Good evening, whenever you are. Welcome to a SECRET SOCIETY.
The above two quotes both emerge from the great, 20 pound, sperm-whalish brain of Herman Melville, specifically Chapters 79-80 of Moby-Dick (or THE WHALE), which I read to you today in the SECRET ROOM below.
These chapters deal with the sperm whale’s head, its noseless, battering ram brow, and the mystery of its brain, hidden so thoroughly amidst the oily junk that so thoroughly packs the whale’s dome that—Melville reports—many sailors refused to believe it had a brain at all.
But it’s more than a mere handful: the sperm’s is the largest brain on the planet. I repeat: TWENTY POUNDS! That’s quite a handful.
But as we learn again and again, the biggest brains do not always make us the smartest. This is no shade thrown at Moby-Dick—he’s doing everything right, as far as I can tell.
But humans often get it WRONG, and over-confident, unexamined smarty-pantsness often makes for the worst and saddest wrongness. Still we must try all things, and achieve what we can.
Anyway, I read all about it in a bad Maine accent, and now the Pequod is entering the final third of the book, the thirds with actual Moby-Dick in it.
And as I have said before and will again: each chapter—each paragraph—is often a satisfying, funny, provocative, weird little novel unto itself. So now is a nice time to join the doomed voyage of the Pequod (spoiler) if you wish.
Meanwhile, if you are in New York City, and if you joined us for any of our Union Hall shows in June, you know how amazing RUBY LAKS is.
She and Andre Perlman and even more of her talented friends are going to perform a mess of Sondheim and other show/jazz standards TOMORROW NIGHT at 54 below, and if you don’t want to be wrong for once in your life, you will buy a bunch of tickets to see her.
If you need a reminder of how great she is, here you go. Send this to a friend who wants to feel good listening to music on July 10th.
I wish I could join you there, but I am hiding in Maine right now, enjoying as always both the profound beauty and painful existential trials Vacationland is always offering.
I’m recording Judge John Hodgman and E Pluribus Motto from the solar powered studios of WERU (please listen and support), and by now I may have mentioned on both podcasts that I will be back aboard the Grace Bailey in Maine for ONE NIGHT ONLY in September.
If you want to hang out with me, I hope you will. Just simply click here:
Meanwhile…
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