You Like Me!

"Our intuitive theories suggest there is something radically different about the kind of pleasure that comes from people saying nice things about us and the pleasure that comes from eating a scoop of our favorite ice cream. The former is intangible, both literally and figuratively, while the latter floods our senses. Although there are surely differences between physical and verbal sweets, this study suggested that the brain’s reward system seems to treat these experiences more similarly than we might expect. Being the object of such touching statements activates the ventral striatum in the same way that the other basic rewards in life — like ice cream — do."

-- Matthew D. Lieberman at New York Magazine

Camus and Sartre

While Camus was making hay with his absolutist position on peace, which was, as Sartre saw it, “to refuse any complicity with violence wherever it came from”, Sartre opened up his philosophical attack. Sometimes it is only violence that can end violence. By a complete and total renunciation of violence, one’s interests can also wind up being detrimentally compromised.

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Sartre’s point to Camus was that since violence would take place no matter what, “one must make a choice, according to other principles.” For Sartre, the issue was whether one choice or the other brought France closer to realizing a socialist democracy. “Thus, we must meditate upon the modern problem of ends and means not only in theory but in each concrete case.”

-- Ronald Aronson, “Camus and Sartre”

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Naomi Wolf

“The vagina may be a 'hole,' but it is, properly understood, a Goddess-shaped one.”

-- Naomi Wolf, "Vagina: A New Biography"

Lawn Work

Pop decided to edge the lawn this afternoon. Fortunately, I had no trouble getting the cats inside. Then, since I had the cats inside, and since I was only a few days away from taking care of some lawn work myself, I decided to jump aboard Pop’s choo-choo train and get the work done. And , God, I am tired!

Along the way, I managed to break the light-cover on the front-yard light that never worked. I swear I barely bumped into the post. But the big white ball fell on my hard head and then fell on the ground, and it didn’t have a chance, but shattered into a number of big pieces. Pop was right there, too, saw the whole episode. He didn’t get pissy.