08.03.06
Lacking in graciousness
Also from Froomkin’s column today:
When former ABC White House correspondent Sam Donaldson, famous for shouting out important questions to Ronald Reagan, asked Bush an idiotic one — “Mr. President, should Mel Gibson be forgiven?” — Bush responded: “Is that Sam Donaldson? Forget it. You’re a has-been. We don’t have to answer has-been’s questions.”
Perhaps Mr. Bush was displaying his famous sense of humor. Haha.
Fear as motive?
I blogged earlier about how the young GOP war hawks, who strongly support the war and urge more troops be sent, never seem to enlist, and I speculated that the reason was simply that they were afraid of the dangers they would face. (So far as I know, they’ve not been asked this directly.)
Today I noted this in Dan Froomkin’s column today:
In the wake of the death of a senator’s nephew in Iraq, David Stout writes in the New York Times: “A White House aide, who requested anonymity because his information was preliminary, said Wednesday that he knew of no top Bush administration official who had a relative who had served in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
I find that very interesting. The Bush Administration officials sought this war, cast it as the most important effort the US could undertake, and at various times declared it essential for protecting the US from weapons of mass destruction, for spreading democracy in the Mideast, for stopping terrorism, etc.
And yet: none of them fight. None in their families fight. Why is that? Could they all be cowards? I think the country would sit up and take notice if Bush’s twin daughters would enlist. Think they will?
Cognitive dissonance & self-esteem
Cognitive dissonance posits that a person holding contradictory beliefs (or observing himself acting in contradiction to his beliefs) will add to or modify his beliefs to resolve or reduce the contradiction.
Ben Franklin was familiar with the effect if not the term. He decided to win over an opponent in the Pennsylvania state legislature:
I did not … aim at gaining his favour by paying any servile respect to him but, after some time, took this other method. Having heard that he had in his library a certain very scarce and curious book I wrote a note to him expressing my desire of perusing that book and requesting he would do me the favour of lending it to me for a few days. He sent it immediately and I returned it in about a week with another note expressing strongly my sense of the favour. When we next met in the House he spoke to me (which he had never done before), and with great civility; and he ever after manifested a readiness to serve me on all occasions, so that we became great friends and our frendship continued to his death. This is another instance of the truth of an old maxim I had learned, which says, “He that has once done you a kindness will be more ready to do you another than he whom you yourself has obliged.”
In terms of modern psychology, the opponent observed himself doing a favor for Franklin, a favor that Franklin framed as a great favor, and reduced his cognitive dissonance by deciding that he must like Franklin after all.
I thought of this regarding shaving (of course): By acquiring the specialized tools and supplies and taking the time and care to create a shaving ritual, the shaver presents himself with a behavior that leads to increased self-esteem: “If I’m taking this much time to pamper myself, I must be worth it.” Not a bad feeling at all.
Fashion
I don’t understand fashion, and The Wife will, I’m sure, agree—in spades. I march to the rhythm of a different drummer. I was moved to reflect on this when I glimpsed an article in today’s NY Times. Here’s a representative sentence: “A headline from Harper’s Bazaar sums up the more somber mood of clothing for the fall season: “So Long, Sparkle.””
The idea, as I understand it, is that somewhere the fashion decision is made to de-emphasize sparkle. Why? I guess just for the sake of change—and also to encourage the discarding of last season’s purchases to buy new stuff this season.
But why go along with it? What is it that pushes people to want to look like everyone else (everyone else who follows fashion)? Only not exactly like everyone else: to look like them in general, but slightly different—but still conforming to current fashion rules.
Of course, just by asking the question I reveal that I have zero fashion sense, but still: I don’t understand the motivation. Is it for admiration? “I really admire how you’re dressed—it’s just like everyone else at the moment.” That’s good? That’s what people want for themselves?
Of course, I look at the things that have attracted me: Go; shaving with safety razor, double-edged blade, brush, and shaving soap; Esperanto; cooking and cooking tools; reading Trollope; traditional jazz; fountain pens; fine stationery; Skype; cats (especially Megs and Sophie); sabre fencing; tap dancing; Forth; rubber stamps; pipes & tobacco; tea; coffee; …. Some of those may have wide appeal, but certainly not all of them. Maybe I am just out of step… Nah, couldn’t be. It’s other people, for sure.
Only a year…
When I looked up that Esperanto post, I was surprised to see that my very first blog post ever was on 10 July 2005. So I’ve been blogging just over a year. Seems like longer, somehow. Here, FYI, is the content of that first post:
“Leisure” is taken to mean time devoted to activities that are their own reward for a reflective mind. Leisure activities thus provide a sense of fulfillment and represent pursuits that specifically appeal to each individual. Ideally, leisure enables one to enter the state of mind that Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls “flow.” Indeed, entering flow might be taken as one of the hallmarks of leisure well spent: a loss of the sense of self and of the passage of time, totally focused on what one is doing. This same state can occur in work as well, but in leisure the activities are self-selected and reflect one’s own interests and character.
Go soon
I leave next week for the 2006 US Go Congress in Black Mountain NC. My new interest in shaving sort of consumed my attention, and I’m really behind in my preparation for the Congress. Ideally, for the past month I would have been solving Go problems, playing over professional games, and learning joseki. :sigh:
The same thing happened when I was studying for my PhD comps in math. From out of nowhere, I was suddenly totally mesmerized by Esperanto, indeed a fascinating language. (I find that I become fascinated only by fascinating things—is it that way for you, too?) I learned lots of Esperanto but, alas, relatively little math, and the MS turned out to be as far as I went in that direction.
At any rate, today I will definitely begin with the problems and try to spiff up my pattern recognition in that area. And I’ll look at some joseki that have given me problems lately. Since this will be my only Go Congress, I’d like to do reasonably well, which means that I am happy with my play, win or lose.
This morning’s shave
I have my water heater set as President Carter recommended: so that pure “hot” is just right for taking a shower. In that way, I am in no danger of scalds and I’m not using energy (or paying) to heat water beyond the useful point—to heat it to the point that I have to add cold water to use it. When I need hotter water—for coffee, for example (I use this French press)—I use an electric kettle.
In shaving, though, it would be handy to have a little bit of hotter water to heat the lathering cup and to make lather. (Not to use for soaking the brush: extremely hot water will ruin a shaving brush. Use only moderately hot water for the brush.) So a couple of days ago I got a Sunbeam Hot Shot for the bathroom, and that brings a pint of water to the boil almost instantly. The lather is perceptibly warmer, and I’m now going to give the Moss Scuttle another shot.
For the adventure this morning, I used the Futur razor. I noticed for the first time how the design finesses a common novice error: not tightening the safety razor sufficiently on the double-edged blade. (Because the blade is so thin, it must be bent across the razor platform and gripped firmly by the top to create a rigid cutting edge.) The Futur’s top snaps into place, so you can’t insert it only part way. Good thinking.
I tried J. M. Fraser’s shaving cream (scroll down at the link) for the first time. It’s discussed recently (and very favorably) on the shaving forums. Inexpensive, it creates a wonderful lather, lightly scented with lemon, and it’s great to shave with—as good as creams much more expensive. It’s Canadian, sold primarily to beauty and barber shops and not to consumers, but you can order it at the link. Very much worth a try.
Had a very comfortable and smooth shave. Finished up, as always, with the alum block and, this time, with Thayers Witch Hazel. Now that I use an alum block I’m puzzled why it isn’t better known and used by all shavers, even those using multi-blade cartridges.
