Jamesian Philosophy Refreshed

  When I was a kid, grownups would sometimes advise me that to make my counting approximate the passage of seconds, it would help to say "one Mississippi, two Mississippi...."  Other times, though, they would say that the right phrasing was "one one-thousand, two one-thousand ...." Can both be valid?  Mississippi has four distinct beats.  "One-thousands" only has three.  Wouldn't the latter system yield shorter seconds than the former?  A little experimentation since has found that I do tend to pronounce the four syllables of "Mississippi" roughly as rapidly that the three of "one thousand". Those esses, eh?  One tends to slide right through them.  One the other hand, after the word "one" I reach a full stop then press forward with the "the" sounds.  I think we may say roughly that the space in between the two words acts as a beat, so both expressions are four beats.  One childhood quandary at last resolved at 67...

  For those of us of a certain age, the image of Walter (avuncularity) Cronkite, sitting behind his desk, telling us about the world "the way it is," remains an enduring image of television news. One thinks of that teletype-machine sound behind him. (Was that fake, or was that the working office sound?)  Here are three Cronkite quotes worth recalling.  I grew my mustache when I was nineteen in order to look older. I never shaved it off even though it overran its usefulness many, many years ago. Once you get started in television, people associate you with your physical appearance — and that includes the mustache. So I can’t shave it off now. If I did, I’d have to answer too much mail. People who understand music hear sounds that no one else makes when Frank Sinatra sings.   There is no such thing as a little freedom. Either you are all free, or you are not free.