Mickey Z
Cool Observer
Thursday, November 30, 2006
Does anyone really know what time it is?
don´t wear a watch, they don´t feel nice. On the metro here and there you see some of these businessman/soldier-types with what seem to be now fashionable watches with enormous faces - I guess Flavor Flav is having his style co-opted pretty soon.
There´s a Vonnegut book by name of Deadeye Dick with some characters who can´t speak in anything but the present tense. English, surprisesurprise, seems to be the Indo-European language with the most rigid notions of past and future - Italian and Spanish you can use present as much as you want with little confusion.And one more thing, kindof related - well insofar as language instilling linear thought is concerned - I heard in the Japanese tongue if you want to say something like “I see the dog”, it isn´t expressed in an unidirectional subject-verb-object manner so much as instead you´d say “I dog seeing”, to express the dynamics between me and the dog in a relationship of seeing and being seen.
Posted by owen on from schmarcelona 11/30 at 06:40 AMOwen I think the same is true for Korean. I had some Korean friends who once told me the literal translation of “I sit/sat/will sit in the chair” would be “I chair sit”.
I haven’t worn a watch since I was a teenager. Can’t stand ‘em now, especially expensive ones. I do have this damn mobile phone on me all the time, that’s annoying (but kinda necessary for the nature of my work). Dutch culture is very clock oriented. Not pleasant.
On Hopi stuff, I watched Powaqqatsi again the other night. Recommended for those who don’t know it (though not as highly as the first in the “qatsi” trilogy).
Posted by Keir on from The Gray Hague 11/30 at 06:58 AM“time is an illusion, lunchtime doubly so”
douglas adams
Posted by michael on from exile 11/30 at 07:51 AMGood morning all…
On the subject of watches, I remember the first one I ever had. It was a really big deal to get a watch back in those days. Even cheap ones cost a lot. My parents gave me a Waltham for my 16th birthday. I treasured it. It even had a Spiedel band on it. In recent years it became difficult to find an affordable wind-up watch. I bought a Timex. It lasted a long time but eventually needed a new battery which cost more than a new watch with a battery so I bought a no-name watch in K-Mart for $5. It has been keeping time for years but I always wonder how the people who work in the watch factories are treated and how much they are paid.
It has been fun watching the administration’s spinning that is going on about the snub of Bush by Iraq yesterday. I have never seen anything quite like it...kind of like a guy who has been stood-up by his beautiful prom queen date and he says, “Well, I didn’t really want to go out with her anyway.”Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 11/30 at 09:09 AMWatches screw up my pulse and suck up attention.
They always end up cracked or scorned anyway.
Jewellery is like wearing suffering and I always wind up losing it or breaking it.
I find its close association with vanity and despair too much of a discomfort to bother with.
If you can’t find a clock nearby you really don’t need to know the time.I think the word “foo” in Chinese dialects has about 7 different meanings. I like to watch the local news broadcast in Mandarin.
It’s as though they are attacking you with the words.Inuit dialects seem soft and very gentle by compare, like a language spoken by a people with no omni-present background noise permeating their daily lives.
Posted by Youngfox on from duct 7 11/30 at 09:33 AMGood day, Expendables.
“Time is a self-confidence trick invented by the Swiss.” - Chiun (Joel Grey) in ‘Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins’ [IMdB has this quote as “Watches are...” I could be mistaken, but the point stands.]
Native American wisdom sez events are measured in “how” and “why,” not “when.” It makes much more sense, but plays havoc with Marketing, Inc.
Awkward time: trying to get Chomsky to wrap it up before the dining hall closes for lunch.
MZ, Vidal’s pithy quip about marriage cuts both ways: marriage *is* a tattered medieval institution but gays, as in the military, often have a better record than their hetero counterparts. Someone identified over 1200 legal rights that are connected to marriage, so this would seem to carry the point.
Gotta run…
Posted by Zenprole on from Urth 11/30 at 10:17 AMlet me be the third or fourth person here to say I do not wear a watch...do I see a pattern forming?
I am so glad to read about the massive toliet that are the Great Lakes...makes me look back fondly on all of those days I spent in Lake Michigan this summer.
Posted by JOS on from Chicago 11/30 at 10:42 AMi dont wear a watch either.
and on another note, i must say, after a long break it is nice to thumping that old tub again…
Posted by michael on from exile 11/30 at 11:10 AMjust thought i should give a heads up for this truly wonderful 5 minute short film i just watched…
Posted by michael on from exile 11/30 at 11:46 AMI always wear a watch. I am currently wearing a Maurice Lacroix, its in the same league with Rolex or Movado--a present from a rich ex-girlfriend. What can I say? Should I be ashamed to say I actually like it. If I lost it tomorrow would my life change at all? No.
Check this out, for someone so smart…
http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/11/30/space.hawking.reut/index.htmlPosted by Brian on from Belly of the Beast 11/30 at 01:31 PMHello Expendables. The late November heat wave continues here.
I also do not wear a watch. If I want to know what time it is, I ask someone.
Okay, let me check the links posted above.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 11/30 at 02:23 PMWhew, thanks Brian. I was starting to feel like a misfit because I wear a watch. Now I can relax and feel like a misfit for only all of the other reasons.
About populating other planets, I don’t know. We have already messed this one up so maybe we should stay here and live in the mess we created. I used to live in the shadow of Cape Kennedy. A lot of money has been going into space while a lot of people are hungry here.
About marriage, my views have been changing. I now have come to the conclusion that the government should not marry gays or non-gays. There was a big thing up here about that issue and in the end what really happened was that the legislation put the government in the bedrooms. That happened because “civil unions” were legalized but only between people who were actually engaging in sex. The legal rights that come with civil unions are still denied to all others. Maybe the time for marriage has passed. I would be in favor of contracts to protect children but we all know that contracts are hard to enforce.Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 11/30 at 02:26 PMWhy we need a single-payer health care system…
Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 11/30 at 02:52 PM“We have already messed this one up so maybe we should stay here and live in the mess we created.”
Well said, RMJ.
Posted by JOS on from Chicago 11/30 at 03:02 PMClassic human behavior: Treat everything as disposable.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 11/30 at 03:15 PMthis is hilarious:
http://web1.hannity.com/hannidate/
Posted by JOS on from Chicago 11/30 at 04:08 PMI am, it seems, very slow. I’ve been wondering for weeks what you guys mean when you say, “Captcha says” but was too embarrased to ask. When I posted my last comment I suddendly realized what it is...silly me.
Captcha says: effect.
Posted by Brian on from Belly of the Beast 11/30 at 04:11 PMBrian, you should’ve e-mailed me privately. I wouldn’t have laughed...well, not too loudly.
JOS: Excellent link. I have one, too:
http://tinyurl.com/y4xukhPosted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 11/30 at 04:49 PMFull disclosure, Mickey: the watch I am wearing at the moment is quite expensive (it has a portrait of Beethoven between the hands - was a Christmas present). I must say that in my experience, more expensive watches last a lot longer than the ones which cost 10 dollars.
And the Great Lakes being a toilet - haven’t they been ‘dead’ for several decades?
Hi, Owen (ah Schmarcelona ..), Keir, Rosemarie, Youngfox, Zenprole, JOS, Michael and Brian. Take care, all of you and you, Mickey!
Posted by Helga Fremlin on from Daylesford, Australia 11/30 at 05:07 PMAnd does it strike my fellow expendables as obscene as well that there are people out there who are prepared to pay $140 million for a painting (someone paid that for a Jackson Pollock recently apparently), to put watches aside for a moment? Simply HAD to put that in ..
Posted by Helga Fremlin on from Daylesford, Australia 11/30 at 05:40 PM$140 million for paint on canvas while billions starve…
As captcha sez: dark
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 11/30 at 05:49 PMOh, and one last thing: Mr Helga does not wear a watch either but his cell phone (aka mobile phone in Australia) shows the time, so there ..
Posted by Helga Fremlin on from Daylesford, Australia 11/30 at 05:49 PMLots of interesting comments & material today (not an exception).
Happy Birthday to Mark Twain (1835-1910).
http://tinyurl.com/y2ys62re: marriage: if we had more advanced social services (care for children and basic human needs) maybe marriage wouldn’t be as contentious a legal issue. Shipping the Puritans back to Europe is another option, but we’d need a bigger boat.
Hawking and space colonization: Looking to technology for a timely ride off this magnificent, abused rock (a bizarre proposition at best) conveniently leaves out who would be at the front of the interstellar bus. I side with Bill Hicks; 5 grams of dried mushrooms will solve our problems faster and cheaper than a fleet of spaceships.
Q: Shouldn’t Hannity’s meat market have income levels rather than age groups?
I mourn for the Great Lakes...and the pond I fished in as a kid - similar results.
Posted by Zen Prole on from Urth 11/30 at 05:51 PMJOS....That might be what I need, a Hannidate. I just checked. No listings for Vermont or Massachusetts.
Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 11/30 at 06:28 PMI don’t own a watch. The way I see it that’s one of the great benefits of being “unimportant”.
Posted by Fiona on from san diego 11/30 at 11:33 PM
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