2025.10.24
change of venue
2007.10.24
3D CAD database
07102401.db partial IQ Parkway Interpolation partial ICM
2003.10.24
Jesus struck by lightening
It might be of interest to compare the present lightening strike story with the lightening strike(s) that (reportedly and/or supposedly) ended the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple at Jerusalem circa 360 AD during the reign of Julian the Apostate.
Jesus struck by lightening
And on the rebuilding of the Temple, the occurrence of earthquakes also (supposedly) kept the workmen away from the site. Christian zealotry or not, the rebuilding work ceased, and to this day the Temple remains destroyed.
Christian zealotry during the mid fourth century was indeed fierce, and there is at least one documentation of Christian terrorism against a Jewish synagogue during the reign of Theodosius (late 4th cent.). Bear in mind, however, that the Christian mission of the period was much more focused on destroying Paganism, a mission, moreover, that is still exercised today. It is the Pagan temples of the world that Christianity really obliterated.
2002
Denis Diderot "Encyclopedia"
Diderot, Denis. "Encyclopedia." The Encyclopedia of Diderot & d'Alembert Collaborative Translation Project. Translated by Philip Stewart. Ann Arbor: Michigan Publishing, University of Michigan Library, 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0000.004 (accessed 24 October 2026). Originally published as "Encyclopédie," Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, 5:635–648A (Paris, 1755).
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I detest satires in a book a hundred times more than I favor praise: personal sarcasms are odious in any kind of writing; one is sure to amuse ordinary men, when one makes a point of feeding their meanness. The tone of satire is the worst of all for a dictionary; and the most impertinent and tedious of conceivable books would be a satirical dictionary: it is the only kind we lack. The offhand remark, the subtle allusion, the dainty flourish, must be absolutely banned in a great book; barbs that have to be explained go stale, or soon become unintelligible. It would be perfectly ridiculous to need a commentary in a work, of which the various sections are intended mutually to interpret each other. All that flippancy is just a foam that gradually dies down; soon the volatile part has evaporated, and all that remains is insipid sludge. Such also is the fate of most sparks that fly in the give-and-take of conversation: the agreeable, but passing, sensation they excite comes from their attachment to the moment, the circumstances, the places, the persons, the day's events: attachments which rapidly disappear. Barbs that are not noticeable, because attracting attention is not their principal merit, full of substance, and bearing the character of simplicity combined with great good sense, are the only ones that would hold up in the light of day; to sense the frivolity of the others, one only has to write them. If you showed me an author who had composed his miscellany based on conversations, I would be almost certain he has collected everything he should have ignored, and ignored everything he needed to collect. Let us take care not to commit with those whom we consult, the same mistake that writer would make with the persons he frequents. Great works are like great edifices: their only ornaments are large and few in number. Such ornaments must be distributed with restraint and discretion, or they will detract from simplicity by multiplying relations; from grandeur, by separating the sections and obscuring the whole; from interest, by dividing attention, which in the absence of this defect, which distracts and disperses it, would all be concentrated on the principal masses.
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Although I proscribe satires, the same does not hold for portraits, nor reflections. Virtues are linked to each other, and vices are held, so to speak, by the hand. There is no virtue and no vice that has not its retinue: it is a sort of necessary association. To imagine a character is to identify in function of a given dominant passion, good or bad, the subordinate passions which accompany it, the sentiments, the words and deeds it suggests, and the sort of coloration or energy that the whole intellectual and moral system receives from it: whence we see that ideal paintings, conceived in terms of relations and mutual influence of virtues and vices, can never become chimerical; they are what lends plausibility to dramatic performances and all moral writings; and individuals will forever be found in society who have the good or ill fortune to look like them. And so it is that a century far removed raises hideous or respectable statues, at the base of which posterity writes various names in turn: they write Montesquieu where Plato had been engraved; Desfontaines, where formerly one read Erostratus or Zoilus: with the disturbing difference that there will never be a shortage of increasingly dishonored names to replace those of Erostratus or Zoilus; whereas we dare not hope that the succession of centuries will offer us names increasingly more illustrious to replace Montesquieu, and come third or fourth after Plato. We cannot raise too many such statues in our opus: they should be in bronze on our public squares and in our gardens, and invite us to virtue on the pedestals where the debauchery of pagan gods has been portrayed before our eyes and our children's.
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After treating the encyclopedic material in general, the reader might wish that we should enter into the examination of each of its sections in particular; but it is for the public, and not for us, to judge our labor and that of our colleagues.
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We will simply answer to those who would have preferred we omit theology, that it is a field of knowledge; that this knowledge is very extensive and interesting, and that it could have been made more engaging than mythology, which they would have been sorry to see omitted.
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To those who exclude geography from our dictionary: that the names and the longitude and latitude of the stars which they would admit, have no more right to remain there than the names, the longitude and latitude of the cities they reject.
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To those who would have wished it be less dry: that it was necessary to limit ourselves to the only knowledge of cities that was scientific, the only kind that would enable us to construct good maps of ancient times, if we possessed it, and which will enable our posterity to construct good maps of our times, if we pass it on; and that the rest, being entirely historical, lies outside our object.
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To those who have found certain traits of history, cuisine, fashion, etc. repugnant: that they have forgotten how many works of erudition these topics have spawned; that the most succinct of our articles of this sort will perhaps spare our descendants years of research and volumes of dissertations; that supposing future scientists are immeasurably more reserved than those of the last century, it is still to be presumed that they will not disdain to write a few pages to explain what is a furbelow or a pompon; that a study of our fashions, which today would be considered a frivolous piece of work, would be viewed a thousand years hence as a learned and insightful work on French dress, a work most instructive for writers, painters and sculptors; insofar as our cuisine is concerned, it cannot be disputed that it is an important branch of chemistry.
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To those who have complained that our botany was neither complete nor sufficiently engaging: that these objections are utterly without foundation; that it was impossible to go further than genuses without compiling folios; that we have omitted none of the common plants; we have described them; we have given their chemical analysis, properties, either remedial or nutritive; the only thing we could have added, which would have been scientific and would not have taken up a great deal of space, would have been to indicate under the genus article how many species were known, and how many varieties; and as for the tree portion which is so considerable, it has in the Encyclopedia , from the third volume on, all the development that could be desired.
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To those who are unhappy with the arts portion, and to those who are satisfied with it: that they are all right, because there are items in this immense sector that are very badly done indeed, and others which could hardly be done better.
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But as the arts have been the principal object of my work, I am going to express myself freely, both on the mistakes into which I have fallen, and on the precautions which would have to be taken to correct them.
2002.10.24
Re: urinal and mistletoe
Besides being reenactments (of mistletoe, even?), are today's Duchamp Fountains also representations of the "male fig leaf"? Or might they enforce artistic blabber control? (I wish.) Or do they portend that "in the future, everyone will piss for 15 minutes?"
1957.10.24
1957. Thursday, New York City
Having read the French text "with voracity", Duchamp tells Robert Lebel [8.10.1957] that it "pleased me and even amused me enormously. Regarding the English translation," he very much doubts that "the non-anecdotal passages, those which are 'distilled Lebel', could be translated except by an American 'erudite'."
Receives a visit from Monique Fong before she flies back to Washington.
Ephemerides
1945.10.24
1945. Wednesday, New York City
In the evening at seven-thirty Marcel dines with the Kieslers in their penthouse at 56 Seventh Avenue with its magnificent view over Lower Manhattan.
Ephemerides
1917.10.24
1917. Wednesday, New York City
In the evening from Louise Norton's apartment, Marcel telephones Roché to invite him to join them. However Roché has decided to have an early night, and stays at home.
Ephemerides
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