Quick Hitters

I. Berkeley
Finished a survey of the works of George Berkeley early this morning, who may have earned the dubious honor of being the most misunderstood man in the history of philosophy. It took a rare set of circumstances and mistakes for him to be popularly perceived as supporting the exact opposite view of the nature of reality, perception, and the philosophical task as the one he intended to promote. This is even more ironic for the reason that one of his principal points of emphasis was the use of clear and straightforward language. On now to The Origin of Species, which, in the words of GKC "a great many people are under the delusion that they have read."

II. Pancake Breakfast
We had to wait a little bit longer for breakfast this morning, since J made pancakes from scratch. One of my favorite parts of pancake breakfast is to tease James about how I'm going to eat the entire plate full of pancakes and will spare, at the very most, perhaps a half a pancake for him. By the time the pancakes are prepared he's so hungry that he isn't thinking rationally anyway, but I would have thought that by now he'd realize that I'm only teasing him and that there's no possible way I would even be able to eat the whole plate, let alone be so rude as to not share any with him. But no, every single time we have pancakes he comes to me with a nervous and imploring look to make sure that "you aren't gonna eat ALL of them, right Daddy?" It's a regular thing that we do now, sort of like taking his socks off before putting him in the bath. Whenever I have the tub running and am stripping him down for his bath, I always pretend to forget to take off his socks once I've got the rest of him denuded, and then lift him up and ALMOST put him in the tub while he hollers and kicks and protests that I forgot to take his socks off. I then pretend to realize my near-mistake and finally take them off. This has happened so often that he starts reminding me to take his socks off before we even go upstairs, and of course to take Owen's socks off as well. The difference with this situation is that I did once, when he was wearing a particularly ratty pair of old socks, dump him into the tub with his socks still on. (The scream could be heard for miles.) I would make an attempt to actually eat all of the pancakes myself some morning just to inspire a similar neurosis about the pancake problem, but J makes pancakes particularly rich, and I think I would just about burst.

III. $35
I made a promise at the beginning of the year (recorded on a napkin at a Chik Fil-A, then posted on Facebook) that I did not need to buy any trumpets this year. I am, of course, sticking to this promise, and it should be an easy one to keep. I'm perfectly happy with the instruments that I have, and I am (for the first time ever) not lacking any major pieces to the collection of instruments I would conceivably need to do the jobs I'm working. Now the napkin doesn't say anything at all about restraint in the matter of mouthpieces or mutes, but I would be kidding myself if I didn't acknowledge that the spirit of the napkin didn't cover those sorts of purchases as well. And here's the thing--there's a mouthpiece on eBay that I find very intriguing. J has long preferred the sound of one particular cut and style of mouthpiece to all my other ones in a number of blind tests, and this new eBay mouthpiece is that exact model but with a rim I might find more comfortable to play on. It would be $35...how do I convince her that I ought to purchase this new mouthpiece--which by her own testimony makes for the most desirable presentation of my sound--without violating, at least in spirit, the agreement that I signed with her at the beginning of the year. (And yes, I acknowledge that we aren't even out of January yet.) I suspect that the answer is to passive-aggressively write about it in a public space and semi-shame her into acknowledging that I really ought to go ahead and get the mouthpiece, because, after all, it's awfully cheap and maybe this mouthpiece could be a really good thing for our family happiness.

But this trick will probably only work once, so I sure hope this mouthpiece is worth it.