Game 2 Recap: As predicted by the scoring model, the game was a close one, 4-2 instead of 4-3, but the win went to Boston as David Price came through. It seems that all the reversals gave more trouble to the Dodgers, while the Red Sox relievers were flawless. Pitching was the deciding factor, abetted … Continue reading 2018 World Series, Game 2 Prediction
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2018 World Series, Game 1 Prediction
Game 1 Recap: For the first couple of innings, my scoring estimate looked like a winner and, until the 6th inning, the game stayed reasonably close to the numbers shown by the spread's scoring model: 5-3 Read Sox vs. the predicted 6-1 final score. But the Red Sox bats eventually lived up to the 6 … Continue reading 2018 World Series, Game 1 Prediction
“You Want Fries With That?”
Another day, another new topic. I haven't quite reached the point of the weary "time to make the donuts" drudge from the old Dunkin Donuts commercials yet, but sometimes I wonder. Professional wisdom for blog management is that those who post something 11 times a month receive more viewer traffic (and potentially more advertisers). I'm not in … Continue reading “You Want Fries With That?”
Ulalume and Thoth: A Perfect Pair
Edgar Allan Poe's somber, stately poem, To -- -- --. Ulalume: A Ballad may represent the peak (or pit, depending on your opinion of Poe) of tarot symbolism above all his other works. It embraces the Moon foremost, but also the Star, the Tower and the Devil, as well as many of the harsher Thoth Minor Arcana … Continue reading Ulalume and Thoth: A Perfect Pair
Invictus and the Tarot Triptych
In honor of William Ernest Henley's poem Invictus, which started me down this road with the line "My head is bloody, but unbowed" and its perfect complement in the Waite-Smith Tarot's 9 of Wands, I decided to render the entire poem in tarot cards. Although the text is structured in four-line stanzas, the three-card triptych made for … Continue reading Invictus and the Tarot Triptych
The Jabberwocky and the Thoth Tarot
There is something slightly dismal about the opening and closing stanzas of the famous Lewis Carroll nonsense poem that reminds me of some of the more unsettling cards of the Thoth deck (must be those flimsy, miserable, shabby-looking birds described by Humpty Dumpty). I took on the interesting challenge of finding correlations between the cards and the rest … Continue reading The Jabberwocky and the Thoth Tarot
Annabel Lee in the Cards
I can't get enough of this project, and Edgar Allan Poe has me by the throat! His somber poem Annabel Lee overflows with vivid imagery that is well-served by the cards of the tarot. Once again, I'm using both "small" cards and trumps in the visual narrative, and this time a court card sneaks in as … Continue reading Annabel Lee in the Cards
The Raven and the Dark “Pip” Cards
There is a dark current running through the Minor Arcana (or scenic "pip") cards of the Waite-Smith deck that finds its most eloquent expression in the suits of Cups and Swords. I was encouraged by my daughter-in-law to examine Edgar Allan Poe's gloomy, elegiac poem The Raven for inclusion in my "poetry-as-trumps" project, and in doing so I couldn't … Continue reading The Raven and the Dark “Pip” Cards
The Highwayman and the Major Arcana
I don't know precisely why it should be so (although I have a hunch that is rooted in psychology), but somber poems seem to lend themselves really well to my project of interpreting classic poetry in terms of the tarot trump cards. Here is a vivid example, The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes. The wind was … Continue reading The Highwayman and the Major Arcana
Swinburn and the Major Arcana
Now I'm really going to have to work! This brilliant piece of mystical poetry, extracted from Algernon Charles Swinburn's epic verse drama, Atalanta at Calydon, is rife with possibilities for metaphorical correspondences to the cards of the Major Arcana. I was able to bring all 22 trumps to bear here; not all of them are a … Continue reading Swinburn and the Major Arcana
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 