...more recent posts
Years from now I'll probably still be telling the story of how Mike and MB saved New Years Eve 2000. The last thing I remember was MB poking me in the side and saying "look at the light." I peeled an eyelid open and saw an incredible hazy orange dawn sky out of the window. That was all I could manage. The next thing I know it's a few minutes before nine and I hear Mike and MB come bouncing into the apartment laughing. They are both completely covered in snow. They have the look I don't often see here in New York of people satisfied with having completed a tough physical job. Out the window I can see 6 or 7 inches of snow on the fire escape already, and it's still coming down heavily. Looks like we're in for a big one. And then it all clicks in my mind. There had been some concern about getting the party to the party in such a storm, but I hadn't taken it too seriously. "The wine?" I ask. "It's all set" I am assured. They had moved the whole stash from Mikes to an undisclosed location very close to the party. With people like this on the job we will not be foiled. A tip of the hat to the New Years elves, working hard to insure out intoxication. Cheers.
The New York Times (Friday) has a full page obituary for W.V.O. Quine, an American philosopher, who died Monday at age 92. I wanted to be able to say something more on this occasion, but I just don't have the time today. If you have the NYTimes maybe you should check it out. It's fairly lengthy. He was very important to me, and to the path I took with my college career. I read the essay "Two dogmas of empiricism," which the Times talks about, in my freshman year, and it really set my mind toward philosophy (at least as it was presented in that context.) Not sure how it turned out, but I was surprised to see all the space the Times lavished on his obituary. I guess he was important to some other people as well. I'll have to find that essay and read it again. I think its in my storage space. Yikes. That would be quite an adventure. I haven't been there in years. Anyway, I wonder how I would find it now. Perhaps I'll report back.