“Those who read, own the world.”
-Werner Herzog
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If, as I maintain, a prime reason why we should read is to strengthen the self, then both Whitman and Dickinson are essential poets.
-Harold Bloom
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It is true that Christianity teaches us to place others before ourselves in order to gain heaven; but Christianity also teaches us to do good to our fellow men for the love of God. What a magnificent expression; man uses his intelligence to penetrate the mind of God and sees that God’s aim is order. He freely joins in this grand design and, sacrificing his private interests to this admirable order of all creation, he expects no other reward than the joy of contemplating it.
– Alexis de Tocqueville
A magnificent expression indeed. Contemplate creation today.
Tocqueville, Alexis de. Democracy in America. London, Penguin Publishing Group, 2003. pg 614
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I began to read just after I was four. The letters on the page suddenly gave in and admitted what they stood for.
– Penelope Fitzgerald
Some descriptions are well…FIRE. As read from Penelope Fitzgerald: A Life.
Lee, Hermione. Penelope Fitzgerald: A Life. United States, Alfred A. Knopf, 2014. pg 28
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I realize that a man’s arm can be amputated to save his life; but I am unwilling to be convinced that he is going to display as much dexterity as with the arm intact.
– Alexis de Tocqueville
A Tocqueville quote for our days?
Tocqueville, Alexis de. Democracy in America. London, Penguin Publishing Group, 2003. pg 609
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Watch it all the way into the glove. Play the ball—don’t let the ball play you. Bend! Put your glove in the dirt. Stay low. Set your feet.
Señor Molina’s final skill lesson. Curious he waited till the very end to teach fielding.
Stateside kids are fielding grounders from day one. But like Bengie said, Señor Molina had a program for teaching them baseball.
Bengie Molina and Joan Ryan, Molina: The Story of the Father Who Raised an Unlikely Baseball Dynasty (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2015). pg 21
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A stream of visitors continued through the seasons and among them was young Ralph Waldo Emerson, who a few years earlier had graduated from Harvard as class poet. He found Adams upstairs in his library seated in a large overstuffed armchair, dressed in a blue coat, a cotton cap covering his bald head. Recounting the interview, Emerson wrote, “He talks very distinctly for so old a man–enters bravely into long sentences which are interrupted by want of breath but carries them invariably to a conclusion without ever correcting a word.”
You know, you can just go visit your heroes.
Ralph Waldo Emerson for John. John for Sir William Herschel.
Posted while watching Iron Man. The first one.
McCullough, David. John Adams. Simon & Schuster, 2001. pg 640
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I think we are entering an era where “floor energy” will matter more than before. It will motivate, define, and lift some institutions well above the others.
– Tyler Cowen
An idea I’d like to explore more. AI everywhere could make us in fact, more human.
Physical presence could triumph.
Cowen, Tyler. “The Free Press.” Marginal Revolution (blog), April 2, 2025. https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2025/04/the-free-press.html.
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So, as men become more equal and individualism more of a menace, newspapers are more necessary. The belief that they just guaranteed freedom would diminish their importance; they sustain civilization.
– Alexis de Tocqueville
If Tocqueville believed this in the 1800s, then how does it apply today?
What happens when newspapers fade? What replaces them?
Tocqueville, Alexis de. Democracy in America. London, Penguin Publishing Group, 2003. pg 601
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Rest your glove on your chest. Pick a spot on your catcher. Leg high. Push off. Throw it hard. Down the middle of the plate. Right into the glove. Throw strikes. Keep it simple.
Often Señor Molina’s advice was keep it simple.
Bengie Molina and Joan Ryan, Molina: The Story of the Father Who Raised an Unlikely Baseball Dynasty (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2015). pg 21
Floodlights and Goalposts 