Saturday, December 31, 2022

Thursday, December 29, 2022

ticking time bomb




"Stress is the worst use of imagination."
Deepak Chopra [born 1946]

disco hockey tips

inspired 1984, Brave New World

Thursday, December 22, 2022

Saturday, December 17, 2022

1984

Friday, December 16, 2022

Saturday, December 10, 2022

Friday, December 9, 2022

Friday, December 2, 2022

Gaslighting

 

Wednesday, November 30, 2022

"you can never trust what you read"




“Life is pain, anyone who says differently is selling something.”
– William Goldman [1931-2018]

Tuesday, November 29, 2022

want a free mint wheelchair?


If you live in the Waterloo Region of Ontario, and need a free wheelchair, contact me: 

richard.cassel@alumni.utoronto.ca

Monday, November 28, 2022

to act in all things necessary for the salvation of God's children



Image credit here.

"I became a Father - I joined the priesthood."

never wrong

 

Wednesday, November 23, 2022

Saturday, November 19, 2022

on substance abuse




"Reality is an acquired taste."
Matthew Perry [born 1969]

Wednesday, October 26, 2022

20000 rpms




"I don't like driving. Except when I'm going really fast."
Sir Lewis Hamilton [born 1985]

Wednesday, October 19, 2022

Monday, October 17, 2022

Carl Sagan's "Contact" read by Jodie Foster

 

Human Capital Management




Up in The Air [2009]

Ryan Bingham:

        [sitting across the aisle from each other on a plane] Natalie, what is it you think we do here?

Natalie Keener:

We prepare the newly unemployed for the emotional and physical hurdles of job hunting, while minimizing legal blow-back.

Ryan Bingham:

        That's what we're selling. It's not what we're doing.

Natalie Keener:
        
        Okay, what are we doing?

Ryan Bingham:

We are here to make limbo tolerable, to ferry wounded souls across the river of dread until the point where hope is dimly visible. And then stop the boat, shove them in the water and make them swim.

"Que sais-je?



“Don’t discuss yourself, for you are bound to lose. If you belittle yourself, you are believed. If you praise yourself, you are disbelieved.”
– Michel de Montaigne [1533-1592]

Sunday, October 16, 2022

career day



"I am not a manual labourer and please God I shall never be one, but there are some kinds of manual work that I could do if I had to. At a pinch I could be a tolerable road-sweeper or an inefficient gardener or even a tenth-rate farm hand. But by no conceivable amount of effort or training could I become a coal-miner; the work would kill me in a few weeks."
- George Orwell [1903-1950], Road to Wigan Pier

Saturday, October 15, 2022

thinking and feeling



"If all were rational nothing would get done."
- Attributed to Abigail Adams [1744-1818]

Friday, October 14, 2022

Tuesday, October 11, 2022

hellraiser

 


"The only exercise I get is walking behind the coffins of old mates who exercised."
- Peter O'Toole [1932-2013]

severance


Monday, October 10, 2022

Free return Hong Kong lights

To combat lost tourism due to Covid and civil unrest, in 2023 Hong Kong will spend $2 billion to cover return flights anywhere globally here.

where the Foo Fighters stay



... and where celebrities like Arnold Schwarzenegger [born 1947] eat breakfast here.

Rob Riggle Plays Golf

 

Sunday, October 9, 2022

prodigy

 

Saturday, October 8, 2022

trouble-free



Papyrus depicting Cleopatra VII sitting on her throne

Relatively little changed for 3000 years in Ancient Egypt [3100 BCE-30 BCE] e.g. the wheel was adopted late and was not used in the construction of the pyramids. Secondary sources claim it was a time of relative happiness.

Tuesday, October 4, 2022

kicked out high school for cheating


 .

As punishment, Owen Wilson [born 1968] was sent to the New Mexico Military Institute for two years, where he met Wes Aderson [born 1969] who was friends with his roommate and launched his acting career. 

embarrassing




"It got to the point where I was so isolated with my work, music that I became socially awkward, strange. But I recovered. I integrated back into society through mixing , circulating"
John Legend [born 1978] who is an EGOT by winning and Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony.

Sunday, October 2, 2022

the news is the blues


"I got way too many blues for any more bad news."
- Kanye West, Gorgeous [born 1977]

Bipolar Disorder discussed here.

Saturday, October 1, 2022

Why art?



Battle Between Marduk And Zu, Sumerian c. 3500 BCE

"Art helps to form the connective glue of society. It is no accident that art is a feature of every human civilization that has ever existed. Furthermore, the enjoyment of art plays a direct part in the life of each individual person. In other words, an individual may spend part of his time reading books, part of the time looking at paintings, etc. Even if the time we spent listening to music had no effect whatsoever upon our other activities that time would still represent some not insignificant fraction of our lives. However art does affect our other activities, and in some sense our whole life. Art connects us to our souls; it expresses our deepest feelings and validates them for us."
- Michael H. Hart [born 1932]

Thursday, September 29, 2022

blacklisted


"If there's a blank day on my calendar, I feel that I've failed, that it's all over."
- Joan Rivers [1933-2014] whom Johnny Carson [1925-2005] banned from the Tonight Show and all ancillary  programs like Late Night with David Letterman [born 1947] for launching her own talk show.

the absurd



“We must believe in luck. For how else can we explain the success of those we don’t like?”
– Jean Cocteau [1889-1963]

Sunday, September 25, 2022

abstract artist



“You can be very wild and still be very wise.”– Yoko Ono


“You can be very wild and still be very wise.”– Yoko Ono

"You can be very wild and still be very wise."
Yoko Ono [born 1933]

Saturday, September 24, 2022

fresh water from salt water

 

Thursday, September 22, 2022

colloquial



“In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.”
– Robert Frost [1874-1963]

Wednesday, September 21, 2022

Tuesday, September 20, 2022

20th century's coolest

 


"Racing is life. Anything before or after is just waiting."
- Steve McQueen  [1930-1980]

Sunday, September 18, 2022

Saturday, September 17, 2022

Rouge River


 Toronto forests supplied the ship masts that the British navy used to thwart Napoleon.



Monday, September 12, 2022

nitwit


"Madison, what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it."
- Billy Madison, 1995

Saturday, September 10, 2022

kiss a fish

 

Friday, September 9, 2022

promoted government-sponsored policy of full employment



“Asked whether history had ever seen anything like the Depression, John Maynard Keynes replied: “Yes. It was called the Dark Ages, and it lasted four hundred years.”
Jon Meacham [born 1969]

Thursday, September 8, 2022

routine



Upon waking in the morning, Motörhead's Lemmy [1945-2015] would have a shot of whiskey (eventually naively replaced by vodka as it seemed to him to be healthier) chased by a can of beer. Total daily consumption varied but several bottles of Jack Daniel's were often drained by bedtime.

directory





Q/ Why are there so many Smiths in the phone book?
A/ Because they all have phones.

Tuesday, September 6, 2022

obsolete interceptor

 


Economics not American meddling doomed the Avro explained in Part 1 and Part 2.







come together

 


Family illness led to a new architectural era here.

be prepared




“O God, help me to win, but in thy wisdom if thou willest me not to win, then O God, make me a good loser."
Robert Baden-Powell [1857-1941]

Monday, September 5, 2022

set a course for adventure

 

how many times uttered over 92 years?


 "I'll cram the Empire State Building [construction commenced 1930] up your ass, one brick at a time."

be a man, you pussy

 


Sunday, September 4, 2022

civil war veteran




“All are lunatics, but he who can analyze his delusions is called a philosopher.”
– Ambrose Bierce [1842-1914]

gimp




"If people in your life are not uncomfortable, then you're not really writing."
Quentin Tarantino [born 1963]

Thursday, September 1, 2022

taste




"I don't like plays after the third performance. On Broadway it goes on for 8 times a week for months and I get bored regurgitating the same lines over and over. Movies are better. One take and done."
Sir Anthony Hopkins [born 1937]

Wednesday, August 31, 2022

caretaker


 Broke literary ground here.

Tuesday, August 30, 2022

against unworthy triviality

 


"It's not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters."
- Epictetus [55-135 CE]

Monday, August 29, 2022

unusual suspect


"Unfulfilled potential is the saddest thing in life."
- Chazz Palminteri [born 1952]

Tuesday, August 23, 2022

Southern Gothic




"It's a pity you got published so young. You'll only see the world from a successful perspective."
Tennessee Williams [1911-1983]

Sunday, August 21, 2022

longevity



"I keep a shot of sour mash - Jack Daniels - next to my bed so I have incentive to get up every morning."
John Huston [1906-1997]

Saturday, August 20, 2022

robe and dagger



“Nine-tenths of tactics are certain, and taught in books: but the irrational tenth is like the kingfisher flashing across the pool, and that is the test of generals.”
T.E. Lawrence [1888-1935]

Friday, August 19, 2022

Wednesday, August 17, 2022

80,000

 The average person meets 80,000 people in a lifetime, which is the capacity of FedEx Field:




Tuesday, August 16, 2022

not british or columbian

 

Monday, August 15, 2022

best and worst cities

 

Data explained here.

Thursday, August 11, 2022

"It's all nerds and Nazis."

 


spinning on one foot



"Whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should."
Pierre Elliot Trudeau [1919- 2000] quoting Max Ehrmann's [1872-1945] "Desiderata" after a failed election

Tuesday, August 9, 2022

advance




“You will never win if you never begin.”
Helen Rowland [1875-1950]