Philomena Cunk on the true-ish meaning of Christmas
Mockumentarian Philomena Cunk the spirit or something of the holiday season:
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Humor
“Notes on Punctuation,” by Lewis Thomas
Notes on Punctuation by Lewis Thomas* There are no precise rules about punctuation (Fowler lays out some general advice (as best he can under the complex circumstances of English prose (he points out, for example, that we possess only four stops (the comma, the semicolon, the colon and the period (the question mark and exclamation
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A Brief History of Philosophy — social-media version
1. Socrates deletes his account. 2. Plato posts screenshots of Socrates. 3. Aristotle unfollows Plato. 4. Aquinas retweets Jesus. 5. Descartes mutes Aquinas. 6. Locke mutes Descartes. 7. Kant unfollows Locke and Descartes. 8. Hegel subtweets Kant. 9. Schopenhauer blocks Hegel. 10. Marx likes Hegel. 11. Nietzsche gets hacked. 12. Heidegger DMs Arendt. 13. Adorno
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Humor — Religion and the afterlife
A man arrives at the gates of heaven. St. Peter asks, “Religion?” The man says, “Methodist.” St. Peter looks down his list, and says, “Go to room twenty-eight, but be very quiet as you pass room eight.” Another man arrives at the gates of heaven. “Religion?” “Baptist.” “Go to room eighteen, but be very quiet
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Me and mini-Marx
I passed through Trier, Germany, mostly to see the Porta Nigra. But Trier is also the birthplace of one K. Marx, and this year is the 200th anniversary of his birth. The city is full of celebratory signage and knick-knacks, but for me one item captured the event best. I give you me and mini
Speed Reading — a joke
The latest in cognition research: Accordion to several studies, replacing words with the names of musical instruments in a sentence often goes undetected.
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“Should I marry you?” How philosophers answer the big question
Romance is in the air, thus my annual reposting of my round-up of philosophers talking to their sweethearts – collected from conversations overheard at smoky cafés, college libraries, mountain caves, and seminar rooms the world over. The Aristotelian: “I wish to marry you, for I know that my happiness, both of body and soul, is
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A skeptic goes to a religious convention …
She was skeptical, but Mariana went with a friend to a multi-denominational religious convention. A Christian healer laid his hands on her and exclaimed, “In the name of Jesus Christ our Savior, you will walk today!” “But I’m not paralyzed,” Mariana said politely, turning away. Then a rabbi laid his hands on her head and
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