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Archive > July 2008
Benchley’s Law of Distinction
“There are two kinds of people in the world, those who believe there are two kinds of people in the world and those who don’t.” Robert Benchley
The Man Who Planted Trees
A short story by Jean Giono about a man who quietly brings about vast changes in a desolate place using nothing more than determination and gentle persistence. Elzeard Bouffier lives his life on a tiny scale consuming very little and asking for no assistance yet he is a channel for the force of Nature and [...]
Someone work this out please-12 or 13 in the picture!
It’s not much to ask surely, just work it out and put me out of my misery please.
Observations on our democracy from an old friend
In advance of Gordon Brown’s trip to America, profiles of the Prime Minister have been appearing in the U.S. One such preview on Eye-Witness News, Palm Beach, went: “Good morning America, how are you? This is your favourite son, Chad Hanging, reporting. The President of Englandland, Norman Brown, is arriving in our nation’s capital this [...]
The Sot Weed Factor
A monster novel by John (why use one word when a hundred will suffice) Barth which makes the www.time.com Top 100 novels published since 1923. Lev Grossman and Richard Lacayo included this biting satire in their All Time 100 list and I couldn’t agree more. Here is Richard’s review. The Sot-Weed Factor (1960) Hell’s teeth! [...]
“Political Correctness” explained.
‘Political Correctness is a doctrine fostered by a delusional minority and the mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.’ I always suspected that “Moral Majority” , “Political correctness” and “Righteous indignation” were all oxymoron’s. Please read “Minority Bigot” , ” Prim [...]
Nearly Wisdom of Carlo M. Cipolla
THE BASIC LAWS OF HUMAN STUPIDITY by Carlo M. Cipolla illustrations by James Donnelly The first basic law of human stupidity asserts without ambiguity that: Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation. At first, the statement sounds trivial, vague and horribly ungenerous. Closer scrutiny will however reveal its realistic veracity. [...]
Salesmanship
A young guy from Abilene moves to Houston and goes to a big “everything under one roof” department store looking for a job. The manager says, Do you have any sales experience?” The kid says, “Yeah. I was a salesman back in Abilene.” Well, the boss liked the kid and gave him the job. “You [...]
