Incorrect Attribution

Here is a quote that is usually attributed to John Lennon:
"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."

While Lennon probably said this at some point - it turns out he was not the first to have done so.

I love books.  Love 'em.  Have them all over my house.

Twice a year, the Albuquerque main library has a $3-a-bag book sale.  You take a bag

and stuff as many books into it as you can.  You can buy as many bags of books as you want.  Love it!  One of the books I bought in November 2010's sale was Bennett Cerf's Laugh Day.  It bills itself as a "treasury of over 1000 humorous stories, anecdotes...."

At one point in the book, Cerf mentions that he loves to collect quotes.  (Me, too!)  One of the quotes is:
"Life is what happens to you while you're making other plans."  Cerf attributes the quote to a Robert Balzer.  (I haven't looked him up so am not sure who he is.)  As you can see, other than Lennon's use of the word 'busy', the quotes are identical.

Cerf was not ignoring Lennon since the book was published in 1965, right about the time that Lennon was rising to enough prominence to be quoted.  Cerf does not say when he first noted the quote from Balzer, but considering the amount of time it takes to compile and publish a book, it had to have been at least several years before 1965.

It's likely that Lennon (who was NOT a stupid man) saw or heard the quote someplace and used it.  People who didn't know about Balzer then gave Lennon all the credit.

It was just interesting to be reading a 45-year-old book and run across the quote.
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Also seen in this book is a list of words that are now obsolete.  (Note:  the list is from another book, Your English Words by John Moore.)
Example:
Quockerwodger - it's a puppet.
Skilligolete - a soup served sometimes to prisoners or sailors (now there's an odd combination).
Calibogus - a mixture of spruce beer and rum (eew?).
Jobbernowl - a blockhead.
Rumblegumption - a Scottish word for common sense.

All for now.
Papillon

Random Thoughts

One last entry from Bennett Cerf's The Sound of Laughter:

A few interesting revelations made by David Ewen in his American Popular Songs..."Take Me Out to the Ball Game," the song classic about America's favorite sport, was written by Albert von Tilzer, who didn't see a baseball game until twenty years after he wrote the lyrics; "My Blue Heaven," one of the most successful songs about marital bliss, was written by Walter Donaldson, a bachelor; the most celebrated songs about the Southland were the work of Stephen Foster, who never set foot below the Mason-Dixon line; and Van Alstyne's "In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree" was inspired by the composer's visit to New York's Central Park, which has no apple trees.
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Otherwise, I don't have much in the way of thoughts, random or otherwise.

We had some fairly ferocious looking clouds earlier in the afternoon and I was really hoping for some rain.  But they were all tease and no action, at least not at my house.

I hope you're having a great weekend.

Papillon

A Glitter of Unicorns?

As has already been mentioned, I love going to places like Goodwill & looking through their used books.  Most recently (yesterday to be precise), I found a book edited by Bennett Cerf.  (For those too young to remember him, he was a publisher, lecturer, columnist, toastmaster, and TV personality.)

The book is Bennett Cerf's The Sound of Laughter.  It was published in 1970 and there is a fair amount of humor in it that is rather dated or is what would now be considered politically incorrect.

However, I have run across some items that I like.  Here's one:

"Almost everybody knows that lions travel in prides, that pups come in litters, that elephants en masse are referred to as herds, and that fish navigate in schools.  But you'll have to dig into James Lipton's unique book An Exaltation of Larks to find that in their time and fashion, good folks have referred to an ostentation of peacocks, an impatience of wives, an unction of undertakers, a sneer of butlers, a twinge of dentists, a tantrum of decorators, an indifference of waiters, a descent of relatives, a no-no of nannies, and a babble of barbers.  If the game appeals to you, you might strike out on your own."

I may just have to see if I can find a copy of Lipton's book.  It sounds rather a hoot (of owls?).

So what sorts of things can you come up with?

Papillon

Knit Wit

"Knitting is a boon for those of us who are easily bored.  I take my knitting everywhere to take the edge off of moments that would otherwise drive me stark raving mad."  Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, author of Yarn Harlot and At Knit's End:  Meditations for Women Who Knit Too Much.
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I'm just curious, but what is it about knitters & humor?  It seems as though you can't throw a rock without having it hit some form of knitting humor.  A quick search of the web found the following blogs:
               yarnharlot.ca (run by the lady whose quote is above)
               crazyknittinglady.wordpress.com
               wendyknits.net

Just to name a few.  Ms. Pearl-McPhee has also published 3 books of her humorous knitting adventures.  In perusing the Arts & Crafts section of a nearby bookstore, I spotted several books of knitting humor by other authors.  I don't recall any such books by people who do stained glass or needlepoint or woodworking.  All books on those subjects tend to be straightforward how-to books.

The only other hobby category that seems to have people willing to mock their obsessions is quilting.  As a part-time quilter myself, while reading Ms. Pearl-McPhee's first book, Yarn Harlot, I noticed there are any number of parallels between her knitting experiences & those of most quilters I know.  Her observations about her knitting stash almost exactly matched those I've had about my fabric stash.  Example:  buying yarn or fabric simply because it was on sale & later realizing it was on sale because it was absolutely too hideous to use in any project.  Ever.

Which leads me to my next question.  What is it with pets & projects?  Every quilt project I've ever worked on has instantly magnetized every pet I've ever owned - causing them to become inseparable.  Able to defy that rule of physics that says 2 separate objects cannot occupy the same space.  It doesn't matter if the pet is a cat or a dog.  If the project is on an available horizontal space, your pet will be on top of the project.  Said pet will become annoyed with you when you try to separate the two.  My cats have been known to sulk, loudly, when shooed away from sitting in the exact middle of a quilt.

Just wondering.
Papillon

Getting Started

"All the world's a stage and most of us are desperately unrehearsed."

This is a quote by Sean O'Casey, an Irish dramatist (1880-1964) which sums up how I feel a great deal of the time. It also explains the name of my brand-new blog.

I was hoping to have a genuinely witty first post showing a great deal of intelligence and full of bon mots. It looks like that's gone by the wayside since I'm feeling a great deal of brain fade at the moment. I even wrote a list of possible topics to write about. However, I wrote a number of them in such haste that I either cannot read my handwriting or what I did write legibly now makes no sense. (I plan on correcting this in the future!)

One that is legible & makes sense concerns what I call 'CNN Brain'. That's when I appear to be acting normally & politely while a CNN-style crawl moves across the bottom of my brain commenting on how I really feel and think about the particular situation.

Example: the other day I was at Michael's, the ubiquitous craft store found in so very many places in the USA. I was in line behind a man who paid for one (count 'em, one) roll of zebra-patterned duct tape with a $100 bill. The roll cost less than $5.00 (USD). I said nothing to the man. After he walked away, I made a joking comment to the cashier.

However, in my head the crawl is saying things like - 'Are you KIDDING me? Who pays for one roll of duct tape (no matter how fancy) with a frigging $100 bill? Does this place LOOK like a bank? Go to the bank & get some change!' (On a practical note, I do realize that there may be a very valid reason why the man had not gone to the bank. Things like, oh, the bill is counterfeit & it's easier to slip a fake bill by someone earning minimum wage at Michael's than at the bank.)

That's all I've got for now. I do aspire to write great things in the future. Or funny things, whichever comes first. If I could write funny, intelligent things like the late, great Molly Ivins, then I'll be one very happy camper.

Bon soir!