Tuesday, November 02, 2010

WORLD CHUMPS

ALLAH
Einstien believes in -Spinoza’s God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists (laws), not in a God who concerns himself with fates and actions of human beings.

JUDGE JUDY
I’ve always wondered how she worked. Well, here’s the skinny from my humorous friend Judge Beds. First of all, she is not a judge. Her parties agree to take their case out of the court system & have them heard by Judy. This is all small claims stuff. This is like how a mediation or arbitrations works, except in her case, the show pays all the claims (small claims is what now? $5,000 max.?),. Naturally, there is no shortage of “contestants” as they can’t loose, even if they lose. And I guess there are lots of shows that emulate hers. The California Commission on Judicial Performance gets more complaints about Ms Judy than all the other judges in the state combined, but she’s not under their jurisdiction. She probably makes more money than all of the combined judges also in the state.

HERE’S GOOD NEWS (Belatedly)
The struggle for our minds is not only here in the U.S. The Christians and Muslims are just as active over there.
On October, 2007, the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly approved a resolution recommending that it’s member governments oppose the teaching of creationism as science. The creationist movements possess real political power, especially here in US. The fact of the matter is that some advocates of strict creationsm are out to replace democracy by a theocracy. We must remain vigilant! (God willing?).

BELATED SURPRISE
I was apprenticing with architect DK Taylor during 1958 in Scottsdale, AZ and did work on the drawings of the O’Conner house,( mostly the details). As far as I remember, this was the only project Don was able to get built, except for the concrete deck panels for the Westward Ho Hotel in Scottsdale. Also, I built the model for their house (An earlier version) which FLL Wright saw in the window of Don’s office and commended me on my work, which pretty much stoked me.
This is all pretty trippy as just last week I started reading “CLOSED CHAMBERS” an insider’s view of the workings of the Supreme Court as I wanted to know more about how it Worked and the part Sandra Day O’Conner had in it.
Also thought you’d get a kick out of the house I worked on for Paolo, surrounded with his future. I was paid a dollar an hour from Paolo, then paid it back to Taylor so I could work for him due to some complicated work laws we were doing. Of course, this was the economic model I used for the rest of my career.
I’m interested to know why & how they moved the entire house, adobe blocks and all to another location at the Arizona Historical Society. At the time, I didn’t know Sandra Day O’Conner was the wife of the client, John Jay.

MUSLIM DICTIONARY (From Allah, the beneficient and most merciful)
I’ve learned a couple of new words while reviewing the Koran.
Lapidation Stoning her to death
Imurred House arrest for life.

PALIN?
A politician is one who promises you a bridge, when there is no river.

JUSTICE FROM THE SLUMS OF BOMBAY
Justice is a judgement that is both fair and forgiving. Justice is not done until everyone is satisfied, even those who offend us and must be punished by us. Justice is not only the way we punish those who do wrong. It is also the way we try to save them.

SCULPTOR’S DILEMMA
Have you ever tried to capture the essence of flame in a solid material ? Bertoli did a pretty good job of the flame held in the Statue of Liberty’s torch, a replica which stands in a small square in Paris. (Just the cold leafed flame. I spent endless hours stoned in Big Sur before attempting a 6 foot high concrete flame. It stood in front of Deetjin’s Big Sur Inn for many years.

FOUCAULT’S PENDULUM
Like the one at the SF Academy of Sciences. I observed his original one at the Musee des Arts & Mietiers in Paris a couple of years ago. . He built this in the old Pantheon church dome with a 67 meter wire and a 28 kg bob in 1851. This was the first proof that the earth was round and rotated every 24 hours. I never was able to figure out why this was the proof until today (Eureka!) . All I had to do was Google ”About Foucault’s Pendulum” to find the answer. Essentially, the pendulum ball does not move in a circle but the floor (And the tutelage, ergo, process earth, of course) rotates! in San Francisco, it rotates 220 degrees in 24 hours. At the poles it rotates 360 degrees in 24 hours, while at the equator, there is no rotation. The real trick was at the top where Foucault put a magnetic ring that keeps it going (It switches on & off each swing) to overcome air resistance as it is not in a vacuum .

COOKIN’
Anthony Bourdan, the chef, is promoting the idea that every boy and girl should be taught basic cooking skills in high school. He feels it should be one of our fundamental skills, like crossing the street or being trusted with money. As I’m learning some of these skills late in life, I realize what a wonderful asset that would have been in my life. During my high school days, girls were taught “Home Ec” or how to open cans and stuff. Until it became a glaring illustration of everything wrong with gender politics, and finally rejected. Now, no one cooks. At college, knowing how to cook would be a real method for impressing your classmate to get them in bed. (Foreplay!) And what better way, in the morning, to make a simple, beautiful omelet for her.
Things kids need to know are such basic skills as chopping an onion (Although most of our young Chicanos are pretty proficient at this). Rudimentary knife handling, sharpening,

THE GRATON DECAPITATION SOCIETY
When I discovered my client, Harry, had a plethora of bottles of champagne of questionable pedigree, and simultaneously that my friend Dodson knew how to break into a bottle of champagne, just like the Lieutenants of Napoleon’s Grand Armee, I got a small group together to observe the process. Under the expert tutelage of Bill, each of us wacked off the head of a bottle of old champagne, about half of which were drinkable. From now on, I think I’ll use that method instead of agonizingly trying to extricate the cork, to get at the bubbly.

BIG FROG IN SMALL POND
What do you mean, WORLD CHAMPIONS? Are we Americans so out of touch with reality that we believe our Empire is the world? These left over from high school games, these ball games (Base, Foot, Basket, etc,) are only played here in the US, which is a tiny portion of the America’s and a smaller portion of the world. Your Giants are not World Champs, but merely National Champs as this game is basically not taken seriously anywhere else on the Globe. Now the Soccer World games are exactly that, they have teams from all over the planet, (Actually even a bunch of losers from the US). The winner of those games are truly WORLD CHAMPIONS.