Category Archives: Miscellany
A Few Random Bits
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 10th February 2020Michael Spyres made his long awaited Met debut this month. He appeared all of two times in the title role of Berlioz’s The Damnation of Faust. Alas, he wasn’t in very good voice; at least from the evidence of last Saturday’s broadcast. He’s been singing the most taxing of roles all over the place and…
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On Tolerance III
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 27th January 2020You have to be a grown-up to be able to hear opposing view while remaining calm and granting these views a dispassionate analysis. Such behavior is beyond the capacity of most people – certainly those with strongly held beliefs. There are many people with such beliefs who feel compelled to insert them into ordinary conversations…
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On Tolerance II
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 9th January 2020As threatened last year, here is the continuation of my exegesis on tolerance. Our country’s founding document refers to”unalienable rights.” While only three were stated, it clearly indicated that there were more. In the almost quarter of a millennium since Jefferson’s Declaration the number of rights claimed by many has undergone an exponential expansion. Note…
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A Christmas Message
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 24th December 2019You may think the title of this article presumptuous as I’m not a Christian. Nevertheless, most of the country still observes Christmas is some form. Jews have taken an obscure holiday, Hanukkah, and packaged it into Xmas Lite so they can partake of the holiday fun. Pagans had a holiday centered on the winter solstice….
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On Tolerance – I
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 20th December 2019Tolerance: The ability or willingness to tolerate something, in particular the existence of opinions or behavior that one does not necessarily agree with. OK, I’ve defined tolerance. The question is how much of it is there and is there a limit on how much of tolerance can exist? Tolerance may be zero sum game. The…
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The Ascension of the Count of Orgaz
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 12th December 2019The Ascension of the Count of Orgaz is a painting by El Greco (Doménikos Theotokópoulos) 1541-1614. It depicts the burial of Don Gonzalo Ruíz and the ascension of his soul to heaven. Ruíz was posthumously promoted to count, hence the title. Burial is often used in place of Ascension when referring to the painting, but I think the latter…
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What’s in a Decade?
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 7th December 2019What a Way To End the Decade is the headline of a Fox Business article on the November jobs report. I suspect it’s not a good idea to get financial updates from an organization that doesn’t know when a decade ends, though such confusion is common. A consecutive sequence of 10 starting with 1 ends with…
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Climate Change
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 2nd December 2019The video below, despite its sarcastic title, makes an important point. It’s that when looked at over a long time frame climate change is not as pronounced as some believe it to be. I am not an expert in this field and am not qualified to pass judgement on this view or those who think…
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Three Quotations
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 16th November 2019The following speaks for itself. GK Chesterton was 6-4 and weighed 286 pounds. Chesterton: To look at you [GB Shaw], anyone would think a famine had struck England. Shaw: To look at you, anyone would think you had caused it. Next from a review of the movie Ford v Ferrari. Christian Bale may be the…
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On Wisdom
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 23rd May 2019The quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgment Before diving into a topic that usually defies accurate analysis, a few preliminaries. The third person singular pronoun is a good marker of the unwise. The degree to which it bothers you is directly correlated with your degree of unwisdom. My rule is as follows. When…
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