do. The trouble with such people is that they do not take television seriously enough. For, like the printing press, television is nothing less than a philosophy of rhetoric."
-Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death, 16-17.

quote of the day may: on suspending judgment

"Out beyond the ideas of right-doing and wrong-doing there is a field. I'll meet you there."
~Rumi

quote of the day may: on cooking

"Noncooks think it's silly to invest two hours work into two minutes enjoyment; but if cooking is evanescent, so is the ballet."

-Julia Child

quote of the day may: on gender

One of the most influential books in recent liberal arts education is Gender Trouble by Judith Butler. Butler questions the standard definitions of gender, naturalized sex, feminist theory, and seeks to re-engage these thoughts through performativity Here is a thought-provoking passage on shifting ones thinking from gender as expressive to gender as performative:

"That gender reality is created through sustained social performances means that the very notions of an essential sex and a true or abiding masculinity or femininity are also constituted as part of the strategy that conceals gender's performative character adn the perfomative possibilities fro proliferating gender configurations outside the restricting frames of masculinist domination and compulsory heterosexuality. Genders can be neither true nor false, neither real nor apparent, neither original nor derived. As credible bearers of those attributes, however, gender can also be rendered thoroughly and radically incredible" (p. 180).

quote of the day may: on style

After reading an utterly disappointing interview of Anna Wintour-- one that focused on speculation by unnamed others on her personality rather than her incredible legacy-- I began thinking about poise and pursuits in being fashionable. But Wintour is more than highly educated and influential on fashion- she possesses style. And we all know people like this- whose attitude and beauty goes beyond the tangible and material, and endures in even the smallest actions with grace. Here are some quotes from notable style experts:

"Fashions fade, style is eternal."
-Yves Saint Laurent

"Style is a simple way of saying complicated things."
-Jean Cocteau

"Elegance does not consist in putting on a new dress."
-Coco Chanel

quote of the day may: on compassion

Three lovely quotes from the Dalai Lama

"True compassion is not just an emotional response but a firm commitment founded on reason."
*
"If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion."
*
"True compassion is universal in scope. It is accompanied by a feeling of responsibility."

quote of the day may: on art

"Art is not to be looked at, art is looking at us. Thus art is not an object, but an experience."
-Joseph Albers

painter, teacher

quote of the day may: on Michelle Obama

At the White House Correspondence Dinner, President Obama had some fantastic zingers about Micheal Steele (in the houze for schizle), his loving relationship with Hillary Clinton (she just had to give him a big fat kiss after visiting Mexico...) and Joe Biden (Bo's not the one he needs to keep on a short leash). But some of the most clever comments were in response to some of the media reports on his personality, the Obama family, and the last 100 days. This was my favorite:

"Michelle Obama is here, the First Lady of the United States. Hasn't she been an outstanding First Lady? She's even begun to bridge the differences that have divided us for so long, becasue no matter which party you belong to we can all agree that Michelle has the right to bare arms."
-May 9, 2009

may quote of the day: on travel

I've been on the road for a few days with my pup. Is is thrilling to see new things and explore new places, no matter how big (like the World's Largest Apple Basket) or small (like the quaint town of Dresden, Ohio).

"I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move."

-Robert Louis Stevenson

This is good travel advice too:

"When preparing to travel, lay out all of your clothes and all of your money. Then take half the clothes and twice the money."

-Susan Heller

quote of the day may: on driving

Driving is another one of my favorite activities. I have this quote taped to the sun visor of my car:

"Driving is a spectacular form of amnesia. Everything is to be discovered, everything to be obliterated."
-Jean Bauldrillard

quote of the day may: on groups

"Each gathering needs to become an example of the future we want to create."

-Peter Block, Community: The Structure of Belonging

quote of the day may: on rhetoric

Here are just a few of my favorite definitions of rhetoric:

***
a knack of producing pleasure and gratification; a form of flattery (Plato, Gorgias)
***
an ability in each case to see the available means of persuasion (Aristotle)
***
the science of speaking well (Quintilian)
***
to apply reason to imagination for the better moving of the will (Frances Bacon)
***
the art or talent by which the discourse is adapted to its end (George Campbell)
***
the art of not just pleasing the fancy merely but of speaking both to the understanding and the heart (Hugh Blair)
***
a study of misunderstanding and its remedies (I.A. Richards)
***
a form of energy that drives and is imparted to communication, awakened in a response to challenge (George Kennedy)
***
any partisan, meaningful, consequential text (Carole Blair)
***
a force that gives form to the vague and disordered flow of human experience. Rhetoric gives shape to social reality and, in doing so, makes sense of it
(Andrew Herman)
***
and so what you to is to make your best arguments, listen hard to what other people have to say, and coax folks in the right direction (Barack Obama)

quote of the day may: on shopping

"Shopping isn't just a process of acquiring goods--it's a lifelong process of learning about them. And the faster these products change, the more we have to keep up with the changes by shopping."

-Sharon Zukin

quote of the day may: on service

"If you want breakfast in bed, sleep in the kitchen."

-on a greeting card, Ephemera, Inc.

quote of the day may: on unhappiness

"The world does not need your suffering."

- Adyashanti

quote of the day may: Dasein

"Being is always the being of a being."
- Martin Heidegger, Being and Time