Mr.Piffka's Quotes

"Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm."

James Madison, Federalist No. 10, November 23, 1787

it's about damn time!!!

Sorry, Dys. I'm so lazy! There have been some good ones, too, y'know, they are sent out in daily emails and often include hair-raising arguments from offended readers. Here, for example was one in response to last Sunday's quote:

"The Christian religion not only was at first attended with miracles, but even at this day cannot be believed by any reasonable person
without one." - David Hume (1711-1776), An Enquiry Concerning Human
Understanding, 1748

"What mistaken belief lies within my mind at this very moment to prove equally embarrassing in the future? I don't know. I do know that I have a new suspiciousness...a dedication or a habit of imagining things to be other than I assume them to be...Beliefs that are closed in around themselves are cloistered away from imagination. Aren't these the ones most likely mistaken? I think so. So here it is, my advice: Imagine against your beliefs. Challenge them."

- Prof. Susan Pickett, Whitman College, 2001, speech excerpt

"The ant herself cannot philosophise-
While man does that, and sees, and keeps a wife,
And flies, and talks, and is extremely wise."

- Julian Sorell Huxley (1887-1975)

Norman Morrison
"Antiwar protest had been sporadic and limited up to this time and had not compelled attention. Then came the afternoon of November 2, 1965. At twilight of that day, a young Quaker named Norman R. Morrison, father of three and an officer of the Stoney Run Friends Meeting in Baltimore, burned himself to death within forty feet of my Pentagon window. He doused himself with fuel from a gallon jug. When he set himself on fire, he was holding his one-year-old daughter in his arms. Bystanders screamed, 'Save the child!' and he flung her out of his arms."

- Robert S. McNamara (1916- ), U. S. Secretary of Defense, In Retrospect: the Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam

(Ed. note: A few days after his self-immolation, Morrison's wife Anne received a letter from him, mailed in the afternoon of 11/2. Inside was a newspaper clipping he had read that morning by French journalist Jean Larteguy; an interview with a wounded missionary who had seen women and children members of his flock incinerated by American napalm. Anne Morrison visited Vietnam in 1999. Everywhere she went, people came up to her to tell her where they were when they first heard the news about Morrison's death. The government of Vietnam has issued a Norman Morrison stamp, and there is a street named after him in Hanoi.)

For a longer description of the incident: http://www.angelfire.com/nb/protest/morr.html

"The past does not repeat itself, but it rhymes."

- Mark Twain (1835-1910)

Now there's a thought....

Hey Piffka and other quoters, I've missed you all.

Here's one that seems extraordinarily pertinent:

<shudder>
History is being rewritten all around us.

This is today's quote:

"The money that they taxes us - that's known as revenues
They compound up collaterals, subtracts the residue
Don't worry about the principal and interest it encrues
They're shipping all that stuff to foreign lands -
The country's in the very best of hands."

- Johnny Mercer (1909-1976), Li'l Abner

Li'l Abner and Pogo. Two of my favorites. Good to see you again.

Here's another good one from last week.

"Only the very rarest of princes can endure even a little criticism, and few of them can put up with even a pause in the adulation."

- Walter Lippmann (1889-1974)

<edit -- Thanks Diane>

"The awful prevalence of the vice of shopping among women is one of those signs of the time which lead the thoughtful patriot almost to despair of the future of our country. Few people have any idea of the extent to which our women are addicted to this purse destroying vice….Out of every thousand women between the ages of 18 and 45, no less than 963 are habitual shoppers."

- New York Times editorial, 1881

Love that one...

To found a great empire for the sole purpose of raising up a people of customers, may at first sight appear a project fit only for a nation of shopkeepers. It is, however, a project altogether unfit for a nation of shopkeepers; but extremely fit for a nation whose government is influenced by shopkeepers.

Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, 1776

Cool. It's Debacle!

"Have I need of madmen, that ye have brought this one to carry on insanely in my presence?"

- I Samuel 21:15

"Ishi called an arrow sa wa.
"In making arrows the first thing is to get the shafts. Ishi used many woods, but he preferred witch hazel. The long, straight stems of this shrub he cut in lengths of thirty-two inches, having a diamter of three-eighths of an inch at the base when peeled of bark.
"He bound a number of these together and put them away in a shady place to dry. After a week or more, preferrably several months, he selected the best shafts and straightened them. This he accomplished by holding the concave surface near a small heap of hot embers and when warm he either pressed his great toe on the opposite side, or he bent the wood backward on the base of the thumb. Squinting down its axis he lined up the uneven contours one after the other and laid the shaft aside until a series of five was completed. He made up arrows in lots of five or ten, according to the requirements, his fingers being the measure.
"The sticks thus straightened he ran them back and forth between two grooved pieces of sandstone or revolved them on his thigh while holding the stones in his hand, until they were smooth and reduced to a diameter of about five-sixteenths of an inch. Next they were cut into lengths of approximately twenty-six inches. The larger end was now bound with a buckskin thong and drilled out for the depth of an inch and half to receive the end of the foreshaft. He drilled this hole by fixing a long, sharp bone in the ground between his great toes and revolved the upright shaft between his palms on this fixed point, the buckskin binding keeping the wood from splitting.
"The foreshaft was made of heavier wood, frequently mountain mahogany. It was the same diameter as the arrow, only tapering a trifle toward the front end, and usually was about six inches long. This was carefully shaped into a spindle at the larger end and set in the recently drilled hole of the shaft, using glue or resin for this purpose. The joint was bound with chewed sinew, set in glue.
"The length of an arrow, over all, was estimated by Ishi in this manner. He placed one end on the top of his breast-bone and held the other end out in his extended left hand. Where it touched the tip of his forefinger it was cut as the proper length. Thhis was about thirty-two inches.
"The rear end of his arrow was now notched to receive the bowstring. He filed it with a bit of obsidian, or later on, with three hacksaw blades bound together until he made a groove one-eighth of an inch wide by three-eights deep. The opposite end of the shaft was notched in a similar way to receive the head. The direction of this latter cut was such that when the arrow was on the bow the edge of the arrowhead was perpendicular, for the fancied reason that in this position the arrow when shot enters between the ribs of an animal more readily. He did not seem to recognize that an arrow rotates.
"At this stage he painted his shafts. The pigments used in the wilds were red cinnabar, black pigment from the eye of trout, a green vegetable dye from wild onions, and a blue obtained, he said, from the root of a plant. These were mixed with the sap or resin of trees and applied with a little stick or hairs from a fox's tail drawn through a quill.
"His usual design was a series of alternating rings of green and black starting two inches from the rear end and running four inches up the shaft. Or he made small circular dots and snaky lines running down the shaft for a similar distance. When with us he used dry colors mixed with shellac, which he preferred to oil paints because they dried quicker. The painted area, intended for the feathers, is called the shaftment and not only helps in finding lost arrows, but identifies the owner. This entire portion he usually smeared with thin glue or sizing.
"A number of shafts having been similarly prepared, the Indian was ready to feather them. A feather he called pu nee. In fledging arrows Ishi used eagle, buzzard, hawk or flicker feathers. Owl feathers Indians seem to avoid, thinking they bring bad luck. By preference he took them from the wings, but did not hesitate to use tail feathers if reduced to it. With us he used turkey pinions.
"Grasping one between the heel of his two palms he carefully separated the bristles at the tip of the feather with his fingers and pulled them apart, splitting the quill its entire length. This is called stripping a feather. Taking the wider half he firmly held one end on a rock with his great toe, and the other end between the thumb and forefinger of his left hand. With a piece of obsidian, or later on a knife blade, he scraped away the pith until the rib was thin and flat.
"Having prepared a sufficient number in this way he gathered them in groups of three, all from similar wings, tied them with a bit of string and dropped them in a vessel of water. When thoroughly wet and limp they were ready for use.
"While he chewed up a strand of sinew eight or ten inches long, he picked up a group of feathers, stripped off the water, removed one, and after testing its strength, folded the last two inches of bristles down on the rib, and the rest he ruffled backward, thus leaving a free space for later binding. He prepared all three like this.
"Picking up an arrow shaft he clamped it between his left arm and chest, holding the rear end above the shaftment in his left hand. Twirling it slowly in this position, he applied one end of the sinew near the nock, fixing it by overlapping. The first movements were accomplished while holding one extremity of the sinew in his teeth; later, having applied the feathers to the stick, he shifted the sinew to the grasp of the right thumb and forefinger.
"One by one he laid the feathers in position, binding down the last two inches of stem and the wet barbs together. The first feather he applied on a line perpendicular to the plane of the nock; the two other were equidistant from this. For the space of an inch he lapped the sinew about the feathers and arrowshaft, slowly rotating it all the while, at last smoothing the binding with his thumb nail.
"The space between the rib and the wood he sometimes smeared with more glue to cause the feather to adhere to the shaft, but this was not the usual custom with him.
"After all was dry and firm, Ishi took the arrow and beat it gently across his palm so that the feathers spread out nicely.
"As a rule the length of his feathers was four inches, though on ceremonial arrows they often were as long as eight inches.
"After drying, the feathers were cut with a sharp piece of obsidian, using a straight stick as a guide and laying the arrow on a flat piece of wood. When with us he trimmed them with scissors, making a straight cut from the full width of the feather in back, to the height of a quarter of an inch at the forward extremity. On his arrows he left the natural curve of the feather at the nock, and while the rear binding started an inch or more from the butt of the arrow, the feather drooped over the nock. This gave a pretty effect and seemed to add to the steering qualities of the missile.
"Two kinds of points were used on Ishi's arrows. One was the simple blunt end of the shaft bound with sinew used for killing small game and practice shots. The other was his hunting head, made of flint or obsidian. He preferred the latter.
"Obsidian was used as money among the natives of California. A boulder of this volcanic glass was packed from some mountainous districts and pieces were cracked off and exchanged from dried fish, venison, or weapons. It was a medium of barter. Although all men were more or less expert in flaking arrowheads and knives, the better grades of bows, arrows and arrow points were made by the older, more expert specialists of the tribe.
"Ishi often referred to one old Indian, named Chu no wa yahi, who lived at the base of a great cliff with his crazy wife. This man owned an ax, and thus was famous for his possessions as well as his skill as a maker of bows. From a distant mountain crest one day Ishi pointed out to me the camp of this Indian who was long since dead. If ever Ishi wished to refer to a hero of the bow, or having been beaten in a shot, he always told us what Chu no wa yahi could have done.
"To make arrowheads properly one should smear his face with mud and sit out in the hot sun in a quiet secluded spot. The mud is a precaution against harm from the flying chips of glass, possibly also a good luck ritual. If by chance a bit of glass should fly in the eye, Ishi's method of surgical relief was to hold his lower lid wide open with one finger while he slapped himself violently on the head with the other hand. I am inclined to ascribe the process of removal more to the hydraulic effect of the tears thus started than to the mechanical jar of the treatment.
"He began this work by taking one chunk of obsidian and throwing it against another; several small pieces were thus shattered off. One of these, approximately three inches long, two inches wide and half an inch thick, was selected as sutiable for an arrowhead, or haka. Protecting the palm of his left hand by a piece of thick buckskin, Ishi placed a piece of obsidian flat upon it, holding it firmly with his fingers folded over it.
"In his right hand he held a short stick on the end of which was lashed a sharp piece of deer horn. Grasping the horn firmly while the longer extremity lay beneath his forearm, he pressed the point of the horn against the edge of the obsidian. Without jar or blow, a flake of glass flew off, as large as a fish scale. Repeating this process at various spots on the intended head, turning it from side to side, first reducing one face, then the other, he soon had a symmetrical point. In half an hour he could make the most graceful and perfectly proportioned arrowhead imaginable. The little notches fashioned to hold the sinew binding below the barbs he shaped with a smaller piece of bone, while the arrowhead was held on the ball of his thumb.
"Flint, plate glass, old bottle glass, onyx - all could be worked with equal facility. Beautiful heads were fashioned from blue bottles and beer bottles.
"The general size fo these points was two inches for length, seven-eighths for width, and one-eight for thickness. Larger heads were used for war and smaller ones for shooting bears.
"Such a head, of course, was easily broken if the archer missed a shot. This made him very careful about the whole affair of shooting.
"When ready for use, these heads were set on the end of the shaft with heated resin and bound in place with sinew which encircle the end of the arrow and crossed diagonally through the barb notches with many recurrences.
"Such a point has better cutting qualities in animal tissue than has steel. The latter is, of course, more durable. After entering civilization, Ishi preferred the use iron or steel blades of the same general shape, or having a short tang for insertion in the arrowhead.
"Ishi carried anywhere for five to sixty arrows in a quiver made of otter skin which hung suspended by a loop of buckskin over his left shoulder."

- Saxton Pope (1875-1927), Hunting with the Bow and Arrow

(Ed. note: If you think that was too long, let me tell you about how Ishi made his bows...)

Wow.