Take me to the fool in charge

Inviting people to laugh with you while you are laughing at yourself is a good thing to do.
        You may be a fool but you're the fool in charge.

                Carl Reiner, My Anecdotal Life: A Memoir 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No hope

There is no hope, my friend.
        There is only what we do.

                Doc Holiday in film Wyatt Earp

 

 

 

 

Language creates

A lie, once uttered, changes reality just as surely as if it were a great truth.

                    Peter Ackroyd, English Music

 

 

 

 

 

I would especially like to recourt the Muse of poetry,
    who ran off with the mailman four years ago,
        and drops me only a scribbled postcard from time to time.

                John Updike, The New York Times 1968

 

 

 

 

 

 

St. Patrick's Day

I cannot keep silent, nor would it be proper,
so many favours and graces has the Lord deigned
to bestow on me in the land of my captivity.
For after chastisement from God, and recognizing him,
our way to repay him is to exalt him
and confess his wonders before every nation under heaven.

        The Confession of St. Patrick, translated by John Skinner 

 

 

 

 

Poem: A Pint of Plain is Your Only Man

When things go wrong and will not come right,
Though you do the best you can,
When life looks black as the hour of night –
A pint of plain is your only man.

When money’s tight and hard to get
And your horse has also ran,
When all you have is a heap of debt –
A pint of plain is your only man.

When health is bad and your heart feels strange,
And your face is pale and wan,
When doctors say you need a change,
A pint of plain is your only man.

When food is scarce and your larder bare
And no rashers grease your pan,
When hunger grows as your meals are rare –
A pint of plain is your only man.

In time of trouble and lousey strife,
You have still got a darlint plan
You still can turn to a brighter life –
A pint of plain is your only man.

                    Flann O'Brien 

Pass it on

There are few pleasures equal to that of imparting to a voracious learner
        the knowledge that one has grown old and weary in acquiring.

                        Thornton Wilder, The Ides of March