Comments on Want to be a free thinker but still a nice person: Embarrassing parents

I so agree about only recalling irrelevant trivia ...

2008-04-28T06:53:00.000-07:00

I so agree about only recalling irrelevant trivia in a serious work. I found a lovely antique edition of Boswell's *Life of Johnson* in a New Orleans bookshop, and read (most of) it...and the only thing I recall is that ol' Sam had a cat named Hodge. Apparently, in his London neighborhood, there was an evil ring of cat-murderes loose, so he had to keep a careful eye on his pet. "No, no, they shan't harm Hodge," he said.

I can't enter into intelligent discourse on Hobbes...

2008-04-25T12:32:00.000-07:00

I can't enter into intelligent discourse on Hobbes, you've caught me out, but I have been trying to finish a biography of Tom Paine since last winter. Let's see, what intelligent thing can I say about Tom P? His nose was an enormous size. See how much I retain from my reading?

Leviathan means a ton of things, most of them bibl...

2008-04-25T11:39:00.000-07:00

Leviathan means a ton of things, most of them biblically oriented, and outside of that it usually means enormous.

But the most interesting Leviathan, if I do say so, has to do with Thomas Hobbes' book of the same name where the Leviathan is the symbol for the supreme authority figure that rescues people from the state of nature, which is most commonly cited from the book as being "...solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short."

I spent too much time on Hobbes back in the old days when I was studying political theory. It's good stuff, if not as uplifting or interesting as someone as romantic and racy as Rousseau.

But I digress (sorry). She meant it as the biblical reference to a sea monster. :-)

I would have left a comment about an earlier comme...

2008-04-25T11:12:00.000-07:00

I would have left a comment about an earlier comment on this post but I don't know what 'Leviathan' means.

All kidding aside (but I was NOT kidding about los...

2008-04-25T07:21:00.000-07:00

All kidding aside (but I was NOT kidding about losing those awful shower-caps, boys! Let's not see those again!) one's children are supposed to be embarrassed by parents. It's part of becoming one's own person, which inevitably involves the step wherein they say, "OMIGOD if I EVER start acting like those fools---my mother/father---please just SHOOT me!" Things mellow out eventually. What was that Mark Twain quote? Something about how ashamed he was( in adolescence) of his father's stupidity, but by the time he [Twain] got to be an adult, it was amazing how much wiser the ol' dad had gotten...oh, go Google the quote, as I'm too lazy to do so.

No, Vidal, that cling-film headwear was a definite...

2008-04-25T04:50:00.000-07:00

No, Vidal, that cling-film headwear was a definite fashion mistake!:):) But I'm more troubled by that cylindrical thing rising like Leviathan out of the water. The caption for this shot should be, "Is that Triton blowing his wreathed' horn, or are you just happy to see me?:):)

Quit picking on the boys. They are very practical...

2008-04-25T02:43:00.000-07:00

Quit picking on the boys. They are very practical and you would not have wanted to ruin your coiffure either! ;-)