Apple Pie

  

“If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, first invent the universe.”

- Carl Sagan

I love that quote.

While I was never into Sagan as a kid, I knew of him. For a kid in the 70s, with one teevee with seven channels in the house, his face was ubiquitous. As was the mock phrase “billions and billions,” though I understand he never actually said it. As a young padawan who loved physics I knew him; as a teenager struggling with calculus in high school I knew him; as a college student contemplating a major in something ending in “-ology” I knew him.

Despite all this, though, I never saw Cosmos. Thought about renting it over the years, but felt that it wouldn’t live up to the hype with its dated special effects. (Though it might have some weird type of never-experienced nostalgia for me as a big fan of Nimoy’s In Search Of). But I did read the paperback version of Cosmos during my time at Seton Hall, followed by either Dragons of Eden or Broca’s Brain. Can’t remember which one. Might have been both.

I also read his science fiction novel, Contact, and found it somewhat entertaining. There was a really good idea in there, something about how the aliens either communicated with us or enabled us to travel to them. Don’t remember, unfortunately. And now that’s making me think I should re-read the book. Saw the movie in the 90s and was underwhelmed. First in a long line of the girl-scientist cliché as well as the religion fanatic with a bomb cliché.

Anyway, this is all just some random warblings from me. No ulterior motive behind this post, written only because I came across that apple pie quote.

Now I need to keep my eye out for a Sagan next time I’m at the used book store.

N.B. A “sagan” is the tongue-in-cheek scientific unit of any number greater than four billion – “billions and billions” translates to at least two billion plus two billion, or four billion. Example: Bill Gates, the second richest man in the world, is estimated to have a net worth of around 22.5 sagans of dollars.

Suggestion of the Decade!

Deplatform Twitter.

[That’s “Deplatform Twitter,” for those viewing this on smartphones, the suggestion observed in the comments section of a recent article on The American Conservative.]

The Healer

Last night I had a dream. Crazy dream. Anything I wanted to know … anyplace I needed … to go …

Well, not exactly. But it was strange.

I dreamt I was wandering the streets of New York City. 1970s New York City: dirty, litter-strewn and sweaty, menace tangible on every street corner. To show I wasn’t afraid I made a point to turn into every alleyway and at least nose my way in a little before returning to the gritty numbered streets. Who I was proving my bona fides to I don’t know, but it seemed important in the dream.

In one alleyway I spotted a stone staircase heading down underground. I hesitated, then descended a ways into a little passage, then climbed up stairs into a cave hewn straight from granite. It was open to the sky, but I couldn’t see the surrounding terrain, though I intuited I was still in the City.

Sitting on a rock before me was an old man. And at his feet, laying on its side, was a deer, panting slowly.

The old man was quietly weeping. I patiently listened as he explained, in broken sentences, that the deer was his best friend … and his best friend was once a man! Something – a witch, an evil spirit, I’m not sure it was spelled out in the dream – something had turned this friend into a deer, and that deer was dying at the man’s feet.

I understood that the old timer was going to cut off the deer’s legs to save it from its wounds (not sure what its wounds were, but in the dream I felt it had something to do with a curse). Then I stepped up and told him not to do so. “Stand back,” I said with conviction.

Reaching down, I gripped the deer’s hide tightly. “Be healed!” I commanded.

But before I saw the results of my invocation, I found myself moving out of the chamber into another passageway … that led to a banquet hall. My wife and daughters were with me as I entered, and we passed tables of food looking for a place to sit. I passed a family member (a photographer by trade) who handed me a glass of ice cold orange slices and said that my oldest daughter had left this at her seat.

Okay. If there’s any Great Wisdom in that segment of the dream, I’m at a loss.

Then I noticed a table with books stacked on it, like a store display. I always am curious when it comes to books, so I went right up and nearly fell over in shock at the novel on display:

The Healer, by Stephen King, with a picture of a deer on the cover!