A Tribute to abra a collection of her comments

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  • Synonymous
    replied
    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.


    Leave a comment:


  • hrossa
    replied
    "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.

    Leave a comment:


  • LLapp
    replied
    "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.

    Leave a comment:


  • Eureka
    replied
    "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.

    Leave a comment:


  • LLapp
    replied
    "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.

    Leave a comment:


  • Synonymous
    replied
    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.

    Leave a comment:


  • hrossa
    replied
    "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.

    Leave a comment:


  • Eureka
    replied
    "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'.

    Leave a comment:


  • LLapp
    replied
    "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.

    Leave a comment:


  • Deanna48
    replied
    "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.​
    ​​

    Leave a comment:


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

    Leave a comment:


  • Eureka
    replied
    (I have included this exchange to illustrate abra's kind interest in other players and their families, as well as to let you (LLapp) know that she saw your response, in case you don't make it back to this quote.)

    "She had fortunately always her appetite for news. The pure flame of the disinterested burned in her cave of treasures as a lamp in a Byzantine vault." — Henry James

    LLapp
    September 25, 2014, 2:20 pm
    My mother used to say about Henry James' writing, "I get an image of someone carrying too many grocery bags, with one of them tearing open and dropping all over the ground." This quote is just like that.

    abra
    December 19, 2014, 3:34 pm
    LLapp, I just read that you're an editor. It sounds like your mom is very literary. Is she or was she an editor too?

    LLapp
    December 24, 2016, 3:39 pm
    abra, two years later, I finally got this quote again. My mom was a writer at first -- she wrote short stories, attempted a novel, and even got a few feature articles published in the Sunday paper. Then she discovered music, and she found she preferred the community of ensemble playing to the solitary writing life -- that change happened in the late 1960s, when I was 9 or 10, and she remained a musician and then a respected music teacher, till she died in 2012. All along, though, she was a voracious reader, and she was so happy to see me pick up that thread of writing that she had left behind. I do miss her . . . thank you for asking!

    wvwoman
    March 3, 2017, 2:04 pm
    thanks for sharing, llapp--quite interesting! and thanks for asking her, abra.

    abra
    January 29, 2022, 2:20 am
    I've waited a really long time for that answer. ) Thank you, LLapp.

    Leave a comment:


  • LLapp
    replied
    "Youth fades; love droops, the leaves of friendship fall; A mother's secret hope outlives them all." — Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

    abra
    May 10, 2021, 2:50 am
    Nice quote for Mothers' Day. Thankfully, I still have love.​

    Leave a comment:


  • LLapp
    replied
    "Offended vanity is the great separator in social life." — Sir Arthur Helps

    abra
    December 28, 2016, 7:01 pm
    His name is a lovely complete sentence. I'd like to think when he married they hyphenated. He'd be Sir Arthur Helps-Withdishes.​

    Leave a comment:


  • LLapp
    replied
    "We cannot really love anybody with whom we never laugh." — Agnes Repplier

    abra
    January 3, 2019, 1:26 pm
    I see couples in restaurants, that are about the same age as my husband and me. They sit and eat a meal without speaking to each other. How can you stay married to someone you don't even talk to let alone laugh with. I'm so glad that after 50 years we still have things to talk about and LAUGH about.​

    Leave a comment:

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