Category: Autobiographical
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A Slip of the Tongue and a Bit about Me and Mary Jane
One morning recently I was talking with a thirtysomething woman about Obamacare. "If you like your period, you can keep your period" came out of my mouth. I was intending, "If you like your plan, you can keep your plan, period." Thanks to Obama, the period is one punctuation mark that will never be the…
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Bill O’Reilly, Mungo Jerry, and Immanuel Kant
Mr. Bill made a mistake the other night on The O'Reilly Factor when he said that the British skiffle group Mungo Jerry's sole Stateside hit, In the Summertime, is from '67. Not so, as I instantly recalled: it is from the summer of 1970. I remember because that was the summer I first read Kant,…
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Recent Publications of Mine
A couple of long review articles of mine have recently appeared: Constituent versus Relational Ontology, Studia Neoaristotelica, vol. 10, no. 1 (2013), pp. 99-115. Hugh McCann on the Implications of Divine Sovereignty, American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, online now (by subscription), print version forthcoming 2014. My PhilPapers page with an incomplete list of my publications. Related…
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Thanksgivukkah 2013
The usual suspects enjoyed themselves immensely, three of whom are depicted below:
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He Was a Friend of Mine
John F. Kennedy was assassinated 50 years ago today. Here is The Byrds' tribute to the slain leader. They took a traditional song and redid the lyrics. The young Bob Dylan here offers an outstanding interpretation of the old song. And Dave van Ronk's version is not to be missed. He was a friend of…
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The Professor-Student ‘Non-Aggression Pact’
William J. Bennett and David Wilezol, Is College Worth It? (Thomas Nelson 2013), p. 134: Knowing that students prefer to spend more time having fun than studying, professors are more comfortable awarding good grades while requiring a minimum amount of work. In return, students give favorable personal evaluations to professors who desire to be well…
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Sweat, Perspire, Glow
It was a hot and humid September day, twenty years ago. I was sitting in a restaurant in Wuhan, China. There had been a power outage, so the air conditioning was off. The lady next to me was perspiring profusely. I somewhat crudely drew attention to the fact probably using some such expression as 'sweating bullets.'…
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Prague Conference on Analytic Theology, September 2013
Dale Tuggy on our rural ramble outside of Prague. Dale hoists a bottle of Pilsner Urquell. To his right, Daniel von Wachter, Daniel Novotny, Alexander Pruss, Michael Gorman, Piotr Dvorak. In the background, left to right, Jan Liska-Dalecki, Lukas Novak, and Trent Dougherty. Right click to enlarge.…
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Travel Disruptive, but Good for the Soul
For me, travel is disruptive and desolating. A little desolation, however, is good for the soul, whose tendency is to sink into complacency. Daheim, empfindet man nicht so sehr die Unheimlichkeit des Seins. Travel knocks me out of my natural orbit, out of the familiar with its gauzy filters, into the strangeness of things. Even…
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Old Carl
It must have been the fall of '72. Old Carl and I were sitting in his Culver City flophouse room drinking Brew 102 after a day's manual labor . He delivered himself of a line not to be forgotten. "Bill, once I was limber all over but stiff in one place. Now it's the other…
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Cleveland Heights Coventry Art Fair Cancelled Again
I lived in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, from 1984 to 1991. From '86 to '91 I owned a house on Euclid Heights Boulevard near the bohemian Coventry distinct. I loved it: the Arabica coffee house where I hung out to read, write and play chess; eateries such as Tommy's and Irv's; shops like Passport to Peru; the…
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Two Million Pageviews
This morning the Typepad version of Maverick Philosopher shot past the two million pageview mark. This, the third main version of MavPhil, commenced operations on 31 October 2008. The first main version took off on 4 May 2004. To be exact, total pageviews at the moment are 2,000,523. That averages to 1161.74 per day with recent averages well…
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I Too Was Once a Democrat!
Like many conservatives, I didn't start out as one. My background is working class, my parents were Democrats and so was I until the age of 41. I came of age in the '60s. One of my heroes was JFK, "the intrepid skipper of the PT 109" as I described him in a school essay. …
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The Devirilization of Priest and Liturgy in the Novus Ordo Mass
I would like to return to the practice of the religion of my youth, I really would. Nothing of the usual sort holds me back: not the sex monkey, not illicit loves or addictions, not worldly ambition or the demands of career, not the thoughtlessness of the worldling mesmerized by the play of transient phenomena,…
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Of Food and Philosophy
JH writes, I'm curious as to when you eat breakfast in relation to when you do your early morning studying, meditating, hiking, or running. I know you've mentioned a few times that you've done these activities before meeting folks for breakfast, so I am curious to know if eating affects your mental and/or spiritual…