I’m grateful that Artemis II has gone pretty smoothly so far. Not perfectly, of course; there were some problems with the toilet and Microsoft Outlook, and I’ll refrain from making the jokes that are already running through Outlook users’ minds.

The public communications– the announcements, the dialogues, the speeches– have generally been beautifully scripted. I don’t mean scripted in the paranoid and conspiratorial sense that some flat Earther might, I mean in the sense of conveying thoughtful sentiments and callbacks to past missions.

The line that has struck me most so far came just after the Orion capsule Integrity broke Apollo 13’s old record for greatest distance from Earth. The Canadian mission specialist Hansen spoke for the crew:

From the cabin of Integrity here, as we surpass the furthest distance humans have ever traveled from planet Earth, we do so in honoring the extraordinary efforts and feats of our predecessors in human space exploration. We will continue our journey even further into space before Mother Earth succeeds in pulling us back to everything that we hold dear. But we most importantly choose this moment to challenge this generation and the next to make sure this record is not long-lived.

“Make sure this record is not long-lived.” I heard that and flashed back to a certain few lines from President Reagan’s Challenger speech, which of course were in a completely different context:

We’ve grown used to wonders in this [the 20th] century. It’s hard to dazzle us. But for 25 years the United States space program has been doing just that. We’ve grown used to the idea of space, and perhaps we forget that we’ve only just begun.

May the new wonders come soon enough and often enough that we grow used to seeing these records broken, and may we keep appreciating them.

I pray that the Integrity crew and capsule come home safely.

I hope that Artemis III and IV go to plan, which will mean humans walking on the Moon in 2028.

And of course, I hope the whole thing speeds up enough that when the time comes for me to slip the surly bonds of this Earth– later this century or early in the next– it’ll be because I’m blasting off towards retirement on Mars. Luxury suite, caveside resort, daily bridge.

…

I was going to title this “A great gig in the sky,” but then I heard the President’s phone call to the capsule and changed it up.

Many, many moons ago it was impressed upon me that either by coincidence or Providence, the Declaration of Independence and The Wealth of Nations were both published in 1776. Thus was I embarrassed to realize that amidst all the hubbub about America’s upcoming 250th, I neglected to watch for the anniversary of the publication of The Wealth of Nations. Whoops. Said anniversary was two weeks ago on the ninth, so at least I got the month right.

Non-econ nerds probably won’t care one way or the other, and chances are most econ nerds won’t care either, but… I do.

Upon realizing that I missed the anniversary, I immediately flashed back to when I taught economics long ago, in the before times. I flashed back to placing blank sheets of transparency film atop my printed notes and feeding them into the thermofax–

the crackle of the film as I peeled it off the paper, hoping for cleanly burned, legible letters and numbers and diagrams–

my silent prayers that the overhead projector bulb wouldn’t burn out, and the students’ vocal prayers that it would–

timing the lecture so that the heat wouldn’t blacken the transparency beyond legibility–

Anyhow, I dug around for some of those old notes and transparencies. Not many of either survive to the present day. But the few I did find included the two best-known excerpts from the book, which Adam Smith wrote in plain enough English that modern high school freshmen could grasp it:

“It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their self-interest. We address ourselves not to their humanity, but to their self-love and never talk to them of our necessities, but of their advantages.” The Wealth of Nations, Book I, Chapter II

“[An individual] neither intends to promote the public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it… He intends only his own gain; and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention. Nor is it always the worse for the society that it was no part of it. By pursuing his own interest, he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it.” Ibid, Book IV, Chapter II

The rest is worth reading, or at least worth reading about.

…

To bring things full circle: in the same book, published during the Revolutionary War, Adam Smith called for Britain to grant the American colonies their independence, but he seemed to believe that Britain wouldn’t actually do so. In Book IV, Chapter VII, Part III, he wrote this about the American revolutionaries:

“From shopkeepers, trades men, and attorneys, they are become statesmen and legislators, and are employed in contriving a new form of government for an extensive empire, which, they flatter themselves, will become, and which, indeed, seems very likely to become, one of the greatest and most formidable that ever was in the world.”

An excellent call.

…

Very tired. More later.

Since last night marked the second time in my life, and only the third time ever, that the Bears and Packers have met in the playoffs, allow me to lazily rehash an end-of-season post from 15 years ago. Deletions are struck through, additions are bolded.

It ended continued in just about the worst best way possible: losing to beating the Packers. In the playoffs. In Soldier Field. With the Halas Trophy on the line still in play, and giving denying the Packers a shot at the Lombardi Trophy. I say “just about the worst best way possible” because I’m sure there’s something that could have made it worse better. Maybe an extinction-level event shortly after the final whistle (though at least in that case the agony would have been short-lived) Mike Ditka snapping the Packers and Green Bay itself out of existence.

[…]

No, in this case, t The blame credit for Chicago’s devastating loss insane comeback victory rests with me. It was entirely my fault doing.

You see, my coed beer league soccer team had a quarterfinal match scheduled for 6:15. The field is thirty minutes away from my mansion. I would either have to miss part of the Bears game, or part of the quarterfinal. I decided to DVR the Bears game, watch until about 5:45, then hop in the car and listen on to the game on AM 930.

Everything was going according to plan. I hopped in the car, Bears down 14-7. I got to the field with a few minutes to spare, by which time it was Packers, 21-14. I put on my guards, socks, and cleats as Caleb Hanie led that fateful, final drive down the field…

But kickoff was coming. I took off wore my lucky C-shirt, which I wear during Bears games, and put on my soccer jersey. By the time I got to the sideline, Hanie had thrown the final interception and the game was over. If I’d waited just a few more minutes, or even worn the C-shirt underneath my jersey, the Bears undoubtedly would have won the whole damn game and that’s why they won.

I hereby apologize say “You’re welcome” to the players, coaches and personnel of the Chicago Bears, to the entire city of Chicago and state of Illinois, to my fellow Bears fans all over the world, including and especially President Obama and the Pope, and to the late George S. Halas, Edward “Dutch” Sternaman, and A. E. Staley, the founders of the Chicago Bears, and the late Virginia Halas McCaskey, whose kids might yet redeem themselves. I hang lift my head, in shame and sorrow, “singing so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning,” and vow to never again fail you by removing always wear the C-shirt during a Bears game.

There’ll be more to say in coming weeks, but I’m so happy about this win that I almost don’t care about the rest of the playoffs. It’s already a successful season: won the last two against the Packers, knocked them out of the playoffs in humiliating fashion, and the Bears may actually have a winner at quarterback. We’ll see.

I was going to save this for when it actually comes out, but who controls… never mind. Here:

“Do you know where you are, Winston?” asked O’Brien.

“I don’t know. I can guess. In the Ministry of Love.”

“Do you know how long you have been here?”

“I don’t know. Days, weeks, months–I think it is months.”

“And why do you imagine that we bring people to this place?”

“To make them confess.”

“’No, that is not the reason. Try again.”

“To punish them.”

“No!” exclaimed O’Brien. His voice had changed extraordinarily, and his face had suddenly become both stern and animated. “No! Not merely to extract your confession, not to punish you. Shall I tell you why we have brought you here? To cure you! To make you sane! Will you understand, Winston, that no one whom we bring to this place ever leaves our hands uncured? We are not interested in those stupid crimes that you have committed. The Party is not interested in the overt act: the thought is all we care about. We do not merely destroy our enemies, we change them. Do you understand what I mean by that?”

O’Brien had sat down beside the bed, so that his face was almost on a level with Winston’s.

“Look me in the eyes. What is Animal Farm about?”

Winston thought. He knew what was meant by Animal Farm and that he himself had read Animal Farm. He also remembered it was about Stalin and the Bolsheviks, but whether it favored or criticized them he did not know. In fact he had not been aware that there was any message, just a bunch of talking animals and a vague sense that the horse had been wronged.

“I don’t remember.”

“Animal Farm is anti-capitalist. Do you remember that now?”

“Yes.”

“Animal Farm has always been anti-capitalist. Since Orwell first wrote it in World War II, since the dawn of dystopian literature, since the literal beginning of time itself, it has been anti-capitalist, without a break, always the same. Do you remember that?”

“Yes.”

“Decades ago you created a legend– that a man named Cliff wrote yellow study guides about classic literature. You pretended that you read one claiming Animal Farm was an anti-Stalinist allegory, because you were too lazy to read the actual book, which was just, like, ninety pages. Even with illustrations. But no such study guide never existed. You invented it, and later you grew to believe in it. You remember now the very moment at which you first invented it. Do you remember that?”

“Yes.”

“Just now I held up the fingers of my hand to you. You saw five fingers. Do you remember that?”

“Yes.”

O’Brien held up the fingers of his left hand, with the thumb concealed.

“There are five fingers there. Do you see five fingers?”