Tuesday, October 6, 2020
Lev Tikhomirov... noted this crucial fact in his diary in early 1916: "People say that the Emperor has been warned to his face that Rasputin is destroying the Dynasty. He replies: "Oh, that's silly nonsense; his importance is greatly exagerated." An utterly incomprehensible point of view. For this is in fact where the destruction comes from, the wild exaggerations. What really matters is not what sort of influence Grishka has on the Emperor, but what sort of influence the people think he has. This is precisely what is undermining the authority of the Tasar and the Dynasty." To separate Rasputin from his mythodology, I came to realize, was to completely misunderstand him. There is no Rasputin without the stories about Rasputin.
— Douglas Smith, Rasputin
Monday, October 5, 2020
Yes. There is also an incredibly beautiful text by Menander, which really became the trigger for "The Generic City." The text explained how you could describe any city in a positive way. If the city is on top of a mountain, you could say it is totally inaccessible, or you would say it is well defended, or you coudl say that it has beautiful views and panoramic conditions.
— Rem Koolhaas, The Ordinary: Recordings
Sunday, October 4, 2020
Other things contributed to making me paint what I do the way I do. For one thing, I have always wanted everybody to like my work.
— Norman Rockwell, My Adventures as an Illustrator
Saturday, October 3, 2020
Knowing what it weighs comes after knowing how many people you need to carry it.
— David
Friday, October 2, 2020
"He said that one of the sad things in life, particularly if you were a politican, was that you discovered that the other side really had a very good case. He was most unpartisan in that way." According to Ormsby-Gore, Kennedy even wondered whether he was really cut out to be a politician because he was so often impressed by the other side's arguments when he really examined them in detail.
— Fredrik Logevall, JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century
Thursday, October 1, 2020
Frank Kermode suggests of fiction that the ending of a story is necessary to make sense of everything that came before it. Grit happens after that ending.
— David, "Grit Plus Tape"
Wednesday, September 30, 2020
"He remembered people's names."
— Fredrik Logevall, JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century
Tuesday, September 29, 2020
There aren't enough ponds in New England for everyone to have one.
— David
Monday, September 28, 2020
Sims
Walking
Bird
Games
— Lily drafting her response to a survey asking for her "Hobbies/Outside Interests"
Sunday, September 27, 2020
The hollowness, but also the wizardry, behind the self-made-billionaire image.
— Russ Buettner, Susanne Craig and Mike McIntire, "LONG-CONCEALED RECORDS SHOW TRUMP’S CHRONIC LOSSES AND YEARS OF TAX AVOIDANCE," The New York Times
Saturday, September 26, 2020
In 2020, the cancellation of the exhibition IS the artwork. Don't you see?
— @jerrygogosian meme on Philip Guston exhibit
Friday, September 25, 2020
Louis bro you should've talked to your wives and kids more instead of asking bricks what they like
— @dank.lloyd.wright meme
Thursday, September 24, 2020
The vehicle sustained no major explosive damage, but a projectile clearly struck it directly through its roof. This suggested that the military deliberately used an inert warhead to kill its target by high-velocity impact.
— Eric Schmitt, "U.S. Used Missile With Long Blades to Kill Qaeda Leader in Syria," The New York Times
Wednesday, September 23, 2020
It is a very startling thing to run into. You can go your whole life without finding that kind of excitement.
— Charles "Chuck" Spalding on his first visit to the Kennedy home, via Fredrik Logevall, JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century
Tuesday, September 22, 2020
“I was struck by how many people I spoke with, including friends, acquaintances and former clerks, felt she should have resigned at the time and that her staying on was terribly self-centered — a view I share,” Samuels emailed me. “I was also struck that normally forceful advocates I spoke with would not express their dismay on the record while she was alive.”
— Emily Bazelon, Why Ruth Bader Ginsburg Refused to Step Down," The New York Times
Monday, September 21, 2020
Today I met a guy whose job it is to pile rocks 300 ft tall and shower them with sulfuric acid. When the acid comes out at the bottom of the pile 6 months later, he mixes it with jet fuel, then more acid, then zaps the stuff with electricity. Sounds crazy right? That's where a lot of copper comes from, like the copper pipes in your home.
— Dave on FB
Sunday, September 20, 2020
Our retrospective knowledge that Roosevelt won four successive presidential elections seduces us into thinking he was at all points a political juggernaut, when in fact he faced numerous periods of vulnerability.
— Fredrik Logevall, JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century
Saturday, September 19, 2020
One brief stint was served in the employ of Thomas Edison. During this time Hampson designed and built a phonograph and a low-pressure engine. However, since his job description included milking a cow, he left Edison before going to further mechanical achievements.
— "Bug Art" wall text
Friday, September 18, 2020
People who live in grass houses shouldn't stow thrones.
— Max's punchline
Thursday, September 17, 2020
A world in which nuance was everything, in which people moved discreetly, meticulously, speaking in terms that concealed as much as they revealed, for the words would be written down by notetakers during or immediately after the meeting.
— Fredrik Logevall, JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century
