"Fun is a much under-estimated activity. In North America we tend to think of it as something trivial, as something that isn't part of the real world. You do your work which is serious, and then when you want to do nothing, or nothing of any import ~ when you want to goof off ~ you have fun."
~ George Cohen, senior chairman of McDonald's Restaurants of Canada. To Russia with Fries (1997) written with David Macfarlane.
Wednesday, July 23, 2014
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
Thought for Today ~
"What has one enjoyed most in life? I daresay it varies with different people. For my own part, remembering and reflecting, it seems that it is almost always the quiet moments of everyday life. Those are the times, certainly, when I have been happiest. Adorning Nursie's old grey head with blue bows, playing with Tony, making a parting with a comb down his broad back, galloping on what I feel to be real horses across the river my fancy has set in the garden....Happy games with my mother. My mother, later, reading Dickens to me, gradually getting sleepy, her spectacles half falling off her nose and her head dropping forward, and myself saying in an agonised voice. 'Mother, you're going to sleep', to which my mother with great dignity replies, 'Nothing of the kind, darling. I am not in the least sleepy!' A few minutes later she would be asleep. I remember feeling how ridiculous she looked with her spectacles slipping off her nose and how much I loved her at that moment."
~ Agatha Christie ( 1890 - 1976) Agatha Christie, An Autobiography, 1977.
"What has one enjoyed most in life? I daresay it varies with different people. For my own part, remembering and reflecting, it seems that it is almost always the quiet moments of everyday life. Those are the times, certainly, when I have been happiest. Adorning Nursie's old grey head with blue bows, playing with Tony, making a parting with a comb down his broad back, galloping on what I feel to be real horses across the river my fancy has set in the garden....Happy games with my mother. My mother, later, reading Dickens to me, gradually getting sleepy, her spectacles half falling off her nose and her head dropping forward, and myself saying in an agonised voice. 'Mother, you're going to sleep', to which my mother with great dignity replies, 'Nothing of the kind, darling. I am not in the least sleepy!' A few minutes later she would be asleep. I remember feeling how ridiculous she looked with her spectacles slipping off her nose and how much I loved her at that moment."
~ Agatha Christie ( 1890 - 1976) Agatha Christie, An Autobiography, 1977.
Monday, July 21, 2014
On Writing ~
"I usually feel happier either writing things in longhand or typing them. It is odd how hearing your own voice makes you self-conscious and unable to express yourself. It was only about five or six years ago, after I had broken a wrist and was unable to use my right hand, that I started using a dictaphone, and gradually became used to the sound of my own voice. The disadvantage of a dictaphone or tape recorder, however, is that it encourages you to be much too verbose.
"There is no doubt that the effort involved in typing or writing does help me in keeping to the point. Economy of wording, I think, is particularly necessary in detective stories. You don't want to hear the same thing rehashed three or four times over."
~ Agatha Christie (Sept. 15, 1890 - Jan. 12, 1976) Agatha Christie, An Autobiography, Collins, 1977.
"I usually feel happier either writing things in longhand or typing them. It is odd how hearing your own voice makes you self-conscious and unable to express yourself. It was only about five or six years ago, after I had broken a wrist and was unable to use my right hand, that I started using a dictaphone, and gradually became used to the sound of my own voice. The disadvantage of a dictaphone or tape recorder, however, is that it encourages you to be much too verbose.
"There is no doubt that the effort involved in typing or writing does help me in keeping to the point. Economy of wording, I think, is particularly necessary in detective stories. You don't want to hear the same thing rehashed three or four times over."
~ Agatha Christie (Sept. 15, 1890 - Jan. 12, 1976) Agatha Christie, An Autobiography, Collins, 1977.
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Sunday, July 20, 2014
Smile for Today ~ On the subject of small talk
"Franklin Roosevelt found the polite small talk of social functions at the White House somewhat tedious. He maintained that those present on such occasions rarely paid much attention to what was said to them. To illustrate the point, he would sometimes amuse himself by greeting guests with the words, 'I murdered my grandmother this morning.' The response was invariably one of polite approval. On one occasion, however, the president happened upon an attentive listener. On hearing Roosevelt's outrageous remark, the guest replied diplomatically, 'I'm sure she had it coming to her.' (Maxwell Perkins, the distinguished editor, peppered his own small talk similarly at literary gatherings. Evidently writers, as well as politicians, don't listen to one another.)"
~ THE LITTLE BROWN BOOK OF Anecdotes by Clifton Fadiman General Editor, 1983.
"Franklin Roosevelt found the polite small talk of social functions at the White House somewhat tedious. He maintained that those present on such occasions rarely paid much attention to what was said to them. To illustrate the point, he would sometimes amuse himself by greeting guests with the words, 'I murdered my grandmother this morning.' The response was invariably one of polite approval. On one occasion, however, the president happened upon an attentive listener. On hearing Roosevelt's outrageous remark, the guest replied diplomatically, 'I'm sure she had it coming to her.' (Maxwell Perkins, the distinguished editor, peppered his own small talk similarly at literary gatherings. Evidently writers, as well as politicians, don't listen to one another.)"
~ THE LITTLE BROWN BOOK OF Anecdotes by Clifton Fadiman General Editor, 1983.
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