A Tribute to abra a collection of her comments

[kb83]

Love it! "Ambrose, the house is on fire!" Ambrose, pensively: "Fire, an ancient discovery that made eating more enjoyable, and led to higher insurance premiums."

[Eureka]

(It's always fun to hear about abra's fantasy dinner party.)

"Physician -- One upon whom we set our hopes when ill and our dogs when well. " — Ambrose Bierce

Barnabas
October 19, 2014, 4:33 am
Do you get the feeling that every time someone had a conversation with Bierce, Bierce's responses always began with a single word followed by either a cynical definition or a witty one? Man 1 - "I'm a little worried about the weather today, Ambrose." Ambrose - "Weather - a condition of temperature, wind speed and direction, and humidity as determined by a talking mannequin on TV." Man 1 - "Honey, I'm going to get a drink. You stay and visit with Ambrose." Ambrose - "Drink - an alcoholic bevarage..."

abra
August 30, 2019, 7:07 pm
Very funny, Barnabas. I'll put him across from Oscar at the dinner party. Sam, will be way down at the end of the table with people who have nothing to say.

[kegosgyl]

"Wisdom doesn't automatically come with old age. Nothing does - except wrinkles. It's true, some wines improve with age. But only if the grapes were good in the first place."
— Abigail Van Buren

abra
January 24, 2022, 1:51 am
I may have written this before. About a year ago, I needed some moisturizer. I didn't find what I wanted when we were shopping. A couple of days later my husband went to the commissary, and he brought some home. He told me he hopef that he bought the right thing. The first stuff he looked at said it was for wrinkles, and I didn't have wrinkle so he didn't buy it. I told him that was an early Valentines gift. ;o)

[LLapp]

"If there is such a thing as a good marriage, it is because it resembles friendship rather than love." — Michel Eyquem de Montaigne

babs
February 13, 2010, 6:41 pm
I'd agree with "friendship rather than infatuation".

montyb
August 17, 2012, 2:20 am
I'd agree with both of you.

universalmom
February 8, 2014, 12:49 pm
More like the vector product of friendship and infatuation! There needs to be some of both, I think.

JenDiaz72
February 6, 2015, 5:41 am
It should have equal parts of both I think.

LLapp
April 2, 2015, 4:34 pm
Best buddies, each with an ever-renewed crush on the other.

thesheriff
January 3, 2019, 1:29 am
Does not friendship encompass love? Where does that rather come from?

killdozer
August 14, 2019, 2:18 am
This is a translation, so the word for "love" might have been something closer to "lust."

abra
November 28, 2020, 2:47 am
We were friends for such a long time. I don't think I was ever infatuated. He might have been, why not? We're happy and affectionate, joined at the hip. It resembles friendship but it's much more.

Eureka
February 7, 2021, 9:27 pm
^So lovely!

[Synonymous]

Abra had a lot of fun with this one. And Montyb's comment at the end is hilarious...

"Desire nothing, chafe not at fate, nor at Nature's changeless laws. But struggle only with the personal, the transitory, the evanescent and the perishable."
— Helena Blavatsky


Comments on this Puzzle:
abra
July 12, 2011, 4:18 am
I've never seen the word evanescent before, that I remember.
abra
February 21, 2013, 1:45 am
The second time I've ever seen it.
abra
November 15, 2013, 6:28 am
Thethird time, and still I don't remember it.
Quizzical
February 4, 2014, 4:33 pm
It was the last word I solved in this puzzle and only by trying the left-over letters in that second position.
Quizzical
April 8, 2014, 7:50 am
And I had to do the same thing again. Abra, you and I don't get this one very well.
thresa
June 6, 2014, 3:16 pm
It's another way to say: grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the thing I can change (my inner attitudes)
Quizzical
July 14, 2014, 3:20 pm
One more time. Same drill. At least this time I only tried "m" before the "v". That's the nice thing about senility - you are always having new experiences and meeting new people. In your own house.
abra
January 17, 2015, 11:52 am
And for the fourth time...EMANESCENT.
sexytary
February 20, 2015, 7:00 pm
Challenging vocabulary.
LLapp
August 18, 2015, 7:09 pm
I remember evanescent as a vocabulary word in high school. Sounds like Perrier water.
abra
November 27, 2015, 10:50 am
Well, I didn't remember it, guessed right on evanescent. I was Very Fast though, so I guess I'm catching on.
abra
March 25, 2016, 2:31 pm
Back for at least the sixth time. I'm Very Fast again, but I first guessed efanescent. I didn't remember the quote and I thought it might be similar to effervescent.
LurkerSmurf
April 25, 2016, 10:45 am
Does coming up with a different word when you meant "effervescent" count? I got it on the first try.
figmo
April 25, 2016, 11:51 am
I thought "evanescent" was the way Evan smelled.
abra
August 21, 2016, 7:45 am
Wow, I must get this one a lot.
abra
October 17, 2016, 6:24 pm
I was here AGAIN.
Lurker
June 7, 2017, 11:30 am
Hm, abra's overdue for a visit.
wshanley@sbcglobal
July 29, 2017, 1:08 am
Evanescent gets me every time.
SippyGurl
August 7, 2017, 2:56 pm
chafe got me :/
LLapp
April 23, 2018, 6:23 pm
These comments add up to one long definition of "evanescent" -- which means "soon passing out of sight, memory or existence; quickly fading or disappearing."
abra
December 1, 2018, 6:39 pm
I am back, took a long time and so I forgot about evanescent.
abra
April 24, 2019, 2:07 am
Just stopped by to say ''hello''.
killdozer
August 29, 2019, 12:39 am
I just got "evanescent" in back to back puzzles. What are the odds?
glassguy
September 17, 2019, 4:08 pm
I propose that we formally name this puzzle "abra's evanescent conundrum"
ruxpin66
December 18, 2019, 6:02 pm
There is a music group, "Evanescence," or I am still attempting to solve the puzz.e
Synonymous
November 30, 2020, 8:09 pm
evanescent, Evian with a twist of flavor.
jbb33054
December 6, 2020, 5:10 am
167
montyb
May 7, 2021, 7:29 am
This must be Abra’s personal version of the Crypto Twilight Zone.

[hrossa]

"All humanity is passion; without passion, religion, history, novels, art would be ineffectual." — Honore de Balzac

abra
January 24, 2015, 3:12 pm
I really dislike the word INEFFECTUAL. That's all. Carry on.

wvwoman
May 13, 2017, 10:29 am
that made me laugh, abra!

Eureka
December 2, 2018, 8:18 am
I'm not too fond of it either, abra.

[LLapp]

"Do not ask for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee." — Ernest Hemingway

maradnu
April 11, 2009, 1:47 pm
I believe Hemingway took this from John Donne.

JaneDoe
September 28, 2013, 4:49 am
I thought they had it wrong, but I guess this phrasing is properly attributed to Hemingway: Donne wrote, "Therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee." Still almost seems unfair.

abra
January 25, 2015, 9:57 am
I don't know if it's fair or not, or whether Hemingway gave credit to Donne, but whenever I hear the Donne quote, I think of Hemingway's book.

blueladyblue
April 15, 2018, 12:09 pm
This quote (regardless of to whom it should ultimately be attributed) is so familiar, I knew what it was after the first 2 letters.

montyb
October 23, 2020, 3:31 pm
What’s this ringing in my ears?

abra
January 16, 2022, 7:22 pm
^ It's safer not to ask.

[Eureka]

"Children need love, especially when they do not deserve it. " — Harold S. Hulbert

abra
July 6, 2014, 2:46 pm
But they always deserve it. Even when they don't.

Barnabas
June 1, 2016, 2:17 am
I was essentially going to say what abra said, only abra put it a little bit better.

LLapp
August 21, 2017, 4:48 pm
First I was going to say what abra said, and then I was going to say what Barnabas said.

No2son
April 25, 2019, 6:31 pm
All that has been needed to be said has been said.

[LLapp]

"Sales are contingent upon the attitude of the salesman - not the attitude of the prospect." — W. Clement Stone


saipanwriter
October 5, 2012, 9:15 am
I don't like salesmen.

jobdevaa
July 27, 2013, 11:15 pm
Be careful when and to whom you say that. Maybe a good friend's parent, spouse or child is a salesperson. We're everywhere. You might want to review your definition of salesman. Not every salesperson is Willy Loman.

kb83
February 29, 2016, 6:07 am
I agree with both comments. Can we say, THIS quote and the corresponding philosophy tend to make me hate salesmen?

darkyr
May 23, 2016, 7:33 am
I hate my good friend's parent, the salesman.

abra
June 25, 2017, 2:45 pm
LOL, darkyr. Ha, my mom was a Tupperware lady for decades.

abra
July 2, 2018, 9:34 am
A few days ago we bought a car. Young salesman, everything was AWESOME or TERRIFIC. He called the insurance company to have them transfer coverage. He was on speaker and the guy at the Insurance company sounded just like him. Then we talked to another guy who kept saying EXCELLENT, I was about to start laughing hysterically, so I coughed to cover it up, and he asked if he could get me some water. I had such a hard time getting it under control. When he left, I did start laughing out loud and managed to get it under control before he came back. TMI, I know.

Eureka
April 7, 2019, 6:59 pm
Abra, that is hilarious. I've been in those situations also.

LLapp
March 6, 2021, 3:20 am
Abra, that was great. I bet your husband knew you weren't really coughing.

[Synonymous]

abra's comment follow-up made me laugh...

"Insomnia is a gross feeder. It will nourish itself on any kind of thinking, including thinking about not thinking."
— Clifton Fadiman

Comments on this Puzzle:
unicorn64
April 12, 2013, 8:14 pm
This is so true, I've thought a lot about not thinking as I've tried to fall asleep.
mtvoyager
March 22, 2015, 7:30 am
76 seconds
YorkiesRule
December 10, 2015, 5:13 am
Not thinking doesn't work. Do you know what works best for me? I decide that since I can't sleep anyway, I should probably go and get some work done. Once I start thinking about getting up and working, I fall right asleep
abra
August 1, 2016, 10:16 am
I'll try it, but I think I won't be able to convince myself that I'd actually get up and work. I'll report back someday...
abra
February 1, 2017, 1:21 pm
I was right. I didn't believe myself.

[hrossa]

"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?

universalmom
August 30, 2021, 3:56 pm
that's usually exactly what it is

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.

[Eureka]

"She is a peacock in everything but beauty." — Oscar Wilde

abra
July 1, 2014, 3:44 pm
It all goes well, until you get to PEACOCK.

abra
February 21, 2015, 3:05 pm
A few months later, I had absolutely no memory of PEACOCK.

abra
June 8, 2015, 9:48 am
Again, when I mentally tried all the letters and got to P, THEN I remembered it was PEACOCK. Sheesh.

abra
June 29, 2018, 10:25 am
I have done this one a few times over the years, and I NEVER remember peacock.

abra
June 3, 2020, 10:58 pm
My last comment was two years ago, and I didn't have an inkling what that word was.

Jrdad
October 18, 2020, 3:29 pm
Abra, you are a beauty in everything but 'peacock'.

[LLapp]

"Where there is much desire to learn, there of necessity will be much arguing, much writing, many opinions; for opinions in good men is but knowledge in the making." — John Milton

abra
June 1, 2017, 11:59 am
Wow, we must be having a lot of "learning" going on around here this evening.

abra
July 7, 2019, 2:18 am
* Must have been one of those nights.

[Deanna48]

"A God without dominion, providence, and final causes, is nothing else but fate and nature."
— Alexander Pope

abra
April 20, 2019, 2:19 am
Did he speak in prose? Or am I just missing the poetry?

kb83
October 9, 2023, 11:41 am
abra (of blessed memory) , apparently he waxed prosaic occasionally! In your honor, here's my poor attempt to iambically pentameterize it. A God who does not carry any weight / Is just a name for nature or for fate.

[LLapp]

Thank you, Eureka! I had not seen that quote since abra responded. Nice to see it now, in early January.