Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Marking Mr Twain

Mark Twain (birth name: Samuel Langhorne Clemens) was born this day, 30 November, in Florida in 1835, he died 21 April 1910. His natal chart can be viewed at
Astrodatabank HERE.

Quotes from his writings and speeches are many and varied, in honour of his birthday I've picked out a few - in some of them echoes of his Sagittarius Sun can be detected.

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.”
(The Innocents Abroad/Roughing It)


“The human race has only one really effective weapon and that is laughter.”

“The dog is a gentleman; I hope to go to his heaven not man's.”

“Man is the Reasoning Animal. Such is the claim. I think it is open to dispute. Indeed, my experiments have proven to me that he is the Unreasoning Animal... In truth, man is incurably foolish. Simple things which other animals easily learn, he is incapable of learning. Among my experiments was this. In an hour I taught a cat and a dog to be friends. I put them in a cage. In another hour I taught them to be friends with a rabbit. In the course of two days I was able to add a fox, a goose, a squirrel and some doves. Finally a monkey. They lived together in peace; even affectionately.

Next, in another cage I confined an Irish Catholic from Tipperary, and as soon as he seemed tame I added a Scotch Presbyterian from Aberdeen. Next a Turk from Constantinople; a Greek Christian from Crete; an Armenian; a Methodist from the wilds of Arkansas; a Buddhist from China; a Brahman from Benares. Finally, a Salvation Army Colonel from Wapping. Then I stayed away for two whole days. When I came back to note results, the cage of Higher Animals was all right, but in the other there was but a chaos of gory odds and ends of turbans and fezzes and plaids and bones and flesh--not a specimen left alive. These Reasoning Animals had disagreed on a theological detail and carried the matter to a Higher Court.”

(Letters from the Earth: Uncensored Writings)


“Man is the only animal that deals in that atrocity of atrocities War. He is the only one that gathers his brethren about him and goes forth in cold blood and calm pulse to exterminate his kind. He is the only animal that for sordid wages will march out... and help to slaughter strangers of his own species who have done him no harm and with whom he has no quarrel.... And in the intervals between campaigns he washes the blood off his hands and works for the universal brotherhood of man with his mouth.”


“If voting made any difference they wouldn't let us do it.”


“Sometimes I wonder if the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it.”



“It has now been many months, at the present writing, since I have had a nourishing meal, but I shall soon have one—a modest, private affair, all to myself. I have selected a few dishes, and made out a little bill of fare, which will go home in the steamer that precedes me, and be hot when I arrive—as follows:

Radishes. Baked apples, with cream
Fried oysters; stewed oysters. Frogs.
American coffee, with real cream.
American butter.
Fried chicken, Southern style.
Porter-house steak.
Saratoga potatoes.
Broiled chicken, American style.
Hot biscuits, Southern style.
Hot wheat-bread, Southern style.
Hot buckwheat cakes.
American toast. Clear maple syrup.
Virginia bacon, broiled.
Blue points, on the half shell.
Cherry-stone clams.
San Francisco mussels, steamed.
Oyster soup. Clam Soup.
Philadelphia Terapin soup.
Oysters roasted in shell-Northern style.
Soft-shell crabs. Connecticut shad.
Baltimore perch.
Brook trout, from Sierra Nevadas.
Lake trout, from Tahoe.
Sheep-head and croakers, from New Orleans.
Black bass from the Mississippi.
American roast beef.
Roast turkey, Thanksgiving style.
Cranberry sauce. Celery.
Roast wild turkey. Woodcock.
Canvas-back-duck, from Baltimore.
Prairie liens, from Illinois.
Missouri partridges, broiled.
'Possum. Coon.
Boston bacon and beans.
Bacon and greens, Southern style.
Hominy. Boiled onions. Turnips.
Pumpkin. Squash. Asparagus.
Butter beans. Sweet potatoes.
Lettuce. Succotash. String beans.
Mashed potatoes. Catsup.
Boiled potatoes, in their skins.
New potatoes, minus the skins.
Early rose potatoes, roasted in the ashes, Southern style, served hot.
Sliced tomatoes, with sugar or vinegar. Stewed tomatoes.
Green corn, cut from the ear and served with butter and pepper.
Green corn, on the ear.
Hot corn-pone, with chitlings, Southern style.
Hot hoe-cake, Southern style.
Hot egg-bread, Southern style.
Hot light-bread, Southern style.
Buttermilk. Iced sweet milk.
Apple dumplings, with real cream.
Apple pie. Apple fritters.
Apple puffs, Southern style.
Peach cobbler, Southern style
Peach pie. American mince pie.
Pumpkin pie. Squash pie.
All sorts of American pastry.
Fresh American fruits of all sorts, including strawberries which are not to be doled out as if they were jewelry, but in a more liberal way.
Ice-water—not prepared in the ineffectual goblet, but in the sincere and capable refrigerator.”
Mmmmm- pass the potatoes - all of 'em - please - and the apple dumplings with real cream.....dribble....

11 comments:

mike said...

An interesting comment on his Wiki page, "Twain was born shortly after a visit by Halley's Comet, and he predicted that he would 'go out with it', too. He died the day after the comet returned. ... 'I came in with Halley's Comet in 1835. It is coming again next year, and I expect to go out with it. It will be the greatest disappointment of my life if I don't go out with Halley's Comet. The Almighty has said, no doubt: 'Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together'."

His life's travels attests to his Sagittarius Sun and, assuming his time of birth is correct, his Scorpio Asc with a Scorpio Mercury in the 1st house trine the Sun's ruler, and Scorpio Saturn in the 12th adding a nuance of the acerbic to his prolific, sharp-witted writing. His Moon conjunct Pluto gave an intuitive connection with the populace that endures.

Pass the potatoes, indeed! Pass everything! His long list of vittles reminds me of "Babette's Feast", an excellent, food-centric movie exploring human nature in Twain-esque fashion.

Twilight said...

mike ~ That's an intriguing sidelight - about the comet's arrival and departure coinciding with Mark Twain's own. :-)

Thanks for the astro-pointers.

I haven't seen "Babette's Feast" - will watch for it.

LB said...

Twilight ~ No doubt you're aware of the Washington Post's recent article employing McCarthy-style tactics to target many of the news sites we follow, specifically progressive sites that post articles not in line with and critical of the Clinton agenda. Maybe you've already commented and I missed it.

Wonder what Mark Twain would have to say about all this . . . Seems in keeping with the spirit of your post and Twain quotes:

“Man is the only animal that deals in that atrocity of atrocities War. He is the only one that gathers his brethren about him and goes forth in cold blood and calm pulse to exterminate his kind. He is the only animal that for sordid wages will march out... and help to slaughter strangers of his own species who have done him no harm and with whom he has no quarrel.... And in the intervals between campaigns he washes the blood off his hands and works for the universal brotherhood of man with his mouth.”


“If voting made any difference they wouldn't let us do it.”

Btw, Naked Capitalism (I *think* one of your favorites?) is asking for additional financial help from its readers, some of which will go toward a legal counter-attack:

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2016/11/were-under-attack.html#comment-2718620

Twilight said...

LB ~ Yes I've read about that absolutely ridiculous, but on the edge of setting a dangerous precedent, WaPo article. I haven't mentioned it in a blog post - I decided it'd be best not to flatter it with even more attention - but I have donated at Naked Capitalism to assist their response. Truthdig too was listed, and Counterpunch - all sites I've been frequenting more frequently of late, after dropping several others whose writings and commentary were annoying me ever more intensely.

I guess Mark Twain would not have minced his words on this!

"I'll keep the redd-ish flag flying here!" ;-)

LB said...

Glad you donated, Twilight. Me too.:)

Kind of off topic but kind of not, I tried to comment/leave a link on Monday's recount post, only my comment was lost when I tried to edit it. Even if you disagree with some of the reasoning, the author makes some valid points about funding for the recount and the need to maintain Green Party independence:

http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/11/28/the-stein-campaign-and-the-fight-for-green-party-independence/



In the meantime, and as I was listening to a Democracy Now interview with Dr. Stein (which just ended), I discovered something else. There's an open letter/petition titled,"Greens Speak Out on Recount and Our Commitment to an Independent Party" on FlowersForSenate:

"... While we support electoral reforms, including how the vote is counted, we do not support the current recount being undertaken by Jill Stein. . ."

http://www.flowersforsenate.org/greens_speak_out_recount

Jill Stein's running mate has also said he's "not in favor of the recount".

If you've already read and discussed the posts I linked to, sorry!

Twilight said...

LB ~ thanks for those links. I hadn't read them before. I had seen mention that not all Green Party people agreed with Jill Stein's actions re the re-counts.

LOL - mike and I argued quite a bit on this on Monday, my main objection is to the source of funding and possibility of yet more fingers on scales and suchlike, in the form of "payback". I haven't seen many other commenters objecting on that ground though, so maybe I'm being too cynical (if that's possible these days!)

Green Party objections are understandable in some ways. One good outcome, though, might be that many more Green votes are discovered - maybe even enough to pull Greens up to 5% (not likely, from 1% - which did seem low to me, considering all the Bernie supporters who said they'd vote Green after he lost to Clinton). But as we've seen this season, just about anything is possible.

It seems all three petitions have been made now, last one (Michigan) presented today. Whether all re-counts can be completed by 13 December is another matter.

LB said...

"mike and I argued quite a bit on this on Monday, my main objection is to the source of funding and possibility of yet more fingers on scales and suchlike, in the form of "payback"."

Apparently you're not alone in this. And I tend to agree.:)

mike (again) said...

Twilight, I'd say that we are discussing or debating issues, not arguing...LOL. I don't get hot under the collar. Do you?

LB, there has been a lot written about this rogue, anti-progressive "consortium" called the WaPo Black List. The full details are not known and the progressive sites are up in reactionary arms. Like the recently exposed click-bait, fake news, pro-Trump website run by teens in Romania...LOL...they needed some extra money and it worked. Remember Whole Foods CEO John Mackey posting pseudo-name comments online that were pro-Whole Foods, anti-Wild Oats?

Perhaps there's a vigilante liberal out there in cyberland that thinks this ploy will help fund progressive sites. Do a search for Dem or Repub fake news sites and a plethora of sites is provided. We already entered the post-truth era, but have now entered a peculiarity of feeling liable with a dose of fear for internet activity.

I've been astounded by the recent comments left by obviously far-right-conservative individuals on liberal sites. It was never like this prior to the election. There may have been one or two weird comments per essay, but not the 50% or more that I'm seeing now. I read several gay political sites that almost never had comments left by the conservative right, but they abound now, regardless of essay topic. It's as if these conservative commenters are working off of a hit-list. Maybe conservative websites are now being targeted by liberal commenters, but I can't stomach those sites to visit them and see for myself.

Twilight seems to have doubts about #pizzagate, which I come across over and over in some of the strangest places. A thread on an astrology site has pages of bizarre comments, disgusted by the horrors of those little children, but not one person has questioned the validity...WTF?! Were has sanity gone?


I'm appalled by the recent UK "Snooper's Charter" passing the courts and made legal. Every UK citizen's website browsing histories are now up for inspection without any requirement to let the user know they are being inspected or followed by any number of governmental agencies. Atrocious!
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/29/snoopers-charter-bill-becomes-law-extending-uk-state-surveillance

mike (again) said...

Think I have a comment in spam, Twilight. I'm having a lot of trouble with internet connections tonight, so maybe there's something happening with the internet or my carrier.

Twilight said...

mike ~ Argue, debate, discuss - I think of them all much the same when online. In real life it's different though. I tend to get more hot under the collar online than in real life conversations, probably because of facial expressions and body language etc being absent. :-)

Not sure what's going on in the UK these days, been away too long, and hardly any contact with folks there at all (including those flippin' solicitors!) Brexit seems to have sent things awry generally, in addition to the government's continued rather unpleasant liking for surveillance. Most of it has happened since I left, so I'm out of the loop. Sounds bad, though.


Twilight said...

mike - I think your comment had found its way here after all.