I think, therefore I am confused

American humorist James Thurber was born on this day in 1894.

"Sixty minutes of thinking of any kind," Thurber wrote, "is bound to lead to confusion and unhappiness."

Jimmy, for example, who was just now popping his knuckles while taking in the couple playing pool. His face betrayed none of his thoughts, but Sully was pretty certain that he had none. Or none to speak of. Did Jimmy wear a mask, to conceal his true self? What would the point have been? Did Jimmy hide his true self from himself?  Did Sully?   --  Chapter 24, The Misforgotten.

Birth, Marx

Harpo Marx was born today in 1893.


"It is a far, far better thing to have a firm anchor in nonsense than to put out on the troubled seas of thought." – John Kenneth Galbraith.

Today's Perverse Verse:

I think, therefore I am, said Descartes,
But for our part,
We think that an awful lot of people with strong opinions
-- And their minions --
With their brain waves so exceedingly faint,
Ain't.

   Descartes had said that you could believe in your own thinking, but Sully doubted that, because his own thoughts were so balled-up that he didn’t have any faith in them as an article of belief. Even if Descartes had meant that the mere act of thinking, never mind the thoughts themselves, constituted a basis for belief. If your thoughts were hopelessly confused and senseless, what authority did they have to prove that you existed? To prove anything? Maybe the fact that you saw that they were senseless proved that you were a rational creature after all? I think that I think, therefore I am. But if that thought led nowhere…   --  Chapter 13, The Misforgotten.