Ah, poor fellow!–and Herzog momentarily joined the objective world in looking down on himself. He too could smile at Herzog and despise him. But there still remained the fact. I am Herzog. I have to be that man. There is no one else to do it. After smiling, he must return to his own Self and see the thing through.
“In paths untrodden,” as Walt Whitman marvelously put it. “Escaped from the life that exhibits itself . . .” Oh, that’s a plague, the life that exhibits itself, a real plague! There comes a time when every ridiculous son of Adam wishes to arise before the rest, with all his quirks and twitches and tics, all the glory of his self-adored ugliness, his grinning teeth, his sharp nose, his madly twisted reason, saying to the rest — in an overflow of narcissism which he interprets as benevolence — “I am here to witness. I am come to be your exemplar.” Poor dizzy spook!
Socrates has said that the unexamined life is not worth living. He neglects to add, however, that the examined life is no picnic either.
Well, there is a piece of famous advice, grand advice even if it is German, to forget what you can’t bear. — Saul Bellow, Herzog
When you watch someone perform, you’re seeing them at the top of their game. When they score the winning point or sell their company for millions — you’re seeing them in their moment of glory. What you don’t see is the thousands of hours of preparation. You don’t see the self doubt, the lost sleep, the lonely nights spent working. You don’t see the moment they started. The moment they were just like you, wondering how they could ever be good.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=daC2EPUh22w
If sin and folly get punished appropriately, we’re in for a bad time. — Charlie Munger
The way we are living,
timorous or bold,
will have been our life.
Hi everybody! It’s me, Lightning!
I never have any leftovers when I eat but if I did, I would ask for a doggie bag.
WHAAAAA–?! Thanks, I’ll be here all week!
— Lightning 
"If you're not doing anything different, you're not doing anything at all." ET video interview with WashPost. http://t.co/a8vgyRxXOV
— Edward Tufte (@EdwardTufte) August 25, 2013
People who think it’s okay to insult members of certain groups (e.g., homophobes, people from the state of West Virginia), but not members of certain other groups (e.g., homosexuals, fat women), and particularly not members of groups that they themselves belong to.
People who bully others into taking offense at things that they’re “supposed to be” offended by because the bully is offended by those things.
People who allow themselves to be bullied into taking offense at things that they’re “supposed to be” offended by, even though it never occurred to them to be offended and they really couldn’t care less.
Hi everybody! It’s me, Lightning!
I’m so mad! The guy behind us in the Starbucks drive-thru lane is taking pictures of himself and his dog but he’s not SHOWING the pictures to the dog!
YOU HAVE TO SHOW THE PICTURES TO THE DOG! GRRRRRRR!
— Lightning
Guess how much I paid for this stack of books . . .
Hint #1: I bought them at the One Dollar Bookstore.
Hint #2: There are 10 books in the stack.
Hi, everybody! It’s me, Lightning!
I hear people say “I’ve got a lot on my plate” like it’s a bad thing. I LOVE to have a lot on my plate!
We’re talking about food, right?
— Lightning
If female employment rates matched male rates in the U.S., the GDP would rise by 5%. This stat & more: http://t.co/XsBVJW1xtE
— Harvard Biz Review (@HarvardBiz) August 25, 2013
Okay . . . but who would be raising our kids? Or is that not important?
Here’s the kind of outside-the-box thinking that propels executives to the top of Hollywood: Paying a woman for sex is illegal. Paying a woman to act in a sex scene on camera is not.
Not to say there won’t be consequences, but at least you won’t have a prostitution beef on your record.
Roll ’em . . . aaaaand ACTION!
Elmore Leonard wrote 45 books. Were they good books? Well, let me ask you: Do you know anyone who’s written 45 good books? Neither do I. He’s a literary Joey Chestnut.
I know Leonard wrote at least one good book though and that book is Get Shorty. It’s not Proust but it’s a good novel, not just good as genre fiction. I really enjoyed it.
In fact, my enjoyment was such that I bought another Leonard book, Maximum Bob. If I’d read Maximum Bob first, I would have stopped right there with the Leonard canon. Maximum Bob is so bad, it’s hard to believe these two books were written by the same person.
I read Gold Coast as a tiebreaker. Gold Coast is better than Maximum Bob, no question about it, but not nearly as good as Get Shorty. So I stopped reading Elmore Leonard books, but I highly recommend Get Shorty.
R.I.P. Elmore Leonard
T.J. Rodgers: Targeting the Wealthy Kills Jobs
It’s going to be another hot day! Not even 8 a.m. and I’m panting already!
— Lightning
When the Sears Tower opened in 1973, Sears, Roebuck & Co. was the biggest retailing company in the world. The annual Sears Christmas catalog was like amphetamines for American schoolchildren. (This was before half of America’s schoolchildren were already on amphetamines.)
Sadly, as time passed, the fortunes of Sears & Roebuck declined. Sears moved its offices out of the tower and sold it to some guy named Willis, who was so sick and tired of listening to people say “What you talkin bout, Willis?” that he renamed it to the Willis Tower.
Now when people say “What you talkin bout, Willis?” he says “You want to know what I’m talkin bout?! I’m talkin bout THE TALLEST BUILDING IN NORTH AMERICA! That’s what I’m talkin bout, you pricks.”
