dennis scharnberg

“Just what I need,” cried Mr. Jackson. “Another object.”

Hollis Beddoes, Counting the Magpies.

I’ve got spangles.

And I’ve got bangles.

And a brand new shovel in me shed.

I have tangles, sir, and dangles, sir.

And thoughts—four and twenty—in me head.

E. E. Bynum, A Thump upon the Head (and Other Poems).

“I do like that style of high-heels, though. Very much.”

“We do not need to hear about your preferences, John. Not at this time.”

Crosby Fields, A Reasonable Amount of Trouble.

“She was strangely convinced that the cement brick—as an art material—was ‘owned’ by a close friend of hers. So, only he could use them. And no one else should even consider it. I accomplished exactly nothing by pointing out that cement bricks were ordinary construction products and had already been used by dozens of artists, and in a variety of ways.”

Nicholas Bruhns, Otto the Magpie.

And now considering the interval of “9”: 9, 18 [1+8=9], 27 [2+7=9], 36 [3+6=9], 45 [4+5=9], 54 [5+4=9], 63 [6+3=9], 72 [7+2=9], 81 [8+1=9], 90 [9+0=9], 99 [9+9=18, 1+8=9], 108 [1+0+8=9], 117 [1+1+7=9], 126 [1+2+6=9], …

Myron Dowsie, Voice of Numbers.

The website offered access to “100 million songs”. But Albert wanted to know how many of them had been written by music-industry giant Paul Simon.

Adrian Caliban, The Magnificent Egglestons.

Upon changing the interval of “3” to an interval of “6” we obtain similar results: 6, 12 [1+2=3], 18 [1+8=9], 24 [2+4=6], 30 [3+0=3], 36 [3+6=9], 42 [4+2=6], 48 [4+8=12, 1+2=3], 54 [5+4=9], 60 [6+0=6], 66 [6+6=12, 1+2=3], 72 [7+2=9], 78 [7+8=15, 1+5=6], 84 [8+4=12, 1+2=3], 90 [9+0=9] 96 [9+6=15, 1+5=6], 102 [1+0+2=3], 108 [1+0+8=9], 114 [1+1+4=6], 120 [1+2+0=3]…

Myron Dowsie, Voice of Numbers.

The thing to remember is that the model—any model—always leaves out almost everything.

Nigel Swoone, Old Theories of Time.

Modern humans cannot grasp simplicity.

Desmond Urquhart, The Unsocial Sciences.

Headline: “PHILOSOPHER BOLDLY USES WORDS!”

Jason Starling, ed., Adventures in Narrative Parsimony.