Hilma af Klint, Tree of Knowledge, No. 1 (1913–15)
He said that he was nearest to the gods because he had the fewest needs.
—Diogenes Laertius, “Socrates”
And that there is only one good, knowledge,
and only one evil, ignorance.
These few words, it would seem, say all we really need to know.
Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Philosophers, translated by A. Robert Caponigri (Chicago: Henry Regnery, 1969)
Monday, January 26, 2026
“Something that is very valuable, profitable, or rewarding. . . . Spanish, literally, calm sea, from Medieval Latin bonacia, alteration of Latin malacia, from Greek malakia, literally, softness, from malakos soft”
—Merriam-Webster
Rhymes for “bonanza” include “stanza,”
“extravaganza,” and “Sancho Panza.”
But what mysteries language conceals!
In Greek malakia now mostly means masturbation;
μαλάκας = “wanker,” or “jerk off.”
It has since at least the time of Saint Andrew the Fool (d. 936 CE).*
My phone has just tried to change the word “masturbation” to “maturation.”
Making a point about this AI bonanza, maybe?
Friday, January 23, 2026
Sir Peter Paul Rubens and Frans Snyders, Pythagoras Advocating Vegetarianism (1628–30), Royal Collection Trust, United Kingdom
They say that, passing a belabored whelp,
He, full of pity, spake these words of dole:
“Stay, smite not! ’Tis a friend, a human soul;
I knew him straight when I heard him yelp!”
—Xenophanes on his contemporary Pythagoras, who claimed to remember his past lives
Xenophanes, castigator of Hesiod and Homer,
sold into slavery but manumitted
by Pythagoreans, lived to a great age and buried his sons with his own hands.
He believed that God is spherical and nothing like a man;
that worlds are numberless but keep different times;
that it’s impossible to find a wise man—
since it takes one to recognize one,
and that those who are not wise are mad.
A sporadic poet and philosopher, he flourished during the 60th Olympiad—around 540 BCE to you and me.
Source: Roughly based on Diogenes Laertius, "Xenophanes," translated by A. Robert Caponigri
Tuesday, January 20, 2026
