I remember / je me souviens
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For those limbic bursts of nostalgia, invented by Proust, miniaturized by Nicholson Baker, and freeze-dried by Joe Brainard in his I remember and by Georges Perec in his Je me souviens.

But there are no fractions, the world is an integer
Like us, and like us it can neither stand wholly apart nor disappear.
When one is young it seems like a very strange and safe place,
But now that I have changed it feels merely odd, cold
And full of interest.
          --John Ashbery, "A Wave"

Sometimes I sense that to put real confidence in my memory I have to get to the end of all rememberings. That seems to say that I forego remembering. And now that strikes me as an accurate description of what it is to have confidence in one's memory.
          --Stanley Cavell, The Claim of Reason


Sunday, February 11, 2024

 I remember being surprised that the fronts and backs of coins were always upside down from each other.  At first I thought that this was random, but after looking at four or five coins, and flipping them over or turning them on their axels very slowly, I saw that this was a rule.  I am still not sure why.  (I learned this considerably after I learned to balance a coin on its side.)



posted by William 1:17 AM
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Wednesday, February 07, 2024

I remember being impressed and surprised that you could balance a coin on its side -- I idealized the coin as having only two surfaces -- and then a little later I remember being pleased that I was able to do it.  I remember that milled coins were slightly easier to balance on their sides than pennies or nickels.



posted by William 10:48 PM
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