{[(5 - 3) + 6 - 2 = 6 - 1] = 5 - 1 = 4} - 1 = 3 - 1 = 2 books, and one is reviewed here... so 1 book left after this!

8. Quentin Tarantino and Philosophy

This is just one volume in the series Popular Culture and Philosophy, George A. Reisch, series editor. There must be a hundred books in the series by now.

The idea is to apply philosophical questions to popular television series or movie(s). But not always. There are topics like Metallica and Philosophy, Baseball and Philosophy, Harley-Davidson and Philosophy, and even iPod and Philosophy. These alongside Family Guy and Philosophy, The Matrix and Philosophy, House and Philosophy, and [Any Video Game You've Ever Played] and Philosophy.

To enjoy the books, you need some knowledge of philosophy (Western and Eastern), but not a lot. You'll want to be substantially familiar with the subject matter, be it a television series or a trendy diet plan. (Philosophy and the Atkins Diet. I kid you not.) When I started the series, I was worried my philosophy background was too rusty. That's not the problem: It's that I'm only familiar with about a tenth of the pop culture addressed and that knowledge is what you need to get into it.

The Quentin Tarantino volume deals with some of the more obvious philosophical aspects of his movies. The majority of the philosopher-writers take off from competing moral theories and apply them to characters and events in the film. With Tarantino's movies, you could pretty much build an academic career doing only that.

Other subfields investigated are Time and Causality, as in Pulp Fiction, where telling the story out of sequence gives multiple takes on cause and effect; and, the concepts of identity and spirituality, with reference to Jules' epiphany in Pulp Fiction and the Bride's conversion from "natural born killer" (Tarantino's self-tribute?) to "Mommy" in Kill Bill.

Uma Thurman, as The Bride in Kill Bill
(and now, my desktop image)

John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson as Vincent and Jules in Pulp Fiction

This is a thought-provoking and entertaining book in a very creative series. This is one of my favorite volumes. Of all the volumes I've read, my "#1 favorite" is House and Philosophy. Oh wait, Lost and Philosophy. But then I really enjoyed The Office and Philosophy. You get the idea.





 

What are You afraid of?

When you cross the border from the United States into Canada,
they ask if you have any guns.

When you cross from Canada into the United States, they ask if
you have any fruit.

Middle School Dance

Asa got his ticket for Friday's school dance today. He seemed awfully pleased about it.

I asked, "Are you going to dance the slow dances?"

He said, "No, you just ask random girls to dance and most of the time they say no."

"What do you all do if no one's dancing?," I wanted to know.

"Everyone just walks around and acts awkward."

The Real Nicknames of Guernsey County, #4

You grow up and marry the neighbor kid and then move in or take over an old trailer on your family's land. Then your kids grow up just like you and they marry and move onto the land with you. As a generation passes, you move up into the better trailer or you might even clear off a piece of land and build a little house on it....

There's a family 'round Byesville with the last name Gombeda. I always wondered about the surname. It was unusual in our county—just the one family is named that, far as I knew. So I was looking it up.... Surprisingly, I couldn't find an origin for it. Maybe Italian? Not many Italian Appalachians in Guernsey County, but the Hatfield/McCoy histories have them getting mixed up with rival Italian moonshiners. And, well, Hatfield/McCoy 'R' Us.

An even bigger surprise to me was that Gombeda is so rare a name that only Ohio and Pennsylvania have any more than ten white page listings for it. And it must not be Italian—Jersey only has two. I wonder if the Gombedas I know realize all this....

You have to think that the Gombeda family is partial to nicknaming. Some evidence that comes to mind are Mud Gombeda, Jug Gombeda, and Speed Gombeda.

These boys were given regular names at birth. Mud's name is Daniel. He owns a bar in Byesville.  Jug's name was Ronald; Speed's was Michael. The latter two died young—I don't know why but if I think to find out, I'll do an update. Now, if it weren't in poor taste, I would take bets on whether the boys' nicknames appeared in their obituaries. I know they appeared in their sister's obit—here's what I found in the local paper, from 2009:

In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by two brothers, Michael "Speed" and Ronald "Jug" Gombeda. She is survived by seven brothers... [six men's names, with no nicknames noted] and Daniel "Mud" Gombeda of Byesville. 




Did I mention that Mud's bar is called "Mud's"?





'Round back, Mud has a wooden log "flowerbed."



I remember one spring, log flower beds suddenly sprung up in yards all around Byesville. Sometimes there were two or three, if the yard held more than one trailer. One day, driving around, Tice asked if we should get one for our yard and I said, "Uh, no, Dad."