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The ROBUST Commonplace Book
message 51:
by
Sharon
(new)
Aug 13, 2011 08:28PM
That's a very good question, Katie. Long before I was told I was a faerie, which after the second or third time I decided I would wear any time it suited me, I was told I had some Irish and French in me... both of which I decided I would own when it suited me.
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South Africa is the last white hope, or so people here where I live keep telling me. I do know that Namibia is one of the safest and best countries to visit. Vast open spaces, friendly people. South Africa on the other hand....while we are not at the point of no return like Zimbabwe and much of the north of the continent, we are not quite that bad. Yet.
I've been to Melbourne and Sydney. I'd love to go back there for a visit, my sister in law immigrated 10 years ago, I have many, many MANY friends that live there now. It's like a second home to most of South Africa.
It's because we're all so beautiful and smart.
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'Tis the blather and the blarney.
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'Tis the blather and the blarney."
And here I thought it was the leprechauns.
My life has been full of terrible misfortunes, most of which never happened. ~ Michel de Montaigne
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One job I got on the phone from the airport was as editor of a newspaper in a language (Guarani) I didn't speak -- in fact, had never even heard of. The previous editor had been shot dead in the street a few hours before by a subscriber keen to change the editorial policy of the paper...
One job I got on the phone from the airport was as editor of a newspaper in a language (Guarani) I didn't speak -- in fact, had never even heard of. The previous editor had been shot dead in the street a few hours before by a subscriber keen to change the editorial policy of the paper... Excuse my gallows humor, but that’s hilarious! You should consider becoming a writer …
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They brought their accordions. Run the other way!
I think people imagine the Irish have more fun. Or they think Ireland might be the Celtic Otherworld, "Tir na Nog" (Land of the Young). I might one day want to visit Prague in the winter: those beautiful old buildings under snow. I'm just guessing, I've never been there. As long as Quebec City is just around the corner as it were, I'm never far from romance.
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Can't top that, though check what I said to Claudine about walking hand in hand with your girl in the winter rain under the oak trees of Stellenbosch, an almost otherworldly little town near which she lives, sorta like the town in the movie Truman, but with provenance and class (-es; it's a university town!)
Heh-heh.
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First of all, Matt Posner, a member of ROBUST, has been to Prague in winter and published some attactive photos. Ask him where they are collected. I studied them for quite a while because a couple were in a building in which the secret police nearly caught up with me when I visited some people who distributed my books in samizdat back in the day, before the fall of the Wall.
About the Irish having more fun, there's good craic in the pubs, if you're a pub person. (I consider going into a pub a waste of time.) But basically the Irish appear so likeable because they are the Diaspora of the Catholic Church, everybody else's immigrants, so they have learned to be chameleons of charm. I get along fine, because I appreciate the quick intelligence of survivors, and in return they appreciate my wit, but outsiders must mind their manners, especially about the politics of violence. Today, for instance, on my ride I stopped at a cross put up beside a minor road. It commemorates a young man shot in 1921. There were fresh flowers on this monument. There always are. The Irish remember forever. (Photo, taken on another day, a fair way down the page at http://coolmainpress.com/BICYCLEKilma... )
Jesus Joseph and Mary, that's a beautiful photograph. I'm shocked that you don't like pubs. That's where life bubbles up in celebration. A buxom barmaid is the absolute centre of life, no other religion counts. Springtime has arrived on this old redbrick street and the patios are open.
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I'm afraid this comment went over my head, Andre. Translation please.
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Never walk down a dirt road without a raincoat.
Maybe Claudine will quote Mae West. Hope so.
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Andre Jute wrote: "Wayne wrote: "I think people imagine the Irish have more fun. Or they think Ireland might be the Celtic Otherworld, "Tir na Nog" (Land of the Young). I might one day want to visit Prague in the w..."That's a great photo essay, Andre! I looked at it the other day, but couldn't comment then as GR was doing its typical 'stuck' thing...
Andre, you should write a memoir. It's never too early. Or maybe you already have? You have enough true stories I'm sure. You might think I'm kidding but I'm not. Fiction is fine and dandy but you have another book in you. I'd read it.
Wayne, this is not the first time someone has suggested that. I agree it would be a great story...
Andre Jute wrote: "A joke that has to be explained was probably not very good in the beginning, and most likely offensive too. I think I'll hide behind one of my family mottos, "Never explain, never apologize.""In my family it goes like this: Never complain, never explain, but I kinda like it your way...
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Nobody will love it except total strangers, I'll lose my friends, and only libel lawyers will make a killing.
Te he, that's pretty much his story every time someone suggests it..
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I tend to agree but that's because I have little imagination. I couldn't possibly write a novel or even a longish short story. I have the attention span of a newt. Not that I know for sure what the attention span of a newt might be, but I have the gut feeling I'm right. And I can't invent characters or plots. I admire people who can. Within the little boundaries of my "talent" I do what I'm capable of doing. I have no idea if this link to my author's page works, so let me know: http://www.goodreads.com/WayneMcNeill
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Grandiloquent Word of the Day: Xanthippe
(zan•TIP•ee)
Noun:
-A scolding or ill-tempered wife; a shrewish woman.
-The wife of Socrates, traditionally described as shrewish and scolding.
Used in a sentence:
"Poor old Mortymer Milquetoast, with his xanthippe of a wife, fought a losing battle to retain what shred of masculinity he had left."
***
Love it, but I don't know any Xanthippe, so, sadly, or perhaps fortunately, I'll never be able to use the word.
Just use it on some annoying sexist man. Then after he finds out what it means, he'll be even more angry.
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Actually, since the word seems to mean "someone who doesn't drink the koolaid of the majority on this [group, whatever it is] but thinks for himself", I think thoughtful folk should be flattered to be called a troll.
I remember an incident from my youth in which I'd annoyed this fellow. He'd been harassing me for, well, for not being white.
Anyway, I mostly let it go at first, and then started to insult him back after he wouldn't leave me alone, but ended up apparently really enraging him at one point when I told him something to the effect, "You are the chief mentor of all idiots in the world."
I was puzzled until later it came out that he didn't know what "mentor" meant, and some how parsed the insult, despite the inclusion of the 2nd person pronoun, as an insult against his mother.
Then again, his mother did raise a son who was both racist and ignorant...
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One of the best lines in a movie with Harrison Ford made from a Turow novel, was where this judge, who happens to be black, leans across the bench and says to a DA, whose name is De La Guardia, who is trying to introduce a scornful phrase as a confession, 'Mr Delay Guardia, where I come from that would bethe same as "Yo' momma".'
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I like that word Andre, even though I have no idea how to pronounce it and doubt I could do so fast enough to actually use it.
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Love Kathleen's word of the day - even love that I chanced to find it on this thread, seemingly out of place but not 'policed' to the 'proper' thread - of which there are none, of course. We haven't been very ROBUST here on ROBUST lately, but the way the convo about Xanthippe evolved into a smart convo about... well, smart things... that's what I've been missing.
Summer heat makes us sleepy (well, us in the northern hemisphere). The southern hemisphere folks are, uh, depressed by rain?
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Lucky escape. If I married her, I would have consigned myself to a life of cold baths, early rising and strenuous exercise on a diet of rabbit food.
PS Sharon, bump the Word of the Day thread, if you please, so we can all find it. I posted here because I couldn't find the WotD thread...
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Andre Jute wrote: ""Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die." — Mel Brooks"Classic Mel Brooks. He cracks me up.
Do you know how Sonny Bono died? Understand, the man wanted to be a comedian all of his life, and at times, he was funny.
He died on a Ski trip. Spread eagle right into a tree and died. When I first heard it, I thought it was a joke and laughed my ass off. When I realized it wasn't a joke, I tried really hard not to laugh harder. Not because I dislike Sonny, but because I'm sure he if he had a choice, he would want his own demise to make people laugh.
As for my own contribution, I can't remember where I heard this, or even who said it, but I use it every once and a great while.
"I came into this world screaming, covered in somebody else's blood. Chances are high that's how I'm leaving this world. Screaming while covered in somebody else's blood."
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