The school with a run-on

I often walk by an elementary school in the Gold Coast, which is a nice neighborhood with money and education and clean sidewalks and nice dwellings. So it surprises me that they have a run-on sentence etched into its outer walls:

There isn't a period, either, so they probably made a stylistic choice. But why would they tolerate absolutely no punctuation in the midst of a statement about learning? Or I could understand if they at least they had a line break to separate the sentences, but to have nothing at all? It's not even accurate of the original quote, which was a comma splice (which I can't stand, but then again, it was the 18th century, Abigail Adams had no formal education, and a lot of her writing was bizarrely spelled, punctuated, capitalized, and pieced together, though maybe 18th century American English was like that, and the spelling was acceptable back then, and it's changed over the last couple-hundred years; maybe we're wrong, who knows).

This is the original quote, which is from a letter that she wrote:
"Roving is not benificial to study at your age, Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardour and attended to with diligence."

Thus there are a couple things going on in the school's appropriation of Mrs. Adams' quote: they don't use her punctuation, and they don't use her spelling of "ardour" either. We modern Americans use "ardor," and since she was an early Yankee, she was probably still influenced by Britain. So really, in an effort to promote learning, the school might be undermining it by not being accurate; they should have directly copied what she wrote, especially since many of the students will most likely be more involved in academics as they get older.

Exercise is important, but...

"Everybody tells me that I have to exercise. That it is good for my health. But I never heard anyone telling a sportsman that he has to read." (José Saramago)

Rush's quote

I've been working crazy radio hours in addition to translating and reading stuff for the anthology, but I managed to find some downtime at work today to read an article about a radio person here in the USA who has absolutely profited from syndication and consolidation: Rush Limbaugh.

People seem to either love him or hate him. On the air, he sounds arrogant and often twists information to fit his world view (as any idealogue does), but he's a talented radio pro, and he's raked in hundreds of millions of dollars because of it.

You should definitely read the article because it demonstrates what radio has become, and how the average shmoe has been squeezed out of it. Syndication and consolidation have put his show in hundreds of stations throughout the country (and Canada, I think), and if he weren't so entertaining, it wouldn't have happened. But the relaxed American laws (thanks to successful corporate radio lobbying) in the mid-90's helped extend his exposure, and people in every market reacted positively.

There are various parts of the article that are revealing and interesting, including the description of his early failures and his extreme current wealth. But this is perhaps the most interesting quote:

“I thank God for my addiction,” he told me. “It made me understand my shortcomings.”

Being Limbaugh, he said he believes that most of these shortcomings stemmed from his inability to love himself sufficiently. “I felt everyone who criticized me was right and I was wrong,” he confided. But, he says, he left his insecurities behind in Arizona. “It’s not possible to offend me now,” he said. “I won’t give people the power to do it anymore. My problem was born of immaturity and my childhood desire for acceptance. I learned in drug rehab that this was stunting and unrealistic. I was seeking acceptance from the wrong people.”

I never thought we'd read such words from him because his persona is so egotistical (though a lot of on-air talent is off the air as well as on), so it made the article even more worthwhile.

Wherever you go, there you are

I was thinking about how the phrase "Wherever you go, there you are" is true. But it was hard to find the source of that quote. Actually, if I were to do the research in a library, I would probably find the answer, but I don't have such time. But I found an article that cites The Imitation of Christ as the source, written by Thomas a Kempis.

It would require further research to see if this really is the source of the quote. It's just so common now, it's hard to tell where it came from.

What a weirdly negative comment

I came upon this quote:

Emilio Azcarraga, the billionaire head of Mexico's Televisa: "Mexico is a country of a modest, very f----d class, which will never stop being f----d. Television has the obligation to bring diversion to these people and remove them from their sad reality and difficult future."

I wanted to see the Spanish source of that quote, and found both the exact quote and the larger context. According to what I read (and assuming my lame Spanish is good enough to understand), he said it at a press conference in 1993.

Here's the Spanish version (from an academic speech that referred to what he said):

México es un país de una clase modesta jodida, que no va a salir de jodida. Para la televisión es una dura obligación llevar la diversión a esa gente y sacarla de su triste realidad y de su futuro difícil...

And here's the larger context (with help from an essay that refers to the quote):

Estamos en el negocio del entretenimiento, de la información, y podemos educar, pero fundamentalmente entretener… México es un país de una clase modesta jodida, que no va a salir de jodida. Para la televisión es una dura obligación llevar la diversión a esa gente y sacarla de su triste realidad y de su futuro difícil...los ricos pueden hacer muchas cosas que los diviertan, pero la clase modesta, que es una clase fabulosa y digna, no tiene ninguna otra manera de acceder a una distracción más que a la televisión

There's a lot to say about such thoughts, but basically, it seems more than cynical: it seems hopeless and mercenary in a way, because he knows that he's creating television shows to get people out of their misery while wanting to make a ton of money from them. But then later, he acts like he respects those people by saying they're "fabulosa y digna". It's like he's backtracking because he just put them down by saying they're trapped in misery, but he probably didn't want them to be angry with him, so he ended up complimenting them.

Fake and messed up, for sure.

Great advice

I told someone that sometimes we have to endure bad situations to keep our foot in the door, and they told me this:

A foot in a snake pit is a foot nowhere.

That's great advice, and an excellent quote.

Something to think about

I am *still* reading Inside George Orwell, which I started a while ago, possibly a few months ago. During that time, I read other books and lots of meaty stuff online, and I should have finished this book, but it is not an easy read, partly because they reference historical events, people, and literary figures that I don't have background knowledge on. Plus, one sentence can have several heavy-duty ideas within it. Basically, the older he got, he became extremely intellectual and analytical, and he was friends with other brainy people, so the biography becomes more complex and his life progresses.

There are many amazing statements in this book, and if I were more organized, I would've marked them. But here's one that I just came across:

A society becomes totalitarian when its structure becomes flagrantly artificial: that is, when its ruling class has lost its function but succeeds in clinging to power by force or fraud. Such a society, no matter how long it persists, can never afford to become either tolerant or intellectually stable. It can never permit either the truthful recording of facts, or the emotional sincerity, that literary creation demands.

He also predicted the Cold War. Incredibly smart guy.

To the point

I was reading about Edna St Vincent Millay, who had a crazy life. Even the way she died was odd: she "was found dead at the bottom of the stairs in her house...having broken her neck in a fall."

Among her interesting writing is a quote that's to the point:

Where you used to be, there is a hole in the world, which I find myself constantly walking around in the daytime, and falling in at night. I miss you like hell.

Italian George?

I came across an Italian proverb:

Meglio sola che male accompagnata.

Better to be alone than in bad company.

But then I found a similar quote from George Washington:

Associate with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for it is better to be alone than in bad company.

So which came first: the Washington quote or the Italian one? Or did they create those independently? Or maybe George Washington was Italian ;) Either way, it's good advice.

Eccentric endangerment

Rose (whose blog I unfortunately discovered too late because she's not blogging as much anymore) had a post with a quote from John Stuart Mill:

Eccentricity has always abounded when and where strength of character has abounded; and the amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigor, and moral courage which it contained. That so few now dare to be eccentric, marks the chief danger of the time.

Well, I don't think a lack of eccentricity is a "chief danger," but then again, he wrote that before a lot of horrible stuff happened even as societies became more "civilized" and industrialized and modern. But I do see how a lack of individuality creates group think and apathy.

Interesting quote

I was watching Tom Wolfe speaking on Book-TV, and when someone asked him a question that he wasn't able to formulate a solid answer to so quickly or thoroughly, he said, "my brain is so full some things fall out."

At least he has plenty of outlets--books, TV, lectures, social life, etc.--that allow him to use his full brain.

Ottoman wisdom

One time, I was talking to a neighbor about all types of people who steal from the till, whether they're poor or not (because humans are far from perfect). Then she told me that her father, who was Armenian and spoke Ottoman Turkish, shared this saying:

"The man who works with honey will sometimes lick his fingers."

True! That's a great one--effective imagery that sticks.

A history of losers

A while ago, I learned that New Orleans, where the post-hurricane looting is going on, was the recipient of convicts and other "winners" when it first began. Here's a bit of history of Louisiana, where New Orleans is located:

In 1717 the slow-growing colony came under the control of the Compagnie d'Occident (Company of the West), headed by Scottish financier John Law. Law gained great influence at the French court through his establishment of what became the French national bank. Because the bank invested heavily in the Company of the West and because Louisiana was the company's greatest asset, Law needed to develop the colony rapidly to maintain public confidence in the bank. He undertook a promotional campaign that brought in several thousand settlers. Many were German indentured workers who sold their services for a specified period, after which they gained their freedom. The settlers also included convicts who were forced to migrate to the colony. According to one company official, 7,020 Europeans went to the colony between October 1717 and May 1721. Because Law's company had acquired the Compagnie du Senegal (Company of Senegal), which held the French monopoly on the slave trade, black slaves from Africa were brought to Louisiana in 1719. About 3,000 slaves arrived between 1720 and 1731.

Law's promotional literature led immigrants to anticipate quick profits from mining and other endeavors that would require little effort and investment. However, the harsh world they found was dramatically different. Many people died because the overwhelmed colonial government could not meet their needs for food, clothing, and shelter. Most of the survivors stayed because they lacked the means to return to Europe.

Okay, let's review: a rich Scottish guy wanted to save his reputation, so he got a bunch of indentured servants, convicts, and slaves to go there. After those people arrived, and after he duped unsuspecting Europeans to migrate there, they were faced with misery and an indifferent government, but they were too broke to return to their homelands (except for the slaves and indentured servants, of course).

Apparently, this history impresses some people, including some folks in New Orleans and an ecstatic Canadian tourist: "New Orleans was colonized by convicts. No one wanted to move to the murky swamps around the Mississippi from Europe, so the French King put the populations of his prisons on ships and sent them to settle New Orleans. Locals proudly say that their city was founded by murderers, rapists, pirates and prostitutes."

So as the world watches the devastation and suffering, which is incredibly sad, they can also see a bunch of loser Americans behave no better than their predecessors. Way to go, U.S.A.

That's deep

In an ESL class, I mentioned this quote from Deng Xiaoping: “It doesn't matter whether the cat is black or white, as long as it catches the mouse" (which I found in this article about the business climate in China).

A student shared a couple of wise Chinese sayings that will encourage people to study:

"The book mountain has its path, and it is diligence."

"Working hard is the boat in the study ocean."

That's deep, n'est-ce-pas?