Don't date a singer

I recently caught myself listening to a few Adele songs and let's face it - she has talent: a powerful dusky voice that easily evokes emotion and songwriting passion to boot.  Her material, as has often been noted, is all about breakups and heartache.  She is not alone in mining her personal life for gold.  Taylor Swift (I take this on faith.  I don't listen to country music) also uses her romantic misfires as fodder for songwriting.  I should point out that this is nothing new.  Alanis Morisette did the same thing in the '90s with "You Oughta Know".  Heck, if breakup songs were suddenly outlawed, radio stations would go out of business.  But the laser focus that these two women put into their music got me thinking - I would hate to date one of them.

And that is the problem - we only get their side of the story.  If their exes could write and sing as well, we might get more songs about freedom and succubi.  The fact is, we don't know why their beaus left them.  We at least know that they're vindictive and have no problem sharing their private lives with others.  Fortunately for me I'm in a wonderful relationship with my sweetheart and wife (same person), but I share my struggles with a very small group of people.  If I was a guy contemplating dating any woman who had written a breakup song, I would tread very carefully knowing that the woman was brimming with bitter emotion (and you know how men love emotional women) and that no matter what the circumstances, I would probably end up playing the bad guy if things go south.  I hope both Adele and Taylor find an enduring love of their lives, but their tendency to sing about it is seriously limiting the field.

The '80s are gone man...

The problem with the '80s is that they are over and will produce no more music.  Of course you can say that about any decade, but the '80s changed so much.  There were so many currents swirling around and so many one hit wonders it's hard to keep track.  I loved listening to the radio, which is how we consumed music without paying for it before the internet.  It was fun listening to Casey Kasem (I lost interest when Rick Dees took over) count down America's Top 40 and see if my favorite songs were rising or falling.  It was like a personal weekly horse race.

Alas, the '80s will produce no more bubble gum pop, synth pop, glam rock, new age, etc.  A lot of it wasn't very good from a musical perspective, but it sure was catchy.  I love to wax nostalgic and play some of it back from time to time.  Can't listen to it too long, but it only takes a little to throw me all the way back to elementary school.

So what songs from the '80s do you love?  Tell me in the comments.

Herein Lies the Proof of Universal Ignorance

“I know nothing.”

That was the famous catch phrase of Sergeant Schultz when pressed by Colonel Klink on Hogan’s Heroes.  Of course, he said it with a thick fake accent and perfect comic timing.  His proclamation of ignorance must have paid a lot of bills.  It has similar comic effect today when used by politicians although it doesn’t pay any bills but rather allows them to continue life unfettered by the criminal justice system.  But I digress.

You know, Socrates was right on the subject of professing ignorance.  He went to the Oracle, which told him he was the wisest man.  And the father of western thought wrestled with this for a while and finally produced the greatest pearl of wisdom ever to grace the mind of a man.  Briefly stated, he said that if he was indeed wise, it was only because he knew he did not know - a sentiment that would plague freshmen college students for ages.  It’s not knowing something that is important, but knowing your limits.  Brilliant!  Any tactician will tell you that it isn’t where you’re strong that is the problem, but where you are weak.  And if you don’t know where you are weak, that can be deadly.

So…how do I determine what I don’t know?  I suppose if I add up all that I do know and subtract that from the sum total of all knowledge, I’ll be left with a remainder of what I don’t know.  There’s only one problem with this theory, and that is simply that I don’t know the sum total of all knowledge.  By definition it’s mostly things I don’t know.  Even if it was just one thing that I didn’t know, who knows how big that one thing is?  I think it would be safe to say that the sum total of the universe of knowledge, right down to “What color was Socrates’ underwear?” approaches an infinite amount.

Got your brain in twist yet?  Let’s perform a simple mathematical operation.  Let’s get a percentage of the universe’s knowledge that I have.  That’s simple.  I simply divide the amount that I have, however small, by the sum total which is approaching an infinite amount.  Reaching way back into my bag of finite knowledge I pull out some screwy calculus from Mr. Hively’s 12^th Grade AP Class.  When dividing an amount by another that is approaching infinity, the answer is (drum roll please): zero.  Not close to zero…but actually zero.  (And you thought you’d never use that calculus.)

So there you have it folks.  My percentage of knowledge is 0%, making it fact.  I know nothing.  Perhaps you’d like to substitute your amount of knowledge into the equation and see if you come up with a different answer…

The Blog Experiment

Since I started this blog, I've had only a handful of readers and zero comments.  I never expected to have many, but certainly I would have hoped for some.  In any case, the blog will go on....at least occasionally when I have something I want to post.  For my incidental things, however, I've discovered that Google+ works fine.  For my philosophical musings, I'll continue to use this forum.

That may not be often.  Despite my frequent showers (you'll have to read previous posts to understand), my thoughts are not always complete enough to post.  Sometimes it takes years and thousands of gallons to complete them.

But eventually they do wash out.