Archive for August, 2009
“Most disappointing”: a new way to rate a restaurant
Some months back, a restaurant meal to which I had been particularly looking forward sent me on an in-depth, ten minute study of the nature of disappointment. My extensive, multi-screen scan of google, using several forms of the word “disappoint” quickly led me to the concept of quality. According to the quality management professionals, quality […]
The Up, Up and Away Issue
poh vol 2 no 4_001Peg leads off this issue with her Phileas Fog-inspired adventure in a balloon. You’ll also read what it’s like to be part of the entertainment crew on a certain Mouse-Related Cruise Ship, how to toss a rock into the water so that it makes a really cool sound, what it’s like […]
The Ontology of the Grocery Store
A recent conversation about the location of kielbasa prompted me to haul out this piece, from one of our 2002 issues. Last summer, I went to three grocery stores in Maine, looking for cornmeal, before I finally realized I was looking in the wrong place. This experience solidified for me the realization that grocery stores […]
The “Kant Played BILLIARDS? Kafka has RESORT???” Issue
poh vol 3 no 1_001 Okay, Kafka doesn’t really have a resort, but it turns out Kant DID play billiards. We just went to Maine (Peg and Lisa) and New Mexico (Peg, Lisa and Abby), looked for a job (Peg), encountered the Devil’s Advocate (Abby), mourned the death of one of the Two Fat Ladies […]
The epistemology of a chanterelle
Nothing reconfirms one’s sense that knowledge really is justified true belief[1] like a wild mushroom. And nothing illustrates its absence like a wild mushroom either. A pile of chanterelles has reduced me to a Cartesian, convinced that certain knowledge of the (fixed, mind independent) mushroom world is possible. And utterly convinced that I do not […]
The “Theory of Not Dancing” Issue
poh vol 2 no 3_001 This issue brings you Lisa’s philosophical arguments for why she does not ever vamos a bailar. It’s inspired by a brilliantly funny piece, “The Theory of Not Gardening,” by Leszek Kolakowski (may he rest in peace). Peg spends some time philosophizing on the job market, something in whose clutches she […]
Dream job #1: Unexpected Dinner
With this post, I initiate a new, occasional feature in Philosophers on Holiday, “Dream Jobs.” In the midst of this economic recession, I find that my thoughts cannot help but drift in the direction of the utterly fantastical and highly unworkable. Dream Jobs are just such things; they couldn’t ever really work except in your […]
The “Isn’t that the notorious Hollywood Gang?” issue
poh vol III number 2-3_001 This issue welcomes the Hometown Tourist, an occasional feature (isn’t everything in this zine occasional?) starring one of our moms. This one showcases Ann O’Connor, in a tale of the first female attorney in Worcester County, Massachusetts. Add in a trip to the Trapp Family Lodge (Stowe, Vermont), a spicy […]
In honor of the August full moon
You’ve seen him. He’s that guy you overheard at the lunch table the other day, going on and on about the Bay of Fundy (“Did you know that the difference between high and low there is 48 feet? That’s a four storey building!”). The one you overheard at that dinner party, bragging about his clock, […]