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Monday, July 16, 2018

How To Know Everything Else Revisited

It's time---
Time to go back 4 years and reclaim enthusiasm , back to the year, the years, when we had the right idea (you can click here if you want to read the wonderful feelings under the old text)  Here --sorry about the tiny font size, but my eyes were sharper then,

Wednesday, September 17, 2014:

How To Know Everything Else:

I should begin by dedicating this post to my dear friend, Willie, who visited this town over the weekend and continued our 49-year-long conversation about what can and cannot be known and beer:


Having previously dealt with the subject of How To Know Everything, I thought it apposite to discuss methods for knowing everything else. It is probably kindest to begin by saying there are no fixed methods in philosophy for knowing everything else short of a complete survey of the entire universe, but we can derive some oblique inferences from everyday life and art. For our purpose, music will suffice.

First, let's examine the ancient Greek noun, odeion, which means "roofed theater."  Thousands of years later, the etymology and meaning remained intact, even with the advent of  Nickelodeons, theaters that could be entered for a five-cent fee. Then came Teresa Brewer, who confounded that solid definition with jukeboxes and orchestrions --coin-operated music machines. What was known became something else, but no one minded because the song was really fun and the singer, cute as a button. One cannot argue successfully with fun and cute-as-a-button because the combination is philosophically unimpeachable. Observe:



{clip of Teresa Brewer singing "Music Music Music"}

Odeion is sometimes confused with the Latin word, odium, which is an ancient Roman mechanism into which one could drop a coin and really really hate. It was quite the rage until rage went out of vogue and gum machines were hurriedly invented.

This brings us to our second gnostic insurrection, Charles Wright and The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band. "Express Yourself" is a personal and family favorite. When it played on the radio in the '70s, our little ones would dance and join its exuberant refrain (from L. refringere =to repeat) as they interpreted it, "Sprash yourself!" Norma and I would tell them the singer was encouraging them to express themselves and they would assure us they understood, then go back to dancing and yelling "sprash!" They are great big men now and happy in their arts. We are glad Mr. Wright came along and owe him bigtime.



[clip of Charles Wright performing "Express Yourself"]

Expressing yourself is not a knowable enterprise. Society may balk, it may not understand. It didn't understand Einstein for a long time. Einstein said, "I don't need to know everything, I just need to know where I can find it when I need it." And we cannot neglect the go-to authority upon whom we relied so heavily while raising our offspring, Doctor Benjamin Spock --a surprisingly compassionate man for a Vulcan: "You know more than you think you do." In conclusion, it would appear the key to knowing everything else is to simply have fun doing it.

10 comments:

  1. … and gladness weighs more than happiness, friend Geo … and that's the main thing in life … anyway … just dug out my Theresa Brewer record … and the rest is history … thank you for making me smiles today … Love, cat.

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    1. You're welcome,dear Cat. My pleasure, and privilege.

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  2. Every time I think I know everything else, something more comes along that I don't know. I hava a feeling I will never be done learning 'everything else' lol. Just like a squirrel I am easily distracted.....there is a bunny in the backyard, just a little one and he travels like greased lightning (although I don't know if lightning can be greased). Eat the weeds bunny east the weeds. Sorry, what were we talking about?

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    1. Dear Delores, your excellent comment immediately reminds me of a Twain quote about Kipling:"Between us, we encompass all knowledge. He knows everything that can be known and I know the rest."

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  3. To be fair to your kids, Mr. Wright IS singing "sprash yourself"!! There is a time and a place for perfect diction and this is not it :D

    Dr. Spock was a Vulcan - of course! *slaps forehead*

    The older I get, the less I know. Fact.



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    1. O_Jenny, with the guidance of Spock and Mister Right, how could kids go wrong?

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  4. I know little. Just surfing the internet reminds me of that daily. I do know that I like Teresa Brewer a lot. Express Yourself is a great song. I come away from reading your posts knowing a little more.

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    1. Agreed Emma, mass media before the internet informed us at a gradual and manageable rate. Now the "information highway" puts us under the world's miseries in one foul fling. Best we can do is learn to dodge it without jumping out of our shoes.

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  5. As this world goes round and I tumble helplessly, my knowledge of all things seems to be less real. Eisenstein, who many suspect, got his genius from a lightening bolt that left his hair forever at attention, got it right. Knowledge can be found, you just need to know where to look. Unfortunately, my glasses are never where I left them and knowledge, as we used to know it, is getting fuzzier every day. Oh Geo, If only we could put another nickel in that Nickelodeon.

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    1. The lightning bolt did indeed create a fleecy frame for his kindly face. And we can always find another nickel for the jukebox, Arleen. I believe we have a dance.

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