5 Thoughts on a Thursday

1) Am I the only one who is OK with looking into a mirror while he pees but not while he poops? (What kind of person puts a mirror there in a public restroom, anyways?)

2) So I’ve moved on to proofreading the next title from my company, Transformers and Philosophy. And there’s something that one of the authors mentioned that really struck me. He’s talking about the level of technology that would be required for an alien civilization (like the Transformers, you know, Optimus Prime and Megatron) to travel to our solar system and make contact with us. The closest analogy that he can come up with is Columbus as the Transformers and the Native Americans as humans, only if Columbus showed up on a nuclear submarine with access to the internet, and that, instead of Native Americans, the most advanced civilization that he encountered was a colony of lemurs.

3) While proofreading, I often catch myself humming or singing softly. This isn’t much of a big deal, as I am in a cubicle at the end of the office, well outside of humming range from any of my co-workers. However, I have also realized that, when I was doing marketing for Radiohead and Philosophy, I was singing ‘Karma Police’ and ‘There There,’ for Jimmy Buffett it was ‘Margaritaville’ and ‘Fins.’ Now that I’m on to Transformers? ‘The Touch’ by Stan Bush. Featuring the awesome lyrics: “When all Hell’s breaking loose/ You’ll be right in the eye of the storm!”

4) The English word "virtue" is descended from the Latin virtutem, which means, roughly, "moral strength, manliness, valor, excellence, worth." Now, I don't know about you, but I tend to use our word "virtue" in four of those five ways. But, of course, it's that fifth, hidden, concealed meaning of the word that might just be the most important. (Politically speaking, I mean.) The English word "virile" is descended from the Latin virilis, meaning "of a man" or "manly." Both virtutem and virilis have the same root word of vir, which means, of course, man. (This is according to the Online Etymology Dictionary. R.A. told me that vir can mean either “man” or “human”.) If we take this etymology literally (ba-dum-dum-ching), then we might be forced to conclude that phrases like "virtuous woman," or "womanly virtue" are oxymoronic, insofar as they insist upon a woman 'acting as if she were a man.'

5) “Enlightenment hitherto has fortunately been men’s affair, men’s gift – we remain therewith “among ourselves”; and in the end, in view of all that women write about “woman,” we may well have considerable doubt as to whether woman really DESIRES enlightenment about herself – I believe ornamentation belongs to the eternally feminine? – why, then, she wishes to make herself feared: perhaps she thereby wishes to get the mastery. But she does not want truth – what does woman care for truth?” – Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, #232. (Particularly interesting when cross referenced with what Nietzsche believes about the concept of “truth,” such as in his essay “Truth and Lying in an Extra-Moral Sense.”)