[Vhfcn-l] Monday musings

[Gary Thewlis]

It's never just a game when you're winning.

George Carlin

 

Santa Claus has the right idea - visit people only once a year.

Victor Borge

 

I cannot sing, dance or act; what else would I be but a talk show host.

David Letterman

 

Mathematicians are like Frenchmen: whatever you say to them they translate
into their own language and forthwith it is something entirely different.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

 

If you must make a noise, make it quietly.

Oliver Hardy

 

If you can count your money, you don't have a billion dollars.

J. Paul Getty

 

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If the mountain will not come to Muhammad...

 

The proverbial phrase 'If the mountain will not come to Muhammad...' means
that , if one's will does not prevail, one must submit to an alternative.

 

If the mountain will not come to Muhammad, Muhammad must go to the mountain.
The full phrase 'If the mountain will not come to Muhammad, then Muhammad
must go to the mountain' arises from the story of Muhammad, as retold by
Francis Bacon, in Essays, 1625:

 

Mahomet cald the Hill to come to him. And when the Hill stood still, he was
neuer a whit abashed, but said; If the Hill will not come to Mahomet,
Mahomet wil go to the hil.

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Fools rush in where angels fear to tread

 

The rash or inexperienced will attempt things that wiser people are more
cautious of.

 

'Fool' is now a more derogatory insult than it was when this proverb was
coined, in the early 18th century. At that time a fool wasn't a simpleton,
lacking in intelligence, simply someone who had behaved foolishly.

 

Fools rush in'Fools rush in...' has a precise derivation, in that it is a
quotation from the English poet Alexander Pope's An essay on criticism,
1709:

 

Such shameless Bards we have; and yet 'tis true,

There are as mad, abandon'd Criticks too.

The Bookful Blockhead, ignorantly read,

With Loads of Learned Lumber in his Head,

With his own Tongue still edifies his Ears,

And always List'ning to Himself appears.

All Books he reads, and all he reads assails,

>From Dryden's Fables down to Durfey's Tales.

With him, most Authors steal their Works, or buy;

Garth did not write his own Dispensary.

Name a new Play, and he's the Poet's Friend,

Nay show'd his Faults - but when wou'd Poets mend?

No Place so Sacred from such Fops is barr'd,

Nor is Paul's Church more safe than Paul's Church-yard:

Nay, fly to Altars; there they'll talk you dead;

For Fools rush in where Angels fear to tread.

 

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Q: Why did Franken Berry cereal caused some real fear when introduced in
late 1971?

A: The artificial coloring resulted in red stools, which alarmed parents and
doctors who thought it was blood.

 

Q: Where can you visit an attraction called The House of Frankenstein?

A: Actually, there are (at least) two such places. One is in Lake George in
the Adirondacks in New York state, and the other is just north of there, on
Clifton Hill in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada.

 

Q: Has The Monster ever appeared on a U.S. postage stamp?

A: Not once, but twice, in 1997 and again in 2002.

 

Q: After more than a decade away from the Legitimate Theatre, what actress
returned to Broadway in November 2007 as Elizabeth in the Mel Brooks stage
musical Young Frankenstein?

A: Megan Mullally, perhaps best known for her role as Karen Walker on TV's
Will and Grace.

 

Q: Mary Shelley's Frankenstein was spurred on by a natural disaster. Dean
Koontz updated the story in a series that began in 2004. What natural
disaster served to stall his Frankenstein series at Book Two?

A: Hurricane Katrina. In the book, Dr. Frankenstein is a present-day New
Orleans resident. Koontz had to start over on Book Three after the flood,
and apparently struggled in his attempts to incorporate the real-life
tragedy into the story. The third book was initially due in 2006 but was
finally published in 2009.