6 Comments

Well you guys certainly haven't heard about my patented entire-piece-of-paper spit ball. Launching that sopping mess at the blackboard and hearing that schplat and seeing that destroyed mess all over the board... my god. No punishment was ever good enough to justify losing those hilarious moments. I remember clearly in grade 9 (this was one of my most 'juvenile deliquenty' years) laughing so hard at the hilarity of the sound itself... it was joy to me. As weird as that sounds. And then there was the defiance. I never damaged property or aimed to. Of course not. No lasting troubles. Just a gross hardened blob to scrape off the board later (it was always best to wait due to spittage). I was a good kid, just wanted to laugh. And most teachers didn't appreciate that. Not for anything in the world would I trade in those moments. Getting kicked out of the classroom once a week was par for the course. I learned in French class that it didn't matter what I was doing in class: reading, writing notes, laughing at cartoons - I still got kicked out. I didn't mean to be rude to my teachers but some of them were just not engaging and missing the point of the experience. We were all there to learn and have fun in my opinion. ...If you don't engage us, you pay the price. LOL

Expand full comment
author

None of this shocks me. None of it.

What I wrote about Chris is directly related to him reminding me a bit of the guy I did actually share cartoon drawing (particularly with an aim to achieve "Gary Larson with more edge") with during math class.

I can't say that I never aimed at being disrespectful, though I did eventually recognize the trap all those poor drones were in and pitied them, mostly. And I nearly managed to never take out frustration on property, though I was party to events like moving the Vacation Bible School sign to the liquor store and a few (many) others. I'm still not sure what else I was supposed to be working on.

Expand full comment
Jul 7, 2022·edited Jul 7, 2022Liked by Mathew Crawford

I’m so excited to hear that you have kicked off your new RTE podcast. I can’t think of better guests at your inaugural episode than Drs Rose and Masterjohn. Looking forward to get to know Liam! I’m eager to dive in, but it’s late and I fear I won’t sleep at all tonight if I start the episode now. With great restraint I will look forward to rewarding myself tomorrow with your new podcast which promises to be enlightening AND fun! Break a leg!

Expand full comment
Jul 7, 2022Liked by Mathew Crawford

Liam really does have incredible host energy. Good stuff.

At about 46:50 in the YouTube video, Chris Masterjohn describes how the Rockefeller Foundation used a relatively small amount of funding to position themselves so that they could control much larger flows of funding.

He's basically describing a transistor. Connect enough of those in the right configuration and...

Expand full comment
Jul 7, 2022·edited Jul 7, 2022

Quick off subject general question, Is anyone else having trouble with 5G cell phone internet connection? I have been intermittantly losing my connection, in random locations, for the past two days. I just recieved a weird warning from google about my substack app link being insecure? I also noticed my phone did an insistent update the other day as well. Additionally and especially thanks for the video link Mathew. Loved the Gary Larson cartoon.

Expand full comment

I would much like to get in touch with the "Texas doctor" to figure out what I should have on-hand (and where to obtain it). Hopefully you have my subscription email :)

Expand full comment