Dead man's hand in popular culture Bob Seger. The lyric "Aces and eights are the fate that you drew" appears in the song "I Am the Storm" by Blue Öyster Cult on their album "Mirrors". In the song "Rambling, Gambling Willie" by Bob Dylan, the main character, Will O'Conley, is a successful poker player who loses his life to an angry opponent while holding the dead man's hand. The song contains the lyric, "When Willie’s cards fell on the floor, they were aces backed with eights." Townes van Zandt covers the song on the album "Roadsongs." The Lonely Heartstring Band covers the song on their album
What Is Man? (Twain essay) What Is Man? (Twain essay) "What Is Man?" is a short story by American writer Mark Twain, published in 1906. It is a dialogue between a Young Man and an Old Man regarding the nature of man. The title refers to Psalm 8:4, which begins "what is man, that you are mindful of him...". It involves ideas of determinism and free will, as well as of psychological egoism. The Old Man asserts that the human being is merely a machine, and nothing more, driven by the singular purpose to satisfy his own desires and achieve peace of mind. The Young