C J my apologies xxx Pretty avatar. zat you honey?
The compliments came in many forms after I finished my basic training at Parks AFB in California. I had no clue nor goals for my life when I volunteered into the US Air Force, because I never did well in school, and barely graduated from high school. However, the service assigned me to work with nuclear weapons, and that was the first compliment that was followed by many others that motivated me to eventually get a college degree and a rather good professional career.
C.I., good you're back from Europe. Will there be an account of your adventures there?
JLN, I'll have to start one soon before I forget more of the fantastic experiences for the 30 day journey to Malta and Europe. Give me a few more days, and I'll post one in the Travel Forum.
One compliment I got a while ago...a long while ago, was when I was trying out for a baseball team and the coach told me it's the best swing he's ever seen out of a kid. This is a great coach, and I was so dedicated to baseball, it was just an amazing compliment.
By the way, great topic to start, it's a question not a lot of people think about.
I had a long and epic battle with someone in a position of power in my company -- she was dismissive of me and what I was trying to do, and was withholding resources, and I didn't take that sitting down. I never fought dirty, but I fought hard. We never became friends, exactly, but we reached an understanding. On my last day, she gave me a card which had a generic verse to which she added something like, "I have no doubt that you will accomplish whatever you set your mind to." It meant a lot more coming from an erstwhile nemesis.
Yes, indeed, Sozobe. She respected you.
Well, it wasn't my best compliment, but a memorable one, for those of a certain age. John Robert Powers stopped by my desk and after I answered his question told me I had a beautiful smile. He had a national modeling school, and this was undoubtedly a phrase he said forty or more times a day. But I got a kick out of it, knowing who he was. That reminds me a little of a story my mother told - that Fred Astaire gave her a box of chocolates. True, he did, she was a secretary at RKO studios in the thirties. I suspect though, that it wasn't the only box of chocolates he gave that year.
But, hey, maybe it was.
As for real compliments, once in a while someone thinks I am witty. Say every few years. That tends to bring whatever wit I possess to the surface for five minutes or more.
Genuine compliments are good, they can change whole moods or days, or lives.
Compliments have changed many lives; and it usually doesn't cost the giver anything.
c.i.
Well it does if you are too lavish with them because people cease to take any notice.A compliment from someone who is grudging with them is a bit special.
I know what you mean though.I'm not arguing.
I've read that both Eisenhower and Churchill--two men of noted accomplishments-- treasured compliments about their painting.
Osso's account reminds me of one I don't remember. My mother was carrying me (I was one year old, I'm told) in the studio of MGM (my father played in its orchestra, and she worked in the studio's costume department). Betty Grable, the movie star wife of big-band leader, Harry James, took cute little me in her arms (I feel faint thinking of it) and kissed me on the forehead. That's how my mother later explained a scar on my forehead. She probably dropped cute little me.
Noddy, I saw some of Churchill's art work at the Churchill Museum in London (about two weeks ago), and I thought they were first rate.
Laughing, JL. My mother told me - no, it wasn't Betty Grable, it was Ginger Rogers, bit her fingernails!!! <well, hell, lots of people do, but my mother said that with complete full embodied distain.>
Stopping laughing to say that is a wonderful image of Betty and thee.
CI, tell us more about Churchill's art work. I have probably seen articles about it, but lonnnng ago.
osso, I found this link on a search. It explains Churchill's art work much better than I ever could.
http://www.winstonchurchill.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=808 It's my personal opinion that he could have made a good living with his art works.
