Category Archives: Commonplace Book

Dunitz’ Disclaimer

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My second favorite disclaimer in a book, from Jay Dunitz’ collection of photographs Pacific Light:

“DISCLAIMER and WARNING:

The process utilized by the Artist in the creation of the Pacific Light series is extremely dangerous, and may be injurious or lethal to person and hazardous to property. Neither the Artist nor anyone associated with the publication and distribution of PACIFIC LIGHT shall be responsible or liable in any way for any injury, death, or other damage arising from the reader’s or public’s application of the described process and its related materials.”

*^*^*

Take that!, Anarchist Cookbook

Proportion

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”Sense of humor is ultimately just an acute sense of proportion… the funny person notices stuff first. You walk in a room, the funny person will know, ‘Hey, it’s cold in here.’ Or, ‘What’s that smell?’ You pull a car in front of me, a brand-new car from the showroom, and if it has a little scratch on it… my eye will go right to the scratch, ‘Hey, you got a little scratch here.’”

Eddie Murphy, Being Eddie, 44:45 or so. (Netflix)

I would add context. The more and broader stuff you know, the more cars from the showroom run in front of you.

Lippmann and How Close

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“It is often very illuminating, therefore, to ask yourself how you got at the facts on which you base your opinion. Who actually saw, heard, felt, counted, named the thing, about which you have an opinion? Was it the man who told you, or the man who told him, or someone still further removed? And how much was he permitted to see?”

“When he informs you that France thinks this and that, what part of France did he watch? How was he able to watch it? Where was he when he watched it? What Frenchmen was he permitted to talk to, what newspapers did he read, and where did they learn what they say?”

Public Opinion, chapter 2
Walter Lippmann

——

One may obviously substitute Ukraine, Russia, Gaza, and Israel here.