Professor Arthur Herman

Yes, it can be a shock when an important person in your life dies.  It can happen unexpectedly, of course, but as we age, there is more and more concern about death. Prof. Arthur Herman of the UWSP philosophy department died recently. He was in his mid-90's so his death was not unexpected.

Some years ago, Prof. Herman gave a talk about the basics of Buddhism.  He specialized in Eastern thought and was able to read the language Sanskrit.  His talk gave me an introduction to religious ideas that are not based on the idea of an all-powerful supreme being.  He wrote several books including "The Ways of Philosophy".

Blogging

My wife is a potter and belongs to a co-op of artists who work together to maintain a gallery where their work can be displayed and offered to the public.  I have mentioned to her that they might want to include a writer, a blogger, a poet or other types of artists who put words together.  I enjoyed the book "Civilization" by Kenneth Clark which gave me a good idea of the shock people experienced when what I call "modern" art appeared. When we visited the Tate art Gallery in London, I learned they had had a show of art about people's reaction to various modern art works.  That show was called "A Child of Six Could Do It". Babies put words and word-like sounds together.  There are many word arts and I feel that by some definitions, all of us who speak or write are artists using whatever language we know to create little works of art daily.

Charging

I began teaching graduate students right during the beginning of the computer age.  I think the US is more into the AI and the smartphone stage now.  I just searched for the percentage of US adults that have only a smartphone and no other digital devices.  Because of my poor hearing and advice from my audiologist, I bought a smartphone but I rarely use it.  It is terrible for creating documents, including blog posts.  The keyboard is much too small.  An external keyboard connected to an inexpensive computer such as an Asus is much easier to use.  I make fewer mistakes with a slightly bigger layout than on my smartphone.

The last few days, I have seen an ad explaining how I can lessen the number and size of power strips with multiple cords connected to them.  The ad classifies such nests as "eyesores".  I admit that charging this and that makes for complex arrangements of chords and little lights.  Having adopted the idea of charging devices to only 60 to 80% of their capacity makes for more charging around the house.  I am urging the adoption of a new, pro-charging aesthetic.

My friend died

It happens more often as I age.  A good friend, a wise and knowledgeable man, died.   Each time, of course, I am reminded of mortality, of the fact that life, including mine, can be long and glorious but is temporary.  Quite often, thinking about life, I get the urge to be extra-alert to beauty and love, to not waste a crumb of the many pleasures and beauties. 

Ebooks from Amazon

I have been using Amazon's ebooks since 2008.  To me, the large selection and the nearly 0 weight of ebooks makes them superior to paper pages.  I admit that webpages these days are chockful of distractions, interruptions, and irrelevancies.  But I can still get a book in electronic form in, say, two minutes.  I can learn of a book, read about it, buy it and be reading it in a total of five minutes, much faster than driving to the library and back.  Of course, if you are a dealer in precious old books, you may not want to deal in ebooks.  You can read an Amazon ebook that you have online at read.amazon.com.  On the main Amazon website, one of the dropdown menus under "Account and lists" has a choice of "Content Library' which lists the ebooks you have purchased access to.  The additional Kindle Unlimited deal allows many books to be "borrowed" for Unlimited Time and the deal includes many up-to-date magazine issues.

There are other ins and outs to ebooks that you can get to know as you use them.

Clock-watching

I seem to be more aware of what the clock says than many people.  My wife recently mentioned that I am a clockwatcher. It is true that I am usually aware of the time of day.  I don't like not knowing the time and I look at my wrist watch or the clock in the room often.  I seem to be convinced that it is almost time for the next thing on my schedule.  I have to watch myself or I will arrive too early.  I am a fan of the website "time.gov".

George Washington birthday

Growing up in Baltimore, Maryland, Feb. 22 was always a holiday.  It is George Washington's birthday and we always had no school that day.  Sometimes, Boy Scout troop 30 had an overnight trip walking the Appalachian Trail that day, depending on how the holiday fell in the week.

A previous blog post tells how the Eagle patrol managed to spill supper into the coals and ashes.  (Blog post for 2/22/2023)

As time goes by, we get new presidents added to the list and it becomes inconvenient to try to celebrate for each one.  Not to mention our Justices, Speakers of the House, leaders of the Senate, administrators of government departments.  And what about state governments, and city managers?

2/3 of winter over

In a month, a short one, too, it will be spring.  Actually, not only a short month but the first "day of spring" is on March 20, not the 21st.  Not only that but the equinox is early in the day.  All to the good.

Back from an overnight

We rode a bus to Chicago overnight with UWSP's Adventure Tours.  We saw "The Outsiders" and toured the extensive underground system of walkways that people can use to get to major stores and offices without being in winter weather.  Lynn predicted it might be more walking than we could manage.  What?  Pooh!  

She was quite right, as usual.  Guess which one of us got exhausted to the point of staggering?  She wants me to include the tour of the Museum of Science and Industry so I am.  I ended up staggering along, looking evidently as though I might die.  I haven't.  We are both slowly recovering, even more fully grasping that we are genuinely elderly.

Blog pause

Don't expect a blog post for the next two days.  I am going to be too busy.  Read some of my older posts, write a letter to a good relative, start your own blog, read that book you have been meaning to get to.

Presidents Day

I am a fan of Alexandra Meeks Banner, a woman often listed as writer of CNN Five Things AM.  She has a way of explaining what happened fully, succinctly and respectfully. She wrote this morning that

Depending on the state, it may be known as Presidents' Day, President's Day or Presidents Day — a subtle shift in apostrophe placement that has fueled decades of debate.

I take the simple plural without really knowing what my state is doing.

Despite having read that and liking it consciously, I went to the bank today.  Guess what I found.  The place was closed!  Because it is Presidents Day!

My aging memory

If something makes me think back 10 or so years to a person I haven't thought of for quite a while, I may not be able to recall the person's name.  I know I used to know it but I cannot make it come to mind.  That is more or less a classic aged memory problem.  I try to find a way around needing to recall, using old records or vague language.

But things that repeat are a little different.  I have breakfast every morning.   I make dinner every other night.  I often have trouble remembering the last time and not confusing it with other recent times.

It is Valentine's Day!

It is a good day to tell people you care.  Maybe more than "care".  For some people, this is a good time to tell a partner that you are grateful for all they do, including providing chances for you to perform supportive, loving deeds.  It could be the right day to ask someone to dinner.  What about memories and thoughts and kindnesses you have ?  What about what you have received?

How is your intertragic notch?

 

Don’t know?  Didn’t know you have one? You probably do, right between your tragus and your antitragus.  You probably have two of them actually, one in each ear.

I went to the doctor and she had a chart hanging on the wall show parts of the external ear.  The folds and channels have names that people who deal with ear health use.   Like this:

"Same Time, Next Year"

We watched "Same Time, Next Year" with Alan Alda and Ellen Burstyn.  It is a 1978 film available on Netflix, Amazon Prime, YouTube and Apple TV.  I guess the movie was much like the play that ran before it.  I thought the dialogue was especially good, appropriate and clever.  It is true that the film is about meeting a person of the opposite sex for a weekend in a motel room annually so if you can't stand watching sweet sinners, you might not like it.  

Storks and babies

Just to get to the bottom of the matter, I asked the internet if storks bring babies.  We were considering various stories that have been used to explain the occurrence of babies, money that appeared after the loss of a tooth, and gifts delivered on Christmas.

Yahoo reported 45, 800 answers to my inquiry but the first one listed was composed by artificial intelligence:

"To clarify the myth about storks bringing babies, consider these points:

• Storks are often depicted in folklore as baby deliverers, but this is a myth.

• The origin of this myth may stem from ancient cultures associating storks with fertility and new life.

• In reality, babies are born through human reproduction, not delivered by birds.

• Storks do care for their own young, which may have contributed to the legend.

• The stork myth is often used in children's stories to explain where babies come from in a gentle way.

• Understanding the real process of childbirth can help dispel this myth."

We see many babies but we have never seen a stork around here.

Delete, delete

I got a notice from Apple that I am running low on space and need to buy more for saving things.  I do care about my past and my family but I am confident I have enough documents and pictures.  So, I spent about an hour or so deleting things.  While doing that I stumbled on a giant patch of photos of a QR code.  I imagine there is a setting somewhat that will avoid saving such photographs.  I guess some smart intelligence kicked in and kept showing me photos of that.  I doggedly deleted over and over, finding it a bit faster to use a pen with a soft rubber button on the end.  I guess it feels like a finger to the machine.

Some notable authors

Ok, authors that we have enjoyed.  You might, too.

Eric Berne - a psychiatrist, who wrote Games People Play, Sex in Human Loving

Dona Leone, Victoria Houston: Leone writes about fictional crime in Venice, Houston writes about crimes in fictional Loon Lake, Wisconsin

Carl Zimmer - a good science writer who selects interesting subjects and angles

Alexander McCall Smith - stories about Mma Ramotswe, a detective in the African nation of Botswana. Also about Bertie, a little boy in Scotland

Photos, blog posts

CNN photos of the week

1. https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/05/world/gallery/photos-this-week-january-29-february-5

My older blog posts  https://fearfunandfiloz.blogspot.com/

"Thank Q!"

I am still a big fan of "Call the Midwife", which I think I read has earned the title of a favorite program on British TV.  We use streaming, that is internet connection for the tv. I didn't realize how extensive the collections on Netflix and Amazon Prime are.  I have learned that there are other streaming services that specialize in art films and rare movies.  We watch Wis Public TV and Acorn and we have many other choices.

Lately, we have gotten interested in "The Closer" with Kyra Sedgwyck, as a deputy police chief.  Her role makes her somewhat obnoxious in my opinion.  She plays a woman police official who is competent but impolite and irritating to her fellow officers.  She is over-polite and is constantly thanking coworkers with her "Thank q so much", her rapid way of saying "thank you".

Hiding the price

If I come right out and tell you the price, you drop the whole deal.  Better I should insert a page where I state the price is lower than buying a house, then have you click onto another page that offers bank phone numbers to connect eventually to a loan department.  Prices are old hat anyway. Be modern and just SUBSCRIBE to continuing worry and pestering and owe some each month.

Dr. Brizendine's "The Upgrade"

Today I had to take my car for service.  It is a 2016 Honda Fit, a small hatchback model that is no longer made.  There are many non-standard things about me and one of them is that I have never been in love with cars.  Growing up in Baltimore, I used public transportation until a professor offered me a job IF I got my license.

While waiting for the maintenance service, I started re-reading Dr.Louann Brizendine's 3rd book, "The Upgrade".  Dr. Brizendine is a physician who has written three books: The Female Brain, The Male Brain and The Upgrade.  I have read them all but today I started re-reading The Upgrade.  I see that Jane Fonda has endorsed this third book, The Upgrade.  It's about women's brains after they go through menopause.  The Cleveland Clinic website says that an average age for menopause is 52.

I noted this statement:

There is no place for women to talk about the stand-off that is going on in so many homes (as post-menopausal women strongly drop interest in sexual activity.)

From 2017 - Midwinter

From 2017

Even though a season can seem long or short, each one is 3 months long, according to our calendar.  The earth and the sun don't always behave exactly according to human hopes and plans but it generally works to think of each season beginning on the 21st of March, June, September and December.  Three months is just about 90 days so half of a season is 45 days.  When you add 45 to the first day of a season, you get not the next month but the one after that.

So, winter began on Dec. 21.  Add 45 days you get to Feb. 4, today!  Today is the mid-day of winter.  That means we are passing the mid point and the remaining days in winter are fewer than we have already experienced.

Her documents

A friend called yesterday to tell us Wis. Public TV was showing a history of our town.  We watched it and enjoyed it, but it was quite similar to Lynn's "The Reasons for Stevens Point", a project in her master's degree program.  It, too, is about the founding and development of the town where we have lived since 1968.  She has a PhD from UW-Madison but I thought momentarily that that slide-tape/filmstrip was her only foray into history and the past.  No!  Definitely not!  She created a good sized paper called "Who we came from" about her complex background and family history.  Then, I remembered a second good sized paper about her childhood and growing up.  It turns out she is far more of a historian than I remembered.

Carl Zimmer books on science

Lynn heard a Wis. Public Radio science program that discussed "organoids" and mentioned "Life's Edge" by Carl Zimmer. We just finished "Patriot" last night.  So, we will start Zimmer this evening.  This Zimmer book is our 9th one.

& Juliet

I taught undergraduate and graduate courses to pre-teachers and experienced teachers at UWSP for 37 years.  It was a fun way to earn money and a way to spend my hours.  When I retired in 2005, I learned about the university's "learning in retirement " called the LIFE program.  LIFE stands for "Learning Is ForEver", which is a nice sentiment but it isn't true.  As I age, I find I forget more and more.  Still, the Life program has been a fun place for me to make presentations, to attend others' presentations and to take trips.

We recently signed up for a trip to Appleton to see the play "& Juliet".  Notes and web pages tell me that the play is an exploration of what might have happened had Juliet been inclined to live without Romeo, on her own.  Seems like a modern idea to me and I am interested in what the play shows.

I think it showed imagination and daring to name the play "& Juliet", to begin the title with an ampersand sign. 

I actually came into this life from the body of a woman, so I am told.  I am also told everyone else did, too.