Catch-All

August 31, 2024

Forest of Knowledge. Beatnik Philosophy.

Complementing an academic’s freedom to dissent is the maximal removal of impediments to her pursuit of hypotheses and matters of fact about the stuff that furnishes the universe and of the universe itself. This stuff undergirds the core investigations of philosophy: what exists (ontology); what, and how, can we know (epistemology); and how shall we Continue reading

Arts and Leisure, Catch-All, Philosophy, Social and Political Commentary

academia, academic freedom, academy, beatnik, disputation, dissent, epistemology, fact, fiction, forest, investigation, investigations, knowledge, ontology, Philosophy, poetry, political, prose, social
February 17, 2024

The Death of an Industry and Its Detritus

The loss of an industry in a small, remote town can also mean the loss of an entire community built up around that industry. The sketch beside the photo is modelled on the often-fractured arthritic hands of a long time labourer at the place depicted in the photo. Both of whom I know well. *The Continue reading

Catch-All, Social and Political Commentary

class, closure, education, labor, labour, labourer, remote, retrain, rural, social class, unemployment, working class
March 23, 2023

My New Podcast.

I’ve started a podcast: Pam’s Galaxy of Conceptoids: Essays and observations from intracranial space. The first several episodes will be essays I’ve published on this blog. If interested, you can listen to the first episode here. Continue reading

Catch-All

podcast
August 20, 2021

Small house in a big world. The power of perspective.

I don’t know how old I was when I first heard I live in a very small house, but my windows look out on a very big world. But as one of my dad’s favourite quotes, I’ve known it as long as I can remember. Up until recently, I’ve attributed the quote to Thoreau. But Continue reading

Catch-All

adapt, adversity, advice, change, Confucius, contemplation, curiousity, inspiration, learning, life, perspective, social, survival, thought, transitions, travel
March 5, 2021

Fifth Annual High Dudgeon Olympics: August 10 – 21, 2021

Categories: 1) Someone-Said-Something-Wrong-on-the-Internet Typathon (Individual and Team events) Individuals are logged onto a Facebook account with a continuous feed of posts, each followed by a comment thread. Athletes must respond to as many posts and corresponding comments as possible over a 24 hour period. Athletes are awarded ten points for each original response to a Continue reading

Catch-All

athlete, cancel culture, competition, endurance, high dudgeon, humor, humour, kvetch, offence, offended, offense, olympics, outrage, politically correct, rant, ranting, university, woke
February 22, 2021

“That They Themselves Are Beasts”

18 I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.19 For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one Continue reading

Arts and Leisure, Catch-All

bird, death, dust to dust, ecclesiastes, foto, Hobbes, homo sapien, human, Hume, mankind, photo, skeleton
January 12, 2021

New, old, permanence, and change. A montage of thoughts and quotes. (Repost, Feb. 23, 2020)

Note: May 18, 2021. I’m thinking about aging tonight, and the passage of time. Which reminded me of the following montage of thoughts and quotes that I assembled last year. “Not everything was better in our ancestors’ days, either — our own age, too, has produced many instances of excellence and artistic merit deserving to Continue reading

Catch-All

aging, change, cycles, ecclesiastes, heraclitus, montage, new, old, palliation, parmenides, permanence, Philosophy, time
November 20, 2020

Of Flocks and Wings

Lurking somewhere in the back of our adult brains is every mother’s admonition If your friends jumped off a bridge, would you? Don’t blindly follow your friends. Sometimes this warning is made explicit. When I went to university in my 40s, my seventy-five-year-old Dad worried that I would cease to think for myself. And so he gave Continue reading

Catch-All

children, fear, growing up, love, parent, parenting, peer pressure, think for yourself, worry
November 9, 2020

What’s in a name? A face, a voice, laughter, habits brought readily to mind.

The names of the people we love are like beads on a Rosary, well-worn worry stones oft-fondled for comfort and reassurance. Continue reading

Arts and Leisure, Catch-All

epistemology, love, matters, memory, name, Philosophy, social, social epistemology
October 31, 2020

Philosophy is a Knee-Jerk Reaction Clinic

In this high-charged social and political climate, remember to slooooow down. Continue reading

Catch-All

careful, deliberative, examined, outrage, Philosophy, reaction, reactive, reflective, reflexive, slow, system 2, think