The Block

Romare Bearden's "The Block," an 18-feet long collage of a Harlem street scene, is on view at the Metropolitan Museum: in delicate condition, it can be displayed for only a few weeks at a time, but is still a vibrant, chaotic rendering of the lives of a busy street.

Bearden is seen below (at right) with friend Albert Murray (left) on the balcony from which he viewed Lenox Avenue between 132nd and 133rd Streets, the block that inspired him. He made the work in 1971 using cut and pasted printed, colored and metallic papers, photostats, pencil, ink marker, gouache, watercolor, and pen and ink. There's a great Met web site specifically for this work of art.

Aaaaargh

The following are variations of a saying or quotation most often attributed to Conservative thinker and statesman. Edmund Burke:

All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing
All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing
All that is necessary for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing

All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for a few good men to do nothing

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for a few good men to do nothing

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for some good men to do nothing

All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for all good men to do nothing

All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for enough good men to do nothing

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that enough good men do nothing

All that is essential for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing

All that is needed for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing

All that is needed for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing

All that is needed for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing

All that is needed for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing

All that is needed for the triumph of evil is for enough good men to do nothing

All that is needed for the forces of evil to triumph is for enough good men to do nothing

All that is required for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing

All that is required for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing

All that is required for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing

All that is required for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing

The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing

The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing

The only thing required for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing

The only thing needed for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing

The only thing needed for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing

The only thing that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing

The only thing that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing

All that it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing

All it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing

All that’s necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing

All that’s needed for the forces of evil to triumph is for enough good men to do nothing

All that’s needed for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing

All that is necessary for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing

For evil to prosper all it needs is for good people to do nothing

All that is necessary for the forces of evil to win in the world is for enough good men to do nothing

All that’s necessary for the forces of evil to win in the world is for enough good men to do nothing

All that is required for evil to triumph is for good [wo]men to do nothing

The only thing needed for evil to triumph is for enough good men [and women] to do nothing

The only thing required for evil to triumph is for good men (and women!) to do nothing

All that is necessary for evil to triumph is that good men (and women) do nothing

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men (and women) do nothing

For evil to triumph it is necessary only that good men [and women] do nothing

All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men and women to do nothing

All that it takes for the triumph of evil is that good men and women do nothing

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men and women to do nothing

All it takes for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing

All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good people do nothing

All that needs to be done for evil to prevail is that good men do nothing

The only thing that has to happen in this world for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing

All that is necessary for evil to triumph in the world is for enough good men and women to do nothing

Evil thrives when good men do nothing

For evil to triumph good men need do nothing

For evil to triumph good men have to do nothing

The best way for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing

The surest way to assure the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing

Evil will triumph so long as good men do nothing

It is necessary only for good men to say nothing for evil to triumph

It is necessary only for the good man to do nothing for evil to triumph

For evil to triumph it is necessary for good men to do nothing

For evil to triumph it is sufficient for good men to do nothing

All it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to stand by and do nothing

All that is necessary for the forces of evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing

All that is required for evil to triumph over good is for good men to do nothing

Evil can triumph only if good men do nothing

The only thing evil men need to triumph is for good men to do nothing

The only thing for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for enough good men to do nothing

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men stand by and do nothing

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil was for good men to do nothing

The only way for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing

Evil prevails when good men do nothing

Up Down

The old Yankee Stadium, the "House that Ruth built," is being demolished after the Yankees built a brand new stadium right next door (with some controversy of course). A web site has been recording the demolition in photos, and shedding tears.

The old stadium was built in 1923 and was dear to the hearts of generations of fans and Bronx residents. A friend of mine born and raised and living within a few blocks of the old and the new said, philosophically, that with the demolition almost complete, the sun is now shining on several streets which had stood in the Yanks' shadow since the 1920s...

I went to a game once in 1999, with friends. We stayed for several raucous innings, then left, somewhat drunk. Since then. my encounters with the stadium and the Yankees have been restricted to walking past the old and now, new stadia, on my many visits to the Bronx... and also -- on game days, when you are waiting on the D or 4 trains and expect to get on a relatively empty and quiet train, you realize "the Yankees played a home game..." when the train pulls in jammed to the doors with red-cheeked (that is, tipsy) white people.

Something else to add: a spine-tingling acoustic experience. Several times I was walking near the stadium during a game, and something happened which caused the crowd to react at once, and that odd, hollow, unamplified sound of tens of thousands of humans yelling "OOOOH!" or "YESSSSSSSS!" made me jump and shiver in ecstasy. I felt I could almost see the sound.

And finally... if you are interested, this Wikipedia table, below, compares old stadium with new, and that's quite enough sports/baseball for another year, folks.

What He Looks Like

Further to the post from yesterday, below, about seeing God's toe as we approach His face, I have it on good authority that He is a combinatrion of these two:

But Which Toe?

The New York Times on What it All Means; Existence:

In a mathematically perfect universe, we would be less than dead; we would never have existed. According to the basic precepts of Einsteinian relativity and quantum mechanics, equal amounts of matter and antimatter should have been created in the Big Bang and then immediately annihilated each other in a blaze of lethal energy, leaving a big fat goose egg with which to make to make stars, galaxies and us. And yet we exist, and physicists (among others) would dearly like to know why.

So the miniature universe which physicists have managed to create for a tiny moment inside the CERN Hadron and other particle accelerators, went from being neutral to being about 1 percent more matter than antimatter, on some occasions...

Joe Lykken, a theorist at Fermilab, said, “So I would not say that this announcement is the equivalent of seeing the face of God, but it might turn out to be the toe of God.”

Now You're Really in the Total Facebook Soup

It seems Facebook, responding to breaches of security and concerns over privacy, has made its site even more bewildering. Graphic above is from the New York Times...

I loathe Facebook. Always have.

Long Island Dog Needs Viagra For Heart Condition

Via Gothamist: Ingrid, a six-year-old Pit Bull Terrier from Long Island, is close to running out of her supply of little blue libido pills, which are currently keeping her life-threatening heart condition stable.

After being diagnosed with a heart condition a Vet told the shelter that Viagra, which was originally created to treat hypertension, could help blood flow to Ingrid's heart. It worked, and now the shelter is looking for more donations.

Ingrid initially got her supply when the Little Shelter Animal Rescue and Adoption Center in Huntington held a Viagra drive on her behalf, convincing men across the country to give some of their pills to save Ingrid's life. One woman sent in her husband's pills, believing he was using them to have an affair!