Tony's Garden

April 29, 2018 My mother was born in a small western town. Because her father was in the military she moved a lot. She rarely lived in one place for more than six months until she was eighteen years old. When the United States entered the Second World War she was three. Her father was…

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: “If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.” — Albert Einstein BIRTHDAYS: 1635 Paul Esterhazy, Hungarian prince, composer and patron. Pangue lingua (Aquinoi Szent Tamás himnusza az Oltáriszentségröl) 1705 Matthäus Günther, German painter. 1726…

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: “Be thankful for problems. If they were less difficult, someone with less ability might have your job.” — Jim Lovell, Apollo 13 Commander BIRTHDAYS: 1620 Isabella Leonarda, Italian religious composer, born in Novara, Duchy of Milan. Sonata decima, and Sonata sesta 1644 Juan Bautista Jose Cabanilles, Spanish organist and composer. Corrente…

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: “Why did the humanitarian philosophy of eighteenth century Europe usher in the Reign of Terror? It did not happen by chance; it followed from the original premise, objective and means proposed. The objective is to do good to others as a primary justification of existence; the means is the power of…

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: “You don’t get to choose the value of what you do in others’ eyes, so you have to take stock in knowing that doing the right thing is enough, no matter who notices.” — John McCarthy BIRTHDAYS: 973 Al-Biruni, Iranian mathematician, astronomer and polymath, born in Kath, Khwarezm, Afrighid dynasty. 1622…

“Do you know what we call opinion in the absence of evidence? We call it prejudice.” — Michael Crichton BIRTHDAYS: 1568 Adriano Banchieri, Italian organist, composer, poet, and Benedictine monk, born in Bologna, Papal States. Contrapunto bestiale, and Dialogo, and La pazzia senile: Act II 1695 Pietro Locatelli, Italian violinist and composer, born in Bergamo,…

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: “The behavior of the Taliban as well as their extremist attitudes do not correspond in any way with a tolerant Islam. We have always been opposed to extremist tendencies of Islam and we still are. We have not stopped insisting on defending an Islam of tolerance which would be profitable to…

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: “There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him.” — Robert A. Heinlein BIRTHDAYS: 1653 Johann Pachelbel, German composer, organist, and teacher who brought the south German organ schools to their peak.…

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: “It’s not entirely absurd to think that somewhere in the past of mankind someone, for the first time, did in his mind the equivalent of putting an adjective to a noun, and saw, not only a relationship, but this special relationship between two things of different kinds….In sum, all the seemingly…

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: “If you treat an individual as he is, he will remain how he is. But if you treat him as if he were what he ought to be and could be, he will become what he ought to be and could be.” ― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe BIRTHDAYS: 1609 Artus Quellinus,…