Mother of Pearl: Addenda

Wellesley, you see, is not just a place ... but an idea ... an experiment in excellence in which diversity is not just tolerated, but is embraced. 

The essence of this spirit was captured in a moving speech about tolerance given last year by a student body president of one of your sister colleges. She related the story by Robert Fulghum about a young pastor, finding himself in charge of some very energetic children, hits upon a game called "Giants, Wizards, and Dwarfs." "You have to decide now," the pastor instructed the children, "which you are ... a giant, a wizard or a dwarf?" 

At that, a small girl tugging at his pants leg, asked, "But where do the mermaids stand?" 

The pastor tells her there are no mermaids. "Oh yes there are," she said. "I am a mermaid." 

Now this little girl knew what she was and she was not about to give up on either her identity or the game. She intended to take her place wherever mermaids fit into the scheme of things. Where do mermaids fit into the scheme of things? 

--- Barbara Bush, Commencement Address to the Wellesley College Class of 1990

Entrainment Tonight: Mother of Pearl

Why aren't you wearing your Pearls, citizen? We noticed you didn't wear your Orange yesterday, either. I need to swipe your social credits card, please. 

OK, I think we might have a bit of a problem here. Sit tight, I need to call my supervisor.

It's the End of the World As We Know It (and Larry Fine)

Hey, giant extraterrestrial demons on the roof of the most prestigious museum in the western hemisphere? Sure, why not? Go for it. I mean it is 2018, right? 

Take a good long look, my friends. You're looking at the future. 

Don't worry, they come in peace. Don't he look peaceful? A regular pussycat.

The Great Seal Decoded. Finally.

Oh, you thought you lived in a rational world ruled by people who didn't hold weird, occultic beliefs about outer space and all the rest of it?

That's sweet.

Syria: Trump, Templars and Sympathetic Meteor Magic.

IF we analyse the principles of thought on which magic is based, they will probably be found to resolve themselves into two: first, that like produces like, or that an effect resembles its cause; and, second, that things which have once been in contact with each other continue to act on each other at a distance after the physical contact has been severed. 

The former principle may be called the Law of Similarity, the latter the Law of Contact or Contagion. -- Sir James Frazer, The Golden Bough

Apocalypse Tonight: Saddle Up, Horsemen!

Well, I told y'all that something big was coming just in time for the Lyrid meteor showers but I never dreamed it would be World War Three!

Apocalypse This Week: Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment

OK, so much entrainment, so little time. I'm a bit harried at the moment --and there is so much going on all around us and so much being dumped on our heads -- that it's all rather overwhelming. 

So let's dive in and I'll let all you very smart folks pick up the slack in the comments.