Quotes of the week
“May you live all the days of your life.”
Jonathan Swift was a writer that lived a couple of centuries ago (1667-1745).
He is perhaps most known for classics like “Gulliver’s Travels” and “A Modest Propsal”. The latter being the ironic and shocking essay where he suggested that impoverished Irish people should sell their babies as food to rich people. Such works has earned Swift a reputation as one of the finest satirists of all time.
“A man should never be ashamed to own that he has been in the wrong, which is but saying… that he is wiser today than yesterday.”
“A wise man should have money in his head, but not in his heart.”
“Although men are accused of not knowing their own weakness, yet perhaps few know their own strength. It is in men as in soils, where sometimes there is a vein of gold which the owner knows not of.”
“I’ve always believed no matter how many shots I miss, I’m going to make the next one.”
“The latter part of a wise person’s life is occupied with curing the follies, prejudices and false opinions they contracted earlier.”
“The best doctors in the world are Doctor Diet, Doctor Quiet, and Doctor Merryman.”
“No man was ever so completely skilled in the conduct of life, as not to receive new information from age and experience.”
Meditation of the week
“Fall seven times; stand up eight.” – Japanese proverb
“You must give up the life you planned in order to have the life that is waiting for you.” – Joseph Campbell
“The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” – Chinese Proverb
“You must be the change you want to see in the world.” – Gandhi
“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” – Theodore Roosevelt
“I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.” – Jimmy Dean
“All is flux, nothing stays still.” – Heraclitus
“For everything you have missed, you have gained something else, and for everything you gain, you lose something else.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.
“I am tomorrow, or some future day, what I establish today. I am today what I established yesterday or some previous day.” – James Joyce
“I don’t need a friend who changes when I change and who nods when I nod; my shadow does that much better.” – Plutarch
“Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.” – Epicurus
“Be a first rate version of yourself, not a second rate version of someone else” – Judy Garland
“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” – Anne Frank
“The mind can make a heaven out of hell or a hell out of heaven” – John Milton
“Try not to become a man of success but a man of value.” – Albert Einstein
“The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance; the wise grows it under his feet.” – James Oppenheim
Poem of the Week
Throwing Away the Alarm Clock
my father always said, "early to bed and
early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy
and wise."
it was lights out at 8 p.m. in our house
and we were up at dawn to the smell of
coffee, frying bacon and scrambled
eggs.
my father followed this general routine
for a lifetime and died young, broke,
and, I think, not too
wise.
taking note, I rejected his advice and it
became, for me, late to bed and late
to rise.
now, I'm not saying that I've conquered
the world but I've avoided
numberless early traffic jams, bypassed some
common pitfalls
and have met some strange, wonderful
people
one of whom
was
myself—someone my father
never
knew.
early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy
and wise."
it was lights out at 8 p.m. in our house
and we were up at dawn to the smell of
coffee, frying bacon and scrambled
eggs.
my father followed this general routine
for a lifetime and died young, broke,
and, I think, not too
wise.
taking note, I rejected his advice and it
became, for me, late to bed and late
to rise.
now, I'm not saying that I've conquered
the world but I've avoided
numberless early traffic jams, bypassed some
common pitfalls
and have met some strange, wonderful
people
one of whom
was
myself—someone my father
never
knew.
Video of the week
Embrace Life: Always wear your seat belt.
You can’t make up such a thing as that, I dare you to even try
Websites of the week
And finally, the culmination of millennia of scientific endeavor
In 1964, Louis Armstrong became the oldest performer to have a Billboard No. 1 song, knocking the Beatles from the top with his hit "Hello Dolly!" Louis Armstrong (books by this author) was 63 years old at the time. And today is his birthday: Louis Armstrong was born in New Orleans in 1901.
His many hit recordings include "What a Wonderful World," "Ain't Misbehavin," "Stardust," and "Dream a Little Dream of Me."
His nickname was "Satchmo." short for "Satchel Mouth." He got the nickname because that's what his embouchure looked like. Embouchure is the technical term for the shape that a trumpet player's lips make when blowing into the instrument and the way he uses facial muscles. When Louis Armstrong played the trumpet, his mouth resembled something like a messenger bag, or a satchel bag, so he got the nickname Satchel Mouth, or Satchmo.
He loved New Orleans cooking and food in general, and he sang songs named "Cheesecake" and "Struttin' with Some Barbecue" and "Cornet Chop Suey." He also was very concerned about his weight, and he raved to his friends about how amazing his brand of laxatives were.
He helped popularize scat singing, that thing where jazz singers vocalize nonsense syllables — like "doo wop dee wa ba doobee doo" — often to the melody. His first big recording to use scat singing was "Heebie Jeebies" in 1926; he claims he dropped the papers with the lyrics, couldn't remember them, and started singing scat as a result.
He loved to write letters, he enjoyed dirty limericks, he smoked a lot of pot, and he embraced a bevy of Judeo-Christian religions. Whenever someone asked him about his religion, he said he was friends with the pope, raised Baptist in the South, and wore a Star of David around his neck.
He's the author of the memoirs Swing That Music (1936) and Satchmo: My Life in New Orleans (1954).
When asked to define jazz, he said: "Man, if you have to ask what it is, you'll never know."
