Category: Arts and Letters

Bhagavad Gita: Chapter 2, Verse 47 – With Commentary

BG 2.47: You have a right to perform your prescribed duties, but you are not entitled to the fruits of your actions. Never consider yourself to be the cause of the results of your activities, nor be attached to inaction.

This is an extremely popular verse of the Bhagavad Gita, so much so that even most school children in India are familiar with it. It offers deep insight into the proper spirit of work and is often quoted whenever the topic of karm yog is discussed. The verse gives four instructions regarding the science of work: 1) Do your duty, but do not concern yourself with the results. 2) The fruits of your actions are not for your enjoyment. 3) Even while working, give up the pride of doership. 4) Do not be attached to inaction.

Do your duty, but do not concern yourself with the results. We have the right to do our duty, but the results are not dependent only upon our efforts. A number of factors come into play in determining the results—our efforts, destiny (our past karmas), the will of God, the efforts of others, the cumulative karmas of the people involved, the place and situation (a matter of luck), etc. Now if we become anxious for results, we will experience anxiety whenever they are not according to our expectations. So Shree Krishna advises Arjun to give up concern for the results and instead focus solely on doing a good job. The fact is that when we are unconcerned about the results, we are able to focus entirely on our efforts, and the result is even better than before.

https://www.holy-bhagavad-gita.org/chapter/2/verse/47/

Irony as Psychological Defense Mechanism – Groucho Marx Anecdote

Certainly it’s true that a little ironic distancing can work wonders as a coping device. At Groucho Marx’s separation from his first wife, Ruth, for example, he told a joke. After many unhappy years, they had agreed to a divorce, and so she packed up the car and was leaving the house for the last time. Groucho put out his hand and said, “Well, it was nice knowing you . . . and if you’re ever in the neighborhood again, drop in.” Ruth laughed, and the tension was broken. It was the unprecedented and awkward seriousness of the moment that led to the ironic farewell, Groucho explained to his son. “I didn’t know quite what to say.”

Planet Funny: How Comedy Took Over Our Culture
Ken Jennings

Nookie – Limp Bizkit

I did it all for the nookie
(Come on) the nookie
(Come on) so you can take that cookie
And stick it up your (yeah)
Stick it up your (yeah)
Stick it up your (yeah)
Stick it up your

Limp Bizkit is an American Nu Metal band from Jacksonville, Florida. Its lineup consists of lead vocalist Fred Durst, drummer John Otto, guitarist Wes Borland, turntablist DJ Lethal and bassist Sam Rivers. The band’s musical style is marked by Durst’s angry vocal delivery and Borland’s sonic experimentation. Borland’s elaborate visual appearance, which includes face and body paint, masks, and uniforms, also plays a large role in Limp Bizkit’s live shows. The band has been nominated for three Grammy Awards, sold 40 million records worldwide, and won several other awards.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limp_Bizkit

Well Written but Hard to Relate to

Wonderful prose but I can’t relate
Reviewed in the United States on December 16, 1999

I have a confession to make. I don’t like these stories. I recognize the strengths of Taylor’s story telling – the elegant language, the depiction of emotional tension in simple things, the clear progression of ‘story’ or theme from setup to inevitable conclusion, but I can’t get past a deep dislike for his characters. This is a personal failing. Taylor’s fiction depicts a world that is inhabited almost exclusively by a certain class of affluent, white, middle class city dwellers whose lives are bounded on the upside by manners, fashion and ritual (in imitation of an upper class to which, presumably, they aspire)and on the downside by a stiff reticence and correctness of behavior to insulate them from their inferiors (not only their black servants but also whites of a lesser social and economic standing). I grew up in Nashville, TN at a time when this world was rapidly passing away, but I have met people, more than a few, who could have stepped from the pages of these stories, and almost without exception developed a deep antipathy for them. Their overt arrogance which seemed to mask a great fear of the world ‘outside’ always made social intercourse with such people strained and unsatisfying. There is nothing like being politely condescended to to make the recipient want to deliberately break convention and strike through the mask. So it’s personal.
I have read, and reread, these stories enough to see that Taylor’s characters are frequently as frightened of change and the possible corruption of contact outside their little world as I had sensed in the real Taylor-type folk I have met. There is great skill in his presentation of this tension, but it doesn’t lead me to empathize, much less sympathize, with his characters.
Any given person’s response to a piece of fiction is going to be colored by a host of factors over which the author has no control, and no writer ever had universal success at generating the response he desires the reader to have. In the case of my response to Taylor’s stories, I fear that my dislike of the specific milieu (and its inhabitants) that is his chosen subject will forever keep me from a full appreciation of his work.

review of:
The Old Forest and Other Stories
Peter Taylor

Memes as Form of Business Communication

And organized levity is now an expected part of professional life, especially in sectors like tech. A friend of mine briefly worked for a massive Internet search company that will remain nameless. He told me that the buzzy new time-waster at work was trying to handle as much internal communication as possible not with e-mail or instant messaging, but with funny memes. A whole platform was designed from scratch to facilitate this dubious-but-“fun” goal. If the boss from Office Space pops up on your screen saying “That’d be great,” that’s a Level Three problem. But if Rambo pops up, uh-oh. That’s a Level Five. You might be working late tonight. “Considerable time and effort has gone into developing this tool,” my friend said, smiling ruefully.

Planet Funny: How Comedy Took Over Our Culture
Ken Jennings

Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares

Google AI Overview:

Hebrews 13:2 encourages believers to practice hospitality, specifically by showing kindness and generosity to strangers. The verse suggests that by doing so, some have unknowingly entertained angels. This emphasizes the importance of extending love and care to those in need, as it may have unexpected and significant spiritual consequences.

Colorado Inventions: Modern Tampons, Crocs, Christmas Lights – Happy Colorado Day

https://mix1043fm.com/10-colorado-inventions/

Tampons are said to have existed for centuries, but the first person to patent the creation with an applicator was Denver resident, Dr. Earle Cleveland Haas. By using telescoping paper tubes, Dr. Haas was able to invent an applicator to make insertion simpler and more sanitary. In 1932, Dr. Haas trademarked the name Tampax, a combination of the terms “tampon” and “vaginal packs.”

A trend most of us didn’t see coming was spawned directly in Colorado from the minds of natives Scott Seamans, George Boedecker, Jr., and Lyndon “Duke” Hanson. The trio introduced the footwear as a boating shoe in 2002 and since then 850 million pairs of Crocs have been sold.

David Dwight (D.D.) Sturgeon is believed to be the person responsible for making outdoor Christmas lights a thing. Sturgeon founded his own electric company in 1912 and in 1914 is said to have dipped ordinary bulbs in red and green paint so that he could string the lights outside his ill son’s bedroom in an effort to cheer him up.

https://www.colorado.gov/governor/news/celebrate-colorado-governor-polis-invites-coloradans-celebrate-149th-annual-colorado-day

Friday, July 25, 2025
COLORADO – Today, Governor Polis announced the return of Celebrate Colorado, a week-long, statewide celebration of everything Colorado. August 1st marks the 149th anniversary of Colorado’s entrance into the Union as the 38th state, now celebrated as Colorado Day. In honor of Colorado Day, statewide celebrations will take place starting today, July 25, 2025 through August 3, 2025. Celebrate Colorado is a great opportunity to come together and show support for local businesses and community organizations.

Samuel Johnson on Reality in Theater

Theatre is powerful because it works in exact concordance with the way our heads work (not the way reality works). To quote Samuel Johnson (via Harold Bloom in Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human): “Imitations produce pain or pleasure not because they are mistaken for realities but because they bring realities to mind.” The truthfulness of the theatre is determined by the audience. Theatre is consensus. And that consensus is a function of characters who speak and act the way characters in our collective head speak and act. In other words: archetypes. Success can only be measured by the ratio of what I (the artist) see, versus what the audience thinks they see. Marcel Duchamp, a great lover of science, suggested this ratio. He said the closer to one-to-one this ratio becomes, the greater the artist. But of course, no one can measure such a ratio.

Wake Up and Smell the Coffee
Eric Bogosian
From the end section – BUILDING CHARACTER MY METHOD FOR CREATING THE SOLOS