open the pod bay doors

HAL 9000, the most advanced computer at the time, has the pivotal role in Arthur C. Clark and Stanley Kubrick's, 2001: A Space Odyssey.

The last episode in the movie (1968) has a spaceship and its crew heading to Jupiter. HAL is the on board computer that interfaces with the crew. They eventually realize that HAL is capable of error, and privately (in a pod) discuss disconnecting it. Although I am assuming, Deep Thought is more advanced than the HAL (after all, coming up with the ultimate answer is no easy task); HAL appears to overcome its handicap. I'm referring to its (assuming computers have no gender) hearing problem; why else would he have to read lips.

HAL is an acronym for Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic Computer.

TE - Master of my domain

This catch phrase became well known after the airing of the Seinfeld television show. Rather than using an actual word or term, a euphemism is utilized.
In my opinion, the best euphemism regarding death is the parrot sketch by Monty Python.

TE - Tempus fugit

This Latin expression is generally attributed to to the ancient Roman, Publius Vergilius Maro (Anglicized form - Virgil). Usually inscribed on the face of sundials, this adage is to remind the individual that "time flies" and is irrecoverable.
Virgil is also well known for his twelve books of the Aeneid, the adventures of Aeneas from Trojan war to the landing in modern day Italy. Many years later the legend of Romulus and Remus evolved. According to the story, these two brothers fought and Romulus was victorious. The question I have is if Remus had won the fight, Would the city be called Reme.

TE - These go to 11

This is Spinal Tap is a cult movie of a heavy metal/rock band in which one of the characters, explaining his amplifiers, quotes "These go to 11".

This phrase has evolved to mean "taken to an extreme". In this case, the extreme is loudness of music which is the signature of the band. However Spinal Tap is no match for Disaster Area.

TE - For whom the bells toll

This is the title of an Ernest Hemingway novel (1940) that later became a popular movie. It tells the story of Robert Jordan, a young American in the International Brigades attached to an anti-fascist(Republicans)guerilla unit during the Spanish Civil War.

The Novel's title comes from a famous quotation of John Donne (1624); it goes like this:
"No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee."


Tinnitus is usually described by sufferers as a perceived sound of a ringing noise. I just wonder if Quasimodo suffered from this malady.

TE - Titles explained - Kobayashi Maru

With each blog posting a title should help explain the subsequent text. However, readers of my blog indicate the title has nothing to do with the paragraph(s) that follow.
Within the Blog, links are placed in the text to, hopefully, clarify some of the more obscure references. This is more to appease myself as I don't want to appear too much in left field. On the other hand, the Blog titles utilize "lateral thinking" to get some pretty unique entries.

By the way, Kobayashi Maru means a "winning a no win situation". Just goes to show, "you win some, you lose a lot more".

For Whom the Bell Tolls

Easter Sunday is a holiday that celebrated by many Christians every year.
Unlike Christmas, which has a generally accepted assigned day, the date on the which the Spring holiday falls is calculated. Simply, the calculation (also known as Computus) is for the Sunday after the full moon, on or after the Spring Equinox. Accordingly, Easter can fall on 35 possible dates - between March 22 and April 25, inclusive.

Because the Easter Sunday is a movable feast, Mardi Gras (pseud., Shrove Tuesday), at the front end, also has variable date. At the back end, the Sunday that follows Easter is called "low Sunday" or quasimodo.

Quasimodo was also one of the main characters in Victor Hugo's "Notre-Dame de Paris". Also known as the Hunchback of Notre Dame, he was, no only deformed, but deaf as a result of ringing the Cathedral bells. I often wondered if Quasimodo suffered from Tinnitus.

These go to 11

One of the ways you can diagnose a subarachnoid hemorrhage is by way of a Lumbar Puncture (LP in medical talk - not Long Playing - that's music talk). This is more commonly known as "bleeding in the brain"

Now, this type of malady is a serious medical emergency and can lead to death (the ultimate seriousness) or severe disability.

Colloquially, an LP, is known as a spinal tap.

Tempus fugit.

There's a adage for daylight savings time that goes like this: "Spring forward and Fall back". The concept is controversial and was only possible when analog or digital clocks became of common use. Before that, sundials were one of the few means to tell time. They come in all shapes, orientation and sizes, but they all have one feature, it was a gnomon. The accuracy of the sundial is based on a variety of factors; such the shape of the gnomon, how it leans, the time of the year and the latitude.

Gnomom comes from the ancient Greeks meaning "to know". Also from the Greek is the prefix "a", which means "not". Thus the word agnostic, literally means "I don't know". Often this word is used in Religious context, it's use usually gets confused with another belief "athetisism".

Distinguishing these to concepts is difficult, but I believe that Henny Youngman said it best when he stated that "he used to be atheist, but there were no religious holidays". In turn, the ultimate agnostic was W. C. Fields. When he spent his last weeks in a hospital, where a friend stopped by for a visit and caught Fields reading the Bible. When asked why, Fields replied, "I'm checking for loopholes". Now, that's covering all your bases!

Master of my domain

King Phillip chases only funny Girl Scouts. That's the mneumonic that I was taught to remember the levels developed by Carl von Linné, in the mid 1700's, for the clasification of living things. Now I find out that Kingdom has been supplanted by Domain as the top tier for taxonomy. Since plants and animals are not the only items that make up "life", I suppose that a new classification had to be made up to accommodate the other things that make up living creatures.

Thus, a person's full taxonomic classification is :
Eukarya Metazoa Chordata Mammalia Primata Hominidae Homo sapiens sapiens.
( Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species, Sub-species )

It now makes more sense that Dumb King Phillip chases only funny Girl Scouts.