The Invasion Continues, Without Stop!
WORDS & PHRASES – SOME FOREIGN, SOME FROM RIGHT HERE
- AFGHAN SAYINGS: “You have watches, we have time.” This goes to show there are different kinds of people on this earth. But we not only have watches, we have Fit-bits and smart-phones: yet we do not have time to have time. Here is another one: “An Afghan waits 99 years for vengeance – then regrets his impatience.” Sometimes I wonder how people in far, far away lands can be this wise – not being American and all.
- OFFSHORE: This used to refer to something you could see out at sea while standing on the beach and holding your hand over your eyes to protect them from the sun. What you saw “OFFSHORE” might have been a sailboat or a porpoise. Today, to most people who are in the know, OFFSHORE refers to a tax haven, where nobody can see the money you are hiding. Your money can be in Iceland, or on a Caribbean Island, or somewhere in Asia – technically OFFSHORE – but really, actually safe and sound in a New York City bank…It is no more confusing than that.
- AUTO-CORRECT: Welcome to the Neo-New World. This deals with: Fact Checking. You know when someone says something on TV – and says it as if it were a fact, the truth? Well, AUTO-CORRECT is a computer/algorythmic/High speed/ultra- tekked Fact Checking system which tracks speakers utterances at speeds you would not believe. Right now, there can be up to a thirty second delay from what is said to when the scroll at the bottom of your screen alerts you that what was said was not true; but hold on…the timing is improving. Soon we will not be able to lie without being immediately called out on it. I think, sometime soon, with facial recognition added to AUTO-CORRECT we will be able to say when someone is going to lie – before he actually lies. Those will be high times.
- ESPRIT D’ESCALIER: (French phrase) Translated word for word: ‘Wit of the Stairway’; but really alluding to the devastating repost you should have given to someone in a conversation, or argument – which did not occur to you until you were either out the door – or at four O’Clock in the morning. Soon they will develop an app for your phone which will access a computer/algorythmic/high speed/ultra trekked clever retort based system which will feed you what you should say at exactly the right time – and never be flummoxed again in conversation. Remember: A clever put-down, or rejoinder is really a form of vengeance; so remember what the Afghan says about regrets.
THOUGHTS I”VE THOUGHT ABOUT WHILE WAITING FOR OTHER THINGS TO HAPPEN
- I have read mosquitos are getting bigger, bolder and thirstier than ever. Sprays don’t work – well, the ones that do will kill you too. The poet William Blake in “Tiger, Tiger Burning Bright” …at the end of the poem asks “Did He who made the lamb, make thee?” I Would bring it up to date with a “Human, Human Burning Bright, Did He who made the Mosquito, make thee?” The meter is not as good, but I do not have the time to make it better.
- A friend of mine told me that many ski slopes have artificial snow making/blowing devices that provide good skiing conditions – warm weather or dry skies notwithstanding. Then he tells me the water for the man-made snow is not taken from the fresh water supply. So far so good; but the fake snow is made out of waste/polluted water. Something about falling down face first in a hillside of chemically treated toilet water makes me feel like I’m not skiing anymore – at least not without a krylon mask.
- I learned that Vitamins were discovered in 1906. (By Fred Hopkins) What did we do before we knew there were vitamins? I wonder.
- Studies show: When Chemical companies are doing studies and are looking for volunteers to take new weight loss (trial) medications, over-weight people line up out the door…not caring about possible side-effects. “Give me the D—ed pill” is the sentiment of the able volunteer.
- “I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me.” Attributed to Atty./ Activist D.F. Malone) I disagree. When I find someone who agrees with me – I learned I feel less alone.
I sign off today with two quotations:
- “Seize the day! Put no trust in tomorrow. (-Horace, ODES, 23 B.C.)
- “I need so much time for doing nothing that I have no time for work.”(-Pierre Reverdy, Le Livre de mon bord, 1948)
Best, (-cem)
