Month: July 2003

  • Yesterday


    On July 2, in various years, authors



    • Ernest Hemingway,
    • Mario Puzo, and
    • Vladimir Nabokov

    died.  They may serve as a sort of Trinity for those who admire excellence in style, character, and art.


    Quotations from Papa Hemingway that seem relevant to yesterday's entry:


    "Madame, all stories, if continued far enough, end in death, and he is no true-story teller who would keep that from you."
    -- Ernest Hemingway,
       Death in the Afternoon, Ch. 11


    "There is never any ending to Paris...."
    -- Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast


     


    See also entries of Sept. 27, 2002.

  • Three Days Late
    and a Dollar Short






    THE BOOK AGAINST GOD
    By James Wood.
    257 pp. New York:
    Farrar, Straus & Giroux. $24. 


    This is a book that attempts to recreate the myth of Saint Peter.


    See the New York Times review of this book from today, July 2, 2003, three days late.  The Feast of St. Peter was on June 29.


    The price, $24, also falls short of the theological glory reflected in the number 25, the common denominator of Christmas (12/25) and AntiChristmas (6/25), as well as the number of the heart of the Catholic church, the Bingo card. 


    For all these issues, see my entries and links in memory of St. Peter, from June 29. 


    The real "book against God," a novel by Robert Stone, is cited there.  The legend of St. Peter is best described by Stone, not Wood.

  • Jew's on First


    This entry is dedicated to those worshippers of Allah who have at one time or another cried
    "Itbah al-Yahud!" ... Kill the Jew!
    (See June 29 entries).











    Dead at 78


    Comedian Buddy Hackett died on Tuesday, July First, 2003, according to the New York Times.  According to Bloomberg.com, he died Sunday or Monday.



    Associated Press

    Buddy Hackett,
    on the set of
    "It's a Mad, Mad,
    Mad, Mad     World"
    in 1962.


    Whatever.  We may imagine he has now walked, leading a parade of many other stand-up saints, into a bar.


    Hepburn at Chaillot







    MIDRASH
    for Buddy Hackett


    From my May 25 entry,


    Matrix of the Death God:


    R. M. Abraham's Diversions and Pastimes, published by Constable and Company, London, in 1933, has the following magic square:



    The Matrix of Abraham


    A summary of the religious import of the above from Princeton University Press:


    "Moslems of the Middle Ages were fascinated by pandiagonal squares with 1 in the center.... The Moslems thought of the central 1 as being symbolic of the unity of Allah.  Indeed, they were so awed by that symbol that they often left blank the central cell on which the 1 should be positioned."


    -- Clifford A. Pickover, The Zen of Magic Squares, Circles, and Stars, Princeton U. Press, 2002, pp. 71-72


    Other appearances of this religious icon on the Web include:


    On Linguistic Creation


    Picasso's Birthday








    1991 Yearbook
    Rolling Stone



    Hackett


    In the Picasso's Birthday version, 22 of the 25 magic square cells are correlated with pictures on the "Class of '91" cover of Rolling Stone magazine.  Number 7 is Rod† Stewart.  In accordance with the theological rhyme "Seven is heaven, eight is a gate," our site music for today is "Forever Young," a tune made famous by Stewart.


    † Roderick, actually —  the name of the hero in "Madwoman of Chaillot"