Episode 5: Time Ghost
That quote from Marcus Aurelius in his Meditations (Maxwell Staniforth translation, Penguin edition):
In the life of a man, his time is but a moment, his being an incessant flux, his senses a dim rushlight, his body a prey of worms, his soul an unquiet eddy, his fortune dark, and his fame doubtful. In short, all that is of the body is as coursing waters, all that is of the soul as dreams and vapours; life a warfare, a brief sojourning in an alien land; and after repute, oblivion. Where, then, can man find the power to guide and guard his steps? In one thing and one alone: Philosophy.
Ozymandius
by Percy Bysshe Shelley:
I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
Recitation from memory by Dusty Sklar (Steve’s mom and Mal’s grandmother) of part of “Ozymandias”:
Dusty’s memories of the teacher — Philip Horowitz — who introduced that poem to her over 80 years ago:
An article by his daughter about how Phil Horowitz was blacklisted in the McCarthy era:https://www.sunnysidestories.website/when-they-fired-my-father
Recitation from memory of “Ozymandias” by Nikki Pusin, Mal’s mom and Steve’s wife:
Photos of the late Libby Kwalbrun, Mal’s great-grandmother and Steve’s grandmother, and of Libby with Dusty Sklar and with the late Dave Sklar (Steve’s father)
Listeners, please consider answering this brief survey at the very bottom of the Ep. 5 page:
1. Would you recommend this to someone you’re meeting for the very first time?
2. If you were questioned by law enforcement, would you admit that you listen to this podcast?
3. Your estranged brother calls you while you’re listening to the podcast. Do you:
a. Take the call and not mention the podcast?
b. Take call, mention the podcast?
c. Take the call and play the podcast for him over the phone?
Feel free to comment in the comment box at the very bottom of the Ep. 5 page why you became estranged from your brother. As if we couldn’t guess.
4. Do you feel loved and held? And if not, why not? And if so, what made you feel that way? And if not, do you feel capable of feeling that way in other aspects of your life? Or are you merely deficient? Is there anything we can do to improve your loved-and-held statistics?
5. Have you ever met anyone that was so dull that by the time they died no one ever remembered anything they ever said? (We’re guessing not.)
Episode 4: What Am I Supposed To Do In This Situation?
As Ep. 4 makes clear, the following movies are so good that, as the youth of today might put it, they f*** severely:
Listeners, watch this space…
…for a drawing of Daryl, Mal’s alter-ego. It’s bound to appear here eventually, because jump and a parachute will open.
Here are links to Steve’s listings on IMDB, because he grows weary of having to tell people what he is known for in the cinematic arts (after all, by definition, they should already know that): concerning “Amityville 3-D” and concerning “I Spit On Your Grave.” Note: ’Twas a different Steven Sklar — not your co-host for this podcast — who worked on “It’s a Mitzvah! – Jewish Life in the Delaware Valley,” and more power to him. Apparently, Steven Sklars abound. Who knew?
Shout-out to Steve Greenberg, creator of the Electronic Coin-Tosser (or Toin-Cosser) that won first prize in the 9th Grade Science Fair at Benjamin Franklin Junior High School in Teaneck, New Jersey, circa 1969. And he achieved that in the days before the public, let alone junior-high-schoolers (middle-schoolers in today’s parlance), had access to computers.
Exhibit A (Trap for the newbie lawyer):
It’s all about the journey, man…
Episode 3: Livin’ the Dream or Racin’ the Train?
As to road rage, one of many articles can be found at https://www.webmd.com/women/features/root-cause-of-road-rage. Also, the priest with a crossbow road rage killing appears to have actually happened, and to have been shared with high school students in driver’s ed classes in at least several states. ‘Nuff said. The real life details are pretty grim; grim enough that one is not inclined to dwell on them in these show notes.
More information about Christopher Wigglesworth and his writing can be found on his web site at https://www.ccwigglesworth.com/.
A video wherein Steve introduces viewers to the ideas of the 19th Century thinker and reformer Henry George is at https://youtu.be/WdRScDIc9Gk
Here is just a small sampling of Mal’s artwork:
For an upbeat take on special interests, check out, for example, https://sunfieldcenter.com/special-interests-and-supporting-your-childs-interest/
About being in a flow state: articles on this abound. See, e.g., https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/flow-state: “A person is in a state of flow when they are totally immersed in a task. When a person is ‘in flow,’ they may not notice time passing, think about why they are doing the task, or judge their efforts. Instead, they remain completely focused.” (As we hope to be, listeners, while we hurtle from Point A to Point B, the better to spot a ride theme for you .)
Episode 2: Nerdlimits, Dark Larping, and Listening
Nerdlimits™™™ are (obviously) the limits that most, if not necessarily all, people have beyond which their personal nerdiness will not go.
Larping — Live Action Role Playing, not that our listeners are likely to need to be told that — is usually (obviously) a relatively harmless, if sometimes fraught, pastime. Think venturesome and winsome souls in period costume enacting tropes or battles from ancient times or fantasy versions thereof. Venturesome, winsome, harmless — except when things, as they sometimes do even for Larpers, take a dark turn.
For a relatively warm and fuzzy take on Larping, see https://larpadventureprogram.com/history-of-lap/what-is-larp-1/. But a Web search for “when Larping goes wrong” is also informative. See, for example, a level-headed discussion of Larping risk at https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-risks-associated-with-live-action-role-playing-or-larping-What-are-some-best-practices-for-staying-safe-while-larping.
Listening, as one may learn from an astute teacher of improv, is the act of attending to what your scene partner, conversation partner or life partner is saying. And even better if you’re able to attend not just to the words they are saying but, ideally, to the way they are saying them. Listening is great; deep listening is even better. It reveals the meaning or intent behind the words.
Episode 1: Zeno’s Paradox
Later episodes in this podcast are not as nerdily quasi-mathematical as this one. This recording, it turns out, is but a glimpse of the insight and merriment to come.
That said…
One way that the Second (not Third) Law of Thermodynamics has been described is this: Matter and energy have the tendency to reach a state of uniformity, a state of maximum disorder, or entropy. (In that sense, everything does degrade. Bummer.)
Zeno, who lived in ancient Greece in the 5th Century B.C., proposed many paradoxes. Among them were four paradoxes (or arguments against the possibility ) of motion. Of those , the best were the Achilles-and-the-tortoise paradox, the Dichotomy paradox and the Arrow paradox. These are described, for example, at https://iep.utm.edu/zenos-paradoxes/ .
The Ride To Redacted — a meta quest if ever there was one.