dennis scharnberg

pursuit of pleasantness

“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.

on glowing screens

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.

bread and circus

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.

why oh why?

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.

you’re not done

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

Nigel Swoone, Old Theories of Time.

much more twaddle

Modern humans cannot grasp simplicity.

Desmond Urquhart, The Unsocial Sciences.

here and now

Headline: “PHILOSOPHER BOLDLY USES WORDS!”

Jason Starling, ed., Adventures in Narrative Parsimony.

tabulating the smiles

Declaring someone a genius is always a case of using the word “genius.”

Tristram Speaker, A Book of Postulates.

nothing to say

In those days it was still quite possible for a person to simply wander off, and never be heard from again.

P. J. Cahoon, The History of Crime.

this gentle day

When you finally see that—for a theologian—the religion is not the priority….

Chalmers Van Nest, The Trivial Quadrivium.