Category Archives: History

Stormy Weather

Clear skies this morning. Looks like the latest hurricane has passed, or as Ethel Waters once sang in the 1930s (with accompaniment by Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, lyrics by Ted Koehler / Harold Arlen)…

I like this rhyme:

When he went away the blues walked in and met me.
If he stays away old rockin chair will get me.

There must be a dozen or more versions of this song by famous singers, but I have not seen or heard one better than the original. Wonder if anyone in pop has attempted an alternative version?

Francis Picabia

I have a growing fascination with Francis Picabia, not least of all because of some of the quotes I have found attributed to him:

“Who is with me is against me.”

“What I like least about others is myself.”

“The world is divided into two categories: failures and unknowns.”

“My ass contemplates those who talk behind my back.”

His poetry is strangely inspirational:

IN ORDER TO LOVE
SOMETHING YOU HAVE TO
HAVE SEEN IT OR HEARD IT

FOR A LONG TIME YOU BUNCH OF IDIOTS

I find it fitting that he challenged order and reason in a way commonly associated with the term “hacker” today. So sad he has already passed. He would have been an amazing keynote to Blackhat, unlike the inanely boring LSE professor who was chosen for this year.

My early thoughts were to resist Dada-ism, but I wonder if with age I might be sliding into it nonetheless.

A Caucus Race and a Long Tale

Written in 1865, before the typewriter, this is from Alice in Wonderland, Chapter III, “A Caucus Race and a Long Tale” by Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson):

                      "It _is_ a long tail, certainly," said Alice, looking
                     down with wonder at the Mouse's tail; "but why do you
                     call it sad?" And she kept on puzzling about it while the
                     Mouse was speaking, so that her idea of the tale was
                     something like this:----"Fury said to
                               a mouse, That
                                     he met in the
                                          house, `Let
                                              us both go
                                                 to law: _I_
                                                  will prose-
                                                   cute _you_.--
                                                  Come, I'll
                                                 take no de-
                                              nial: We
                                           must have
                                        the trial;
                                     For really
                                   this morn-
                                 ing I've
                                nothing
                               to do.'
                                Said the
                                 mouse to
                                   the cur,
                                      `Such a
                                         trial, dear
                                             sir. With
                                               no jury
                                                or judge,
                                                  would
                                                 be wast-
                                               ing our
                                             breath.'
                                          `I'll be
                                       judge,
                                    I'll be
                                  jury,'
                                said
                               cun-
                               ning
                                old
                                  Fury:
                                   `I'll
                                      try
                                        the
                                         whole
                                          cause,
                                           and
                                          con-
                                        demn
                                    you to
                               death'."