A Tribute to abra a collection of her comments

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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!

[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)

[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.

[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."

[LLapp]

One of my favorite abra comments ever...


"None are too small, too feeble, too poor to be of service. Think of this and act." — Hannah More

vivian1874
June 1, 2013, 5:35 am
I'm too busy solving cryptograms.

LLapp
April 3, 2016, 12:37 pm
I wonder if this was Hannah's pep talk to her servants.

abra
January 25, 2017, 9:42 am
You, the little short one with the blanky, couldn't you be dusting or polishing something.

Purson
October 17, 2017, 5:05 am
^I can't breathe I'm laughing too hard

[LLapp]

I always liked abra's snippets of autobiography.

"If wishes were horses, beggars would ride." — Unattributed

LLapp
February 24, 2019, 1:34 am
This one always stumps me. My mom never read us nursery rhymes or quoted them, like, ever, so it's not even sitting in my deep memory.

abra
July 26, 2020, 10:46 pm
I had to learn this one as an adult. My did have a few she would recite. Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear, There was a little girl, and Deedle Deedle Dumpling. Oh and now I'm thinking of more. I guess she recited a lot of them, but she didn't read them to us.

abra
January 9, 2021, 2:13 am
*my mother did.

abra
August 27, 2022, 9:24 pm
When I think about it, she must have had a nursery rhyme for every occasion. It surprises me a little, because my grandmother didn't seem like the nursery rhyme type. She lived near her grandmother and great-grandmother maybe one of them taught her.

[Synonymous]

A rare occassion both Pootie and Abra in the same comment section. Both are missed. AND, of course, Bansai is in the top 20. May they all Rest in Peace.

"If it is your time, love will track you down like a cruise missile."
— Lynda Barry


greenacres
March 22, 2011, 11:37 am
Interesting analogy.
pootie49
June 2, 2011, 2:42 pm
Wow, talk about applying new technology to an old concept.
Aikon
November 13, 2011, 2:52 pm
What an awesome quote after what happened to me today.... wow, yep, if it's your time....
puzzleme
May 20, 2013, 5:32 am
No more little heart-shaped arrows.
abra
July 31, 2013, 1:11 am
Nice thought.
LLapp
July 5, 2015, 5:22 pm
I wonder how Aikon is doing.
wvwoman
July 17, 2016, 10:25 pm
just what i was wondering, llapp!
kb83
February 15, 2017, 3:46 am
heat-seeking?
MissKitty
February 28, 2018, 11:42 am
When I say I love you, you say you better.......You better bet your life. Kilroy 64
Eureka
November 26, 2018, 4:14 pm
Tell us how it worked out, Aikon!
abra
August 22, 2020, 8:46 pm
I am hoping that Aikon's comment meant that they'd just been mowed down by love. I hope so.

[Eureka]

"Reading is sometimes an ingenious device for avoiding thought." — Sir Arthur Helps

LLapp
January 4, 2015, 8:16 pm
Another person whose name is a complete sentence! I wonder what his middle name was . . .

abra
March 17, 2016, 12:58 pm
Aww, LLapp, I was coming here to mention that his name is a complete sentence. I do like that in a name.

abra
April 26, 2016, 9:55 am
I was going to say, that his name is a complete sentence, but I guess we've been there and done that.

abra
May 14, 2016, 6:47 pm
Sir Arthur CERTAINLY helps, or maybe Sir Arthur USUALLY Helps.

badbob
March 9, 2020, 4:36 am
his middle name was NEVER

Fudi
August 23, 2021, 1:04 pm
Well, his middle name is *Arthur*. It says so right there! (He and I are close, though, and I always call him "Sir".)

rasbury
February 12, 2024, 3:55 pm
On his gravestone it says "Sir Arthur Helped."

[Eureka]

"Always kiss your children goodnight - even if they're already asleep." — H. Jackson Brown Jr.

abra
September 17, 2016, 6:59 pm
And when they've left the nest you keep them in your prayers, and if you don't pray, you keep them in your thoughts. They're your children.

[LLapp]

"Of the Seven Deadly Sins, anger is possibly the most fun." — Frederick Buechner

haverwench
May 23, 2010, 11:54 pm
Dude, if you think that's more fun than lechery, you've got serious issues.

bansaisequoia
September 15, 2010, 5:12 pm
At least he said "possibly."

opallady
February 8, 2011, 2:37 pm
I would have guessed "Lust."

universalmom
April 7, 2012, 11:33 pm
Maybe it's a Presbyterian minister thing.

bazinga
February 21, 2014, 12:01 am
lust has to be more fun than rage

marnita
November 2, 2014, 6:23 am
I'm sticking with sloth and gluttony.

Lurker
March 20, 2015, 11:29 am
And what I got from this quote is that "deadly" has the same pattern as "always".

LLapp
June 25, 2015, 7:04 pm
Having been raised in a non-Christian culture I have never had to memorize sins, but I'm guessing that "Cryptograms" is not on this Deadly Sin list?

NotTooOld
March 14, 2018, 10:50 pm
I too never knew what the seven deadly sins were So I just looked them up. This is the list I found - pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth. Is this a Catholic thing? - the list I mean, not the sins.

maradnu
September 27, 2018, 2:16 pm
I think lust is the most fun, but sloth and gluttony are easier to come by.

puffybob
December 31, 2019, 1:48 am
Wrath seems like the least fun, actually

Altoid701
May 8, 2020, 3:20 pm
Gluttony seems pretty fun to me.

Elephino
February 7, 2021, 1:06 pm
could make an interesting parlor game

abra
October 9, 2021, 9:55 pm
LLapp, I'm a Christian but I never learned the seven deadly sins in Church or Sunday School. They aren't Biblical. That's just speaking for myself. Others might have been taught them in a Church setting. I do know them though and I'm quite happy that cryptograms are not amongst them. I don't think any of them sound fun, but I do think it might be fun to throw dishes at a wall sometimes.

hrossa
October 14, 2021, 9:56 am
I'm a Christian now, but I was raised by an agnostic and an atheist. Even so, I'm pretty sure a lot of us are gluttons for cryptograms

Wordigo
July 3, 2022, 4:26 pm
You guys make the seven deadly sins sound so much fun, there should be a monopoly game featuring these sins as goals or achievements.

[Eureka]

Bless you, abra.

"A food is not necessarily essential just because your child hates it." — Katharine Whitehorn

abra
February 25, 2019, 1:59 am
I always picked out peaches and apricots for my son, and I learned they were his least favorite fruits. The kid loved broccoli, brussel sprouts and carrots. To this day he doesn't eat tomatoes. I never forced him to eat anything.

[Synonymous]

Rememberinb abra's good sense of humor:


"Art may make a suit of clothes but nature must produce a man."
— David Hume


Comments on this Puzzle:
chopstix
February 7, 2014, 1:51 pm
Art who?
abra
May 3, 2016, 7:00 pm
Linkletter.