Once again this morning I promptly arose from my overnight lair at 8:30 am. This early morning repeat activity has become a ritual only of late as I prepare to address various outstanding coincidental and planned commitments or undertakings, all of which have thankfully concluded as of today. Until today the focus has been upon fulfilling whatever might arise or possibly be required of a general nature before we abandon our roost for a barrier island along the North Atlantic coast.
“We find this great precept often repeated in Plato, “Do thine own work, and know thyself.” Of which two parts, both the one and the other generally, comprehend our whole duty, and do each of them in like manner involve the other; for who will do his own work aright will find that his first lesson is to know what he is, and that which is proper to himself; and who rightly understands himself will never mistake another man’s work for his own, but will love and improve himself above all other things, will refuse superfluous employments, and reject all unprofitable thoughts and propositions. As folly, on the one side, though it should enjoy all it desire, would notwithstanding never be content, so, on the other, wisdom, acquiescing in the present, is never dissatisfied with itself. —[Cicero, Tusc. Quae., 57, v. 18.]—Epicurus dispenses his sages from all foresight and care of the future.”
Excerpt From
The Essays of Montaigne — Complete
Michel de Montaigne
In spite of having done very little of consequence today, for some inexplicable reason I feel as though I have accomplished a great deal. This, by the way, includes an afternoon snooze during which I slept uncommonly soundly for at least an hour. But when I awoke, it was without reluctance that I immediately re-engaged in my day of indolence and irrelevance.
As a student of philosophy (it was my undergraduate major) I am conditioned to an immediate interest in “the study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence” or what some people feel disposed to call bullshit. And, who knows, they might be correct. On balance however I find there is a confusion arising between the two poles of characterization. What on the one hand is misinterpreted as flamboyant language and impossible projections is on the other hand (my hand, for example) regarded not so much as insight or truths; rather the exercise is, firstly, purely cathartic (in which case the outcome is irrelevant) and, secondly, an exercise in logic (in which case the outcome is no more determinative than winning a high-school debate). Recognizing that so much of logic depends upon the major and minor premises assures that whatever ensues, the outcome will depend upon the quality and nature of the input.
Email to Daniel Laprès
January 12, 2025
Salut, Daniel!
Thank-you for your email, much appreciated as always.
Normally I am ambitious to address the communications you send to me. As for this particular subject of “homophobia”, I think there are some matters I should clarify. First, I “came out” when I was about 3 years old. I was having an affair with an older man; he was 5. I remember this because my mother had seen us in the back yard lying on top of one another. Pointedly she asked me what we had been doing. Of course I hadn’t any answer. At 3 years of age, it amounted to being asked, “Why do you exist?” As a result, I got accustomed to the continuing curiosity of my being. Subsequent existential inquiries related to the same matter, no matter the vernacular or the particularity, have been dismissed as repetitive. I won’t say I’ve become like those offended by so-called “woke” thinking, but close. Second, my experience with others (by which I include all those whom I have known over the past 76 years) is simply this, when it comes to personal commentary on others, we invariably see in others what we see in ourselves. It is, if you’ll forgive me for rushing this philosophic harangue, axiomatic.
In conclusion, girl talk is not my favourite. I gave up drinking alcohol over ten years ago (though I confess on occasion I still remove the top from the sherry decanter for a whiff). It is for example the reason earlier today that I absorbed myself instead in the advice of another old guy, Mr. Jean Chrétien. Don’t get me wrong, I am thankful for your sharing. But I wanted you to know that the trifling investiture of some writers hasn’t a guaranteed allure from every audience.
Cheers!
Bill
On Jan 12, 2025, at 2:21 PM, Daniel Laprès wrote:
Is there any discussion about the homophobic nature of Musks’s addressing JT as “Girl”.
Daniel
If you are not the intended party, please discard this message. We would be grateful to be informed of any error in transmission.
Si vous n’êtes pas le destinataire de ce message, nous vous prions de le supprimer et nous vous remercions de nous informer de toute erreur de transmission.
Daniel Arthur Laprès
Avocat au Barreau de Paris
Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society (Life member)
11 boulevard Sébastopol
Email from Fiona St. Clair
January 12, 2025
When I read this letter written yesterday by Jean Chretien, I felt it was worth passing on, in case you missed it. Personally, he’s always been one of my favourite PMs and he’s had experience in standing up to our neighbours in the past, as he notes below, and on so many levels, reflects the best in us as Canadians, regardless of our political stripes. And, I love the irony of the unforeseen consequence of bullying us Canuks and threatening our sovereignty, that is starting to bring us together. Yes, we are in a place of political weakness and the timing couldn’t be worse, but look at some of the Liberal ministers who were considering a run for the leadership but have decided to put Canada before their political ambitions and focus on their jobs to help deal with the coming storm (and I’m not talking about those who are dropping out because they can’t foot the ridiculous financial commitment). Plus, and I never, ever thought I’d say this as I’m so not a fan of Doug Ford, but when he started standing up to DJT regardless of how reckless or unrealistic his threats might be, he showed some spine. So, is this going to be bad? – yes. Will there be harsh, economic consequences if those tariffs are levied? – without a doubt. Will we eventually be forced to become the 51st State? – do I even need to dignify that question with an answer!
Enough from me. This is a good read and one I urge people to pass on to others. Chretien encourages us to remember who we are in the true north strong and free.
With love, Fiona
From the advent of subdivisions and malls, uniformity has been a code that has been repeated and energized. It might hearken to the Model-T built on the assembly line productions.
Ransom Olds was one of the first mass-producers of automobiles and inspired an entire generation to explore the possibilities of the emerging auto industry. Olds was born in Geneva, Ohio in 1864 and raised in Lansing, Michigan.
Henry Ford conceived a series of cars between the founding of the company in 1903 and the introduction of the Model T. Ford named his first car the Model A and proceeded through the alphabet up through the Model T. Twenty models in all, not all of which went into production. The production model immediately before the Model T was the Model S, an upgraded version of the company’s largest success to that point, the Model N. The follow-up to the Model T was another Ford Model A, rather than the “Model U”. The company publicity said this was because the new car was such a departure from the old that Ford wanted to start all over again with the letter A.
Uniformity comes at a cost to balance its many virtues.
The Model T was Ford’s first automobile mass-produced on moving assembly lines with completely interchangeable parts, marketed to the middle class. Henry Ford said of the vehicle:
I will build a motor car for the great multitude. It will be large enough for the family, but small enough for the individual to run and care for. It will be constructed of the best materials, by the best men to be hired, after the simplest designs that modern engineering can devise. But it will be so low in price that no man making a good salary will be unable to own one – and enjoy with his family the blessing of hours of pleasure in God’s great open spaces.
The virtues of uniformity are its psychological attributes; namely, constancy, consistency, conformity, steadiness, invariability, invariableness, stability, regularity, evenness, lack of variation, lack of change, equality, equability. And uniformity (with its inherent feature of commonality) removes any room for superiority.
Posh tea Lapsang souchong, Darjeeling, so-called green tea. It’s all bog water for snooty old maids in Wedgwood knickers who think milk and sugar are common and call the proper stuff “builder’s”. In The Democratic People’s Republic of England it’s builder’s only and everything else is verboten. You were only pretending to like it, anyway.
Being the simple person that I am, I confess having an inordinate attraction to uniformity. I find it removes so many unnecessary and frankly insupportable complications. Variety and diversity are in my opinion often mere accessories to the simple model. It may also be an admission of my limited intellectual capacity (or perspicacity) that I prefer consistency; but I view this seeming discredit as nothing but acknowledgement of potency. How’s that for reversal!
One may even argue, “What’s bred in the bone will out in the flesh!” The issuance of our private domains, though singular, are nonetheless limited. For me it has always been about knowing and responding to the limits. It is thus that I have tracked not only my genuine preferences but also my discernible ability to seek, discover and augment what it within those limitations.
I do not see qualification as affecting quality; rather, improving it. But I emphasize the necessity to listen heartily to one’s instinct. These so-called trifling acquaintances are anything but! For it is therein that lies the path to achievement and possible success. You will, dear Reader, grant me that to pursue things we neither wish to do nor wish to have is fruitless by any calculation (and is likely to shrink the performance whatever the outcome).
Nor is the individual attention to be discounted merely for its amiability or persuasiveness. Every act is binary. There are always two different ways to do something; and, I am convinced the human actor has always the best option in mind (barring of course hugely esoteric matters of contribution to the debate). In the result the decision to follow the route of uniformity (and its associated simplicity) is seldom unlucky. We deal with the capital we have. And uniformity affords a degree of self-evident conviction about its prosperity.
Editorial note: I cannot avoid noting the current absence of the Oldsmobile automobile. Once considered the landscape for innovation, I believe it has evaporated from sight.
During its time as a division of General Motors, Oldsmobile slotted into the middle of GM’s five passenger car divisions (above Chevrolet and Pontiac, but below Buick and Cadillac). It was also noted for several groundbreaking technologies and designs.
Oldsmobile’s sales peaked at over one million annually from 1983 to 1986, but by the 1990s the division faced growing competition from premium import brands, and sales steadily declined. When it shut down in 2004, Oldsmobile was the oldest surviving American automobile brand, and one of the oldest in the world, after Peugeot, Renault, Fiat, and Opel.
With my erstwhile physician soon to be winging his way to the South Pacific; and, Bunny already in Morocco. And with others whom I know planning to go or already en route to South Carolina and Florida; and lately having made the unwitting discovering on Country Life of balmy perspectives of the Caribbean, I presume you shall allow me a moment’s dispensation to isolate myself within the theatre of my mind. I have a limitless passion for the sea. It colours my view of the world. It defines the limit of my artistic interests. It extends even as low as retail (the Chelsea Ship’s Bell or Rolex Yacht Master for example).
“Never before has this court been presented with such a unique and remarkable set of circumstances,” Justice Juan Merchan said shortly before announcing the sentence, calling it a “truly extraordinary case”. When Trump’s New York trial adjourned with a final bang of the gavel on Friday, it also brought to a close this particularly fraught chapter in his personal and political history. When he is sworn in 10 days from now, he will do so as the first US president to have ever been convicted of a felony.
As he concluded his sentencing on Friday, Justice Merchan had one final message for Trump.
“I wish you Godspeed as you assume your second term in office,” he said.
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Whoso belongs only to his own age, and reverences only its gilt Popinjays or soot-smeared Mumbo-jumbos, must needs die with it.
– Thomas Carlyle, 1864
Thomas Carlyle (4 December 1795 – 5 February 1881) was a Scottish essayist, historian, and philosopher from the Scottish Lowlands. A leading writer of the Victorian era, he exerted a profound influence on 19th-century art, literature, and philosophy.