1/23/08

During my reading of a very highly interesting book the other day, I stumbled upon some of the most remarkably crude explanations of table manners I have ever heard or read. They were so wonderful, I thought I should share them, in the case you may have need of them. Here is an excerpt from the book:

"...The author, Christian philosopher and educator Erasmus of Rotterdam, the greatest classical scholar of the northern Humanist Renaissance, had hit on a theme ripe for discussion: the importance of instilling manners at an early age. Titled De civilitate morum puerilium, or On Civility in Children, his continued to be reprinted into the eighteenth century, and spawned a multitude of translations. It became a standard school-book for the education of boys throughout Europe."

Here is a sampling of Erasmus's advice:

-"Turn away when spitting lest your saliva fall on someone."
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-"You should not offer your handkerchief to anyone unless it has been freshly washed. Nor is it seemly, after wiping your nose, to spread out your handkerchief and peer into it as if pearls and rubies might have fallen out of your head."
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-"Some people put their hands in the dishes the moment they have sat down. Wolves do that."
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-"If you cannot swallow a piece of food, turn around discreetly and throw it somewhere."
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(taken from the book, Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things, by Charles Panati)

1/22/08

a very slight alteration II


you could rightly say this is my new crossword puzzle or sudoku.
it's definitely my new found obsession.

1/20/08

a very slight alteration



Oh and, the story just came out that way, it was just dying to be told.
No offense intended; I just circled here and circled there-- and look what happened!


1/17/08

a valley where he sees things lost on earth


Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter
everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that
change forever how we experience life and the world.

[Milton]

1/6/08

only to live

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"Where is it I've read that someone condemned to death says or thinks, an hour before his death, that if he had to live on some high rock, on such a narrow ledge that he'd only room to stand, and the ocean, everlasting darkness, everlasting solitude, everlasting tempest around him, if he had to remain standing on a square yard of space all his life, a thousand years, eternity, it where better to live so than to die at once! Only to live, to live and live! Life, whatever it may be!...How true it is! Good God, how true!"

-Crime and Punishment

1/4/08

reese's pieces

Me and my cousin, Jamie. 1987
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My grandma has this photo hanging in her kitchen.
I stole it the other day, so that I could make a copy of it to keep.
Would you laugh at me if I said that I remember standing there that day,
anxious to 'be big' and help make those cookies?

Because I do.