This book waited a hundred years, because Mark Twain forbade its publication
Category: Thoughts
Unraveling the Layers of Echidna: From Faust to Mythology | June 13 2025, 04:21
In the second part of Faust, he encountered an echidna and realized that he did not understand
“Oh wonder! The clew turned into an egg,
The egg swelled up — what is within?
Two dreadful twins emerged —
A vampire with an echidna — from the egg.
The echidna writhes here crawling,
The vampire hovers under the ceiling”
It turned out that in the lexicon of the 18th-19th centuries, an echidna was a venomous snake. I mean, sarcastic, spiteful, sharp, cunning, mocking me, of course, I know this word, but that it literally signified a snake, I learned for the first time. And in Greek mythology, the half-woman half-snake Echidna was apparently the mother of Hydra, Sphinx, Chimera, and Cerberus
Heightened Alert: Navigating Uncertainty and Vigilance | June 12 2025, 22:56
“Due to increased regional tensions.” The Consular Affairs office of the State Department in its notice advised U.S. citizens to “exercise increased caution.” Such news always reminds me of this picture.
Why Shiba Inu Training Fails: A Waiting Game for Lisa | June 09 2025, 17:11
This is why the Shiba Inu is difficult to train. He’s not in the mood today, waiting for Lisa. And the cat is waiting for Lisa too. Their daughter is finally moving back from campus, already loaded everything into the truck. Yuki is looking out the window. Trying to feed him boiled chicken fails — food is not much of a motivator for him. He last ate about 15 hours ago, so he should be a bit hungry in theory. No, he’s not sick — this behavior has been observed throughout his four years. Waiting.
Discovering Goethe’s Faust at 47 | June 08 2025, 01:57
At 47, I finally got around to Goethe’s “Faust.” Ordered the book on Ozon, but it will only reach me in a month. So, I decided to start with the audiobook. And what a fabulous production it is! I’ve listened to eight out of sixteen hours, covering all of the first part and a bit of the second. Probably will spend another week chewing through the second part. And when the book arrives – I’ll read it all over again after the audio, which should go really well.
Trukhan’s performance is a masterpiece! The cello, the choice of voice actors, the intonations. I could not imagine a better “Faust” than the one voiced by Chonishvili. Highly recommend. Only occasionally there’s a bit too much with the musical numbers, but I need to check the text, maybe you can’t remove words from a song. The end of the first part in the prison is just fire.
The Curious Case of Rollerblades vs. Inline Skates: A Brand Name’s Journey to Common Use | June 02 2025, 18:14
I step into Starbucks, and there’s a sign in the parking lot. Why rollerblades? After all, blade means ‘blade’? If it came down to it, rollerblades should be something like a circular saw. Started figuring it out. Turns out, roller skates were originally called inline skates, but then the commercial company Rollerblade appeared and eventually became a generic trademark, like Pampers, Xerox, marker pen, Thermos, Play-Doh, or escalator.
But actually, the term Inline Skates exists, and it means any skates, and the company Rollerblade still exists. Interesting, did it influence the fact that its name was on the sign?
And what about the Russian name “коньки”? Is it a diminutive of “horse”? Yes 🙂 According to one version, like little horses, they carry you across the ice: ancient skates were decorated with a horse’s head at the front. According to another version, the name comes from the fact that the first runners were usually made from animal bones, most often horses.
It seems you speak in Russian, and only when you contemplate do you realize that ‘horse’ and ‘skates’ are related words.
Success and Second-hand Embarrassment: The Two Extremes of Expertise | June 01 2025, 21:25
Enthralled. When something is done successfully by professionals, it’s like balm for the soul. But when done by idiots, you experience second-hand embarrassment.
Simulated Realities: When Fiction Mirrors Life | May 31 2025, 13:47
Generated people are convinced that everything around them is fake, and that they themselves are made from prompts, yet they do not believe it.
It turned out dystopian.
It would be funny, if we also didn’t believe that we live in a simulation.
Or is it not funny?
Decoding the Price Tags of Knowledge on Amazon | May 31 2025, 01:45
Clete Kushida has books on Amazon like “Sleep” for $1,895 and “Sleep for Dummies” for $22.99. Seems like it should be the other way around. He also has “Encyclopedia of Sleep and Circadian Rhythms” for $2,247.
If you search all books on Amazon and sort them from the most expensive to the cheapest, the top will feature books around $200. But if you hack the system a bit and adjust the URL with &low-price=…&high-price=…, then sorting by descending price reveals much more.
I decided to see what goes for big money on Amazon. For example, Topps has a listing for a 1952 baseball card set “1952 Topps Baseball Almost Complete Set – Premier (Baseball Set) EX+” priced at $354,530. The only comment says “Damn I could take a picture and print those for free”.
Mostly, items like diamonds, Hermes bags, and pre-fabricated houses are going for such high prices. Curiously, I looked into what’s in books. Naturally, the top consists of antiques, some mistakenly placed prices, and jokes.
But among these are real books for some unreasonable prices. For example, Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-Being Research By Filomena Maggino is sold at Harvard Book Store for $5,999. Or here’s Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance 2nd ed. 2022 Edition by Ali Farazmand for $7,999.99. Makes you wonder, does pricing it a cent below $8K justify itself? On Springer’s website, the electronic version of this book is sold for $3,500. Or you could rent it on Kindle for a couple of months for $2,000.
Or there’s also the Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics in 14 volumes. On Amazon, this encyclopedia is priced at just under $100K, but it’s very easy to find other sites on the net that sell its electronic versions. What do you think an electronic version of this encyclopedia might cost? Prices are generally around $11,000 everywhere.
Among the rare books is RECOVERY: THE HOSPITAL DRAWINGS OF ALFONSO OSSORIO. Interestingly, this is just a book printed relatively recently, in 1995, in an edition of 100 copies, each individually numbered. And now these books are being sold for $4-5 thousand dollars. Well, that’s understandable, it’s collectible.
Hi, I'm Rauf Aliev. 