P3D Re: Pandoras vs Panglosses (a P3D tag-team bout)

[Oliver Dean <3d-image@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Bruce Springsteen wrote:

> "Ode to the Dean of Arts and Letters"
> 
> There once was a poet named Oliver
> Who posted a sonnet most excellent.
> In spirit of Kovacs
> It was a grand effort
> Especially since nothing rhymes with orange.

Thanks!  You DO know the Importance of Being Ernie!
 
> Then a left hook:
> 
> There once was an artist named Bruce
> Whose discipline tended to "loose".
> Though critics would moan,
> He'd demand to be shown:
> "My art isn't bad - it's abstruse!"

You don't hear me moaning -- I'm delighted!

> "Gresham's Limerick"
> 
> A man seeking fruit in the fall
> Built a ladder both sturdy and tall,
> But the mob on the ground
> That was scrounging around
> Soon knocked him down, ladder and all.

A good warning, which, indeed, I did not adequately address. Two
quotations which do:

"The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal
vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the
consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt."  -- John
Philpot Curran (1750-1817) --from a speech upon the Right of Election of
the Lord Mayor of Dublin (July 10, 1790) 

"...freedom can be retained only by the eternal vigilance which has
always been its price."  -- Elmer Davis (1890-1958)--from "We Were Born
Free," (1954) Chapter 1.

I didn't mean to imply that there are no warts to having and preserving
choices -- I just wanted to emphasize a point that seemed to have been
overlooked, that at this brief period in our history, new choices are
being created, I think, at perhaps a faster rate than old ones are
disappearing.  But some of the things that disappear are tragic,
indeed.  The fabulous Passenger Pigeon, the glorious Carolina Parakeet,
the remarkable Dodo, even the Titanic and the Jules Richard Transposing
35 mm stereoscope for Verascope slide film -- these are gone forever and
probably will never return, thereby depleting the valuable store of
life's options. And under the inexorable pressure of a worldwide
population growing at the rate of 240,000 per DAY -- how long can the
few remaining preserves of forests and streams, wildlife and plants,
survive? Some of those difficult choices we have had better be exercised
quickly, or there will be nothing left to choose (as you so beautifully
point out in your Shakespearean sonnet below). 

 
> And a flurry of iambic pentameter:
> 
> The siren's song is sweet to all men's hearing.
> She calls to them across the troubled main.
> >From misty shores she offers words endearing
> And whispers dreams of ease to calm the brain.
> 
> I tremble at the stories long enduring
> Of those who've heard the siren's call before
> And sailors who succumb to tunes alluring,
> Abandoning the charts and routes of yore.
> 
> In spite of sense, the sultry voice that draws them
> And promises a refuge from the wave,
> Has veiled in clouds the rigid rocks and shallows
> Where, foundering, they lose what they would save.
> 
> And then the waters rise, submerging choice,
> 'Til icy numbness stills the hand and voice.
> ***

Also, when nobuddy youses available cherces, dey goes "bye-bye!" -- all
da more reason ta make youse of dem! (I start talking like this when I
know I'm outclassed!)  Kodak (or other collector oriented businesses)
will undoubtedly stop making glass plates if no one buys them any more.

> Bruce (I coulda been somebody.  I coulda been George Themelis, instead of
> a bum, which is what I am.) Springsteen

Bumness is as bumness does -- and youse ain't no bum! (I'm know I'm WAY
outclassed!:>))

Thanks, Bruce!  Your post is a treasured "Keeper"!

Cordially,
Oliver Dean