Of Character,Feelings,Interior Monologue

by marguerita
"A central assumption of economics is that "tastes" (which include
what non-economists would call values and beliefs, as well as inter-
ests) can be taken as given and are not problematic. All that is inter-
esting in human behavior is how it changes in response to changes in
the costs and benefits of alternative courses of action. "


He did not believe that virtue was inculcated by prayer in schools.
It was habituated by practicing good manners, by being dependable, punctual and responsible day by day.
“Order exists because a system of beliefs and sentiments held by members of a society sets limits to what those members can do.”


In “The Moral Sense,” he brilliantly investigated the virtuous sentiments we are born with and how they are cultivated by habit. Wilson’s broken windows theory was promoted in an essay with George Kelling called “Character and Community.” Wilson and Kelling didn’t think of crime primarily as an individual choice. They saw it as something that emerged from the social psychology of a community. When neighborhoods feel disorganized and scary, crime increases.

Wilson was not a philosopher. He was a social scientist. He just understood that people are moral judgers and moral actors, and he reintegrated the vocabulary of character into discussions of everyday life.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/06/opinion/brooks-the-rediscovery-of-character.html?_r=1&ref=global-home

http://www.nationalaffairs.com/public_interest/detail/the-rediscovery-of-character-private-virtue-and-public-policy

Of Wit and Elephants,Ping Pong and more......

drawing by marguerita

Elephants exhibit a wide variety of behaviors, including those associated with grief, learning, allomothering, mimicry, art, play, a sense of humor, altruism, use of tools, compassion, cooperation,^[3][4] self-awareness, memory and possibly language.^[5]

All indicate that Elephants are highly intelligent; it is thought they are equal with cetaceans^[6][7][8][9] and primates^[7][10][11] in this regard. Due to the high intelligence and strong family ties of elephants, some researchers argue it is morally wrong for humans to cull them.^[12]

Aristotle once said that elephants were "The beast which passeth all others in wit and mind."^[13]

Of Sonnets, E.B.Browning Sonnets from the Portuguese

photo by marguerita

From a little book of sonnets by E.B.Browning.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861)

This book belonged to my mother.She got it in Paris,in 1948.

I thought once how Theocritus had sung
Of the sweet years, the dear and wished-for years,
Who each one in a gracious hand appears
To bear a gift for mortals, old or young:
And, as I mused it in his antique tongue,
I saw, in gradual vision through my tears,
The sweet, sad years, the melancholy years,
Those of my own life, who by turns had flung
A shadow across me. Straightway I was 'ware,
So weeping, how a mystic Shape did move
Behind me, and drew me backward by the hair;
And a voice said in mastery, while I strove, ---
'Guess now who holds thee?' --- 'Death,' I said. But, there,
The silver answer rang, --- 'Not Death, but Love.'

Federico Garcia Lorca: El Lagarto Viejo

En la agostada senda
he visto al buen lagarto
(gota de cocodrilo)
meditando.
Con su verde levita
de abate del diablo,
su talante correcto
y su cuello planchado,
tiene un aire muy triste
de viejo catedrático.
¡Esos ojos marchitos
de artista fracasado,
cómo miran la tarde
desmayada!

¿Es éste su paseo
crepuscular, amigo?
Usad bastón, ya estáis
muy viejo. Don Lagarto,

drawing by marguerita

copyrights by marguerita 20xxxxx

y los niños del pueblo
pueden daros un susto.
¿Qué buscáis en la senda,
filósofo cegato,
si el fantasma indeciso
de la tarde agosteña
ha roto el horizonte?

¿Buscáis el azul limosna
del cielo moribundo?
¿Un céntimo de estrella?
¿O acaso
estudiasteis un libro
de Lamartine, y os gustan
los trinos platerescos
de los pájaros?

(Miras al sol poniente,
y tus ojos relucen,
¡oh dragón de las ranas!
con un fulgor humano.
Las góndolas sin remos
de las ideas, cruzan
el agua tenebrosa
de tus iris quemados.)

¿Venís quizá en la busca
de la bella lagarta,
verde como los trigos
de mayo,
como las cabelleras
de las fuentes dormidas,
que os despreciaba, y luego
se fue de vuestro campo?
¡Oh dulce idilio roto
sobre la fresca juncia!
¡Pero vivir!, ¡qué diantre!
me habéis sido simpático.
El lema de "me opongo
a la serpiente" triunfa
en esa gran papada
de arzobispo cristiano.

Ya se ha disuelto el sol
en la copa del monte,
y enturbian el camino
los rebaños.
Es hora de marcharse,
dejad la angosta senda
y no continuéis
meditando.
Que lugar tendréis luego
de mirar las estrellas
cuando os coman sin prisa
los gusanos.

¡Volved a vuestra casa
bajo el pueblo de grillos!
¡Buenas noches, amigo
Don Lagarto!

Ya está el campo sin gente,
los montes apagados
y el camino desierto;
sólo de cuando en cuando
canta un cuco en la umbría
de los álamos.

The Old Lizard

by Federico García Lorca

translated by Lysander Kemp

In the parched path
I have seen the good lizard
(one drop of crocodile)
meditating.
With his green frock-coat
of an abbot of the devil,
his correct bearing
and his stiff collar,
he has the sad air
of an old professor.
Those faded eyes
of a broken artist,
how they watch the afternoon
in dismay!

Is this, my friend,
your twilight constitutional?
Please use your cane,
you are very old, Mr. Lizard,
and the children of the village
may startle you.
What are you seeking in the path,
my near-sighted philosopher,
if the wavering phantasm
of the parched afternoon
has broken the horizon?

Are you seeking the blue alms
of the moribund heaven?
A penny of a star?
Or perhaps
you've been reading a volume
of Lamartine, and you relish
the plateresque trills
of the birds?

(You watch the setting sun,
and your eyes shine,
oh, dragon of the frogs,
with a human radiance.
Ideas, gondolas without oars,
cross the shadowy
waters of your
burnt-out eyes.)

Have you come looking
for that lovely lady lizard,
green as the wheatfields
of May,
as the long locks
of sleeping pools,
who scorned you, and then
left you in your field?
Oh, sweet idyll, broken
among the sweet sedges!
But, live! What the devil!
I like you.
The motto "I oppose
the serpent" triumphs
in that grand double chin
of a Christian archbishop.

Now the sun has dissolved
in the cup of the mountains,
and the flocks
cloud the roadway.
It is the hour to depart:
leave the dry path
and your meditations.
You will have time
to look at the stars
when the worms are eating you
at their leisure.


Go home to your house
by the village, of the crickets!
Good night, my friend
Mr. Lizard!

Now the field is empty,
the mountains dim,
the roadway deserted.
Only, now and again,
a cuckoo sings in the darkness
of the poplar trees.

Federico García Lorca

Federico García Lorca is possibly the most important Spanish poet and dramatist of the twentieth century. García Lorca was born June 5, 1898, in Fuente Vaqueros, a small town a few miles from Granada. His father owned a farm in the fertile vega surrounding Granada and a comfortable mansion in the heart of the city. His mother, whom Lorca idolized, was a gifted pianist. After graduating from secondary school García Lorca attended Sacred Heart University where he took up law along with regular coursework. His first book, Impresiones y Viajes (1919) was inspired by a trip to Castile with his art class in 1917.

In 1919, García Lorca traveled to Madrid, where he remained for the next fifteen years. Giving up university, he devoted himself entirely to his art. He organized theatrical performances, read his poems in public, and collected old folksongs. During this period García Lorca wrote El Maleficio de la mariposa (1920), a play which caused a great scandal when it was produced. He also wrote Libro de poemas (1921), a compilation of poems based on Spanish folklore. Much of García Lorca's work was infused with popular themes such as Flamenco and Gypsy culture. In 1922, García Lorca organized the first "Cante Jondo" festival in which Spain's most famous "deep song" singers and guitarists participated. The deep song form permeated his poems of the early 1920s. During this period, García Lorca became part of a group of artists known as Generación del 27, which included Salvador Dalí and Luis Buñuel, who exposed the young poet to surrealism. In 1928, his book of verse, Romancero Gitano ("The Gypsy Ballads"), brought García Lorca far-reaching fame; it was reprinted seven times during his lifetime.

In 1929, García Lorca came to New York. The poet's favorite neighborhood was Harlem; he loved African-American spirituals, which reminded him of Spain's "deep songs." In 1930, García Lorca returned to Spain after the proclamation of the Spanish republic and participated in the Second Ordinary Congress of the Federal Union of Hispanic Students in November of 1931. The congress decided to build a "Barraca" in central Madrid in which to produce important plays for the public. "La Barraca," the traveling theater company that resulted, toured many Spanish towns, villages, and cities performing Spanish classics on public squares. Some of García Lorca's own plays, including his three great tragedies Bodas de sangre (1933), Yerma (1934), and La Casa de Bernarda Alba (1936), were also produced by the company.

In 1936, García Lorca was staying at Callejones de García, his country home, at the outbreak of the Civil War. He was arrested by Franquist soldiers, and on the 17th or 18th of August, after a few days in jail, soldiers took García Lorca to "visit" his brother-in-law, Manuel Fernandez Montesinos, the Socialist ex-mayor of Granada whom the soldiers had murdered and dragged through the streets. When they arrived at the cemetery, the soldiers forced García Lorca from the car. They struck him with the butts of their rifles and riddled his body with bullets. His books were burned in Granada's Plaza del Carmen and were soon banned from Franco's Spain. To this day, no one knows where the body of Federico García Lorca rests.

http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/163

---

Christopher Buckley ,The US and the Laws of Gravity

photo by marguerita


A insensatez
Que você fez
coração mais sem cuidado
Fez chorar de dor
o seu amor um amor
tão delicado
Ah porque você
foi fraco assim
assim tão desalmado
Ah, meu coração
quem nunca amou
não merece ser amado
Vai meu coração
ouve a razão
usa só sinceridade
Quem semeia vento,
diz a razão,
colhe sempre tempestade
Vai meu coração
pede perdão
perdão apaixonado
Vai porque quem não
pede perdão
não é nunca perdoado

Christopher Buckley No idea what it says, but I hope it means a start to understanding the laws that are being made on our behalf supposedly for our benefit in Washington.

http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/lect/history/newtongrav.html

lyrics by Tom Jobim

Rupert Murdoch,Freud,I Did it My Way and The Jimmy&Roops WE KNEWS

drawing by marguerita

In a voluntary outburst on Tuesday, Rupert told the parliamentary committee
that he "was brought up by a father who was not rich, but who was a great journalist"
and who left him a small newspaper
"saying that he was giving me
the chance to do good".

Little Red Riding Hood

by brothers Grimm

Once upon a time there was a dear little girl who was loved by everyone who looked at her, but most of all by her grandmother, and there was nothing that she would not have given to the child. Once she gave her a little riding hood of red velvet, which suited her so well that she would never wear anything else; so she was always called 'Little Red Riding Hood.'

One day her mother said to her: 'Come, Little Red Riding Hood, here is a piece of cake and a bottle of wine; take them to your grandmother, she is ill and weak, and they will do her good. Set out before it gets hot, and when you are going, walk nicely and quietly and do not run off the path, or you may fall and break the bottle, and then your grandmother will get nothing; and when you go into her room, don't forget to say, "Good morning", and don't peep into every corner before you do it.'

'I will take great care,' said Little Red Riding Hood to her mother, and gave her hand on it.

The grandmother lived out in the wood, half a league from the village, and just as Little Red Riding Hood entered the wood, a wolf met her. Red Riding Hood did not know what a wicked creature he was, and was not at all afraid of him.

'Good day, Little Red Riding Hood,' said he.

'Thank you kindly, wolf.'

'Whither away so early, Little Red Riding Hood?'

'To my grandmother's.'

'What have you got in your apron?'

'Cake and wine; yesterday was baking-day, so poor sick grandmother is to have something good, to make her stronger.'

'Where does your grandmother live, Little Red Riding Hood?'

'A good quarter of a league farther on in the wood; her house stands under the three large oak-trees, the nut-trees are just below; you surely must know it,' replied Little Red Riding Hood.

The wolf thought to himself: 'What a tender young creature! what a nice plump mouthful - she will be better to eat than the old woman. I must act craftily, so as to catch both.'

And a parallel:

Lucian Freud

He was interested in presence, and not only human presence: a lightbulb's glare, a dog's leg, a horse's arse, a frayed bit of carpet. The language with which he described people and things, animals and lovers, atmosphere and futility, was a frightening construction. I believe he shared more with his psychoanalyst grandfather than he liked to admit.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2011/jul/22/lucian-freud-adrian-searle

In the Pursuit of Incongruity or in Praise of the Absurd

photos by marguerita

The incongruity theory is the reigning theory of humor, since it seems to account for most cases of perceived funniness, which is partly because “incongruity” is something of an umbrella term. Most developments of the incongruity theory only try to list a necessary condition for humor—the perception of an incongruity—and they stop short of offering the sufficient conditions.

In the Rhetoric (III, 2), Aristotle presents the earliest glimmer of an incongruity theory of humor, finding that the best way to get an audience to laugh is to setup an expectation and deliver something “that gives a twist.”

After discussing the power of metaphors to produce a surprise in the hearer, Aristotle says that “[t]he effect is produced even by jokes depending upon changes of the letters of a word; this too is a surprise. You find this in verse as well as in prose. The word which comes is not what the hearer imagined.”

These remarks sound like a surprise theory of humor, similar to that later offered by René Descartes, but Aristotle continues to explain how the surprise must somehow “fit the facts,” or as we might put it today, the incongruity must be capable of a resolution.

In the Critique of Judgment, Immanuel Kant gives a clearer statement of the role of incongruity in humor:

“In everything that is to excite a lively laugh there must be something absurd (in which the understanding, therefore, can find no satisfaction).

Laughter is an affection arising from the sudden transformation of a strained expectation into nothing” (I, I, 54).

Arthur Schopenhauer offers a more specific version of the incongruity theory, arguing that humor arising from a failure of a concept to account for an object of thought. When the particular outstrips the general, we are faced with an incongruity. Schopenhauer also emphasizes the element of surprise, saying that “the greater and more unexpected [. . .] this incongruity is, the more violent will be his laughter” (1818, I, Sec. 13).

As stated by Kant and Schopenhauer, the incongruity theory of humor specifies a necessary condition of the object of humor.
Focusing on the humorous object, leaves something out of the analysis of humor, since there are many kinds of things that are incongruous which do not produce amusement.
A more robust statement of the incongruity theory would need to include the pleasurable response one has to humorous objects.

HEY Mr.Gagosian: The NIPPLE by Marguerita, created ,hand painted, mreal by the artist versus Murakami mass produced Erected Penis

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topics: art

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  NY OBSERVER: Takashi Murakami Says His Art Is Too Expensive How much will it cost you to own a giant sculpture of an er http://t.co/1pLnL16

http://www.observer.com/2011/07/takashi-murakami-says-his-art-is-too-expensive/

FORMIGA POWER: A tale of a rebellious Brazilian Ant by Miriam Portela and Marguerita Bornstein

In Proverbs, King Solomon had some advice for those rushing into print with ill-informed opinions: "Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise."



drawings by marguerita
all rights reserved 2011.

For many years I am fascinated by insects.I like to draw,create sculptures and jewels.
The Ants in particular become of great interest to me, so through time,I got books, The Journey to the Ants- a story of scientific exploration- and The Insect Societies by Edward O.Wilson,among other books on the subject.
Recently,by coincidence,Miriam Portela, a Brazilian children's book writer,proposed me to illustrate her story about a rebellious ant,who craves for fun and joy and wants to take part of stopping the reigning ongoing chaos on Earth.
The Rebellious Ant, in spirit turns out to be a dreamer,as all rebels seem to be,she loses herself in reveries,wonders in her thoughts and of course does not fit like in like the everyday ant.
Somehow,she sounds quite like some humans.
The interesting side here is,borrowing from The Importance of Social Insects,are the parallels to be drawn and why we study these insects?
Because, together with man,hummingbirds, and the bristlecone pine,they are among the great
achievements of organic evolution.
Their social organization- far less than man's because of the feeble intellect and absence of culture,of course,but far greater in respect to cohesion,caste specialization and individual altruism- is non pareil.
The biologist is invited to consider insect societies because they best exemplify the full sweep of ascending levels of organization, from molecule to society.
Among the tens of thousands of species of wasps,ants,bees and termites, we witness the employment of social design to solve ecological problems ordinarily dealt with by simple organisms.
The insect colony is often called SUPERORGANISM, because it displays so many social phenomena that are analogous to the physiological properties of organs and tissues.
A second reason for singling out social insects, is their ecological dominance on the land.
In most parts of the Earth ants in particular are among the principal predators of other invertebrates.
Their colonies,rooted and perennial like woody plants,send out foragers which comb the terrain day and night.
Their biomass and energy consumption exceed those of invertebrates in most terrestrial habitats.
Social insects are specially prominent in the tropics.
In the seventeenth century,Portuguese settlers called ants the "king of Brazil" and later travelers referred to them with such phrases as " the actual owners of the Amazon Valley" and "the real conquerors of Brazil."
So, Viva! Formiga Power!

Edward O.Wilson is Frank B.Baird Jr. Professor of Science and Curator in Entomology at the Museum of Comparative Zoology,Harvard University.He is the author of Sociobiology: The New Synthesis,Biophilia,On Human Nature, which won the 1979 Pulitzer Prize in general nonfiction, and The Diversity of Life. He is coauthor with Bert Holldobler of The Ants, which won the 1991 Pulitzer Prize in general nonfiction. His many awards include the National Medal of Science in 1977 and the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement in 1984.

Oscar Wilde,Clematis and I

photo by marguerita

To drift with every passion till my soul
Is a stringed lute on which all winds can play,
Is it for this that I have given away
Mine ancient wisdom, and austere control?
Methinks my life is a twice-written scroll
Scrawled over on some boyish holiday
With idle songs for pipe and virelay,
Which do but mar the secret of the whole.
Surely there was a time I might have trod
The sunlit heights, and from life's dissonance
Struck one clear chord to reach the ears of God:
Is that time dead? lo! with a little rod
I did but touch the honey of romance —
And must I lose a soul's inheritance?

Note: Apropos clematis

Though there are some types of clematis that have a bushy habit, most of them are born to climb.

Like other climbing plants, the growing end of a clematis vine is searching for something to grab onto, and if it can’t find anything, it will stop growing. Make sure you provide it with something to climb on from day one.

A clematis vine does not climb by twining around something, as a pole bean or a morning glory does.

It climbs by wrapping its leaf stems around something. Because these leaf stems are not very long, anything that’s more than about 1/2 inch in diameter is too wide for the leaf stem to twist around. The easiest things for a clematis to grab onto, are twine, fishing line, wire, thin branches, wooden dowels or steel rods. The more grabbing opportunities you offer, the better, so even if you have a nice trellis, consider adding some twine “helper” lines, or covering your trellis with a grid of trellis netting.

Depending on the vigor of the plant and the type of trellis you have, you’ll probably need to do some “trussing” during the season to help support the vines and keep them attached to the trellis. Both fishing line and twine work well for this job.

Et Tu Cucumber?

drawing by marguerita One can't be absolutely certain about anything....
One of the problems with growing crops is that they grow.
You can't switch them off like you could a baked bean factory: they just keep coming.
There has already been a considerable drop in demand in Germany, where authorities are advising consumers not to eat salads because they still have not pinpointed the cause of the outbreak. This is affecting the area around Hamburg in particular; the rest of Europe appears to be OK. But the knock-on effect is that orders for cucumbers from Spain and Holland have been cancelled altogether, or at best reduced. For cucumbers from Holland, the obvious place to look is in the UK – we already take large volumes of cucumbers at this time of the year. Extra cucumbers will be "dumped" here rather than marketed, and this will drop the price paid to the grower. These price reductions, if they occur, are unlikely to affect the price in the shops but they do have a massive effect on the price paid to growers in the UK.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jun/01/cucumbers-e-coli-germany?intcmp=239

IMF,DSK and I Like to Come in America avec Tocqueville

drawing by marguerita I don't know anyone who takes a shower with his clothes on, do you? Where it goes from there is dicey, and the details get murky.


I like to be in america
ok by me in america
everything free in america
for a small fee in america
i like the city of san juan
i know a boat you can get
on hundreds of flowers
in full bloom hundreds
of people in each room
automobile in america
chromium steel in america
wire spoke wheel in america
very big deal in america
i'll drive a buick in san juan
- if there's a road
you can drive on
i'll give my cousins a
free ride
- how you fit all
of them inside
immigrant goes to america
many helloes in america
nobody knows in america
puerto rico's in america
when i will go back
to san juan
- when will you shut up
and get gone
i'll give them
new washing machine
- what have they got there
to keep clean
i like the shores of america
comfort is yours in america
knobs on the doors in america
wall to wall floors in america
i'll bring a tv to san juan
- if there's a current to turn on
everyone there will give big cheer
- everyone there
will have moved here

lyrics by Trini Lopez

Tocqueville's impressions of American religion and its relationship to the broader national culture are likewise notable: "Moreover, almost all the sects of the United States are comprised within the great unity of Christianity, and Christian morality is everywhere the same
. In the United States the sovereign authority is religious, and consequently hypocrisy must be common; but there is no country in the whole world in which the Christian religion retains a greater influence over the souls of men than in America, and there can be no greater proof of its utility, and of its conformity to human nature, than that its influence is most powerfully felt over the most enlightened and free nation of the earth.
Pour le journal britannique de centre gauche The Guardian, cette nouvelle affaire de mœurs soulève "la question gênante dans les médias français et la politique de deux monde parallèles : ce qui est imprimé, et ce qu'il y a derrière ; les commérages, et ce qui doit rester officiellement les non-dits."