Zetetical Society Meeting Notes

There’s just not enough of this anymore:

Or this:

In fact, it’s pretty shocking that there’s not a market for a car that looks to be six feet long and four feet high. In New York, just about everyone could use a streamlined version of one of those.

So, last night a conversation I was having turned particularly esoteric and began to revolve around The Fool and Kabbalism. It briefly touched on divinity and madness and then the Rider-Waite tarot engraving of the Fool came up and as I mentioned one aspect of it I’ve always liked, my friend, bless him, said something to the effect of, “well I’ve seen that deck, but I have the Tarot of the Cat People.”

Now that was a twist in the conversation that I didn’t expect.

Cats: 1, Medieval Metaphysics: 0

Standard Disclaimer: I’m not totally down with everything in this article, but it was an interesting read:

http://www.newamerica.net/files/Thomas_Palley_America%27s_Exhausted_Paradigm.pdf

the insecure apparently see how it all fits together.

Interesting New Scientist article about why we’re wired for religion, how it’s similar to imaginary friends, and how we see cause and effect patterns, particularly in tough times: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20126941.700-born-believers-how-your-brain-creates-god.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=online-news

This is a good one:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122366999999723871.html

The short gist of the story is that trojaned credit card readers from China are deployed throughout Europe and use wireless to send a very small sample of cards to servers in Pakistan where they’re used for fraud. It was found when someone noticed the cellphone interference and the only other real sign that the reader is trojaned is that it weighs a bit more. $50-100 million in fraud so far.

So, I thought I had gone to this great Spanish restaurant the other night, but I was wrong.

There was a time long, long ago, like even back in the 90s, when Spanish food meant you went to a place decorated like Don Quixote’s mom’s couch and chose between the double lobster, the chops, and a paella. Then tapas took over and now the small tasty plate of something covered in pork is among the best food you can get in the city. We were fortunate to learn that hog fat is totally good for you, while a tub of paella is not.

Now, if I step into a place and they’re making things that look like tapas, and there’s good ham, I think I’m in a Spanish place, but I can be wrong. The genre of tapas itself lends itself well to eating out well without having to stick with a monolithic plate of something or other. Not sure what to pick? Try a bit of everything. It’s a trend so faded that it’s now just mainstream.

But Casellula wasn’t a Spanish restaurant. That explains the well-selected international wine list and the “Pig Ass sandwich.” The name (sounded like Casa Lulu to me) and the appetizers had me going. Turns out, on sober reflection, that it’s a cheese place. That explains that giant case of cheese in the back. Here’s what I split with my friends:

Stuffed Peppadew Peppers / Buffalo Mozzarella / Speck – wow
Chistorras in a Blanket / Radish Pico de Gringo – wow
Pig’s Ass Sandwich / Fiscalini Cheddar / Fol Epi / B&B Pickles / Chipotlé Aioli – double wow

There were some other little plates flying around, I think the beets.

Everything was fantastic. The place was packed until well past midnight, the staff was great. You wonder what this place is doing on West 52nd, but it’s great to see a place like this doing so well over there.

I was looking for some alchemical art for my PC’s desktop to liven it up a bit, plugged in alchemical to Google and noticed that as I typed alchemical, there were millions of more hits for the phrase ‘alchemical blood’ than ‘alchemical symbols.’ Now that surprised me, it’s not often that you’ve bumbled around the edges of intellectual history and missed a whole concept like…. oh, it’s a World of Warcraft thing, now I get it.