Monday morning philosophy

I didn't see the Grammy Awards last night, not one minute. There are few current TV shows which I watch, and even those I tend to miss and have to pull up On Demand. And even then I get behind.

Just the same, I don't feel as though I miss anything important. There are days where I believe that everything is simply passing fancy. I don't mean that as a bad thing either, nor do I mean it in any particularly judgmental way, or to be a downer. I'm just not impressed by fads. And far too much of what goes on is, in this or any time, exactly that: a fad.

I prefer the timeless to the current. Give me baseball or golf or curling ahead of cornhole. Tolkien means more to me than Game of Thrones because he speaks to the big questions. I doubt that Game of Thrones does, although to be fair I haven't seen a second of it, as is my wont.

I get more out of reading C. S. Lewis' The Abolition of Man for the thirtieth time than I expect I would get from reading the first thing by a current author, though to be fair I don't pay much attention to current authors either. Unless, that is, they tie into Lewis or Tolkien. That is a small and relatively unknown faction.

We tend to make our current times too important. That's understandable enough: they are our times, they are the times we live in, and to that point they are necessarily important. Still, where they don't interact with the timeless, if they aren't seen as part of a bigger picture, I wonder how truly important they are at all.

There's bit of (perhaps) heavy philosophy for you on a Monday morning. Have a good week.

The Scotch ad

Although I do not consider myself overly influenced by ads, there was one for Dewar's Scotch from the Seventies I remember very well. It pictured a Scotsman in full kilt and asked the question, 'Do I look like I'm influenced by passing fads?'

I like that. It's not only a clever ad but it makes a fair overall point: don't be too taken in by passing fancies. By and large there's nothing wrong with them of course. But the traditional has its place, a staying power which makes it, well, tradition.

While there are for example flavored coffees which I do like and look forward to (and I certainly like to try new ones), by and large just give me straight black coffee, preferably Chase and Sanborn. Pizzas have myriad toppings anymore but as a rule I'm quite happy with pepperoni and cheese. Even where there's been genuine, significant improvement I wonder if it's all that big a deal. Cars and televisions are much better now than 40 years ago. But at the end of the day they're only cars and televisions. A good book is better than nearly anything on TV these days anyway.

So go ahead and try new things if you want. Just keep in mind that new doesn't always mean better, and that you can't beat the classics.

Ode to pistachios

Ah, pistachios, pistachios, how do I love thee?
Seriously, how do I love thee?
I had never eaten pistachios before recently. I never had an interest in trying them. But I've tried them and I like them. Why?
Is it only because they are tasty, because they are. Very tasty. Or does psychology play a part?
One of my current favorite TV shows, I am not making this up, involves pistachios in a subplot as a running gag. And where did I try first try pistachios? When visiting my son and his fiancee in Brooklyn a few weeks ago. I can't get enough of them now. Pistachios that is. No offense to the Brooklynites.
Or is it simply that they're new to me and I'm just gorging myself? The trend may soon run itself out.
Let's hope not. Ah, pistachios.