Bipolar much?

"You are not required to complete the work, but neither are you allowed to desist from it."

That is a great, great quote from the Talmud. The followers of Jewish use that book as one of their holy books of most primary importance. It is very revered. Just so you know, we're down with the Jewish and their holy books. There were apparently a lot of wise old Jewish guys back in the day. It's great that even way back then, they had such knowledge and wisdom.

















But let's look closer at what they said. There is work, apparently. And there must be a lot of it, because people are thinking about desisting. People can be so lazy! But they can also work hard. They might burn the midnight oil and a candle at both ends. And what the wise Jewish old guys were telling us is that it's ok to want to desist. Lay down and rest. Now wake up, lazybones!

There is a lot of work to be done. Who knows what it is? The wise Jewish old guys didn't say. But look around. It won't take long to notice: There's work everywhere! Just living is work. If you didn't do any work at all and just laid down on the ground... well, all kinds of things would start to cart little pieces of you off and the sun would bake you and eventually only a stain on the sidewalk would show where you stopped working!
















If you're like us, you want to complete things. It's nice to see things all tied up. That's why the TV show Lost is a torture from the devil. But back in the old Jewish day, they knew already that all the lives of all the people made up something big. And all the lives of all the people and all the work they did and all the babies they made and raised made something bigger. Something that might go on for a long, long time. So long, that they wouldn't see the end of it. Lo and behold, they were right! And it's still going. And we won't see the end of it. Well, most likely, we won't see the end of it.

And there are no people on the moon. Not any more, anyway. And there are not people on Mars, Pluto, Donald, or Mickey, either. As far as we can tell, there are not people on the stars, either. Unless they're hiding. That makes it sort of a big deal to be a part of this thing that's so big but still so much smaller than everything that is not this thing.

If you work, some people will work against you. That's frustrating! Even if you just try to live and do that kind of minimal work, some people will try to work against that, too! People! What are you going to do? Work harder! Work and build things and vacuum the rug! Work with your hands and get dirt under your nails. Read blogs and buy books, too! But wash those mitts first, farmhands! We don't take no filthy yokels here at Spine and Crown! No shoes, no shirt, no service!

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This week:

All items mentioned below are first come, first serve. If you want something, let us know post-haste (because they're also for sale on the interweb)! All new items sell for cover price, used items as marked. Sadly, trade credit cannot be used for new items.

Our books are always searchable via ABEbooks.

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The Sixth Man, Jess Stearn.
(Paperback, out of print)

"One out of every six men in America is a homosexual. This is the report of one of the most frightening surveys conducted since the Kinsey books."

The Kinsey books were frightening? Should have read Richard von Krafft-Ebing. Anyhow, people in 1962 had a lot more to worry about than homosexuals... Did they know Kennedy had less than two years left? Did they know that the Yankees would win the pennant? Did they know they only had twenty years until Cabbage Patch Kids? Stupid 1962 hicks.

($4) [Sold]

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The Golden Man, Philip K. Dick.
(Book club hardcover, out of print)

Intro, notes, and afterword by Dick. Sweet book club only package. Jacket's a little messy, but not one you see every day. See... you thought we were going to say, "not a Dick you see every day," but that kind of humor is beneath us. The guy was a talented writer with a very unfortunate last name. Do you think he asked to be named Dick? Show a little sensitivity! Maybe you'd like us to make fun of you! Internet-wits! Cyber-butts! Doesn't feel very good, does it?

($25)

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Sex Marchers, Jefferson Poland and Sam Sloan, eds.
(Hardcover, out of print)

Chapter titles:

"Picketing for Sex"
"What is Sexual Freedom?"
"Multiple Love"
"Support Your Local Pornographer"
"The Defenders of Skinny-Dipping"
"A Square Rally for Oral Sex"
and the ever popular
"Inside an Orgy"

The Sixties feel like a long, long time ago.

($25)

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Shorter Works, Edmund Husserl.
(Paperback)

Husserl stated that logic has three strata, each further away from consciousness and psychology than those that precede it.

* The first stratum is what Husserl called a "morphology of meanings" concerning a priori ways to relate judgments to make them meaningful. In this stratum we elaborate a "pure grammar" or a logical syntax, and he would call its rules "laws to prevent non-sense", which would be similar to what logic calls today "formation rules". Mathematics, as logic's ontological correlate, also has a similar stratum, a "morphology of formal-ontological categories".

* The second stratum would be called by Husserl "logic of consequence" or the "logic of non-contradiction" which explores all possible forms of true judgments. He includes here syllogistic classic logic, propositional logic and that of predicates. This is a semantic stratum, and the rules of this stratum would be the "laws to avoid counter-sense" or "laws to prevent contradiction". They are very similar to today's logic "transformation rules". Mathematics also has a similar stratum which is based among others on pure theory of pluralities, and a pure theory of numbers. They provide a science of the conditions of possibility of any theory whatsoever. Husserl also talked about what he called "logic of truth" which consists of the formal laws of possible truth and its modalities, and precedes the third logical third stratum.

* The third stratum is metalogical, what he called a "theory of all possible forms of theories." It explores all possible theories in an a priori fashion, rather than the possibility of theory in general. If you have read this far, you win a prize. The first person to send us an email will claim it. We could establish theories of possible relations between pure forms of theories, investigate these logical relations and the deductions from such general connection. The logician is free to see the extension of this deductive, theoretical sphere of pure logic.

($35) [Sold]

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Waiting for Godot, Samuel Beckett.
(Hardcover, dual language)

Waiting for Godot? Wait no more! He's here! In a nice, shiny hardcover! And what a Godot he is! Worth the wait, for sure! Extra silky super fragrant Godot! What?! Mr. Godot didn't arrive? It's a disaster! Hand me that belt! (Makes a noose; tests the strength of a tree branch.) What kind of tree is this? (Messenger arrives from Godot.) Says he'll be here tomorrow! Come back then!

($12) [Sold]

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extraordinary art by Erica Sherman
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David Lynch's Interview Project

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Everything's turning into a pile of shit.


Except this.

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Witch Bottle Found in London

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# of weeks since Spine and Crown inception: 187

# of weeks since inception that no mention of Spine and Crown has appeared in the print edition of The Stranger: 187