As you know, the wizard never explains the photos he floats above the titles of his Monday Morning Memos, but he’s never told me that I can’t explain…

The operative words in this week’s title
are “beauty” and “gun.”
Do you see a beauty and a gun in the photo?
Is that gun mentioned later in the Memo?
The beauty, by the way, is Christina Gressianu, the author of the unexplained quote that opened the Memo. The faceless man in the plaid shirt in the upper left corner is Sean McNally, the videographer who made the video you’ll see below. 

This would seem to vindicate the rule of Chekhov’s Gun, as every unexplained element in today’s Memo has now been explained and resolved. But you’re forgetting there’s a difference between the conscious and unconscious mind. And this, my cognoscenti, is the difference between randomness and a Third Gravitating Body.

If the conscious mind suspects resolution (closure) in advance, the element in question is predictable. If neither the conscious nor the unconscious mind are able to resolve the element, it is randomness, an annoyance. But if the conscious mind can’t resolve the “unfired gun” but the unconscious mind can find connections and bring resolution, it is elegance, it is delight, it is art; you’ve found a Third Gravitating Body.

The Wizard was loud and proud while
vice-chancellor Whittington did the dangerous.
POP!