Reality sandwich - I had the minister at Earl's memorial service read this out loud.
Between you and me - the saga of our manager, Lisa who was sexually harassing him.
And then there was his interest in quantum mechanics.
This is from January 9, 1995
I must say, I was a little nervous about having you as an office mate at first - some women have that affect on me - but it has proven to be a very enlightening (and enjoyable) experience, without impeding my productivity! I bet I could a lot from you.
What about this guy (girl person, god) BRAHMA - is he really the creator of the universe, or just another lame excuse for a religious idol?
On a more serious note, have you ever heard of a guy named Neils Bohr? Apparently, he and Einstein had this big argument about Quantum Mechanics. Bohr said to Al: "You are not thinking, you are merely being logical." Pretty smooth, eh? I wonder which process our job requires...
...I will leave you with this thought from the chapter on Zen Banditos and the UnderLying Nature of Reality: The division between the microcosmic and macrocosmic is probably an illuisiory one, the result of the human mind to CATEGORIZE phenomena.
They say ignorance is bliss. Oh the joys of a public school education.
Until tomorrow,
Your slave 'till the end,
Earl - the Particle Man - Rich
From January 12, 1995
...your reference to sub-atomic particles is relevant, or should I say "charged." This dude says (or said) that the worldview of particle physics is a picture of chaos beneath order. I find that this theory applies directly to the status of my checking account.
Anyway, it was, as usual, very nice to hear from you. (how's that for polite?)
Later Daze,
Earl (soon to be a wall away)
P. S.
As you read this E-Mail, sub-atomic particles are moving through you at the rate of several per minute.
Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't.
He was soon to be a wall away because our manager, Lisa, the one who was sexually harassing him, didn't like us getting along so well, so moved him into an office with herself. Oof, such craziness. Of course this did not stop the emails, and in fact only caused them to increase since we could no longer simply chat.
The last line of the PS refers to the Almond Joy campaign slogan, already 18 years old in 1995. I thought it was a pretty funny PS though.
From January 17, 1995:
Of course my book on bandits exists! I've even discovered a chapter called "Schrodinger's Bandito". In fact, there's a quote from Erwin himself, but I won't reference it here as it's not relevant.
This quote, however, may be extremely relevant: "The mutual attraction of two celestial bodies is inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them." Yes, another one from Al's bullpen. He felt that sublimation was an art best left to the democrats.
The REAL Program Manager,
Mr. Quark
PS
It's incredible how much you remind me of this intensely-cool character (Mirna Minx) from "A Confederacy of Dunces." If you get a chance, you've gotta read it, maybe I'll pick up another copy...
PPS
Thanks to your radical nature, my pacifistic outlook is rapidly diminishing.
He was such an expert tease. No wonder he drove our manager Lisa bonkers.
Today - yes today - thirty years later - I finally looked up this "book on bandits" and it turns out to be a novel from 1986 called "Cosmic Banditos: a contrabandista's quest for the meaning of life" by Allan Weisbecker. From his Wikipedia page I see Weisbecker was a surfer, and wrote about surfing, which is probably how Earl came to know of him, since Earl loved surfing.
So now I know why he referred to himself as "Mr. Quark."
From the publisher of Cosmic Banditos:
Mr.Quark is a down-on-his-luck pot smuggler hiding out in the mountains of Columbia with his dog, High Pockets, and a small band of banditos led by the irascible José. Only months before, these three and their fearless associates were rolling millions in cash and high grade marijuana, eluding prosecution on "ridiculously false" drug and terrorism charges. But times have quickly grown lean, and to liven up their exile, José decides to mug a family of American tourists. Among the spoils are physics texts, which launch Mr. Quark on a sidesplitting, boisterous adventure north to California, where he confronts the owner of the books with his own theories on relativity, the nature of the universe and looking for the meaning of life in all the wrong places.
In my defense, at the time I first read the email, you couldn't just Google around until you found something. In 1995 most people's experience of the Internet was gated communities - at work, Earl and I sent emails via Lotus Notes, and at home, we emailed via America Online. How did we get by in those ancient times?
On the other hand I did immediately read "A Confederacy of Dunces" to learn more about this "Mirna Minx" character. Her name is actually "Myrna Minkoff" but I believe the protagonist, Ignatius J. Reilly, refers to her as a "minx" at one point.
I was not exactly sure how to feel about the comparison. Earl clarified in an email on January 18
Attention! PARALLEL is an important concept (even with sublimation). Parallel thoughts. Parallel events. Parallel realities. Parallel UNIVERSES?
According to the Chapter entitled "Zen Banditos", parallel universes do exist. And to quote the infamous Zhukov: "...the many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics says that different editions of us live in many different worlds simultaneously. An unaccountable number of them, and all of them, are real".
Kind of puts it all in perspective, does it not? What time is that Dallas rerun on, anyway?
Oh Mirna is quite the cool one. If you enjoyed Holden's romp through the rye field, you'll love what Ignatious does with Levi Pants. His correspondence with Mirna (Myrna?) is terrific. You are her, in many ways. Aside from being quite the philosopher, sexual expert, and the voice of the underprivileged/abused, she is also a frustrated film director. It is a must read even for a woman. How do you recognize a genius? The dunces are in a confederacy against him (her). The story behind the book, and the death of the author (I believe his name is J. Kennedy Tool) is, unfortunately, a real tragedy. This book is a prerequisite to "...Banditos" in the school of Earl.
By the way, I've never seen Lisa so angry as she was today! I feared for the upright nature of my partition (Office politics are so boring!)
See ya at the factory.
EARL
"The concept of entropy dictates that when anything happens, it makes the universe a more disorderly place." Michael Talbot.
Earl knew me as a "sexual expert" strictly based on PG-rated conversations, not through physical experience.
Well now of course I am going to have to read Cosmic Banditos. I don't know what took me so long.
I find it fascinating that Michael Talbot, who died in 1992, espoused "a theoretical model of reality that suggests the physical universe is akin to a hologram based on the research and conclusions of David Bohm and Karl H. Pribram.[2] According to Talbot ESP, telepathy, and other paranormal phenomena are a product of this holographic model of reality."Dearest Nancy,You are the swizzle-stick of my eight-hour cocktail. I hope I didn’t upset you today with that email stuff. No more from me, I promise. You have your hands full. It seems that everyone wants a piece of Nancy!
I hope you re-read Confederacy. I doubt very much that you can enjoy or appreciate it fully in a one-sitting reading. But who knows? You never cease to amaze me.So you want Banditos? I will eventually give it to you. I don't know why, but I have this reluctance to lend it to you. Actually, I have an idea from where that insecurity stems -- maybe we can delve into those dark recesses of my mind during our next drawing session. In the meantime, I've shelved Banditos, and am blowing the dust off some other classics -- "Wholeness and the Implicate Order" and "Synchronicity" -- two books I'm sure you're familiar with. I won't re-read them, however, until I've made some headway with the materials you've so graciously lent to yours truly.Hey, I've gotta keep this letter short and boring, as I've already fallen behind in my work. But I also wanted to mention that the newspaper article you lent me makes mention of P. Caputo. He's a Pulitzer Prize winning novelist who wrote a book called "A Rumor of War" -- it's a terrific novel about his real-life experiences in Vietnam. A real enlightening book. I can't imagine Ted going through all of that. He seems like such a sweet-natured guy. The thought of him toting an AK-47 seems sort of ludicrous.I'll leave you with this quote from the Journal of Religious Thought: "Chance is a statistical concept which 'explains' deviations within certain patterns of probability." Hey - it beats the hell out of confession.Hoping to see you shortly,Your Friend and Fellow Co-WorkerE. B. Weatherington, IV
The phrase "you are the swizzle stick of my eight-hour cocktail" is not a common or famous quote. Instead, it appears to be a unique, poetic expression celebrating the effect someone has on another person. The phrase combines the literal function of a swizzle stick with the extended, metaphoric duration of an "eight-hour cocktail".
Interpretation of the metaphor
- The swizzle stick: This object is used to mix and blend the ingredients in a cocktail. In the metaphor, the person is the swizzle stick—the active, stirring agent who brings all the "ingredients" of the other person's life together. They have a vital, enlivening effect.
- The cocktail: A cocktail is a complex, flavorful, and enjoyable mixture. In this case, it represents the speaker's life or experience.
- Eight hours: The "eight-hour" modifier signifies an entire workday, a significant portion of waking life. A cocktail that lasts this long is a potent and enduring one. The effect isn't a brief or fleeting one; it's a long, sustained experience.
The full meaning
Putting it all together, the phrase likely means:
- "You are the person who brings energy and joy to my life."
- "You mix up all the different parts of my day to make my life vibrant and meaningful."
- "You are the essential element that makes my extended, 'all-day' experience so much better."
It is a playful and deeply appreciative compliment, stating that the person is the key ingredient that makes the ordinary routine of life into something special and delicious.
Contemporary physicist T. Filk writes that quantum entanglement, being "a particular type of acausal quantum correlations", was plausibly taken by Pauli as "a model for the relationship between mind and matter in the framework [...] he proposed together with Jung".[31] Specifically, quantum entanglement may be the physical phenomenon which most closely represents the concept of synchronicity.[31]
The “spooky action” that bothered Einstein involves a quantum phenomenon known as entanglement, in which two particles that we would normally think of as distinct entities lose their independence. Famously, in quantum mechanics a particle’s location, polarization and other properties can be indefinite until the moment they are measured. Yet measuring the properties of entangled particles yields results that are strongly correlated, even when the particles are far apart and measured nearly simultaneously. The unpredictable outcome of one measurement appears to instantly affect the outcome of the other, regardless of the distance between them — a gross violation of locality.
