April 30th– Washington’s First Inaugural Address (1789) (Z is for zeroeth)

He'll kick you apart, he'll kick you apart!

April 30th– Washington’s First Inaugural Address (1789) 

Summary: Just when he thought he was out, they pulled him back in!

Commentary: If George Washington was a computer, he's start counting at zero. Checkmake, oneists.

By the article establishing the executive department it is made the duty of the President "to recommend to your consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient." [...]

Besides the ordinary objects submitted to your care, it will remain with your judgment to decide how far an exercise of the occasional power delegated by the fifth article of the Constitution is rendered expedient at the present juncture by the nature of objections which have been urged against the system, or by the degree of inquietude which has given birth to them.

    The call out to specific amendments and duties is what I find most interesting here. First, because I feel like it's only done in a very general way now, "blah blah freedom of speech, blah blah, religious liberty," as opposed to Washington's discussion of specific duties (with quotes!).

    Now, I think that's partially due to our second reason, which was how much less he had to know. The constitution (with current amendments, so even longer) is under 8000 words. The foreign aid bill that passed the house two weeks ago is longer than that.

    I don't know that I want to espouse the theory that the entire laws of a country should be limited to 10,000 words or so, but I can certainly see its advantages.

And that's AtoZ! Thanks to everyone who stopped in to read or comment, I hope you enjoyed and/or learned something. I assume I have to do a wrap up post or something later, so maybe I'll see you then. I think I tried a little harder on the blog the last couple weeks, especially when things with the new house were crazy. Always good to have a little extra push. I found a couple fun blogs that I look forward to following going forward, at https://nydamprintsblackandwhite.blogspot.com/ magic plants are cool! And https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/ for old school D&D stuff.

April 29th– From "The 1001 Nights" translated by AW Lang (Y is for "yeet your burden onto my head")

 Sinbad!

April 29th– From The 1001 Nights translated by AW Lang

Summary: Sinbad listen's to a rich guy's story, and carries burdens on his head.

Commentary: I generally like the 1001 Nights selections, but this one was a little dull. Sinbad is carrying stuff around on his head, stops to rest and talks about class warfare (not exactly...) and a rich dude invites him into his house to listen to a story of him almost drowning. No people turned into animals, no hiding from giant monsters, nothing crazy! 

We do get this interesting little sentence:

He was a man in poor circumstances, who bore burdens for hire upon his head.

Which makes it kind of sound like he's carrying metaphysical burdens. It's eventually clear that they're physical ones, but it's a neat idea. The rich hire people to take their stress. It's so close to true that barely even a metaphor.

"Yeet your burden" is kind of a stretch, but it's also a fun phrase, so I'll roll with it.

April 28– Ecclesiastes 1-5 KJV

Turn! Turn! Turn!

 April 28– Ecclesiastes 1-5 KJV

Summary: Life sucks, and then you die.

Commentary: I've had a theory since the first or second week that T5FSOB is actually an concealed piece of apostate evangelism (there's probably a better word for that). It's not surprising that we get selections from the Bible, and numerous Christian authors. They'd been a powerful cultural force for centuries at that point, and America was obviously very Christian at the time. But Elliot's choices are interesting, doubly so in the 15 minutes a day plan. There are all kinds of stories in the Bible. Some of them are exciting, some of them are inspiring. The beatitudes and the story of the prodigal son pass on the kind of morals Elliot seems to generally support. Revelations has some crazy cool stories about beasts attacking. David and Goliath is exciting and inspirational. And we get none of that. We get Job, where God and Satan decide to fuck over the most righteous guy they can find in a weird test. We get Ecclesiastes, where a king rambles on about how great he is, and how none of it matters and life sucks and then you die (and sounds fabulously selfish when he complains about how people after him will benefit from his labor).

2:18 Yea, I hated all my labour which I had taken under the sun: because I should leave it unto the man that shall be after me.

What a dick.

We get the lyrics to Turn! Turn! Turn! which I knew was biblical, but not exactly where.

3:1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: 3:2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; 3:3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; 3:4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; 3:5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; 3:6 A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; 3:7 A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; 3:8 A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

So that's cool.

3:14 I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him.

Everything is pointless and FEAR GOD!

Long story short: I think Elliot purposely chose the Bible passages (and some other writings) that make Christianity sound awful. While he seems to have been nominally Christian himself, I find it hard to believe anyone trying to convert people to Christianity, or inspire and inform believers who hadn't read the Bible before, could pick these sections.

April 27– “Beauty” by Ralph Waldo Emerson (1860)(X is for Xenophile)

Have some Emerson quotes, I guess.

April 27– “Beauty” by Ralph Waldo Emerson (1860) 

Summary: Maximum hipster!

Commentary: I broadly oversimplify the transcendentalists as a bunch of hipsters naval gazing and trying to pretend they're not a bunch of spoiled brats. This is peak hipster navel gazing. Almost every paragraph is some variant of, "X was cool before we ruined it by studying it," or "beauty is natural, we ruin it by not appreciating it." You just don't get it, botanists. You just have to feel the plants instead of studying them. That's it, that's the whole essay, over and over again, for 10 pages or so.

Which leaves me with how to get X is for something in here. I chose X is for Xenophile, loving things that are different or strange. I think this goes well with Emerson's thesis. He talks a lot about overstudying things (or studying them wrong) or losing imagination. Strange might not quite be accurate (I think he appreciates becoming familiar with plants or whatever). Novelty is really what I think he's going for. He wants a new eXperience that he can interpret and imagine in a new way. 

April 26– From "An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding" by David Hume (1748) (W is for witnesses)

 It's prom season!

April 26– From An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding by David Hume (1748)

Summary: Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

Commentary: 

Here's our pull summary for the day:

 'That no testimony is sufficient to establish a miracle, unless the testimony be of such a kind, that its falsehood would be more miraculous, than the fact, which it endeavours to establish; and even in that case there is a mutual destruction of arguments, and the superior only gives us an assurance suitable to that degree of force, which remains, after deducting the inferior.' 

 Somewhat earlier: 

 there is no species of reasoning more common, more useful, and even necessary to human life, than that which is derived from the testimony of men, and the reports of eye-witnesses and spectators.

Which gives us our W for Witness. We're now a bit more doubtful of eyewitnesses, but that feels like a whole 'nother topic.

And even earlier:

Though experience be our only guide in reasoning concerning matters of fact; it must be acknowledged, that this guide is not altogether infallible, but in some cases is apt to lead us into errors. 

I really appreciate this section. A lot of the philosophers talk about how reasoning is everything, but this seems to understate how you can sometimes reason incorrectly despite your best efforts.

Beyond that, pretty reasonable notes about the dangers of hearsay, how to find good evidence, etc. This quote is fun:

But it is nothing strange, I hope, that men should lie in all ages.

Very quoty today, not a ton of my own writing. I like Hume though, adding him to he list to come back to. 

 

April 25–"Germany" by Tacitus (98), translated by Thomas Gordon (V is for Virgins)

 Sure, this is Tacitus

April 25–Germany by Tacitus (98), translated by Thomas Gordon

Summary: Germany had a lot of tribes.

Commentary: I enjoyed his long rambly list of tribes at first, but it went on for awhile and I kind of lost interest. Literal pages! It starts off kind of neat in that RPG sourcebook kind of way I've mentioned a few times, but imagine if there were like 50 tribes of elves in yours sourcebook with one paragraph each. You'd probably get over it.

Better still do those communities, in which none but virgins marry, and where to a single marriage all their views and inclinations are at once confined. Thus, as they have but one body and one life, they take but one husband, that beyond him they may have no thought, no further wishes, nor love him only as their husband but as their marriage. To restrain generation and the increase of children, is esteemed an abominable sin, as also to kill infants newly born. And more powerful with them are good manners, than with other people are good laws.

V is for Virgins! I personally find it hard to believe no young Germans ever snuck off into the bushes or pulled out, but Tacitus says so.

April 24– From "The Origin of Species" (1859) by Charles Darwin (U is for Unsustainable growth)

Beagle music?

April 24– From The Origin of Species (1859) by Charles Darwin

Summary: If things didn't die, there would be too many of them.

Commentary: I like Darwin a lot more as a travel/wildlife/sourcebook writer. This section is basically him just talking about how if something didn't kill animals (or destroy eggs, etc.) they'd multiply out of control, followed by an explanation of how it relates to food webs.