Book

I always thought I liked philosophy ..... Or do I? What is philosophy and what 
not is philosophy? Based upon these ideas, I can blog about Wittgenstein poker 
in numerous ways.  I can write about this book and the ideas contained therein 
in such a ways as to sound really intelligent but leave the reader saying (if 
they were brave enough) "what?" I can also profess not to really get the point 
of the book except that there were great philosophers with mega ego issues and 
major emotionally problems who disagreed with each other, except when they did 
not. Perhaps I can do both? Perhaps I can do neither? Perhaps the best idea, in 
keeping with the tradition of philosophy, is to ask what you, the reader thinks, 
and then disagree, except when I am agreeing.
I guess I have learned something from this book, or have I?

Fish

The question that I have is simply, when do you tell a kid that their pet 
Goldfish has died. We have all been there. You go to the to carnival and win the 
holy grail of prizes- the elusive gold fish! Never mind that you spent $5.00 on 
ping pong balls to throw them into a tiny glass bowl, set apart in such a way as 
to have the ball bounce onto the ground, to win a .15 fish. You win the prize 
and you are happy. Forget that now you have to go out and get a bowl, gravel, 
ornaments and food. You are too thrilled to worry about that! So now you have 
spent around $30 on your .15 prize. Your fish, now named, " fish" or "dog" or 
something like that is now part of your family. You go off to school and come 
home to say hello to your new friend, but wait, "fido" looks different. You are 
positive he was bigger or she was smaller.

Time passes and so do many "sushi's", all without your knowledge, and you are ok 
with that.

For me, I now understand that concept.  I was put in that position recently when 
my sister's fish died. I was faced with the choice of telling her that her pet 
was never coming back and having to explain where it went, or, going to the pet 
store and replacing "Tuna". The choice was simple- I am a coward.  "Veronica" 
was happily swimming around in the bowl and the question of doesn't he look 
different was answered with, " uh, nope".  

Maybe next time I will be honest, or maybe the time after that because there is 
always time to grow up. Not today, however.

Poker Stick

Did the poker stick even exist in the first place?

I read the first few chapters of Wittgenstein's Poker by David Edmonds and John 
Eidinow.  I have to say that at this point, I am not sure what to say, except I 
am intrigued.

Basically, there was a man named Ludwig Wittgenstein, who was one of the 
greatest minds of all times, mostly known for philosophy, and Karl Popper, also 
a philosopher, who was always in Wittgenstein's shadow.  

On a day that will "live in infamy" ( in the philosophical world I kid you not), 
specifically, October 25, 1946, in a small, crowded room at Cambridge 
University, these two men met, argued, a hot poker stick was bandied about and 
feelings and egos got bruised.  Wittgenstein subsequently died, and the authors 
tracked down all the eye witnesses to the "poker meeting" as they could to write 
this book of the account of that night. 
 
The authors, with little doubt, will delve into the lives of Wittgenstein and 
Popper.  The readers will likely see how these two men have changed our lives 
through their deep thoughts.  I also imagine that we will learn about their past 
and given their age, how the Nazi's deeply effected them. 

Passover

Passover is an interesting holiday. Like any holiday, family get together to 
tell the story of freedom;  Freedom from slavery and oppression and the quest 
for a home. The meal called a Seder lasts anywhere from minutes to hours to 
days. There is an enormous amount of  food served in many courses throughout the 
meal and desserts.  It's all great, except, this holiday has a catch.... No 
leavened bread.  This means that you can't make anything that rises.  As such, 
all the food is matzah based.....yum?

The standards of a Seder are chicken soup, gefilte fish, chopped liver, Tzimes ( 
don't ask), Charoses ( chopped apples, nuts and wine), hard boiled eggs, matzah 
kugel ( quiche), matzah pudding, matzah brei ( omelet), matzah stuffing, 
chicken, brisket, sweet potatoes, macaroons, chocolate covered jellies, dates, 
figs, grape juice and wine.

We read out of a book called a Haggadah, to assist us in the telling of the 
story of how our ancestors were slaves in the land of Egypt and Moses got us out 
of there. Obviously there is a lot more to the story like how Pharaoh didn't 
want to get rid of his Jewish slave base so he said, "uh, nope". What was Moses 
to do but tell Pharaoh, look, let us go or I am going to have no choice but to 
unleash some plagues on you. Pharaoh said, "ha ha, I'm not scared of you!"Moses 
started the plagues like blood, frogs, lice, gnats, murrain, hail, locust, 
darkness. None of this worked, no kidding, so the final plague was to come. Mind 
you, Pharaoh was duly warned, but too selfish to give up his free, abused, 
labor. Sadly, slaying of the first born was unleashed. Pharaoh's people were not 
happy with him, needles to say, so he said to Moses, get your people out of 
here. Moses said, "ok people, let's move." However, Pharaoh, being an idiot, 
changed his mind and had the Egyptian soldiers follow and capture and/ or kill 
the Jews.  Moses was not happy at this change of heart. He led us to the water ( 
the Red Sea) and the people said, "Moses, look we love you for freeing us, but, 
uh, whatcha doin? Where are we to go?" Moses replied, "oh ye of little faith, 
trust me" and with that he took his staff and parted the Red Sea. Yup, it's all 
in the Haggadah, straight from the bible. 

The Jews crossed into safety, but because they questioned Moses, thereby 
questioning G-d, they had to wander the desert for 40 years before entering the 
Promised Land, but that's another story.

Why matzah you ask? We were in such a hurry to get away from the Pharaoh, there 
was no time for the bread to rise, so it cooked flat ( as a people, we cannot 
travel without food because you never know when you are going to be able to get 
a meal.  Historically, we are usually too busy  avoiding being tortured and 
killed.)

That is the very short, story of Passover. 

Lechiam! ( cheers)

Bored

I'm kinda bored. There is nothing new going on that inspires me the write. Sure, 
we still have the Malaysian missing flight that I,along with everyone else in 
the world, keep hoping will show up with all the passengers sunbathing on some 
remote island. There is David Letterman's retirement, interesting.  Of course 
"Bridgegate" is of note, but everyone knows how that is going to be made to come 
out ( yes, the word " made" was intentional. ) Ok there's the great Cronut Board 
of Health shut down due to a mouse ( and everyone is mad at the guy who took a 
picture of the mouse and blasted it out, not at the bakery with a rodent issue).

Well, I guess there's nothing going on........

HIMYM

It's been almost a week since the last episode of HIMYM.  It's taken that long 
for me be be able to digest what I saw and to write about it. I really liked the 
show, a lot. The acting was great, but the writing was outstanding. To be able 
to keep a sit com going, fresh and popular for over 9 years is no joke.

With that said, the ending was a sell out.  There were many questions unanswered 
like, what about that pineapple? But, aside from that ( spoiler coming) THEY 
KILLED THE MOTHER!  It turns out that the show was never about how the character 
Ted met the mother Tracy.  It was about Ted getting with Robin at the end of it 
all.  Why? Why did they do that? Ted wanted kids, Robin couldn't have and didn't 
want ( but they did give her like 7 dogs... Lonely, Creepy and unnecessary) so 
Ted got his kids then good bye mom? Don't need you anymore. Sorry you died, but 
I really always loved Robin the most, so it's all ok. No tears here. 

But it was never really about the kids either.  Barney ( yes I know all of these 
people are characters, just go with it) had an oops moment and poof he's the 
reluctant dad.  It's a girl and he finally finds out what true love is, more 
than Lilly and Marshall who have 3 kids, but everything is about their 
friendship with "the gang" and Marshall's career, because Lily had a turn.  
Great parents! 

So what are we to get out of this. The writers were blasted by virtually all 
their fans and now say that there was an alternate ending, but, it's ok because 
they like the one that aired but you too can see the happier ending and learn 
about the pineapple if you buy the CD.  I  think they owed their loyal friends 
more than that. I am done!

I'll show them when  I have a sitcom.  I will NOT let my friends down with 
kitschy, pulling on the heart strings, wrap it all up in a bow, life's not happy 
, too bad, writing.  Life is hard, that's why we watch TV.  Unhappy  endings 
don't have to happen in that magical world.  UTubers have responded to that idea 
with editing a happy ending of HIMYM for us, because the writers could, or would 
not. 

Maybe it was all about money for the writers? Now you can buy a happy ending 
because we wouldn't give you one? 

Ok, now I am REALLY done!

Community

Did anyone catch Community last week? The writing was brilliant.  If you haven't 
seen the show, basically it's about a misfit group at a Community college 
getting together for a study group and becoming a family.

Now add meta, snarky, sarcastic, silly, intuitive commentary and subplots, and 
you really know what this show is about.

Last week Jeff overdosed on pills and alcohol and became GI Joe.  In rereading 
that sentence, I look like I am insane for watching the show.  But, again, to 
know the characters is to get the plots.  I put in seasons of committed watching 
to " get it".  Time wasted, I think not!

The other characters became "Joes" too, and, well, bla bla bla, Jeff doesn't 
want to give up alcohol and women, which he would if he was an action figure, so 
he goes back to the real world.  Morals? Ethics? Mores? Humor? Social statement? 
Uh, sure.

Don't judge, just watch and then we can talk.