A Tribute to abra a collection of her comments

[LLapp]

"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.

[LLapp]

"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.

[LLapp]

"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.

[LLapp]

"God put me on this earth to accomplish a certain number of things. Right now I am so far behind that I will never die." — Bill Watterson

abra
May 5, 2013, 12:04 am
My 10 year old grandson has claimed the Calvin and Hobbes books that we bought for my son when he was a teenager. This weekend he carried one around reading aloud from it.

zenith
March 19, 2014, 3:57 pm
Funniest strip ever? (Farside, Peanuts in the running)

maradnu
February 26, 2015, 8:45 am
One of the all time best

LLapp
April 11, 2015, 7:26 pm
abra, that is so great how the most-loved humor gets passed down.

pj48
January 13, 2017, 6:58 am
I used to like Dilbert.

maradnu
August 4, 2017, 2:30 pm
I currently like Non-Sequitur

MadDoctor
September 26, 2018, 1:57 pm
Nobody's mentioned Bloom County yet.

318WOZ
January 25, 2019, 1:40 am
I remember Calvin and Hobbes being good. The only ones I pay any attention to in my paper are Pickles and Dilbert. The other stuff never seems to be funny or even particularly interesting. Pickles would have to be my favorite.

badbob
September 29, 2019, 7:26 am
Pogo

LLapp
May 12, 2020, 4:43 am
Pogo?! We have met the oldest one in the comment thread, and he is badbob.

oddcouple
January 8, 2023, 3:56 pm
RIP, abra. Your comment about your grandson is emblematic of how proud you were of your family.

[Synonymous]

Montyb, that is beautiful. You have sight beyond the visual. Be well.

[LLapp]

"The possession of knowledge does not kill the sense of wonder and mystery. There is always more mystery." — Anais Nin

montyb
June 24, 2021, 9:52 pm
For myself I find this to be true. just because I know how light and water droplets interact to create rainbows in no way diminishes the wonder I get actually seeing one in the sky. Likewise, even with knowing how differences in gravitational forces between the moon and different parts of the earth generate high and low tides, I was fascinated to sit on a beach and watch it happen.

abra
October 19, 2022, 2:25 am
Monty, what does the rainbow look like when you see it?

montyb
March 15, 2023, 7:58 am
Abra, even though my chromatically-challenged vision causes me to not perceive the subtle nuances, I can still see the bright colors and the wondrous spectacle. (Unfortunately, Abra passed away late last year* and will never see my reply to her question. I answer it in her honor.)


*Actually early this year -- January 2, 2023.

[LLapp]

"Gentleman-rankers out on the spree, damned from here to Eternity." — Rudyard Kipling

kat
December 27, 2009, 3:08 pm
gentleman-rankers?

kat
October 16, 2010, 6:23 pm
Once again, I say, "Gentleman-rankers"?

matarisa
April 27, 2011, 4:06 am
Yep, that's what it is: Gentlemen-rankers.

abra
August 22, 2011, 6:58 pm
Lord, have mercy on such as we, Baa-Baa-Baa..

abra
April 20, 2012, 2:38 am
I knew this from the Whiffenpoof Song. I didn't know it came from a Kippling poem.

matarisa
October 31, 2012, 1:01 am
The Whiffenpoofs sing "Gentlemen songsters".

abra
February 18, 2013, 12:41 am
Ah! not "rankers".

gryhnd51
October 10, 2013, 7:32 pm
Matarisa is correct that the "whiffenpoof" song uses the words "gentlemen songsters". My father sang with a barber-shop quartet and they used those words. That made it doubly difficult for me to solve, unfortunately.

wvwoman
November 9, 2014, 1:12 pm
"A Gentleman ranker is an enlisted soldier who may have been a former officer or a gentleman qualified through education and background to be a commissioned officer.[1] This suggests that the signer was born to wealth and privilege but he disgraced himself, and has enlisted as a common soldier (perhaps at the lowest rank, as a private or corporal) serving far from the society that now scorns him." (Wikipedia)

abra
October 7, 2015, 12:05 pm
I grew up in the Chicago suburbs. Back then one of the radio stations, can't remember which, probably WLS or WCFL, would play some version of the Whiffenpoof Song, every night at 1:30 or 2:00 a.m. I can remember one of the DJs, maybe either Larry the Legend Johnson, or Larry Lujack hated it. It was amazing how many recordings of it there were. I googled, it was WIND. The station had over 100 recordings, they played the song from the 40s until 1985, when they changed owners and became a Spanish language station.

SwampySox
April 27, 2016, 9:24 am
Great history abra.

jimdgar
May 23, 2017, 9:38 am
Gentleman-wankers out on the spwee, damned fwom hewe to Etewnity.

zengard
November 25, 2017, 5:30 am
Gee Abra, you bring back a memory. I grew up in central Illinois, and we all listened to WLS for the best current music (for teenagers).

KittyKatMeow
June 4, 2020, 11:46 am
And 10 years down the road, still I say - gentleman-rankers?? (I was Kat in my past incarnation)

abra
October 25, 2020, 2:16 am
Hi, Kat. I have done this one so many times. If I had looked at the source, I'd have been here sooner.

bigudave
December 6, 2022, 5:32 pm
Nice Porky PIg, jimdgar!

jimdgar
December 11, 2022, 2:50 pm
I have no idea why I said that, and no memory of it either.

Descifrador
May 30, 2023, 6:51 pm
bigudave: I think you mean "Elmer Fudd".

[LLapp]

This is quintessential abra: self-effacing, wise, witty and kind. It's that kind spirit that still lives.
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"Of all the possessions of this life fame is the noblest; when the body has sunk into the dust the great name still lives." — Johann Friedrich von Schiller

CCCookie
March 3, 2016, 9:17 am
Apparently Schiller never understood the concept of 15 minutes of fame -- which, almost inevitably, is followed by a life time of obscurity. LOL

abra
March 5, 2017, 5:53 pm
I'll gladly donate my fifteen to someone else. I haven't used them yet. They could only start with "Old lady...". You may have them, maybe 30 minutes would be helpful.

phthelen
September 2, 2017, 6:07 am
Abra, LOL.

abra
October 27, 2017, 10:48 am
Makes me think of the song Fame. I'm gonna live forever...

hisashiburi
June 3, 2018, 2:44 pm
From Schiller's poem "The Feast of Victory" set in the aftermath of the Trojan War; spoken by Neoptolemus to his father Achilles in praise of him. Many other opinions are voiced by the victorious Greeks as the wine is passed around.

Eureka
November 24, 2021, 11:07 am
I think he'd be pleased that, 200 years after his death, his quotes live on and have become part of an online game.

abra
June 9, 2022, 1:07 am
Eureka, your comments are always so nice.

[Deanna48]

"Take a music bath once or twice a week for a few seasons, and you will find that it is to the soul what the water-bath is to the body. "
— Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

judy100
September 26, 2014, 6:55 am
I'm taking a bath in Puccini's Tosca and playing Cryto:-)
LLapp
November 1, 2015, 4:53 pm
I am bathing in World Series game 5 -- Mets 2, Royals 2, 11th inning.
abra
March 24, 2017, 2:44 pm
I guess I'm bathing in quiet. When LLapp wrote her comment, I was probably still bathing in sulk.

[Synonymous]

"Silence is one great art of conversation."
— Anonymous

Wordigo
July 18, 2022, 8:00 pm
Vow of silence: A man wanted to become a monk so he went to the monastery and talked to the head monk. The head monk said, "You must take a vow of silence and you can only say two words every 3 years." The man agrees and takes the vow of silence. Three years later the head monk comes to him and says, "It has been three years. What are your two words?" "Food cold", said the man. Another three years pass, the head monk approaches him again and asks him what his two words are. "Bed hard" And so another three years has passed and the head monk sees him again and asks the same question. "I quit" The head monk looks at him and says, "Well good, because you've done nothing but bitch since you got here."
abra
September 9, 2022, 2:44 am
Wordigo, THAT'S funny. My husband heard me laugh and asked ''what's funny" I read it to him and he LOL too.

[LLapp]

"The worst thing you can do for those you love is the things they could and should do themselves." — Abraham Lincoln

abra
March 26, 2015, 8:24 am
I have a close relative, who suffered a spinal cord injury and is a paraplegic. I have never seen his wife do anything for him that he could do himself. Yet, she is right there to help him do what he cannot do. I am so thankful to God, that she is his wife.

[LLapp]

Until I found this website, I thought I was the only living person who remembered the Grant-Temple "You remind me of man" routine or the 1947 movie it came from. I was so delighted to find out that Abra knew it too.
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"The Korean War has shown quite clearly that in a major conflict manpower is as important as horsepower." — Prince Aly Khan

darkyr
November 6, 2018, 2:26 am
Let's not forget firepower and willpower.

Wordigo
August 31, 2020, 9:49 pm
The prince is out of sync. The Second World War showed that economic and technological power outweigh manpower and horsepower.

Newbe Here
December 15, 2020, 6:25 am
And don't forget the power of hoodoo.

LLapp
July 12, 2021, 11:34 pm
Who do?

abra
April 25, 2022, 2:08 am
(link) You do!

[hrossa]

"The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance. " — Alan Watts

WRQ9
August 14, 2013, 8:00 pm
Nickel=5 dime=10 quarter=25 Suzy B.=50. Simple.

wvwoman
April 18, 2014, 6:35 pm
kennedy = 50, suzy b = 100.

puzzleme
February 16, 2015, 4:25 pm
wvwoman, you are my hero. Not only are you correct but you actually knew what the heck WRQ9 was talking about in the first place!

wvwoman
January 2, 2016, 10:59 pm
haha--that was one of the only times i understood a wrq9 comment!

abra
October 1, 2016, 11:34 am
Great answer WRQ9, even if Suzy = 100. You've figured out the change, but are you dancing?

[RedEnoch]

The girl with the…
Now THAT was Stockholm syndrome.

[Synonymous]

A gem from abra:

"One always tends to overpraise a long book, because one has got through it. "
— Edward Forster


Comments on this Puzzle:
bazinga
January 13, 2012, 11:41 am
It is somewhat akin to Stockholm Syndrome.
kb83
May 19, 2014, 6:11 pm
great comment, bazinga!
abra
August 10, 2014, 8:53 am
I agree great comment.
abra
November 11, 2014, 10:21 am
I felt like this after reading Under the Dome, Stockholm Syndrome seems accurate.
LLapp
June 3, 2015, 9:51 am
I have no problem putting down a book that tries to hold me hostage.
Persephone59
April 1, 2017, 9:47 am
Try reading Hermann Hesse's Magister Ludi. It's worth it, but it will cause you problems.
Marboy
April 14, 2017, 6:26 pm
I remember once leaving a book just a dozen pages from the end - just as a demonstration of how bad I thought it was.
abra
April 24, 2019, 5:24 pm
About a year ago I was reading a book that held me hostage. I hated it so much, but it was a gift and I'd asked for it, so I felt compelled to finish it. I probably left at least three comments on here about how awful it was.
Roxanne
October 18, 2020, 12:19 pm
What was the book, abra, in case I don't run across your comments?
jbb33054
December 7, 2020, 6:26 pm
52
Jrdad
September 11, 2021, 4:52 pm
I struggled through to the end of The Goldfinch just to see why it won the Pulitzer; I'm still wondering.
abra
February 27, 2022, 10:29 pm
Roxanne, The Witches: Salem, 1692. And by the way Monty left a comment that he thought it was a good book, so maybe it was just me. I thought it was disorganized and it didn't answer the questions it would answer. For me it was a drudgery to read, but because I asked for it, I felt I had to finish it.
abra
June 21, 2022, 9:18 pm
*and it didn't aswer the questions it said it would answer. I just wrote on my last puzzle, that I gave up on The Name of the Rose, about a third of the way through. No Stockholm Syndrome there. I was glad to pick out a new book.