Comments on SUPERSTITION, BELIEF AND SCAPULAMANCY

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Steev, you're right, Vonnegut was a '60's kind of guy

can't call him contemporary any more, but since
I've been stuck in the '60's since the '60's
that's contemporary to me.

posted by Cynthia on September 25, 2003 at 3:55 AM | link to this | reply

telynor, I used have one of those "Magic 8" balls when I was a kid.

I see they'er coming back, or maybe they never left.
Then there's Chinese fortune cookies...

posted by Cynthia on September 25, 2003 at 3:52 AM | link to this | reply

You win!

Cynthia: Thanks for the kind words, below, about my writing. And yes, you found the right quote -- it was indeed Kurt Vonnegut, through the mouth of one of his characters in "Sirens of Titans." And yes, Vonnegut could be called the Mark Twain of our times. Though I personally think his heyday was in the '60s. "Sirens of Titans" I rank as his best work by far, and he wrote it early in his career (in fact it might have been his first novel).

posted by Steev on September 22, 2003 at 11:35 PM | link to this | reply

I confess

That I poke around in my tarot cards now and then when I'm overly fretting about a problem. Sometimes, it does well with helping me focus at the underlying emotions. But I don't run to them all the time either.

posted by telynor on September 21, 2003 at 11:46 AM | link to this | reply

I cheated

I googled the quote and it was Kurt Vonnegut. But he is the
modern day Mark Twain, no?

posted by Cynthia on September 20, 2003 at 9:59 PM | link to this | reply

Oh, I was just after a pretty version of the "poem"

The audio version's funnier. Sounds like Orson Welles.

posted by majroj on September 20, 2003 at 9:22 PM | link to this | reply

On the randomnimity of predictions

A man, whose name escapes me, once wrote a treatise on preditions. He made the prediction that in October of the year that his book was published there would be an airline disaster on or near O'Hare Airport in Chicago, IL involving an aircraft with red in the logo. Sure enough, an airplane with red in its logo crashed on takeoff at O'Hare that October. Statistically, O'Hare is the busiest airport in the world, red is the most popular color in airline logos, October the most likely month for airplane accidents. In other words: if you are tuned into the world's probabilities, you too can make predictions.

posted by GRYPHON on September 20, 2003 at 2:15 PM | link to this | reply

Steev I forgot to answer your quiz

Is it Mark Twain?

posted by Cynthia on September 20, 2003 at 12:10 PM | link to this | reply

Steev, thanks for the comment

I checked out your blogs. You are such a good writer
and you've been on the BN about as long as me. But,
you are burried so far down the food chain it's tough to
find you. Glad I did.

posted by Cynthia on September 20, 2003 at 12:07 PM | link to this | reply

You got me

Congratulations, you hooked me in! Had to find out what "scapulamancy" was. Now I now. Thanks for educating me. And by the way, I agree with your observations about the randomness of life, the universe and everything. "I was the victim of a series of accidents, as are we all." (Can you identify the quote?)

posted by Steev on September 20, 2003 at 11:48 AM | link to this | reply

Majroj

Thanks for directing me to that site. Don't usually do poetry but that was relevant. I got quite involved poking around and had the picture of a man in my head. Was surprised when I saw her photos. Talented person.