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Pearls
of Wisdom
"Outside
of a book, a dog is man's best friend.
Inside
of a dog it's too dark to read."
Groucho
Marx
"I've
had a good time. But this wasn't it." ~
Groucho
Marx
"Normal
is relative...
and BOY you should see my relatives!
Another
Grouchoism
and
so appropriate for this site I think!
"From
the moment I picked your book up until I laid it down I was convulsed
with laughter. Some day I intend reading it."
Groucho
Marx
To any Blowhard:
If you knew what you were talking about,
you wouldn't have anything to say!
Quote by,
Mary Tierney
I call this A Matter of Perspective.
An English professor wrote the words
"Woman without her man is nothing."
on the blackboard and directed her students to punctuate
it correctly.
The male students wrote:
"Woman, without
her man, is nothing."
The female students wrote:
"Woman!
Without her, man is nothing."
Source unknown
The kitty of the Old Testament
Both cat lovers and cat haters will appreciate these
lines passed along by The New York Times News Service, which didn't
say where they first appeared. Maybe they were discovered on ancient
stone tablets. Maybe not.
And God created Cat to be companion to Adam.
And Cat would not obey Adam.
And when Adam gazed into Cat's eyes,
he was reminded that he was not the Supreme Being.
Thus did Adam learn humility.
And God was pleased.
And Adam was greatly improved.
And Cat did not care one way or the other.
New York Times News Service
The Minneapolis Star Tribune
This
was written by an 83-year-old woman to her friend. The last line says
it all.
Dear
Bertha,
I'm
reading more and dusting less. I'm sitting in the yard and admiring
the view without fussing about the weeds in the garden. I'm spending
more time with my family and friends and less time working. Whenever
possible, life should be a pattern of experiences to savor, not to
endure. I'm trying to recognize these moments now and cherish them.
I'm not "saving" anything;
we use our good china and crystal for every special event such as losing
a pound, getting the sink unstopped, or the first Amaryllis blossom.
I wear my good blazer to the market. My theory is if I look prosperous,
I can shell out $28.49 for one small bag of groceries. I'm not saving
my good perfume for special parties, but wearing it for clerks in the
hardware store and tellers at the bank.
"Someday" and "one
of these days" are losing their grip on my vocabulary. If it's
worth seeing or hearing or doing, I want to see and hear and do it
now. I'm
not sure what others would've done had they known they wouldn't be
here for the tomorrow that we all take for granted. I think they
would have
called family members and a few close friends. They might have called
a few former friends to apologize and mend fences for past squabbles.
I like to think they would have gone out for a Chinese dinner or
for whatever their favorite food was. I'm guessing; I'll never know.
It's
those little things left undone that would make me angry if I knew
my hours were limited.. Angry because I hadn't written certain letters
that
I intended to write "one of these days". Angry and sorry
that I didn't tell my husband and parents often enough how much I truly
love
them.
I'm
trying very hard not to put off, hold back, or save anything that would
add laughter and luster to our lives. And every morning when I open
my eyes, I tell myself that it is special. Every day, every minute,
every breath truly is a gift from God.
If
you're too busy to take the few minutes that it takes right now to
forward this, would it be the
first time you didn't do the little thing
that would make a difference in your relationships? I can tell you
it certainly won't be the last. Take a few minutes to send this to
a few
people you care about, just to let them know that you're thinking of
them.
People
say true friends must always hold hands, but true friends don't need
to hold hands because they know the other hand will always
be
there.
I
don't believe in Miracles. I rely on them. Life may not be the party
we hoped for, but while we are here, we might as well
dance.
I thought this topic important enough to rate
the home page, at least until after the election. M
Thanks
Kathy V. for sharing this.
This
article from a website called "GIRLPOSSE.COM"
Originally
published Thursday, February 19, 2004
The
women were innocent and defenseless. And by the end of the
night, they were barely alive.
Forty
prison guards wielding clubs and their warden's blessing went
on a rampage against the 33 helpless women wrongly convicted
of "obstructing sidewalk traffic."
They
beat Lucy Burn, chained her hands to the cell bars above her
head and left her hanging for the night, bleeding and gasping
for air.
They
hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her head against
an iron bed and knocked her out cold. Her cellmate, Alice Cosu,
thought Lewis was dead and suffered a heart attack.
Additional
affidavits describe the guards grabbing, dragging, beating,
choking, slamming, pinching, twisting and kicking the women.
Thus
unfolded the "Night of Terror" on Nov. 15, 1917,
when the warden at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia ordered
his guards to teach a lesson to the suffragists imprisoned
there because they dared to picket Woodrow Wilson's White House
for the right to vote.
For
weeks, the women's only water came from an open pail. Their
food - all of it colorless slop - was infested with worms.
When one of the leaders, Alice Paul, embarked on a hunger strike,
they tied her to a chair, forced a tube down her throat and
poured liquid into her until she vomited. She was tortured
like this for weeks until word was smuggled out to the press.
So,
refresh my memory.
Some
women won't vote this year because, why exactly? We have carpool
duties? We have to get to work? Our vote doesn't matter? It's
raining?
Last
week, I went to a sparsely attended screening of HBO's new
movie "Iron
Jawed Angels." It is a graphic depiction of the battle
these women waged so that I could pull the curtain at the polling
booth and have my say. I am ashamed to say I needed the reminder.
There
was a time when I knew these women well. I met them in college
- not in my required American history courses, which barely
mentioned them, but in women's history class.
That's
where I found the irrepressibly brave Alice Paul. Her large,
brooding eyes seemed fixed on my own as she stared out from
the page. Remember, she silently beckoned. Remember.
I
thought I always would. I registered voters throughout college
and law school, worked on congressional and presidential campaigns
until I started writing for newspapers. When Geraldine Ferraro
ran for vice president, I took my 9-year-old son to meet her.
"My
knees are shaking," he whispered after shaking her hand. "I'm
never going to wash this hand again."
This film is available from Amazon.com September 7, 2004
All
these years later, voter registration is still my passion.
But the actual act of voting had become less personal for me,
more rote. Frankly, voting often felt more like an obligation
than a privilege. Sometimes, it was even inconvenient. My friend
Wendy, who is my age and studied women's history, saw the HBO
movie, too. When she stopped by my desk to talk about it, she
looked angry.
She
was. With herself.
"One
thought kept coming back to me as I watched that movie," she
said. "What would those women think of the way I use -
or don't use - my right to vote? All of us take it for granted
now, not just younger women, but those of us who did seek to
learn."
The
right to vote, she said, had become valuable to her "all
over again."
HBO
will run the movie periodically before releasing it on video
and DVD. I wish all history, social studies and government
teachers would include the movie in their curriculum.
I
want it shown on Bunko night, too, and anywhere else women
gather. I realize this isn't our usual idea of socializing,
but we are not voting in the numbers that we should be, and
I think a little shock therapy is in order. It is jarring to
watch Woodrow Wilson and his cronies try to persuade a psychiatrist
to declare Alice Paul insane so that she could be permanently
institutionalized.
And
it is inspiring to watch the doctor refuse. Alice Paul was
strong, he said, and brave. That didn't make her crazy.
The
doctor admonished the men: "Courage in women is often
mistaken for insanity."
~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~
To reach this columnist: cschultz@plaind.com
216-999-5087
Please
pass this on to all the women you know. We need to get out
and vote and use this right that was fought so hard for by
these very courageous women.
~September
2004
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