Bits. . .

. . . pieces. . .

The eighteenth century is the Age of Enlightenment.  The Enlightenment popularizes the ideas developed during the Age of Reason.  The Enlightenment is basically the view or belief that modern science and our understanding of the social world derived from modern science can help us to improve the living conditions on this planet.  War, poverty, and injustice are not God-given punishments for our sinfulness but bad management.  Oppressive governments can be reformed or overthrown.  Social inequality can be alleviated and, maybe, overcome.  Disease is not to be accepted stoically but to be fought with new medicines.  Poverty can be reduced through the productivity of new inventions and technologies.  Ignorance can be overcome through universal public education.  Human societies are perfectible if only we have the will and use our scientific knowledge to plan and socially engineer for a better future.  There is no limit to what human reason and ingenuity can achieve. The French Enlightenment thinkers are known as the philosophes. They are not really philosophers but what we would today call journalists or popularizers. One of the great achievements of the philosophes was the publication of the Encyclopédie.  All those who contributed articles are known as the Encyclopedists.  Philosophes and encyclopedists are often used as interchangeable terms when describing the French Enlightenment.

Opponents of the French government's plans to legalize same-sex marriage and adoption took to the streets of Paris in January. With an estimated 350,000 marchers, the demonstration was considered one of the largest in years. The French government took note, but vowed go ahead with its plans for the law anyway.

France now joins Britain in taking a major legislative step in recent weeks toward allowing gay marriage and adoption — making them the largest European countries to do so. The Netherlands, Belgium, Norway and Spain, as well as Argentina, Canada and South Africa have authorized gay marriage, along with nine U.S. states and the District of Columbia.

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Hooch. . .

(from http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/02/11/171732213/less-potent-makers-mark-not-going-down-smooth-in-kentucky?sc=ipad&f=1008)
". . . Kentucky is bourbon country. Bar shelves in Louisville are stocked with a crowded field of premium bourbons; the city's Theater Square Marketplace restaurant alone carries close to 170 different brands. So when news trickled out that longtime distillery Maker's Mark plans to water down its bourbon, locals were stunned.

Bourbon has to be aged at least two years — and that's where Maker's Mark got in trouble. Chief Operating Officer Rob Samuels says the company simply didn't make enough.

"The phones have been ringing off the hook over the last three or four months from most every city in the country where Maker's Mark is not available," Samuels says. "As far away as California and as close to home as the package store five minutes from the distillery."

Now, the company says it must spread the remaining supply over more bottles to meet growing demand. The Maker's Mark label will now read 84 proof instead of the traditional 90.

The Samuels family invented Maker's Mark six decades ago and has been distilling in Kentucky even longer than that. The company prides itself on quality and tradition. Its slogan used to be, "It tastes expensive ... and is."

Samuels says keeping that signature taste, despite weakening the drink, was key.

But maintaining flavor is one thing — maintaining the company's image is another. People might not notice a change in the taste, but they are likely to notice that the price isn't going down.

"My initial reaction was, that's how bourbons that are not premium brands would deal with it," says Jason Falls, a marketing professional who has worked with Maker's Mark in the past. Knob Creek had a similar shortage in 2009, he says, "and I believe the way the brand dealt with it was they sent T-shirts to all their ambassadors that said, 'I survived the drought ... of 2009.' "

It's unclear if Maker's Mark's move will hurt the brand's global reach. But in Kentucky — bourbon country — locals aren't too happy with the change.

"It's gotten ... a lot of outrage," says Sara Havens, who writes about the bar scene for the Louisville Eccentric Observer newspaper. "People asking if they're going to lower the price now, [or] just that it's kind of not fair."

Havens says she'll still drink Maker's Mark, but probably less often. "[When] you go to a bar and you know one drink is watered down and the other drink is potent, you always go to the potent one," she says.

To avoid another shortage, Maker's Mark is planning to expand operations — and they're not alone. In Kentucky, there are now more barrels of bourbon than there are people. So even if an old standby like Maker's Mark is hard to find, there'll always be something to drink. . . "


 I have three observations:

1.  They were up-front and honest about what they were doing and why with the boss taking complete responsibility.  Must be worth something.
2.  Taste-testers (Makers Mark taste-testers, that is) found no significant difference.  (SURPRISE!)
3.  Since MOST people have it on the rocks, with a little water or in a Manhattan or Old Fashioned, they won't notice any difference.  [Note:  I drink it NEAT!]

So I don't know what to think.  Based upon number 1, maybe I'll just buy a bottle and see what I think for myself.

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Songs. . .

. . . are for everyone. . .

(from Christopher Hitchens, God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything)
". . .One must state it plainly. Religion comes from the period of human prehistory where nobody—not even the mighty Democritus who concluded that all matter was made from atoms—had the smallest idea what was going on. It comes from the bawling and fearful infancy of our species, and is a babyish attempt to meet our inescapable demand for knowledge (as well as for comfort, reassurance and other infantile needs). Today the least educated of my children knows much more about the natural order than any of the founders of religion, and one would like to think—though the connection is not a fully demonstrable one—that this is why they seem so uninterested in sending fellow humans to hell. . .”

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(from NBC News)
". . . An asteroid half the size of a football field will give Earth the ultimate close shave this month, passing closer than many satellites when it whizzes by. But it won't hit the planet, NASA scientists say.  The asteroid 2012 DA14 will fly by Earth on Feb. 15 and zip within 17,200 miles (27, 680 kilometers) of the planet during the cosmic close encounter. The asteroid will approach much closer to Earth than the moon, and well inside the paths of navigation and communications satellites. "This is a record-setting close approach," Don Yeomans, the head of NASA's asteroid-tracking program, said in a statement. "Since regular sky surveys began in the 1990s, we've never seen an object this big get so close to Earth."

Asteroid 2012 DA14 was discovered last year by an amateur team of stargazers at the La Sagra Sky Survey observatory in Spain. Yeomans stressed that, while the asteroid's approach brings it closer than the geosynchronous satellites orbiting 22,245 miles (35,800 km) above Earth, 2012 DA14 poses no threat of a deadly collision with the planet. . . "


Would they REALLY tell us if there WAS? . . .

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Slough. . .

Ough is a letter sequence often seen in words in the English language. In Middle English, where the spelling arose, it was probably pronounced with a back rounded vowel and a velar fricative, e.g., [oːx] or [uːx]. It is by far the sequence of letters with the most unpredictable pronunciation, having at least six pronunciations in North American English and over ten in British English. A few of the more common are these:

    /oʊ/ as in "though" (cf. toe).
    /uː/ as in "through" (cf. true).
    /ʌf/ as in "rough" (cf. ruffian).
    /ɒf/ as in "cough" (cf. coffin).
    /ɔː/ as in "thought" (cf. taut).
    /aʊ/ as in "bough" (cf. to cow).


Slough of Despond by John P. Graboski
Performed by Oho (rehearsal recording)





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Fifteen. . .

Fifteen minutes of glory
Maybe less
What I wouldn't give for the chance
To confess
All my intimate secrets
All my hopes and my desires
I don't care just how valid
You think that they are
They've been mine for a long long time
And I'm not ashamed of them

Shut up Joe
How do you really know
What's going down
How can you tell if there's a problem somewhere
To be found
We all need to gather round
To help everybody else to see
That running your mouth aloud
Makes it that much more difficult
For you and me
And our integrity

Went to work at the factory
At fourteen
Thought I'd finish my schooling
Sometime in between
Drunken weekends and futile street fights
And the visits to my best girl
But the time slipped away
I've got bills here to pay
I've got small ones depending on me
My vision is limited

Shut up Joe
How do you really know
What's going down
How can you tell if there's a problem somewhere
To be found
We all need to gather round
To help everybody else to see
That running your mouth aloud
Makes it that much more difficult
For you and me
And our integrity

All my life I've known
I'd want to say
Something to my
Fellow man today
Couldn't let the facts
Get in the way.

We weren't that well acquainted
Never were
An occasional run-in
We preferred
There's one thing that we both believe in
Heard it over and over again
It was something about
All the fondness we felt
How the heart can't miss what's not around
If the mind doesn't value it

Shut up Joe
How do you really know
What's going down
How can you tell if there's a problem somewhere
To be found
We all need to gather round
To help everybody else to see
That running your mouth aloud
Makes it that much more difficult
For you and me
And our integrity


Integrity
©2008 Raymond M. Jozwiak




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Musical . . .

. . . life . . .

Many folks get many different things from music.  Some people care very little for it, or at least do not pay it much attention.  Still others are attracted, mesmerized, addicted, absorbed, delighted, voracious, dedicated or dependent upon it.  Those truly dependent upon it derive an oblique, ethereal or indescribable satisfaction from it.

Some people dive into it with the intention of obtaining huge material gains from it and some do.  While others dive into it with the intention of obtaining huge emotional or 'spiritual' gains from it and do.

One of those was Paul Tanner, who recently died at the age of ninety-five.  No Grammy winner, Mr. Tanner, but not only did he play trombone on the 1939 hit 'In The Mood', he also played the electro theramin (which he helped develop) on 'Good Vibrations' and other Beach Boys recordings.  A musical life, long and well-lived.

Who could ask for more?

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