Ffolkes,
it gives me all the world and exiles me from it.
~~ Ursula K. Le Guin ~~
Interior scenes from a train….
Good morning…. I got nothin’. Nothing at all, at all…. Not only can I think of nothing to write about, I can’t seem to even work up any angst about not being able to do so. this is going to make it a hard row to hoe today, for sure and for certain…. I suppose, that being the case, I’ll just issue the usual warning about keeping your hands inside the vehicle, and get on with it…. Try not to expect too much today, alright? I hate to disappoint people, & it looks as if we’ll be having a special on that today….
Shall we Pearl?….
“.. I wonder if I ought to tell them about my PREVIOUS LIFE as a COMPLETE STRANGER?” — Zippy the Pinhead
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It’s time to head back to our roots…. Here is a collection of cartoons starring the clown who started it all…. Enjoy, ffolkes….
Bozo The Clown
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“And it does matter. An honest man or woman is an honest man or woman more because he or she is honest in the small, everyday things that “don’t matter” individually, but which make up a well-lived life, than because of some single great temptation that was passed. A person who is concerned about individual rights or about individual dignity makes his or her difference not because of any sweeping great statement or action, but because of the accretion of small, individually seemingly insignificant acts that spread that dignity and confirm those rights through every action they take. It matters because every action you take, and every action I take is an expression of the human spirit.” — William Oliver (oliver@uncmed.med.unc.edu)
What a fine beginning quote for a rant; it fits right in with our usual theme, and provides a good jumping off point for a discussion of current events…. Since a rant, or even a discussion is pretty much out of the question today, I’ll fill in with some rather good pearls from SB, before it went into its current snit…. Here for your morning enjoyment are some comments on modern life, as seen here on ECR…. The first one will give y’all an idea of exactly how far humanity has advanced over the last 4800 years…..
“The Earth is degenerating these days. Bribery and corruption abound. Children no longer mind their parents, every man wants to write a book, and it is evident that the end of the world is fast approaching.” — Assyrian Stone Tablet, c.2800BC
“The gods can either take away evil from the world and will not, or, being willing to do so cannot; or they neither can nor will, or lastly, they are both able and willing. If they have the will to remove evil and cannot, then they are not omnipotent. If they can, but will not, then they are not benevolent. If they are neither able nor willing, then they are neither omnipotent nor benevolent. Lastly, if they are both able and willing to annihilate evil, how does it exist?” — Epicurus — Aphorisms, c. 300 B.C.
“Heaven does not choose its elect from among the great and wealthy.” — William Makepeace Thackeray, The Virginians (1857-59). Chapter 5
“The remedy in the United States is not less liberty but real liberty — an end to the brutal intolerance of churchly hooligans and flag-waving corporations and all the rest of the small but bloody despots who have made the word Americanism a synonym for coercion and legal crime.” — Archibald MacLeash (b. 1892)
“Acquittal of the guilty damns the judge.” — Horace
“From the standpoint of any sane person, the present problem of capitalist concentration is not only a question of law, but of criminal law, not to mention criminal lunacy.” — G. K. Chesterton, A Case In Point, The Outline of Sanity
“Americans like to talk about (or be told about) Democracy but, when put to the test, usually find it to be an ‘inconvenience.’ We have opted instead for an authoritarian system *disguised* as a Democracy. We pay through the nose for an enormous joke-of-a-government, let it push us around, and then wonder how all those assholes got in there.” — Frank Zappa
“There are some politicians who, if their constituents were cannibals, would promise them missionaries for dinner.” — H.L. Mencken
“Food for thought is no substitute for the real thing.” — Walt Kelly, Potluck Pogo
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Well, of COURSE it’s one of mine; I told y’all I had nothin’ new…. Ah well, sometimes old is better….
If I only knew what I was doing here,
I could give others a clue.
Reality gets stranger every year,
and I’m not sure what I should do.
Singing happy old tunes, in an old, gravely voice,
gives me a lot of pleasure.
I’m only glad I can still make a choice,
to look at life, to take its measure.
Memorable moments keep passing by
gilded, framed in precious emotion.
I never have to ask anyone why,
no need for a stronger potion.
Everything in life is clear, to me
there is no doubt, no misunderstanding.
We’re all good, as you can see,
members of Life, in good standing.
Life can be hard, or it can be great fun;
the right path is there for each of us to take.
That choice is often a difficult one;
pay close attention to the choice you make.
~~ gigoid ~~
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As noted in the intro section, I’ve got nada…. This, of course, means you get another archived pearl for the final section…. The pearl I found to fill in today is a pretty good one, from a pretty good year…. Enjoy!…
From 5/5/2013:
Today has turned into a traditional Pearl… though the intro is shorter than usual, the rest of it follows format perfectly, with a rant in section one, a classic poet, and poem, in section two, and a third section, which obviously is supposed to be an old-school grouping of pearls…. I confess that I keep a stash of quotes from Smart be, to the tune of about eighty-seven pages of a document, so I’m not as short of quotes as I’d thought to be. I’m going to use it for a couple days, & let the real Smart Bee have a vacation, to see if that will fix the corruption in the file….
I know, wishful thinking, but, it’s worth a shot… If it works, it will piss Murphy off, so I’d do it that way anyway, for just that reason…. Any who, today’s group will be VERY random, so bear with me…. Buckle up, please, we can’t proceed until all seat-belts are fastened securely…. insurance rules…
As round and round we run;
And the truth shall ever come uppermost,
And justice shall be done.
~~ Charles Mackay — Eternal Justice, Stanza 4 ~~
“A competent and self-confident person is incapable of jealousy in anything. Jealousy is invariably a symptom of neurotic insecurity.” — Robert Heinlein
“Life is a long lesson in humility.” — James M. Barrie
“Ridicule is the best test of truth. — Lord Chesterfield
“If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself. What isn’t part of ourselves doesn’t disturb us.” — Hermann Hesse, _Damian_, 1919
“There are two sentences inscribed upon the Delphic oracle, hugely accommodated to the usages of man’s life: “Know thyself”, and “Nothing too much”; and upon these all other precepts depend.” — Plutarch (46-120 AD) — Consolation to Apollonius
“Now and then it’s good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy.” — Smart Bee
Now, that’s not bad at all…. a very cogent grouping, I think…. Let yourself flow with it, and you’ll end up in a place you will like, I guarantee… If not, well, that’s okay too…. some of us need to let things stir around a while before consuming it… or something…. Ah hell, just listen to the last one, and all will be well….
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It’s done. Since that is the BEST I can say of it, we’ll let it die a peaceful death, moving on to the next item on today’s agenda, which happens to be missing…. Oh well, I didn’t feel up to much, anyway…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes, should there be no other option….
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole, Mark,Theresa, & Richy
and everyone else, too…
When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.
Which is Why….
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes,
I just sits.
gigoid, the dubious
The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.
PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.
“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch
À bientôt, mon cherí….
gigoid 
Not bad….for an old man…grin
” It has been said over and over again: Man is of the order of the moon: he collects impressions and excretes behaviour”
Some things never change 😉