Tuesday, January 13, 2026
Sunday, February 21, 2016
The Masonic Mandorla
A post for Tom Hanks and Dan Brown
Yahoo! President and CEO Marissa Mayer delivers a keynote
during the Yahoo Mobile Developers Conference on February 18,
2016, at Nob Hill Masonic Center in San Francisco, California.
Credit: Stephen Lam
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Sunday, March 8, 2026
Monday, November 10, 2025
Wednesday, October 25, 2023
For Judy Chicago, Née Cohen
From the University of Chicago Press…
The Nutshell:
Related Narrative:
………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
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Sunday, January 22, 2023
The Stillwell Dichotomies
| Number | Space |
| Arithmetic | Geometry |
| Discrete | Continuous |
Related literature —
From a "Finite Fields in 1956" post —
The Nutshell:
Related Narrative:
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Thursday, May 13, 2021
USC President Exits
Related material for the Magisterium — The Charleston Mandorla.
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Tuesday, December 15, 2020
At the Intersection…
Continues. The Chanel mandorla in the previous post
suggests a review of a more complex figure — The Venn Lotus.
Politically correct leftists may be reminded of Intersectionality.
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Saturday, August 25, 2018
Schoolgirl Problem
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Sunday, October 29, 2017
Damnation… Or Not?
Related material —
Faust Vivifies Death with Wit and Humor
by April H. N. Yee, Harvard Crimson , Feb. 7, 2008.
See as well all posts now tagged Willow and Mandorla.
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Tuesday, August 30, 2016
Shema, Faust
"The quotes create the illusion
that the dead are still speaking
to the reader. Faust writes about
the efforts of spiritualists to believe
in an afterlife for their slain kin, but
she’s the one summoning spirits."
— April Yee, Harvard Crimson
staff writer, February 7, 2008
"0! = 1"
See also yesterday's Into the Woods
and posts now tagged Willow and Mandorla.
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Thursday, March 3, 2016
Metaphors
A rose on a Harvard University Press book cover (2014) —
A Log24 post's "lotus" (2004) —
A business mandorla (2016) —
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Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Arsenal
The previous post discussed some fundamentals of logic.
The name “Boole” in that post naturally suggests the
concept of Boolean algebra . This is not the algebra
needed for Galois geometry . See below.
Some, like Dan Brown, prefer to interpret symbols using
religion, not logic. They may consult Diamond Mandorla,
as well as Blade and Chalice, in this journal.
See also yesterday’s Universe of Discourse.
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Sunday, November 11, 2012
Lincoln Porn
Tablet magazine, November 9th, 2012,
on Spielberg's Lincoln :
"… the movie’s lone Rocky moment
of ecstatic self-congratulation
is reserved for the amendment’s climactic
passage with the victorious congressmen
spontaneously bursting into
'The Battle Hymn of the Republic.' "
"Mine eyes have seen the glory…"
Both images above refer to this morning's post
Professor Lavery's Sunday School.
For other porn from Tablet magazine, see
Minimalist Whirl.
For other porn from Lincoln's seat of government, see
Physical Poetry and All In .
For further blasphemy, see The Apotheosis of Washington:
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Saturday, March 17, 2012
The Purloined Diamond
The diamond from the Chi-rho page
of the Book of Kells —
The diamond at the center of Euclid's
Proposition I, according to James Joyce
(i.e., the Diamond in the Mandorla) —
“He pointed at the football
on his desk. ‘There it is.’”
– Glory Road
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Saturday, October 15, 2011
Synergy
"Examples are the stained-glass windows of knowledge." —Nabokov
Suggested by yesterday's evening NY lottery—
Post 4248: The Hunt for Exemplary October, and
Post 942: Links for St. Benedict
Related material—
1. (Engineering / Aeronautics) an aircraft landing
in which the two main wheels and the nose or tail wheel
all touch the ground simultaneously
in which the two main wheels and the nose or tail wheel
all touch the ground simultaneously
— Collins English Dictionary
See also…
Tiffany Case and…
The Diamond
in the Mandorla
“He pointed at the football
on his desk. ‘There it is.’”
– Glory Road
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Thursday, July 14, 2011
ART WARS continued:
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Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Happy Bastille Day…
To the leftist philosophers of Villanova
From "Make a Différance"
(Women's History Month, 2005)—
"Our proposal includes the lozenge (diamond) in between the names, because in the relationship / non-relationship that is established among them, a tension is created that implies simultaneously a union and a disjunction, in the perspective of a theoretical encounter that is at the same time necessary and impossible. That is the meaning of the lozenge that joins and separates the two proper names…. What prevails between both of them is the différance, the Derridean signifier that will become one of the main issues in this presentation."
“He pointed at the football
on his desk. ‘There it is.’”
– Glory Road
Quodlibet*
Compare and contrast
the diamond in the football
with the jewel in the lotus.
* "A scholastic argumentation upon a subject chosen at will, but almost always theological. These are generally the most elaborate and subtle of the works of the scholastic doctors." —Century Dictionary
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Sunday, July 5, 2009
Sunday July 5, 2009
“He pointed at the football
on his desk. ‘There it is.'”
— Glory Road
See also
Hieron Grammaton
and
Epiphany 2007.
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Friday, April 25, 2008
Friday April 25, 2008
Destabilizing
the Locus
the Locus
"It is the intention
of this piece
to destabilize the locus
of that authorial act…."
of this piece
to destabilize the locus
of that authorial act…."
— Yale art student
Aliza Shvarts,
quoted today in
The Harvard Crimson
From Log24 on
March 14:
|
Rite of Spring
From the online
Related material:
A figure from
— and
The center referred
See also Yeats —
Stevens —
and Zelazny —
|
Related material
from Google:
|
JSTOR: Killing Time
|
Other ways
of killing time:
|
From Log24 on April 21, the date of Mark Twain's death–
Psychoshop, by Alfred Bester and Roger Zelazny:
The Pennsylvania Lottery
and hence Log24, 9/23 (2007), and page 765 of From Here to Eternity (Delta paperback, 1998):
|
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Friday, March 14, 2008
Friday March 14, 2008
Rite of Spring
From the online
Harvard Crimson —
Related material:
A figure from
Monday's entry —
— and
June 30, 2007's
Annals of Theology,
with a link to a film:
The Center of the World.
The center referred
to in that film is the
same generic "center"
displayed at Harvard
and in the above
mandorla: not the
Harvard Women's
Center, but rather
the women's center.
See also Yeats —
"the centre cannot hold,"
Stevens —
"the center of resemblance,"
and Zelazny —
"center loosens,
forms again elsewhere."
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Monday, March 10, 2008
Monday March 10, 2008
Mani Padme
(Jewel in the Lotus):
Part I
“Raiders of the Lost Stone”
(March 10, 2006)
(Jewel in the Lotus):
Part I
“Raiders of the Lost Stone”
(March 10, 2006)
Part II
“Raiders of the Lost…”
(Feb. 17, 2006)
Part III
The Further
Adventures of
Tony Rome
(March 7, 2008)
Parts I and II above
may be summarized by
the famous phrase
“jewel in the lotus”–
which, some say, has
a sexual meaning–
and by the diagram
For discussions
of this structure
in Western thought,
see
the ovato tondo
and
Last to the Lost.
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Thursday, February 21, 2008
Thursday February 21, 2008
Class
Galore
Galore
The New Yorker's Anthony Lane reviewing the new film "Jumper"–
"I wasn’t expecting Ernst Gombrich, but surely three writers, among them, could inject a touch of class."
The "Jumper" theme, teleportation, has been better developed by three other writers– Bester, Zelazny, and King–
"As a long-time fan of both Alfie Bester and Roger Zelazny, I was delighted to find this posthumous collaboration. Psychoshop is, I think, true to both authors' bodies of work. After all, Bester's influence on Zelazny is evident in a a number of works, most notably Eye of Cat with its dazzling experimental typography so reminiscent of what Bester had done in The Demolished Man and The Stars My Destination."
— Amazon.com customer review
"'This is the last call for Jaunt-701,' the pleasant female voice echoed through the Blue Concourse of New York's Port Authority Terminal."
— Stephen King, "The Jaunt"
|
From another "Jaunt-701"– Log24, Feb. 7:
The Football
Mandorla New York Lottery, 2008: "He pointed at the football "The |
"What happened?"
one of the scientists shouted….
"It's eternity in there,"
he said, and dropped dead….
— Stephen King, "The Jaunt"
As
for Ernst
Gombrich, see
his link in the
Log24 entries
of June 15,
2007.
for Ernst
Gombrich, see
his link in the
Log24 entries
of June 15,
2007.
Related material:
the previous entry.
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Thursday February 7, 2008
The Football
Mandorla
Mandorla
New York Lottery, 2008:
"He pointed at the football
on his desk. 'There it is.'"
— Glory Road
"The Rock" —
Goodspeed:
"I'll do my best."
Mason:
"Your best. Losers
always whine about
their best. Winners
go home and …."
"The
Wu Li
Masters know
that physicists are
doing more than
'discovering the endless
diversity of nature.' They
are dancing with Kali,
the Divine Mother of
Hindu mythology."
— Gary Zukav,
Harvard
'64
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Sunday, July 1, 2007
Sunday July 1, 2007
Object Lesson
continued…
continued…
|
"Three times the concentred self takes hold, three times The thrice concentred self, having possessed The object, grips it in savage scrutiny, Once to make captive, once to subjugate Or yield to subjugation, once to proclaim The meaning of the capture, this hard prize, Fully made, fully apparent, fully found."
— "Credences of Summer," VII, |
For a religious
interpretation
of 265, see
Sept. 30, 2004.
For a religious
interpretation
of 153, see
Fish Story.
A quotation from
the Eater of Souls:
"That's how it is, Easy," my Coach went on, his voice more in sorrow than in anger. "Yardage is all very well but you don't make a nickel unless you cross that old goal line with the egg tucked underneath your arm." He pointed at the football on his desk. "There it is. I had it gilded and lettered clear back at the beginning of the season, you looked so good and I had so much confidence in you– it was meant to be yours at the end of the season, at a victory banquet."
— Glory Road,
by Robert A. Heinlein
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Sunday July 1, 2007
At the still point,
there the dance is.
— T. S. Eliot
there the dance is.
— T. S. Eliot
Humphrey Carpenter in The Inklings, his book on the Christian writers J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, and Charles Williams, says that
"Eliot by his own admission took the 'still point of the turning world' in Burnt Norton from the Fool in Williams's The Greater Trumps."
— The Inklings, Ballantine Books, 1981, p. 106
Today's Birthdays: …. Actress-dancer Leslie Caron is 76…. Movie director Sydney Pollack is 73…. Dancer-choreographer Twyla Tharp is 66. –AP, "Today in History," July 1, 2007
The Diamond
in the Mandorla
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Saturday, June 30, 2007
Saturday June 30, 2007
November 2004–
Controversial "Desperate Housewives"… ranks No. 5 among all prime-time shows for ages 12-17. ("Monday Night Football" is No. 18.) This may explain in part why its current advertisers include products like Fisher-Price toys, the DVD of "Elf" and the forthcoming Tim Allen holiday vehicle, "Christmas With the Kranks." Those who cherish the First Amendment can only hope that the Traditional Values Coalition, OneMillionMoms.com, OneMillionDads.com and all the rest send every e-mail they can to the F.C.C. demanding punitive action against the stations that broadcast "Desperate Housewives." A "moral values" crusade that stands between a TV show this popular and its audience will quickly learn the limits of its power in a country where entertainment is god. — "The Great Indecency Hoax," a New York Times column by Frank Rich quoted in Log24 on Nov. 26, 2004 |
The entertainment continues. A rabbi's obituary in today's New York Times (see previous entry) served as ad-bait for "Joshua," a Fox Searchlight film opening July 6.
A search for a less sacrilegious memorial to the rabbi yields the following:
The "Project MUSE" link above
works only at
subscribing libraries.
It seems that here, too,
the rabbi is being
used as bait.
For a perhaps preferable
reference to bait, in the
context of St. Peter as
a "fisher of men," see
the Christian "mandorla"
or "vesica piscis,"
a figure hidden within
the geometry of Rome's
St. Peter's Square–
which, despite its name,
is an oval:
For the geometric
construction of the
Roman oval, see
"ovato tondo" in
Rudolf Arnheim's
The Power of the Center.
For a less theoretical account
of the religious significance
of the mandorla, see
the 2001 film
The Center of the World.
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Thursday, March 8, 2007
Thursday March 8, 2007
Introduction to Logic
for International Women's Day
for International Women's Day
"The logic behind such utterances is the logic
of binary opposition, the principle of non-contra-
diction, often thought of as the very essence of
Logic as such….
Now, my understanding of what is most radical
in deconstruction is precisely that it questions
this basic logic of binary opposition….
Instead of a simple 'either/or' structure,
deconstruction attempts to elaborate a discourse
that says neither "either/or", nor "both/and"
nor even "neither/nor", while at the same time
not totally abandoning these logics either."
— Harvard professor Barbara Johnson
in "Nothing Fails Like Success."
(See the previous entry, Day Without Logic.)
Those who value literary theory
more than they value truth
may prefer, on this
International Women's Day,
the "mandorla" interpretation
of the above diagrams.
For this interpretation, see
Death and the Spirit III,
Burning Bright,
and
The Agony and the Ya-Ya.
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Thursday, March 2, 2006
Thursday March 2, 2006
Father Figure
Women’s History Month
continues…
continues…
“My father is, of course,
as mad as a hatter.”
— Diana Rigg in “The Hospital,”
as transcribed at
script-o-rama.com
“A vesicle pisces* is the name that author Philip K. Dick gave to a symbol he saw (on February 2**, 1974) on the necklace of a delivery woman.
PKD was probably conflating the names of two related symbols, the ichthys consisting of two intersecting arcs resembling the profile of a fish… used by the early Christians as a secret symbol, and the vesica piscis, from the centre of which the ichthys symbol can be drawn.”
Related material at Wikipedia:
Related material at Log24:
Related material elsewhere:
* Wikipedia’s earliest online history for this incorrect phrase is from 25 November, 2003, when the phrase was attributed to Dick by an anonymous Wikipedia user, 216.221.81.98, who at that time apparently did not know the correct phrase, “vesica piscis,” which was later supplied (16 February, 2004) by an anonymous user (perhaps the same as the first user, perhaps not) at a different IP address, 217.158.203.103. Wikipedia authors have never supplied a source for the alleged use of the phrase by Dick. This comedy of errors would be of little interest were it not for its strong resemblance to the writing process that resulted in what we now call the Bible.
** Other accounts (for instance, Divine Invasions: A Life of Philip K. Dick, by Lawrence Sutin, Carroll & Graf paperback (copyright 1989, republished on August 9, 2005), page 210) say Dick’s encounter was not on Groundhog Day (also known as Candlemas), but rather on February 20, 1974.
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Thursday, July 29, 2004
Thursday July 29, 2004
In loving memory of
Fred “Bubba” LaRue,
architect of Nixon’s
“southern strategy” —
Part of a Log24 entry
for Saturday, July 24,
LaRue’s apparent
date of death —
Southern
Strategy
Galore:
The Agony
and the Ecstasy
and
a mandorla,
symbol of the Episcopal
Diocese of South Carolina.
The New York Times quotes
LaRue’s son as saying,
“His heart failed while he was
reading a book.”
The title is unknown.
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