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11/30/19
1933
I'm continuing to work on the whatever it is that I'm doing which is becoming 1933- the Navel of History.
It's a great way to burrow into the web, if nothing else. I found this guy Joseph Dennis McNeil who hand-illustrated the envelopes of letters he sent to his girlfriend. A totally ridiculous thing to do, of course.
I like that kind of gesture. 25 years ago I burned 12 copies of my "first CD" Love's Algebra and mailed them away to random people. I hoped that these my apostles would spread my good news in some new old-fashioned way. What I didn't know was that the recordable CDs I had sent out into the future only remained playable for about 5 years, after which they reverted to random noise.
McNeil, on the other hand, succeeded in his objective, and he and Ellen remained married for 47 years. What does that tell you about the value of art?
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11/20/19
Boomers had a lot of advantages growing up in the 50's and 60's. Because the economy was booming, the stereotypical boomer was raised by a stay at home mom, thus hearing many more words spoken by the family phonograph. This naturally led to success in later life.
We also had subversive television like Mr. Wizard and The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, and alternative print media like Pogo, Peanuts, and Mad Magazine to pervert our budding intellects.
Not everyone got the message, and because it was a mixed message at best (which was the point), boomers like me grew up thinking that thinking was normal. Only later in life did I learn that most of my cohort had never even heard of our real heroes, and were destined to become consumers.
So kids, go ahead and OK Boomer us all you like. We have met the enemy and they am us.
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