is the word 'diary' better than the word 'blog'? probably not.
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LogBlog, and a Fistful of Funny.
Richard is a logician. He has a whole blog devoted to the study of logic. Sometimes that blog blows my mind. But only in that way that a mind can be blown by what it simply cannot fathom. So, my mind gets differently blown (um, yeah) by Richard�s blog than a mind can be by something it truly understands but had not quite thought of yet, etc. Anyway, sometimes I read Richard�s logblog even though I do not understand it, because I heart him. Today I enjoyed the headline �Logician Attacked by Alligator at ASL Meeting,� with its accompanying photo of an alligator crossing a busy street in some city somewhere. It pleased me to be able finally to leave a comment on his blog, heh, about how I have a good photo of an incident with a peacock in Vienna.
But then I read his entry on �Why the Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index doesn't mean anything in philosophy.� That blew my mind, not because I couldn�t understand it but because it reminded me of how steadfastly I have refused to think in those terms, even though much of the rest of the world is continuously thinking in those terms. I even followed some of the links because apparently I have a lot of free time, and am suddenly interested in arguments over rankings of Philosophy departments. Anyway, my point is that today Richard is a superhero, an international logician of mystery, showing the world of Productivity Indices where to put its calculations.
That is why alligators and peacocks are drawn to him.
Meanwhile back in the land where academics aren�t saving the world from biased calculations, last week Gus and I were watching the Sarah Silverman show, which is just so terribly wrong (the show, not us watching it), so wrong that it�s right (OK, maybe that goes for both the show and us watching it, because, well, we could be using our time for better things, like saving the world from biased calculations, but we like TELEVISION), that I wish it were on television all the time, whenever I need it. Anyway, there was this one really really dumb but funny joke that happened right before a commercial break, and we both started laughing, and we kept laughing for a really long time, like for the whole commercial break. At first it was the joke that was funny, but then it was just the fact that we were laughing that was funny. It was like when you�re a young girl (which some of us once were) and you�re at a sleepover party and you play the game (immortalized by a Brady Bunch episode) where all the girls are in a circle, laying down, each with her head on another girl�s stomach, and someone starts laughing and it becomes contagious, and soon no one can stop laughing and it leads to stomach-hurting tear-leaking ugly-face laugh-riot hilarity. Laughing is contagious, and somehow physical contact makes it moreso.
Ah, Sarah Silverman. So wrong. So right.
Evany once wrote this about how hard Patton Oswalt made us laugh. It�s one of my favorite pieces of writing in the world! �Seriously, he brings on that kind of long and deep laughter that twists your face beyond a smile into something primal and ugly, and pulls these alien, guttural deepsea sounds out of you. After ten minutes solid of that, your body actually starts to hurt a little bit, and even then you can't stop. And that lack of body control starts to make you feel a little worried, like what next, is my ass going to explode? And yet even that, the fear of a ripped-and-torn ass, isn't enough to make you stop with the laughing.� (You can read the whole thing here.)
I just went to Patton's site to make a link and read this piece of text about the return of his site (which used to have a great comedian-on-tour blog, which you can read remnants of here): "Looking at your computer screen and eating Wheat Thins just got a whole lot cool-asser! �Cuz pattonoswalt.com, the website that rules every site on the web, is back! We�ve got an on-fire motorcycle attitude and a cool grape flavor in your mind when you think! We�re rocking the party and punching out suckiness! If you�re wearing Boring Pants and I Don�t Want To Get Down and Boogie Shoes then don�t come here because we will take off your pants and shoes and chase you with a hose! A hose that shoots fun-water!" Oh, Patton.
One time I had to go pretend like I was Dave Eggers as a favor to Dave Eggers, and, strangely, it worked, and one result of that farce was that I ended up drinking bourbon late into the night with Patton Oswalt and Evany. Then he gave us a ride home in a cab, and he sang for us the lyrics he and Aimee Mann wrote for the Six Feet Under theme song, and we sang for him the lyrics Caroleen wrote for the Six Feet Under theme song.
Back to talking about television. On 30 Rock (same night) Alec Baldwin�s character is about to get into a fight with his brother and father, and he puts up his dukes for some fisticuffs and says, �We�ll see what Jack O�Brien and Bill O�Riley have to say about THAT!� Jack O�Brien and Bill O�Riley, are, of course, his Irish fists. Then his dad shakes his clenched hands into the air and names his fists with some other Irish names. Then his brother does the same, but calls his fists �Bono� and �Sandra Day O�Connor.� Alec Baldwin pauses, then says, �Those are the stupidest fist names I�ve ever heard!�. Oh, how that pleased me.
But I only laughed for like three seconds. It was no Sarah-Silverman hey-same-car joke, nor was it Patton Oswalt on a good good night.
2:02 p.m. - March 14, 2007
RZ - 2007-03-14 22:08:43
Gainesville, Fla. Way too hot and reptilian for my taste.
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