Jim Barcelona's Philosophy and Food Blog

I picked up this tome a few nights ago, and so far from just reading the introduction, I think I'll get a really interesting orientation towards art. There are pages about play and players. (102 - 110)



Here are a few things that struck me in the introduction:

He wants to "demonstrate how much there is of event effective in all understanding." (xxii)

He holds that "the experience of art is the most insistent admonition to scientific consciousness to acknowledge its own limits." (Ibid.)

He wishes to meet the demand for a new critical consciousness. (xxiv)

For you philosophy buffs, here's:
A Florilegium of Seneca's Apothegms

Without an antagonist prowess fades away.

Prosperity unbruised cannot endure a single blow, but a man
who has been at constant feud with misfortune acquires a
skin calloused by suffering; he yields to no evil and even
if he stumbles carries the fight on upon his knee.

A gladiator counts it a disgrace to be matched with an
inferior; he knows that a victory devoid of danger is a
victory devoid of glory.

But the greater the torment, the greater the glory shall be.

Prosperity can come to the vulgar and to ordinary talents,
but to triumph over the disasters and terrors of mortal
life is the privilege of the great man.

No one can discover what he can do except by trying.

Disaster is virtue's opportunity. Those whom an excess
of prosperity has rendered sluggish may justly be called
unfortunate.

All excesses are injurious, but immoderate prosperity is
the most dangerous of all.

By suffering misfortune the mind grows able to belittle suffering.

Your good fortune is not to need good fortune.

The life we receive is not short but we make it so.

Procrastination is the greatest waste of time.

Expectancy is the greatest impediment to living: in
anticipation of tomorrow it loses today.

The present is fleeting. . . it ceases to be before it has become.

The only people really at leisure are those who take
time for philosophy. They alone really live.

All virtues are fragile in the beginning and acquire
toughness and stability in time.

Less labor is needed when your concern is for the present.

For however unadvertised virtue may be, it is never wholly
unknown but gives signs of its presence, and the worthy will
track it down.

Nothing can equal the pleasure of faithful and congenial friendship.

It is important to withdraw into one's self.

What is the happy life? Self-sufficiency and abiding tranquility.

The good lies not in the thing but in the quality of selection.

Boxed Foods Company on 245 Kearney between Sutter Street and Bush Street serves the best sandwich and salad combo around. Today I had the Chicken Panini that comes with salad with huge, thin slices of Parmesan that melt in your mouth.



The Chicken Panini oozed out carmelized shallots and fine chevre. Also, the basil and sundried tomatoes launched this lunch into 7th heaven. All of this was packaged in nice plastic containers, and with the cola drinks they serve here that come with Green Tea and Kane Sugar, this place wins for the best lunch under $10.

Another great dish is the grilled portabello sandwich for you vegetarians out there.

I ran into this piece over at Brain Waves.

One part that stuck out was this:

"5. Blogging combines the best of solitary reflection and social interaction."

You mean kinda like philosophy as practiced by Socrates through the Socratic Method?

The third sex. -- "A small man is a paradox but still a man; but small females seem to me to belong to another sex than tall women," said an old dancing master. A small woman is never beautiful -- said old Aristotle.

[The Gay Science, aph. 75]

Barce's interpretation: Nietzsche had the hots for tall chics but had problems saying that outright.

NOTE: I just launched sciurophobia.org where you post all your questions or share your stories and/or concerns about squirrels.
sciurophobia - fear of squirrels

Can be pronounced: ski-ooro-phobia or she-ooro-phobia (more Italianate)
etymology:

squirrel <-- squirel (olde Englishe) <-- esquirel or escurel (old French)
<-- squirelus (Late Latin) <-- sciurus (Latin)
<-- skia [shade] + oura [tale] (classical Greek)

If you've got a phobia that you need treated, the folks at UCSF might be able to help.