Thought

There is no beauty without truth; however, the illusion of beauty is often true.

A vigorous offense (Mencken)

The most curious social convention of the great age in which we live is the one to the effect that religious opinions should be respected. Its evil effects must be plain enough to everyone. All it accomplishes is (a) to throw a veil of sanctity about ideas that violate every intellectual decency, and (b) to make every theologian a sort of chartered libertine. No doubt it is mainly to blame for the appalling slowness with which really sound notions make their way in the world. The minute a new one is launched, in whatever fields, some imbecile of a theologian is certain to fall upon it, seeking to put it down. The most effective way to defend it, of course, would be to fall upon the theologian, for the only really workable defense, in polemics as in war, is a vigorous offense. But convention frowns upon that device as indecent, and so theologians continue their assault upon sense without much resistance, and the enlightenment is unpleasantly delayed.

H.L. Mencken, from A Mencken Chrestomathy

Thought

Never opt into a system of top-down control unless you can matriculate on top.

A great massing of proofs (Mencken)

All science is simply a great massing of proofs that God, if He exists, is really neither good nor bad, but simply indifferent—an infinite Force carrying on the operation of unintelligible processes without the slightest regard, either one way or the other, for the comfort, safety and happiness of man.

H.L. Mencken, from A Mencken Chrestomathy

Never quite free (Mencken)

If, as the Army tests of conscripts showed, nearly 50 per cent. of American adult males never get beyond the mental development of a twelve-year-old child, then it must be obvious that a much smaller number get beyond the mental development of a youth at the end of his teens. I put that number, at a venture, at 10 per cent. The remaining 90 per cent. never quite free themselves from religious superstitions. They may no longer believe it is an act of God every time an individual catches a cold, or sprains his ankle, or cuts himself shaving, but they are pretty sure to see some trace of divine intervention in it if he is struck by lightning, or hanged, or afflicted with leprosy or syphilis.

H.L. Mencken, from A Mencken Chrestomathy

An infinity of failures (Mencken)

We observe in everyday life what happens when authority is divided, and great decisions are reached by consultation and compromise. We know that the effects at times, particularly when one of the consultants runs away with the others, are very good, but we also know that they are usually extremely bad. Such a mixture, precisely, is on display in the cosmos. It presents a series of brilliant successes in the midst of an infinity of failures.

H.L. Mencken, from A Mencken Chrestomathy

Insatiable (Parthasarathy)

Few are the body's needs:
it is the mind's that are insatiable.

R. Parthasarathy, from "East Window"

Two quotes (Robbins)

Before curiosity kills it, the cat learns more of the world than a hundred uninquisitive dogs.

Human societies have always defined themselves through narration, but nowadays corporations are telling man's stories for him.

Tom Robbins, from Fierce Individuals Home From Hot Climates

Raisin pie

From this recipe.

Thought

Life is a kaleidoscope—how absurd to choose this or that bit of glitter and try to press it in permanence against the glass!

Death be not proud

Pernell Roberts is dead at 81—the last of the Cartwrights.  Sigh.

Thought

The futility of tomorrow is born of today's inadequacy.

Chicken, chorizo and shrimp gumbo

Thought

People arouse our dislike and disgust in proportion to the degree to which they disabuse us of our illusions of what they should be as people.

Jalapeno ham alfredo

Unsure (Murthy)

Reason fails in this uncertain light,and language gropes with tenuous roots.
And all the fixities that life defined
are no more than extinct truths,
an irrelevant construct of the mind—
and I'm not sure that mind is right.

K.V.K. Murthy, from "Just Dead"

Chicken machaca

For chicken tacos:

Yakhnit Samak bel Zafaran

Fish stew with onions and saffron (with turmeric substituted for the saffron), from The New Book of Middle Eastern Food.  Rice holder in the background.

Soft (Mipham)

Meditating on a rock has made me soft;
Smelling wildflowers has hardened my understanding.

Sakyong Mipham, from "Snow Fell Twice, the Sun Always Shone"

Quick 2009 Summation

Books Read:  84
Poems Written:  52

Chicken enchilada casserole