A Tribute to abra a collection of her comments

[LLapp]

Nitefly5150, I'm so glad to know that you know this forum thread is here to read whenever you want. I think of this thread as a way for your mom's distinctive wit, kindness and memories to live on for everyone who misses her, but especially for you and your family. I hope your dad's doing okay, and I hope your sons have had a chance to read some of these posts and see themselves through their grandmother's eyes.

[Eureka]

Nitefly5150, it's so good to see you here! Your mom was such a big part of this game that it is impossible to play it without thinking of her. There was something so warm and sincere about her comments and she shared about her life and family in such an unassuming way that we all felt we knew her. Because of the large number of puzzles on here and the randomness of landing on them, I always look forward to seeing comments from her that I've never read before. In that way, she lives on for me. Thanks Synonymous for letting us know about the tree. That is a lovely gesture.

[hrossa]

Nitefly5150, I think of Abra whenever I play here because her comments are almost always present. I only began playing in recent years, so I was just beginning to know her, but I feel her loss keenly. I felt she was a kindred spirit in many important ways. She left many other warm and funny family references and stories. Missing her, it must be both painful and comforting to see what she wrote here. I hope you'll be back often!

[Synonymous]

Nitefly5150 It is SOOO very nice to hear from you. Thank you. Although abra and I were not close, I had a very healthy respect for her and miss her wise commentary on the Cryptograms she solved. I had a tree planted in her honor in the Bladen Lakes State forest as a token of our respect for her and I hoped her family would visit her tree sometime in remembrance of her. I had it planted for all of us who so very much valued, and I can say, many of us loved her. (Tree Planted in: Bladen Lakes State Forest Project, State: North Carolina, Latitude: 34.702873230, Longitude: -78.465927120) She will live forever in the beauty of this tree. And I hope we continue to enjoy her comments for many years to come on this site. Thank you again. Synonymous.

[Nitefly5150]

This Abra's son.

Life has gone forward, as we have no other choice. But I've been thinking about Mom a lot the last couple of weeks. Honestly, I don't think it's because of mother's day, but maybe some other things in life. I can't be much younger than Mom was when she started playing the quote game, that's probably part of it - it doesn't matter why.

It is so touching to see that people have still posted here so recently.

There's a story here about us getting lost walking home when we lived in California, that was buried deep in my psyche, that I couldn't believe was here. I had to he 3 or 4.

[LLapp]

"We can forgive a man for making a useful thing, as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely. All art is quite useless." — Oscar Wilde

Barnabas
May 2, 2012, 2:49 pm
I once saw an original work of Andy Warhol's. Useless for the most part, but certainly not valueless.

Barnabas
May 16, 2013, 9:40 pm
Oh... and I did admire it greatly!

skoogie2
July 18, 2013, 12:44 pm
Depends on your definition of useful. Art brings joy in many cases, so that makes it useful.

Annamariah
September 18, 2014, 4:41 am
This is from the preface of The Picture of Dorian Gray.

abra
August 14, 2015, 3:41 pm
Thanks, Annamaria. I've never read it, but I saw the movie when I was a kid. It wasn't until I came to this site, that I even knew that it was written by Oscar Wilde.

Annamariah
September 11, 2015, 12:18 pm
I first heard of it when my school class made an excursion to a museum where there was a series of photographs inspired by the story. The museum guide summarised the story for us, and I found it fascinating. The Picture of Dorian Gray was one of the first classics that I read in English, and I enjoyed Wilde's language a lot.

LLapp
October 17, 2016, 9:48 am
Annamariah, I enjoy your perspective! And Barnabas, if you come back, can you say what it was in Warhol's work that you admired? I have trouble appreciating his art.

letfreedomring
April 30, 2018, 5:50 am
This quote just after one by Renoir, whose art is anything but useless. Is this Oscar having a hissy fit?

Earthwalker
March 24, 2019, 8:30 pm
Had an art teacher who said that the difference between art and craft was that crafts, however beautiful, could be used for something. Art, he insisted, must be entirely useless.

abra
August 10, 2021, 9:25 pm
I disagree with your teacher Earthwalker. If art makes you gasp and stare, if it touches your heart or your mind. I don't think that's useless. If you hang it over that dent in the wall, that's not useless.

abra
September 19, 2022, 1:48 am
^ I am a crafter. I would have loved to be an artist.

[Synonymous]

Abra remembered... abra_avatar37565_0.gif

[Synonymous]

Thanks Eureka for keeping abra alive in our memories. She is missed.

[Eureka]

"He is a teenager, after all - a strange agent with holes in his jeans, studs in his ear, a tail down his neck, a cap on his head." — Ellen Karsh

abra
October 3, 2022, 10:02 pm
This doesn't describe my grandsons, the younger one does like his caps though. They don't have holes, pony tails or piercings, so far. The older one had actually shaved when we saw him on Saturday. Nice change.

[Eureka]

"Let everyone try and find that as a result of daily prayer he adds something new to his life, something with which nothing can be compared. " — Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

abra
September 25, 2021, 2:11 am
I certainly believe in my daily prayers.

[Eureka]

"People are still crazy about Python after twenty-five years, which I find hard to believe." — Michael Palin

abra
October 30, 2022, 10:51 pm
My older grandson discovered Monty Python and the Holy Grail. In our family the torch has been passed to the next (3rd) generation.

[Synonymous]

Thank you Eureka. Fond memories of abra and this one gave me a good chuckle. Synonymous

[Eureka]

"The Englishman never enjoys himself except for a noble purpose." — A. P. Herbert


abra
October 21, 2021, 2:06 am
This looks like a very old baseball card. Did they have cards for English humorists, or novelists playwrights etc? Did they come in packages of bubblegum?

LLapp
May 4, 2022, 7:39 pm
OMG, I'll trade three Herberts for an Oscar Wilde rookie card.

abra
May 18, 2022, 12:53 am
Nope, I'm not giving up my Oscar Wilde rookie card. I'll trade you a Sir Arthur Helps for just one of those Herberts.

[LLapp]

"The task of the educator lies in seeing that the child does not confound good with immobility and evil with activity." — Maria Montessori

LLapp
February 17, 2015, 5:27 am
Oh my -- this single quote could be the topic of an entire symposium on modern childhood education. I am the last to deny that ADHD is real, but it is so misunderstood by those who prefer sedate obedience to unbridled curiosity.

NotTooOld
April 12, 2018, 1:44 am
Sometimes I wish for a class full of boys who have been diagnosed with ADHD, so I can enjoy them and teach them appropriately for their personalities. Then I come to my senses.

mohamm1
August 2, 2019, 5:56 pm
<3 this! Good comments on this very true statement. Children are curious by nature and will readily learn almost anything if they like the teacher and feel safe and respected in the classroom. And if they are not put into the defensive by peers.

abra
August 16, 2022, 2:34 am
My darling older grandson, so bright, so hyperactive. He's such a kind sweet person. I pray constantly that he will fit in. His younger brother is a charmer and always has a crowd of friends. We were so thrilled this summer that he's had a few outings with friends.

[LLapp]

Encouragement from abra to all the writers here.

"I can't break the association of electric trash with the computer screen. Words on the screen give the sense of being just another passing electronic wriggle."
— John Updike

LLapp
March 26, 2015, 8:27 am
Composing poetic prose on screen is just not the same as with a pen and paper.

skeeter
April 23, 2015, 7:57 am
I was the first person in my state to purchase a Macintosh, and the PC users in my building scoffed and said it was a "glorified Etch-o-Sketch" that would never last.

maradnu
January 6, 2017, 1:10 pm
I write on the computer.

mmfs83
May 29, 2017, 6:43 am
Writing on the computer is something I resisted until I realized the advantages. Now, it's the only way I can write effectively.

MamaB
September 18, 2017, 5:27 am
When I'm writing for school, if I get a block, I sit down with paper and pen. By the third sentence I'm back to my computer. It is a bit faster! I expect composing poetry wouldn't need to be that fact most of the time!

phthelen
September 28, 2017, 5:42 pm
Writing and editing online is such breeze.

318WOZ
March 6, 2021, 8:34 pm
I absolutely prefer writing on a computer because I'm able to edit immediately and leave no trace of the previous versions, which means I'm not distracted by them. If I was writing on paper, I would want to rewrite the whole page after small changes, and it would slow me down a lot. I don't know; maybe I would adjust if I had to. But I like computers.

abra
October 15, 2021, 2:37 am
There are so many writers here. Is there a forum where you tell about your writing? I'll have to check. If there's not one, you should start one.