A Tribute to abra a collection of her comments

[LLapp]

"If we did not flatter ourselves, the flattery from others would not harm us." — Proverb

marnita
July 1, 2017, 2:02 pm
If I did not flatter myself, no one would.

abra
December 8, 2018, 5:55 pm
Do you know, even though we disagree about so much, and my commas make you shiver, I think flattering things about you all the time?

[LLapp]

"To remind a man of the good turns you have done him is very much like a reproach." — Demosthenes

Eureka
December 17, 2020, 7:27 pm
Remember that time I drove you to the airport, Demosthenes, during rush hour In a blizzard?

Fudi
October 24, 2021, 12:13 pm
Demosthenes: I do, Eureka. There was that one hairpin turn that you took kind of fast. That was a good turn. Exciting. Made me feel alive. Thanks!

abra
November 18, 2021, 2:09 am
Oh, sure, Demo, you remember Eureka driving you to the airport, but who was it who loaded up the truck and helped you to move across Athens? You didn't even spring for McGyros.

[LLapp]

"All love is probationary, a fact which frightens women and exhilarates men." — Mignon McLaughlin

maradnu
December 23, 2016, 3:09 pm
Probationary would be conditional upon good behavior, and subject to withdrawal upon bad behavior.

abra
April 24, 2021, 10:58 pm
I never loved my husband probationally and I never felt like I was on probation. I guess after all these years we're both slightly exhilarated.

Eureka
March 4, 2022, 2:14 am
Your comments about your marriage always delight me, abra.

[Eureka]

"Let us make one point, that we meet each other with a smile, when it is difficult to smile. Smile at each other, make time for each other in your family." — Mother Teresa

marnita
September 3, 2018, 8:32 am
There are some smiles that can light up an entire room. There are others that just make you want to slap it off that face.

abra
September 27, 2018, 4:56 pm
^ Political smiles do that, and it doesn't matter which side they're on.

Wordigo
June 30, 2020, 2:27 pm
^Which political side, or which side of the face, they are on?

abra
August 25, 2020, 10:06 pm
In the case that was a serious question. I mean a smile from a politician, regardless of party. One of things I hate about the masks is when I catch someone's eye as they pass I always smile. Now they can't tell if I'm smiling or just staring at them.

mistyswiss
September 17, 2020, 8:33 pm
abra, it called a "smize." (link) Based on some of the comments you leave on this site, I'm guessing folks know you are smiling even with a mask on!

[LLapp]

"Life is eating us up. We shall be fables presently. Keep cool - it will be all one a hundred years hence." — Ralph Waldo Emerson

abra
July 30, 2014, 4:22 pm
Emerson said "keep cool"? Whoda thunk it?

universalmom
January 3, 2016, 11:08 am
Who knew he was a Beat poet after all?

kb83
January 24, 2018, 3:10 am
This was Emerson, but he was not expressing his own thought, but describing that of a skeptic. It occurs in the work "Representative Men: Seven Lectures", and it is in the fourth entitled: "Montaigne: or the Skeptic" (link)

abra
January 29, 2018, 1:22 pm
Montaigne? Our Michel de Montaigne? He said ''be cool''? Even weirder.

SippyGurl
November 30, 2018, 3:48 am
got a rocket in your pocket...

LLapp
December 23, 2021, 9:28 pm
SippyGurl nailed it. The correct quote was "Keep cool -- from your first cigarette to your last dying day."

abra
November 30, 2022, 1:46 am
My son uses the Jet Song to explain being a Cub fan. We're back to having to explain.

[Fudi]

"Materialism is a circumference without a center. Idealism is a center without a circumference."
— Augustus William Hare


montyb
May 21, 2012, 3:43 pm
Dang geometry.
LLapp
November 29, 2014, 9:31 pm
Sounds like a stoned insight.
SwampySox
September 29, 2016, 7:50 am
Waaay deeeep....
maradnu
January 9, 2017, 2:00 pm
All this circumferating is making me dizzy.
jimdgar
February 16, 2017, 11:21 am
I though doughnuts were a circumference without a center. Maybe that's my problem.
CCCookie
May 19, 2018, 5:23 am
Ii wonder what he was smoking when he produced this quote. It's totally illogical to me -- a circumference, by definition, is around something and that something HAS a center. And thinking that idealism extends to infinity in all directions is pretty foolish. It can easily go too far, at least in the opinions of others, but it does have limits. Most people, but definitely not all, will lose their pacifism if all that they hold near and dear is threatened, for instance. There are other examples, of course.
DrCryptell
July 22, 2018, 9:51 am
...and a triangle is a square looking for a shortcut; an ellipse is a circle that ate too many hot dogs.
blueladyblue
April 30, 2019, 4:30 pm
...and a circle is a square that lost its edge. A square is a nerdy circle. An octagon is a stop sign that hasn't been painted yet. And are materialism and idealsm really opposites?
Synonymous
July 14, 2020, 7:56 pm
...Like a circle in a spiral and a wheel within a wheel...
badbob
August 4, 2020, 7:59 am
maybe a circular firing squad was in order
LLapp
October 7, 2020, 1:48 am
Blueladyblue's comment reminded me of my favorite Craigslist ad. Somebody was selling an old octagonal end table/cabinet, and the only text in the ad was "Great for storing stop signs."
abra
July 19, 2022, 2:56 am
^ I had one of those I handed it down to my son who handed it down to a friend. Now I have no place for my stop signs. Actually, that table was where I stored my treasure trove of newspaper cryptograms.

[LLapp]

"Humor's a weapon if you want to make it one." — Bob Newhart

abra
September 22, 2021, 6:33 pm
I remember when my son discovered Bob Newhart from an album we had. The other day he called and said that our older grandson was listening to the one about the airline and screen door company. I said ''the torch has been passed to a new generation''. Proud Nana.

[LLapp]

^^^^ That one is just wonderful. Thanks, Toeprint.

[Toeprint]

"Baseball is an allegorical play about America, a poetic, complex, and subtle play of courage, fear, good luck, mistakes, patience about fate, and sober self-esteem."
— Saul Steinberg


puffybob
December 7, 2011, 4:48 pm
Give me a break.
fredsevent
February 22, 2012, 11:00 pm
Okay - puffybob. Take five!
Lurker
August 1, 2012, 10:35 pm
No, it's about hand-eye coordination.
bazinga
November 20, 2012, 2:09 pm
It is about spitting and making gestures with your hands.
Allen
July 2, 2013, 3:36 pm
Baseball is 20 minutes of action, packed into 4 hours!
skeeter
March 5, 2015, 9:31 am
All that and peanuts and hot dogs, too.
abra
March 28, 2016, 2:19 pm
It's about never giving up hope. It's about starting each season woefully naive and thinking there's a chance. It's about watching them throw away their chances in the playoffs and saying "wait'll next year:" Well that's what it's like if you're a Cub fan.
Barnabas
October 17, 2016, 8:47 am
Maybe not this year, abra. Cubs and Dodgers series tied 1-1 in the NLCS. Lifelong Twins fan here, but in 2016... Go Cubs!
abra
October 22, 2016, 7:25 am
I must have had the winter is too long blues up there. OMgosh, yes!! Go my Cubbies Go. And let me say that 86 years are nothing. LOL Try 108. And 71 without a Pennant. Tonight we try to get past Kershaw. I think we can do that, but if we can't we've got another shot on Sunday. There's alway THIS year.
mmfs83
March 9, 2017, 5:58 am
And they did it abra!!!
abra
April 25, 2018, 6:12 pm
While we were living!

[LLapp]

"This Being of mine, whatever it really is, consists of a little flesh, a little breath, and the part which governs." — Marcus Aurelius

Barnabas
February 20, 2012, 3:43 pm
"My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, Commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions, loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next."

joed
January 22, 2013, 2:47 pm
Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.

jnoodles
May 26, 2013, 1:48 am
Have fun storming the castle!

wvwoman
March 31, 2014, 8:40 pm
ah, the princess bride--my favorite, joed!

LLapp
July 9, 2015, 12:07 pm
Ah, the part which governs. Did he mean his brain?

marnita
July 21, 2015, 1:45 pm
We can hope so.

abra
November 6, 2015, 3:04 pm
joed, are you my son? LOL. He loves that quote. Did you see, they used it on Big Bang, a couple of weeks ago?

LLapp
April 21, 2018, 9:38 pm
abra, I think our sons have a lot in common. Did yours used to drag a whole bag of books with him on every family trip too?

abra
November 13, 2018, 2:22 pm
He definitely did.

imsoeasy
May 8, 2019, 4:01 am
For a second I had an f in the part that governs.

Eureka
February 21, 2020, 8:17 pm
I'm just going to open the window.

[Fudi]

More on happiness, from abra:

"The secret of happiness is to make others believe they are the cause of it."
— Al Batt


martayela
December 11, 2012, 12:02 am
i like this quote....think about it!!!!
locodad
January 3, 2013, 4:27 pm
is it our fault that you are happy? now that's making me cry
jnoodles
May 10, 2013, 11:10 pm
So few people I know are happy. Nor am I. I'll wait for them to make the first move. Yeah, this should work.
Quizzical
March 15, 2014, 11:33 am
Noodles, you really need to meet some different people. Then try to cheer them up. It's contagious.
Andy451
June 20, 2015, 12:09 pm
Thank you Al Batt! You're the reason all seven billion people on earth, three polar bears, one cheetah, four dragonflies, and sixteen lemurs at The City Park Zoo are so f&%((**&^ng happy. It's you. No, it's you. No, it's you.
Elephino
April 23, 2021, 3:26 pm
lemurs make me happy
abra
January 30, 2022, 8:46 pm
I'm happy. It's getting harder and harder to avoid the rocks and rivers of unhappiness, but mostly I manage. Some of you are the cause of some of my happiness. You are. You really, really are, believe me. I couldn't be so happy without you, and Sammy Smiles, Arthur Helps and the rest of the gang.

-------------------------------
And from me, I sort of wish their family name, rather than Henry, had been some verb [like Delights, or something], so that she could have given her son one of those complete-sentence names she loved. I have a friend from college who gave her son, as a first name, her own maiden name, which was Brighton. I wanted her to give him a middle name of Handsome, but she wouldn't listen to me. What a missed opportunity! Abra and I were kindred spirits in our shared amusement about certain names.

[hrossa]

"Happiness is not an ideal of reason, but of imagination." — Immanuel Kant

Kant's portrait on puzzlebaron: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immanu..._portrait).jpg

JD_1947
November 13, 2014, 9:53 am
I imagine he was happy with that one . . .

LLapp
March 16, 2016, 5:14 pm
I wonder what the right half of his face looked like.

abra
July 2, 2018, 6:18 pm
It was dark, very, very dark.

[hrossa]

"Like dogs in a wheel, birds in a cage, or squirrels in a chain, ambitious men still climb and climb, with great labor, and incessant anxiety, but never reach the top." — Robert Burton

abra
May 5, 2012, 2:54 pm
"dogs in a wheel' ?

abra
September 18, 2012, 8:07 pm
I still say "dogs in a wheel"?

Lurker
November 14, 2012, 6:42 pm
Who's chaining up squirrels?

vivian1874
January 19, 2013, 12:02 am
they probably weren't ambitious enough.

montyb
June 2, 2013, 4:02 am
I'd say you would have to be darned ambitious to try to chain squirrels. (Dogs in a wheel???)

momof7
November 8, 2014, 6:23 pm
I picture hamsters, but maybe there are big wheels for dogs.

abra
November 16, 2014, 2:57 pm
And for that matter -, squirrels in a chain?

[LLapp]

"Give me the luxuries of life and I will willingly do without the necessities." — Frank Lloyd Wright

abra on 2014-11-02 14:25:36
Just give him a box of Godivas, a bottle of Dom Perignon, and some four ply tissue and let him sit in a vacant lot.

[LLapp]

Go Cubs Go....


"A plan is just a tangent vector on the manifold of reality." — Scratch Garrison

abra
September 13, 2014, 2:59 pm
I'm shocked that I got this one, more shocked that I ended up (just barely) in the average column.
abra
December 22, 2014, 6:15 am
Ha! This time I'm right on the line. "Half-Fast".
LLapp
May 13, 2016, 11:18 am
abra, you are not half-ast!
abra
October 23, 2016, 9:41 am
This time I'm watching the replay of the Cubs game, you know when they became the NL champions. I'm putting that in there for posterity. Anyway, I didn't realize I'd stopped so long to watch and I got 447 seconds. Oops.

****************


"He who lets the goat be laid on his shoulders is soon after forced to carry the cow." — Italian Proverb

abra
January 20, 2017, 6:31 pm
If it's a Billy Goat that's been laid on your shoulders, better send for Theo Epstein. Just sayin'.

oddcouple
June 27, 2017, 12:22 am
To elaborate on abra's comment, Theo Epstein was the general manager of the Red Sox who put together the team that won the World Series in 2004 breaking an 86 year championship drought. They broke the curse of the Billy Goat.

spacecoyote1966
September 28, 2017, 8:13 am
Actually the Billy Goat curse was on the Cubs. The Red Sox had the Bambino Curse.

abra
October 23, 2017, 6:22 pm
Yes, the Billy Goat's Curse was on the Cubs. Who broke a 108 year drought and won the 2016 World Series. Theo broke both curses.

LLapp
March 8, 2018, 8:48 am
He's an exorcist!

blueladyblue
May 31, 2018, 8:04 am
So if you break the curse of the Billy Goat do you then get the cow? Do you have to carry it? Poor shoulders.

abra
June 28, 2018, 7:25 am
Cubs might be carrying around a cow this year. That could explain some things.

*****************


"What can be added to the happiness of a man who is in health, out of debt, and has a clear conscience?" — Adam Smith

abra
May 30, 2019, 2:23 am
True love and a puppy, and an 80'' TV. He'd probably be wanting to watch the Cubs win the World Series on that TV.

*****************

"Baseball is the only game left for people. To play basketball, you have to be 7 feet 6 inches. To play football, you have to be the same width." — Bill Veeck

abra
April 18, 2022, 2:03 am
Depending on how picky you want to be about truth or myth, and which story you want to believe, Bill Veeck is responsible for the hallowed ivy at Wrigley Field. I'm even down with the story that he planted it himself.