The Best Things In Life Aren't Things
I was sorry to hear this morning that Art Buchwald has just passed away at the age of 81, having defied the odds for a year after entering a hospice.
I’ve enjoyed his columns for years, and the title of this post is one of my most favorite Buchwald-isms. And it sums up a lot of his work. Hidden beneath the satire and humor there was always a wise, pithy and unsightful comment.
Just think about that for a moment, "The best things in life aren’t things." He’s right isn’t he, and how often do we all forget it?
Here are a few from my collection that I hope you will like.
Farewell Art.
_______________________
“A bad liver is to a Frenchman what a nervous breakdown is to an American. Everyone has had one and everyone wants to talk about it.”
“And Man created the plastic bag and the tin and aluminum can and the cellophane wrapper and the paper plate, and this was good because Man could then take his automobile and buy all his food in one place and He could save that which was good to eat in the refrigerator and throw away that which had no further use. And soon the earth was covered with plastic bags and aluminum cans and paper plates and disposable bottles and there was nowhere to sit down or walk, and Man shook his head and cried: "Look at this Godawful mess."
“I don’t know what’s coming next and neither does anyone else. It’s something that we do have to face but the thing is that a lot of people don’t want to face it. And there’s denial. If somebody says it, like me, everybody feels a little better that they can discuss it.”
“I don’t know whether it’s normal or not, but sex has always been something I take seriously. I would put it higher than tennis on my list of constructive things to do.”
“I worship the quicksand he walks in.”
“People are broad-minded. They’ll accept the fact that a person can be an alcoholic, a dope fiend, a wife beater and even a newspaperman, but if a man doesn’t drive, there’s something wrong with him.”
“The buffalo isn’t as dangerous as everyone makes him out to be. Statistics prove that in the United States more Americans are killed in automobile accidents than are killed by buffalo.”
“We seem to be going through a period of nostalgia, and everyone seems to think yesterday was better than today. I don’t think it was, and I would advise you not to wait ten years before admitting today was great. If you’re hung up on nostalgia, pretend today is yesterday and just go out and have one hell of a time.”
“Whether it’s the best of times or the worst of times, it’s the only time we’ve got.”
Medicine and Creativity
The Lancet medical journal has just published this year’s themed issue on the topic of ‘Creativity and Medicine’.
If you click on the link, you will be taken to a digital edition of the special issue. The digital edition is an exact facsimile of the print copy and is available for one month. You can turn pages just as you would with a print edition and even print off the pages for your own personal use.
The Lancet is one of the journals that you will find in the "Journal" listing on the left of this blog.
Many of the articles are extremely interesting and thought provoking: "Writing and healing;" "Development of children’s creativity to foster peace;" "Healing through art therapy;" "Theatre – a force for health promotion;" "Hospital clowns;" "Healing architecture; " "Healing gardens;" "Chance favors the prepared mind" and "What can the arts bring to medical training?" were some of my favorites, and give you a good flavor of what’s in store for you.
You will also see how this fits very precisely with a true Integrated Medicine.
One caution: it IS a medical journal and there are one or two articles near the back that are not for the squeamish.
With that caveat, there is much food for thought in these articles, and the Lancet deserves our thanks for making them available for free. Even if it is only for a month!
Labor Day Trivia With a Twist
The English language must be one of the oddest. Well actually I know that it is. Except perhaps for those few languages that have managed to get by with hardly any words for emotion. Or the ones that have hundreds of ways of describing snow.
In English there are more than one thousand words describing groups of things, usually animals. Many of these words go back to the Middle Ages: fun to look up on a wet English afternoon. And many have been taking up some of my precious neural storage space for a very long time.
In today’s trivia corner, the question came up as to what name is given to a group of cats? I knew that one, it’s a clowder, and if they’re kittens, it’s a kyndyll, also spelt kindle.
Then I started putting together a few others that I remembered, and looked up a couple more. If you type “Collective nouns” into Google you’ll get hundreds, but I’m not sure about some of them!
Here are a few fun ones:
Army of frogs or ants
Bale of turtles
Band of gorillas
Baren of mules
Bed of clams or oysters
Bevy of quail or swans
Brace of ducks
Brood of chicks
Business of ferrets
Cast of hawks
Cete of badgers
Charm of goldfinches or hummingbirds
Chine of polecats
Cloud of gnats
Clutch of chicks
Colony of rabbits, ants, gulls and bats
Company of wigeons (they’re dabbling ducks found all over North America)
Congregation of plovers
Convocation of eagles
Covert of coots
Covey of quail or partridge
Cry of hounds
Down of hares
Draft of fish (That one’s rarely used these days)
Dryft (drift) of tame swine
Drove of cattle, sheep, pigs
(In the Middle Ages, cows were also called kine or kyne)
Exaltation of larks
Fall of woodcocks
Flange of baboons
Flight of birds
Flock of sheep, geese, ducks
Gaggle of geese
Gam of whales
Gang of elk
Grist of bees
Harras of horses
Herd of cattle, deer, elephants, horses, and sheep
Hive of bees
Horde of gnats
Hover of trout
Husk of hares
Kettle of hawks
Labor of moles
Lepe or leap of leopards
Leash of foxes
Litter of pigs, cats, dogs
Murder of crows
Murmuration of starlings
Muster of peacocks
Mute of hounds
Nest of rabbits, vipers, turtles and hornets
Nide, or nye of pheasants
Pack of dogs, hounds, wolves, and mules
Parliament of rooks or owls
Pod of dolphins, whales or seals
Pride of lions
Raft of ducks (paddling around on water)
Rafter of turkeys
Rag of colts
Route of wolves
School of fish (At one time they were called shoals of fish)
Scold of jays
Sculk of foxes
Sedge of cranes, bitterns, herons
shoal of bass
Singular of boars
Shrewdness of apes
Skein of geese (In flight)
Skulk (sculk) of foxes
Sloth or sleuth of bears
Sounder of wild swine or boars
Span of mules
Spring of teal
Stud of mares
Swarm of bees
Team of ducks, horses, pigs, oxen
Tribe of goats
Troop of kangaroos or monkeys
Unkindness of ravens
Volary of birds
Walk of snipe
Watch of nightingales
Wedge of swans
Wing of plovers
Yoke of oxen
Zeal of zebras
There are some very funny ones that can’t be genuine. Try these:
An addition of mathematicians
A brace of orthodontists
A bunch of florists
A clutch of car mechanics
A concert of yes-men
An expense of consultants
A flash of paparazzi
An intrigue of politicians
A prickle of hedgehogs
A rash of dermatologists
A tedium of golfers
This is all harmless fun. But there’s also a slightly more serious side to it. Developing your vocabulary, even for odd words like these, appears to reduce your risk of developing age-related cognitive decline and should help keep you mentally sharp.
And I’ve got the brain scans to prove it!
And Now For Something Completely Different
I wouldn’t like it to be thought that this blog only deals with the serious side of life. I’m also eager to alert you to products and services that may enhance and enrich you. I was perusing a favorite blog: when I came upon mention of an important resource: Strange New Products Blog
Seeing such weirdness and creativity should give us all hope for the future….
Though it may be a somewhat "different" future….
Sleeping Policemen
In Europe, speed bumps are called "Sleeping Policemen."
I never thought to see the real thing.
__________________________
Three thirty on Sunday morning I was on my way home from the airport.
Headlights full on, trying to stay awake by singing along with some REALLY loud Iron Maiden, I was tooling down the road at "more or less" the speed limit.
When horror of horrors, I spied a hidden police car in the road leading into the Horse Park.
In less than a second, I turned down the lights, cut the music – and my singing – and slammed on the anchors. I passed him at a sedate 45 mph.
I needn’t have bothered. He was all tucked up and fast asleep. Even had a comfy looking pillow.
He looked so content, I was in half a mind to go and take a picture. But then I thought, "What if he’s also got Teddy with him?" That would not be a good thing to have recorded on film…….
