Quotes

Another of our occasional round-ups of recently encountered quotes which interested or amused.
The sage falls asleep not because he ought to
Not even because he wants to
But because he is sleepy.

[Raymond Smullyan, The Tao is Silent]
Give up all this advertising of goodness and duty, and people will regain love of their fellows.
[Lao Tsu]
Peace comes from within, do not seek it without.
[Buddha]
I have never understood the Scots, and I defy anybody to understand the Scots.
[Sir Bernard Ingham]
Probably the most tactless woman I ever met.
[Sir Bernard Ingham on Margaret Thatcher]
Zen is a way of liberation, concerned not with discovering what is good or bad or advantageous, but what is.
[Alan Watts]
There are three questions you need to ask about any new law: is it necessary, is it workable and will it do more good than harm?
[Original source unknown]
Only idiots refuse to change their minds.
[Brigitte Bardot]
Most of us suspect we’re frauds; few of us will ever produce such memorable proof.
[From http://newpsalmanazar.wordpress.com]
As long as you hate, there will be people to hate.
[George Harrison]
To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead.
[Bertrand Russell]
The mystical is not how the world is, but that it is.
[Ludwig Wittgenstein]
In a still photograph you basically have two variables, where you stand and when you press the shutter. That’s all you have.
[Henry Wessel]
I believe that the phrase ‘obligatory reading’ is a contradiction in terms. Reading should not be obligatory. Should we ever speak of ‘obligatory pleasure’? What for? Pleasure is not obligatory, pleasure is something we seek … If a book bores you, leave it; don’t read it because it is famous, don’t read it because it is modern, don’t read a book because it is old. If a book is tedious to you, leave it, even if that book is Paradise Lost – which is not tedious to me – or Don Quixote – which also is not tedious to me. But if a book is tedious to you, don’t read it; that book was not written for you. Reading should be a form of happiness.
[Jorge Luis Borges]
We are always the same age inside.
[Gertrude Stein]
In the ‘Book of Life,’ the answers aren’t in the back.
[Charlie Brown by Charles Schulz]

Advent 14

An Advent Calendar
Some of Favourite Images from Other Photographers on Flickr.

Click the image for larger views on Flickr and details of the photographer
Kinsac Lake - Fall River, NS
Note that these images are not mine and are copyright the original photographer who may be identified by following the link to Flickr

Advent 13

An Advent Calendar
Some of Favourite Images from Other Photographers on Flickr.

Click the image for larger views on Flickr and details of the photographer

Note that these images are not mine and are copyright the original photographer who may be identified by following the link to Flickr

More Pussy Porn

In keeping with the tradition of the interwebs being the repository of all things pussy, here are another couple of shots of Tilly the Kitten. (Not so much kitten now, actually, as she’s approaching 7 months old.)

Click the images for larger views on Flickr
Please, I would like to catch that mouse
Please, I would like to catch that mouse.
Tilly helps Noreen with Facebook.
6 December 2013
Office Cat
Office Cat
Tilly does duty as a paperweight.
Tummy fur beginning to regrow after neutering.
5 December 2013

Advent 12

An Advent Calendar
Some of Favourite Images from Other Photographers on Flickr.

Click the image for larger views on Flickr and details of the photographer
Leopard - Panthera pardus
Note that these images are not mine and are copyright the original photographer who may be identified by following the link to Flickr

Advent 11

An Advent Calendar
Some of Favourite Images from Other Photographers on Flickr.

Click the image for larger views on Flickr and details of the photographer
Tren vapor del Harz
Note that these images are not mine and are copyright the original photographer who may be identified by following the link to Flickr

Word: Quinquereme

Quinquereme
An ancient Roman or Carthaginian galley with five banks of oars on each side.
Perhaps the most famous of the Hellenistic-era warships, because of its extensive use by the Carthaginians and Romans, the quinquereme was invented by Dionysius I of Syracuse in 399 BC as part of a major naval armament programme directed against the Carthaginians. During most of the 4th century, the “fives” were the heaviest type of warship, and often used as flagships of fleets.


OK, we know the oarsmen were largely slaves but all those oars! The image is a model of a trireme (three banks of oars); just imagine adding another two banks of oars to that! They must have been a nightmare to power and even more of a nightmare to handle. But if done right they would have been awe-inspiringly impressive.

Stained Glass Stuffed Mugs

Another in our occasional series of curious and/or amusing items from the catalogues of our local saleroom. As usual it is the strange things, and the strange combinations of things, which people sell that I find so compelling.
A carton containing various Ward Locke & Co. county guides, a quantity of memorial cards, old Valentine cards, early town pamphlets, cartes de visite, and a small quantity of matchbox covers, a Victorian scarp album, full, and a carton of interesting advertising items, incl. old cigarette boxes, a quantity of Green Line coach routes, etc.
Three Victorian brass oil lamps, one Corinthian column with etched glass bowl, another cranberry glass.
Two metal figured lamps of cherubs riding goats, on marble bases, a pair of brass and marble lamps, a Roamer brass and glass bull’s-eye clock and compass, pair of large clown figures playing instruments and a GSD football-shaped alarm clock.
Two cased decanters, a brass blowtorch, brass miner’s lamp, Hennessy (sic> cognac decanter, silver plated topped glass perfume bottle, cased carpet bowls set, quantity of tea wares including plates, cress dish on stand, oriental part tea service, commemorative mugs, decorative plate on stand, Royal Worcester coffee cup on saucer, Delft flask and stopper, French wine decanter, and a cognac football decanter and stopper, cow creamer, etc.
It was the blowtorch and miner’s lamp that did it for me!
A gentleman’s cased travelling set, quantity of old wooden rules, quantity compasses, some cased, cased Rolls Razor, Wilkinson Sword cased razor, cased folding opera glasses, Schotts boxed descant recorder, oak barrel, quantity ashtrays, china thimbles, oak boxes and other interesting items.
I always worry when I see things like “and other interesting items”.
A quantity of Masonic regalia.
Two stained glass windows.
Two hunting whips, one with silver mount.
That could perhaps have been expressed a little better!
A vintage Salvation Army bonnet in case, a writing slope, and an oak cutlery box.
Approximately 350 porcelain mugs to commemorate the marriage of Prince William and Katherine Middleton.
And if that isn’t enough the next lot is …
Approximately 600 porcelain mugs commemorating the marriage of Prince William and Katherine Middleton.
A mixed lot containing buttons, button hooks, cotton and other sewing paraphernalia, also cameras, binoculars, glassware, figurines, wine, photograph frames, soldier’s WWII tin helmet, blue and white china, etc.
You mean there is an “etc.” after that collection?
Stainless steel door handles, a pair of binoculars and an old hot water bottle an a framed montage of dried fungi.
A collection of old tins and tools.
A metal fire surround and two slabs of green marble.
A mixed lot of tools, old rope, kitchen equipment, two old Telecom telephones, children’s books, machinery magazines, etc.
Now who the hell would want to buy “old rope”?
Next something for the transvestites out there …
Two gent’s black evening suits and a 1960s sequinned lace dress.
A very heavy cast brass standard lamp styled as a Corinthian column wrapped with vine, on scrolling (sic) feet.
And the pièce de résistance is …
An unusual lot including a stuffed iguana, treen – both Oriental and South American, china ware, an old record player, an old radio and a picnic basket, sheepskin rugs, etc.
Every home really should have a stuffed iguana!

Advent 10

An Advent Calendar
Some of Favourite Images from Other Photographers on Flickr.

Click the image for larger views on Flickr and details of the photographer
Common Stinkhorn (Phallus impudicus)
Note that these images are not mine and are copyright the original photographer who may be identified by following the link to Flickr