Is getting one's ass in gear the same as shifting one's donkey into first?
patio, Some people go in reverse.
c.i.
reverse, indeed. (am trying to remember the witty quip about leaving the room in a certain way so as not to present you with my ass, but it's eluding me and is in fact probably all jumbled up with something else and i've turned the whole mess into an indistinct haze of half-glimpsed and three-quarter-misapprehended meaning in my feeble hangover brain. the usual, in other words.)
hey, wilso -- I dogeared a passage in an overdue library book that'll go back today that I was just thinking you'd appreciate.
(from Hans Zinsser's "Rats, Lice, & History")
It is not entirely a matter of accident that astronomers, physicists, and mathemeticians are more prone than the biologist to fall into the lap of Mother Church or at least into that of one of her barren metaphysical sisters. The biologist, in his work, is always confronted with the mystery of life. He learns a reverence for it which, compounded of wonder and aew, keeps him modest and willing to admit without despair that here is something quite amazing, worthy of continuous study, but, for the time being, beyond his capacities to comprehend. The sagacious physicists to whom I have alluded scamper back to God. But they think they have reached a new understanding and have discovered a new and modern Jehovah, when as a matter of fact all they have done is perhaps to take away his beard and express his thunder in ergs.
Hmmm... Seemed more stirring on the toilet, but I'll be damned if all that typing's going to waste. Happy holidays, kids!
awaiting results of shifted rear
Don't raise your hopes too much, Beth...
Ass into gear, may just mean the addition of a bow!
OK, OK, i did this once at AFUZZ, but i'll do it again here.
Setanta means the pathfinder, which was the source of much hilarity among medieval Irish monks who wrote scurrilous tracts about drunken Ullii (Ulstermen) being lead astray by an equally drunken Cuchulainn--which makes no sense, unless you know why a lost Cuchulainn is funny to them. I was also the butt of several jokes, most notably from GeneralLee at AFUZZ when i couldn't log on as Setanta because i'd lost my "pathword."
The great mythological hero of the Irish was Cuchulainn (which is pronounced "kookullen" in the west of Ulster, from which he was supposed to have originated), and here is the story:
One day Conchubar (Konokur), the King of Ulster, decided to visit his smith, Cullen, and he took with him Fergus and the other great heroes of Ulster. As they were leaving the dun (fortress), the saw Setanta playing at the hurly with the other boys of Ulster, and defeating them single-handed. Conchubar invited Setanta to join them, but he hadn't finished humiliating the other boys, so he said that he would follow later. Fergus warned him of the great hound of Cullen, so fearsome, that Cullen employed no armed men to defend his rath (the open area within the dun), simply turning the hound loose on the rath at sundown. Conchubar and the others went on. Setanta stayed later than he had planned, and then hurried after, dribbling a silver hurly ball on his stick. ("Dribbling" means keeping the ball--about the size of an American hardball--in the air with light taps of the hurly stick--for which, imagine a cross between a hockey stick and a Louisville slugger.) But the sun had set by the time that Setanta arrived at Cullen's dun, and the hound had already been loosed. As he ran up the slope of the dun, and down onto the rath, Setanta remembered the hound, and the hound began to bay. Those within forgot their food and drink, and then Fergus remembered Setanta. As the hound charged down on Setanta, he knew not, at first, what to do, as he was unarmed. Then he threw the hurly ball into the air, and swinging his stick, drove it down the throat of the hound, killing him on the spot. The Men of Ulster ran out onto the rath, and finding Setanta still alive, began to rejoice in good fortune. All, that is, except Cullen. Cullen sat by his hound and wept. "I am ruined, for i have no fighting men, and now the defense of my dun is gone." Setanta went to Cullen, and falling on his knees promised to spend three days to find the greatest hound whelp in Ireland, and return with it to Cullen's dun. (Traditionally, such feasting, with heavy drinking, would go on for at least three days.) Cullen was sceptical, but said nothing further. In Leinster, Setanta found the whelp of the only other hound in Ireland which could have vied with Cullen's hound, and brought it back to Cullen's dun. There, before the King and all the Men of Ulster, Setanta swore an oath to defend Cullen's dun with his life for a year and a day, until he could raise up the whelp to be a hound to match the one Cullen had lost. And Setanta was as good as his word--when a year and a day had past, the whelp had become a full-grown hound, more fearsome even than he whom Setanta had killed. When Setanta returned to the King, there was great rejoicing, and for his year of service in Cullen's dun, Setanta was known ever after as Cuchulainn--the Hound of Cullen.
There, everybody happy now?
margo, Like in 'kow tow?' c.i.
no, c.i., - as in "ribbon"
Oh dear, I hope that being hoist by your own petard isn't what Setanta meant by getting his ass in gear--it sort of sounds like a vroom, vroom kind of thing. Actually, I like Margo's idea the best, putting a bow on an already impressive moon.
c.i. my avatar is a black iris, a wonderful velvety thing when viewed in the sunlight, but tis rather difficult to see it as an avatar. Since I've changed my signature, maybe I'll change my avatar as well and go for something just as racy.
I'm happy! Haha. Thanks, Setanta.
I just heard a good story about Cuchulain and Finn and Mrs. McCool, where Cuchulain doesn't fare quite so well. It was impressive that he could move the McCool house to catch the breezes!
Diane, Did you know that the black iris is the national flower of Jordan? Didn't know that until my visit there in March of this year. I took a picture of the black iris while there, and I'd be more than happy to send you a copy (for your avatar) if you like. Send me your email address to <<
[email protected]>>. c.i.
Well, this certainly IS a digression thread NOW!
Well done folks!
oooops.... Sorry guys, I did 'digress.' c.i.
Irises, or irids, or whatever, seem a pretty fair digression from a christmas thread, CI - don't fret yerself none...
vroom vroom
maybe i'm getting a new vacuum cleaner for christmas?
Hmmmmmmmmmmm - sounds SOOOOOOOOOOO romantic!
Here is a link in from Margo - anyone working in health will love it - could this be The Last Noel?
http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/325/7378/1456?etoc?eaf
There are so many people here at the moment - but hardly any new posts - do we think more than we talk - (surely not!) - or read more than we talk (gasp!) - or read slowly - or think slowly - or type slowly?
