The Cloud of (Editorial) Unknowing

Friendly note to Time Magazine:

Those whom heaven helps we call the sons of heaven. They do not learn this by learning. They do not work it by working. They do not reason it by using reason. To let understanding stop at what cannot be understood is a high attainment. Those who cannot do it will be broken on the lathe of heaven.

—Chuang Tzu

Friendly note to Phyllis Chesler:

I’ll bet you were something before electricity.

—Al Czervik

NOTE: This was originally going to be a meta-post on the “Journalism of the Imponderable.” Then I found Chesler’s article and realized the word I was looking for was “Insufferable.” Also, I want Congress to pass legislation outlawing provocative interrogatory headlines, just because.

Posted by StrangeAppar8us on 08/24/10 at 07:24 PM • Permalink

Categories: News • Politics • Nutters • War In Error • Our Stupid Media •

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Oh Strange, after the inevitable trip to Wikipedia to catch me up on yet another of the many worlds with which you converse, and of which I was unaware, I am delighted to have reached the high attainment of admitting that you are too obscure for me.

In middle school Industrial Arts class, I did catch my hair in the lathe, and somehow had the presence of mind to turn it off even as I was wound up on it as if it were a giant spool.

I’ve tried ever since to let my understanding stop at what cannot be understood, which was in that case how to make a bowling pin into a table lamp.