Wales is wonderful! Looking forward to a great hour.

Don’t put all your eggs in one basket!!

Here is mine:

By knowing, we are freed. Therefore, ignorance is just regret waiting to happen.

One of my favorites - from the Chinese -

A good one for wall street and capitalism in general.

“He who knows he has enough is rich.”

My best friend once told me, “You know you’re getting old, when you can use one of your Mother’s sayings and it makes sense”.

Please pass on to Tom and his guest that rhubarb has a laxative quality which is why rhubarb and patience work wonders.

My dad used to say, “Paper will lie still for you to put anything on it.” I don’t know if it is a proverb, or whether he made it up!

We have a proverb is Somalia that says “he who is wet is never afraid of the water”. Also, “Before you buy from the shoemaker, look at his shoes first.

My favorite one is from Zimbabwe, which I heard when doing a linguistics class on the Shona language.

“Taking in an orphan is like stuffing your water-skin with dirt”

The reference to rhubarb in the German proverb comparing rhubarb and patience, which puzzled both Tom and Mr. Crystal, is that rhubarb is believed to promote regularity, i.e., is believed to be mildly therapeutic against constipation.

My favorite two are: “It’s good to want things” and “Sometimes it’s better to be kind than to be right”

My mother used to say:

“Never wear sensible shoes to a meeting unless you REALLY want to be elected president.”

And, as we went out the door, she would say:

“Remember now, you owe something to the gaiety of nations.”

“Familiarity can breed contempt. Sometimes it just breeds.”

My father.

My favorite professor in College was Wolfgang Mieder of the University of VT who taught one of my favorite German classes - on Proverbs. He has written a few books on the subject as well!
This is a great show, Thanks

in response to the mc cain obama debate question
IT takes two to quarrel

This is one for after the fact (of just about anything):

“the full length of a frog is never known until it is dead”

My fifth grade teacher (Mrs. Hamilton) from Guinea, Africa, forced us to memorize proverbs– we would then have to stand and recite a proverb every day- it was ok if we repeated one another, but the smart kids tried to outdo the copycats. Some of the ones I recall are ” A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” ; “A stitch in time saves nine”

I love the perspective on this one from my dad:
Every day your feet hit the floor is a good day.

in my country is said a lot “el que mucho abarca, poco aprieta” which loosely translates into, “the one who tries to grab too much, does not hold anything”

My mom-”If a toad had wings, he wouldn’t bump his ass.”, in response to “I wish I had—-

Cultural inferences are different, as you said, but the commonality in “deep language” (Chomsky), is seen in small glimmers in proverbs. I have been collecting advice mothers and fathers give to their children.

A friend of mine wrote a very sweet book your author and guests would enjoy. . .wonderful book by a great scholar. Yale educated Reynold Feldman, scholar of religions and cosmologies, also loves the way people express the wisdom of their lives.

A World Treasury of Folk Wisdom (Hardcover)
by Reynold Feldman (Author), Cynthia Voelke (Author)

and

Wisdom: Daily Reflections for a New Era (Paperback)

Share your thoughts with other customers:

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

Provocative essays drawing from many wisdom traditions, March 24, 2000
By Loren Ek “Author/Presenter” (Las Vegas, NV United States) - See all my reviews

Open this book at random and you’ll surely find an engaging brief essay and a practical way to bring it into your life through reflection and journaling. 365 one-page essays for each day of the year, but the book need not be read like that. It can be dipped into, which is how I have read it — back to front and by letting a wisdom topic “speak to me” as I flip through the pages.
Because I don’t believe that any particular tradition holds the franchise on wisdom, I was delighted to find so much variety– Eastern and Western, philosophical and mundane, scriptural, literary, and folk wisdom.

A delightful adventure for reading and practical application in everyday life.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Superb compilation of daily reflections from diverse sources, May 3, 2000
By Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

In Wisdom: Daily Reflections For A New Era, Reynold Feldman (founder and executive director of the World Wisdom Project) offers a book of daily reflections drawn from diverse sources of wisdom ranging from the ancient to the contemporary. These “wisdoms” relate to our own ways of living and adjusting to the world, with each reflection ending in a brief exercise enabling the readers to increase their own personal wisdom and ability to cope with a rapidly changing world. Divided into one chapter for each month of the calendar year and framed for daily twenty minute readings, Wisdom is highly recommended reading for those with an interest in reaping the benefits of diverse men and women who have thought about the world with insight, passion, wit and revelation. Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? (Report this)

A truly interfaith devotional book, May 1, 2000
By Rev. Sam Cox (Kailua, Hawaii) - See all my reviews

Wisdom: Daily Reflections for a New Era is the first truly interfaith devotional book I have come across. It speaks to our contemporary need to understand and bridge the diverse religions of our rapidly shinking world.
The daily format and practical exercises make the application of this devotional book very personal and meaningful. It helps us to better understand and empathize with others who may not be of our tradition.

I would like to see more such material in the market place of ideas. Who knows, it may lead to a better,loving and more ethical world for all people.

my mother always said:
“don’t talk like a fish”
your mouth is moving but you aren’t saying anything

Here is one from my Greek Grandmother:

“The fish rots from the head.”

(I get a lot of use from this one)

One of my favorite proverbs is from Mongolia - “If you’re afraid, don’t do it. If you do it, don’t be afraid.”

Here’s one that I live by:

Commonsense, isn’t!

A British coworker was often heard saying “Oh, he/she is out of the pail.” I never asked her what it meant, but now I wonder.

In response to our cries as children of: ‘I’m bored’, my mother used to respond:

You’re not bored. You’re boring.

Meaning - the world is far to fascinating a place for you to ever say you’re bored, rather, get a hobby, read a book, call a friend, do something!

my english grandmother had some

“lazy people take the most pains”
“the devil finds work for idle hands to do”
“your sins will find you out”
(they seem to go together)

but my favorite is from my old new york aunt

“you are richer or poorer but for your wants”

I have used this Japanese proverb with my children: “Even monkeys fall from trees”

My father (born 1929, a working class guy) use proverbs religiously. One that’s kept me honest during my high tech days:
“You meet the same people coming down the ladder that you did going up.”

from my Italian mother, on revenge: Save your apple for when you’re thirsty!

the Chinese curse: May you live in interesting times

One I use all the time when people complain that they’re tired or overworked: Better to wear out than to rust out!

My father said the one thing I should remember is never accept a registered letter - nothing good every comes in them.

One more, from the Buddhists: Don’t just do something, sit there!

A Southern U.S. author(whose name escapes) on your show a few months back offered this wonderful one:

“It may be the early bird who gets the worm, but it’s the second mouse who gets the cheese.”

Neither a borrower nor a lender be……….

Polish from my mom
Never show a fool a job half done!

My dad always said, “Trust everyone, but cut the cards.”

My mom’s dad always said, “People are no damned good, and all politicians are on the take.” Dunno if that was a proverb, or his personal observations!

My dad’s mom always said, “Rejoice in another’s good fortune, and commiserate with them in their sorrows.” Dad said she meant, don’t envy other people, and be happy with what you have.

Dad also said, “If wishes were horses, all children were ride. If wishes were sleighs, all children would slide.” He said that when we’d nag about wanting things!

I like to look at idioms as you look at proverbs: as a mirror of the culture.
About death,the Americans say “pushing daisies,reflecting the Protestant work ethics. The French are, one the other end are “sucking dandelions by the root”…till eating and enjoying life.
An idea for your next book!

To answer the question concerning McCain’s decision to not attend the debate, here is a proverb from my mexican grandmother:

“En boca cerrada no entran moscas.”

Literally, “flies don’t enter a closed mouth.”

Mexico has produced a number of wonderfully cynical political proverbs, frequently tinted with the off-color language used to emphasize the distastefulness of common (corrupt) practice - the one most politely reproduced:

El que no tranza no avanza: he who does not cheat, doesn’t advance.

Here are 2 that I created. I wonder if there are any others out there like them.

“The greatest of lies are the lies we tell ourselves.”
“Absolutely, there are no absolutes.”

He was so mad, he was “fit to be tied.” What? a pre-straight jacket way of restraining someone REALLY ticked off!

My Dad used to say variations on, “I’ll be there in two shakes of a lambs tail”….from an earlier time when America was more rural and most people would know how fast lambs shake their tails.

“Don’t put all your eggs in one basket” reminds me of the Dorothy Parker quip that her problem was that she “put all her eggs in one bastard”

One I heard recently:

The squeaky wheel…gets replaced!

My mother used to tell me and my friends -

The ruin of a nation begins in the homes of its people.

An Igbo saying from Nigeria. “The lion’s aura does it’s errands for it”

It’s the spoon that knows what’s in the pot!

“The older you get, the wiser your parents.” ~Olga Graf (grandmother)

She’s right. As I grew up, the messages my parents and grandparents gave us growing up made more sense.

My mother used to say when frustrated by someone else’s performance, “If you want something done right, do it yourself”.

I was a teenager when I realized that what she really meant was “if you want something done the way you want it done do it yourself”

What a liberating discovery.

PROVERBS

`The path of true lust never did run smoothly´

Hi Tom,
Thirty years ago, an Algerian friend shared a proverb with me: For every pot, there’s a lid. This was meant to signify that for every person there is a suitable match, with the suggestion that the potential mate will be found in the near vicinity. I have my doubts about the real-world veracity of this proverb, most particularly as it applies to me, in both its literal and figurative meanings. Not only am I single, since my divorce, but my kitchen cabinets breed lots of containers missing lids. (Kitchen cabinets are to Tupperware what the dryer is to socks, in the production of container/sock widows.)
Love your show!
Ann Hofmann
Carlisle, MA

I haven’t heard your guest mention the proverbs of the Bible. I grew up on these (as I’m sure others in the US and UK did) and found them to be very helpful (even in high school). We get to borrow wisdom by knowing proverbs — we are wiser for them. I love them. Thanks for reminding me!

I pulled out the Bible this morning (I don’t read it much these days) and found a few proverbs I had marked years ago.

A generous man will prosper; he would refreshes others will himself be refreshed

Here’s a great on for email…

A man finds joy in giving an apt reply–and how good is a timely word

Better a patient man than a warrior, a man who controls his temper than one who takes a city.

The Maxwell Smart character in the old “Get Smart” TV show had a great way of twisting proverbs:

Give a man an inch,
and he’ll think he’s a ruler…

Two from my father, who heard them from his father;

Measure twice, cut once.

And along the same lines of carpentry advice:
Let the saw do the work.

Here are two proverbs from different countries but somewhat similar meanings:

From China: The moon is the same everywhere

From Finland: Oma maa mansikaa, toinen maa mustikaa (Strawberries in my countries, blueberries in the other country) — which I interprete to mean that things are, once you look closely, quite similar the world over.

Thank you — I love the shows, Judith

I have a proverb that my family uses (we are from Cuba). In translation from Spanish is reads like this:

“When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.”

Lourdes Aleman
Cambridge, MA

Proverbs reflect our prejudices. I was taken aback as a teenager when my (welsh) grandmother told me “A girl can run faster with her skirt up than a boy can run with his pants down.” I think she was warning me against girls who would let me catch them for sex.

My mother, who was an unintentional sometime amateur malapropist (she once said that Cody, WY, was the home of Wild Bill Buffalo), combined “You can’t butter your bread on both sides” and “You’ve made your bed, now lie in it,” to come up with, “You’ve buttered your bread, now lie in it.”

Tom baehr

Putney, VT

A Yiddish proverb:

“If I try to be like him, who will be like me?”

To me, this speaks not only about the importance of being yourself, but also about the incredible value of every person.

Another proverb that has served me well and is often expressed as and acronym is TNSTAAFL “There’s no such thing as a free lunch”. Works for the stock market too.
Robert Heinlein scifi books often used it.

Robert

Hello Tom/Dave,

1. A punch is jsut a punch. Then a punch becomes more than a punch. Then a punch becomes just a punch again.

2. You don’t know what you don’t know that is why you don’t have. If you knew what you knew you would have. Because to know and not to do is not to know.

Love the show
- Jose

Just to let you all know Mark Twain had also said (maybe orginated) “If at first you don’t succeed Try, try again. Then give up. There’s no use in being a damned fool about it.”

Not really a proverb anymore but a fine quote

cheers,
-nathan

A great chinese one from my mom:

A man always carries his faults on his back.

If at first you don’t succeed, sky diving is not for you.

“If you’re gonna shoot, shoot–don’t say you’re gonna shoot.”

I use this with my wife all the time when she threatens to discipline our kids (and then doesn’t always follow through).

Giving tribute to my grandmother, here are a few lines she put together and had posted in her kitchen…

“Simply and soley for the purpose at hand, and with purity of thought, not swerving from the path of duty, nor putting one on the spot,…But! If the food was good enough to eat and drink, don’t leave dirty dishes in the sink.”

Another translation version for “He who knows he has enough is rich.” is

The less you demand, the happier you are.

My Dad says:

Even a blind squirrel sometimes finds a nut.

“they are all different - but they are all still snowflakes”

Chinese I think, and from the Nader/Gonzalez campaign,
‘To know and not do, is not to know.’

we have many proverbs, which are told on a daily basis.
“el que a mal arbol se arrima, mala sombra le cobija” translated “the one who takes shelter under a bad tree, bad shade will cover his head”

“Faint heart never won a fair lady.”

This is a proverb that gets one over doubting the outcome of approaching someone for a romantic endeavor.

Love the show!

Here is a Turkish proverb for Wall Street bankers and investors including myself:

Strech/adjust your feet according to your blanket!

No matter where you go, there you are.

Multi-media –

Just posted this on my blog while suggesting people should listen in now or later:

http://runningahospital.blogspot.com/2008/09/proverbial-wisdom.html –

from China: “You can’t cross a chasm in two small jumps.”

I heard this on separate trips to Canada. One trip was in Victoria, Canada and the other was in Nova Scotia, both coasts. They were both said on ferry’s by military veterans…

“Hurry up and wait”

My family in Norway says: “There is no bad weather, only bad clothes.” It’s my favorite!

Always liked this attributed to Zulu culture:
“you have to run fast to catch the future, it’s not coming toward you, it is runningn away”
I find it strangfe that a proverb like this would have originated in a hunting or perhaps agrarian society, with,
one would think, a less hurried notion of time

One of my favorites:

A man on a galloping horse wouldn’t know the difference.

I think of this a lot as I am a perfectionist, but sometimes we have to remember that most people won’t look as closely at our work as we do.

Of course when we were doing house projects I would say this to my perfectionist husband and he would reply “Are we only having men on galloping horses as guests to our home?!”

Build a man a fire and he’s warm for a day.
Set a man on fire and he’s warm for life.

My mother is from Albania and we were taught to
“ask a hundred people their advice, then do as you pleased.”

-johnny from north augusta, south carolina

A couple from Nigeria:
“A man is either good at kicking or punching”
“Who cares what you used to kill your enemy as long as he’s dead”

from Jospeh Campbell:

Without crucifixion there will be no resurrection.

From a friend’s Grandmother: “Once begun, the work’s half done.”

“The sea is vast, your ship is small. Stay on your ship.”

Wise advice given to me when I was defending my dissertation.

My old Irish grandmother used to love saying “better drunk than the way we are”. Not sure if it’s a proverb but certainly memorable!

When I was in college, a teaching assistant in my Russian language class taught us, in Russian, “Don’t put your penis in the hot tea”. I’ve spent a lot of time in the 30 years since trying to figure out what that means, besides the obvious!

Hi Tom,

Here is a couple that comes from the Guyanese (Guyana, South America) culture.

As kids when we got infront of the TV my mother would always ask “Is your father a glass maker”. We would respond “No” and then she would say “Then get out of the way”

The other is “Your Eyes are bigger than your belly” when we don’t eat all of our dinner.

Derrick Lildhar
Toronto, Canada

My paternal grandfather was a fishing boat captain in the Canadian Maritimes in the early 1900s before he moved to Massachusetts, and my uncle, his grandson, shared with me a great old saying the fishing boat sailors had about the dangers of working in such cold waters: “If you fall overboard, swim for the bottom.” A bit dark and fatalistic, but I’ve always found it oddly humorous.

I am not sure if this is Nepali or Indian

Buy something expensive, cry once, buy something cheap, cry a many times

2 sayings that relate to the wall street happenings

1) Accept the credit and distribute the blame

2) The smaller the pot the quicker it boils

Even a dog’s hind end will see the sunshine sometime.

Ha ha ha, what a great one from Uganda!

“Never two without three!”

… a nonsense proverb that a friend and I used to say to the consternation of those who heard it. (As a teenager, we used to like to just throw it out there and wait for people’s reaction). It sounds like it means something and people often agreed even though it made no sense! Great show!

one from my family in Italy, which is on point with reference to the current financial bail-out

“Chi la rende, chi la da”, “he who lends something, never gets it back”

Everything that is legal is not necessarily moral and is everything that is illegal is not necessarily immoral.

Perhaps this is from my years living in the rural South, but one good one is:

‘You can’t polish a turd’…..

I guess you can draw your own conclusions!

(Great show, Tom, BTW. Charlie Rose on TV, and you one the radio - you guys are tops!)

When your only tool is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

An ancient one from Aesop.

I taught elementary school for many years and liked to put something meaningful on the wall behind my desk. Once I found this one, it stayed.

No act of kindness is ever wasted.

..about the rhubarb and patience proverb…you should know that rhubarb has laxative abilities, which says something about the combination.

Hi, when I was in the Navy years ago during the “Kindler, Gentler” years of cleaning up the Navy’s image, this came out of it…
“It takes a big man to cry, but it take a bigger man to laugh at that man.”

An ancient one from Aesop.

I taught elementary school for many years and liked to put something meaningful on the wall behind my desk. Once this one went up, it stayed.

No act of kindness is ever wasted.

there would be silk on on her back, except for her stomach.

meaning: she would like to pretend, by her dress, that she was better off except that she has to purchase necessities.

When a generally overcast sky would show a small break in the clouds, my mother would say there was “enough blue to make a dutchman a pair of trousers.” i often wondered about the derivation of that expression.

Everything that is legal is not moral and everything that is illegal is not necessarily immoral.

HAPPY IS THE GRAVE THE RAIN FALLS ON!

My hard working father of five used to say, “Almost only counts in horseshoes and handgranades”. One of the many ways he taught us to always live up to our full potential.

My mother always said:
“If you don’t use your head you have to use your feet.”

Meaning think about something before you do it.

better to be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.

luck favors the bold

Hi Tom, a good one for todays political climate is ” you are who you hang with” and another is ” if your going thru Hell–Keep going”

My eight-year old niece made a poster of this proverb for my wedding present. She made it up. When she got married, I had it copied in beautiful calligraphy to remind her of her natural wisdom.

No man shall call his wife a witch.
No woman shall call her wife a rat.

Growing up in Puerto Rico, my grandmother was a wealth of proverbs. I was a highly inquisitive child, but often times I made things much more complicated than they really were. When she’d notice it, she’d often tell me:

“You’re looking for the fifth leg of the cat”.

A bit odd, but an easy way of telling me to simplify things.

One good turn… gets most of the blanket!
Every man thinks his own geese swans…

PROVERB

SOMETIMES …. You must do SOMETHING … even it’s WRONG ….

My mom always told me one of 2 things:
“If wishers were horses, beggars would ride.”
It never made any sense to me.

The other was much more to the point:
“Wish in one hand, **** in the other, see which gets full first”.

Nick Semenza
Pocatello, Idaho

My great grandmother always said about things you might want, “if the good Lords willing and the creek don’t rise.”

When in-laws visit I always remember the Arab (¿) proverb:

A houseguest, like a fish, smells after 3 days.

Here’s one’s that’s very relevant to our current economic crisis.

“Beware of Wall Street: It starts in a cemetary, and ends in a River.”

I love this one that has saved me much frustration!

“Never try to teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time and annoys the pig.”

It’s a lot easier to fit a camel through the eye of a needle if you run him through a blender first.

My eight-year old niece made this saying up and made a poster for my wedding. I had it copied in calligraphy for her wedding, to remind her of an important piece of her native wisdom.

No man shall call his wife a witch.
No man shall call her husband a rat.

Great show. It’s interesting to see how you can sometimes find a touch of philosophy, culture even of history in such shortly crafted phrases.

As for my contribution, this is one of the guiding proverbs as far as I’m concerned (it’s a verse from the Hávamál) :

Cattle die, kindred die,
Every man is mortal:
But the good name never dies
Of one who has done well

Cheers,
Nic

From my mother, initially about packing for long trips but has general applications I think –

If you can’t carry it yourself, don’t pack it.

if a frog had wings he wouldn’t bump his bum when he jumped

?? i guess that’ll show ‘em whose cat ate the cabbage???

Here’s one right from Wall St :

“Don’t confuse brains for a bull market”.

Too true.

No moscas entrada in bocca cerado fly cannot enter a closed mouth
Mexico
Hunger makes a sweet
Sauce
Ireland

“Find out what they don’t like, then give them plenty of it”

SOMETIMES .. you must do SOMETHING … even if it’s WRONG

Old Yiddish proverb about someone who isn’t that bright:

He know, likie a cat knows when it’s sunday

Those who can’t hear must feel.

Freetown,Antigua, West Indies

This is said prior to receiving a spanking

4th grade memory:

He who goes to bed with an itchy bum, wakes up with a smelly finger.

immature, but i still remember it 20 years later

4 favorite adapted proverbs at my house & on my website on t-shirts, etc.:

1) Hungry minds think alike.

2) An ounce of prevention is a condom.

3) Good things come to those who lose weight.

4) There’s no place like 192.168.0.1

Here’s one I hope will become proverbial:

The only ordinary people are people you don’t know well enough yet. (The more cynical can replace the word “ordinary” with the word “normal.”

I’m taking a course on Spanish film at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va., and we’re studying the movie “Cria Cuervos” (Raising Ravens), about a family whose 9-year-old daughter is a would-be assassin. The title comes from the proverb: Raise ravens and they’ll peck out your eyes.

From my southern family comes, ‘you’ll buy a pig in a poke.’ Poke means paperbag and of course a pig can’t fit into a paperbag, so you might be getting taken in the deal.

One from my mother if one complained that the meat for dinner is tough.. “The only time it’s tough is when there is none”

A personal favorite that my Swedish grandpa used for people who were bragging. “Tomma tunnor skramlar mest”, which would translate to:

“Empty barrels make the most noise”.

The less you expect, the happier you are.
is a better translation than
“The less you demand, the happier you are.”

Don’t give away the baby’s milk - Indonesian

Casey Stengel quotes;

Managing is the art of getting credit for all the home runs those other guys hit.

Managing is keeping the guys that hate you away from the guys that are still undecided.

I won’t make the mistake of turning 70 years old again

Former boss told me:

Chance favors the prepared mind.

And my mom always said:

Pray as if it all depends on God, work as if it all depends on you.

Mary Ricker
Stoughton MA

My grandmother would listen to my imaginative excuses for why I lost my house key or was late and she would reply “a cow was flying over the moon, and as she flew, she left a pile of ….

“Health is Wealth”

My 93 year old grandmother has always said this, and I have always agreed. I am a 45 year old vegetarian runner/cyclist, and last week I had a heart attack for no reason that any doctors can figure out. Now her words are even more meaningful to me. If you have your health, you have it all!

RE the Wall Street fat cats:

They can’t be accused of ever having committed an unselfish act.

My favorite from AA “No matter where you are, there you are”.

Possess an attitude of gratitude

My Father always said “If you roll in manure, your going to get some on you.”

chinese: Muddy water if allowed to stand will turn clear

I grew up with a German mother whose favorite saying was “Wann nicht hoeren, dann muss fuehlen.” This was usually before I got a spanking!

My advice for the goverment is;
“Don’t work harder, work smarter.”
ans I will add;
“Don’t work to cause expense, work to cause returns.”
Thank you.

If you get to thinkin’ you’re a person of some influence, try orderin’ somebody else’s dog around.

Good judgment comes from experience, and a lotta that comes from bad judgment.

From my Dad
If you are kicked by a mule the 1st, it’s a mistake, the 2nd you are a fool.
(Neve make the same mistake again)

Mom
Just keep doing what you are doing and one day the sheet will get too short for your bed.
(will be unable to cove yourself)

I forgot to translate that last German proverb: When you don’t hear, then you have to feel.

A comment I’d like to hear more of when dining out:

Children should be seen and not heard.

Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.
(a caval donato non sin guarda en boca.)
please excuse my italian!
that’s about all i remember from italian 1 in college; i guess that’s why i wasn’t allowed to go to that beautiful country!

(during a life trial causing much stress…)
“if THIS is the worst thing that will EVER HAPPEN to you, how fortunate will you be in life!”

(It reminds one to put things in perpective)

From a former manager of mine at Douglas Aircraft Company in Long Beach, CA - turning down a request for more manpower on a project:

“can’t get nine women pregnant and have a baby in a month”

and on a somewhat speculative estimate:

“kinda like tryin to nail Jello to the wall”

or on someone actually getting something right for once:

“even a blind pig will find an acorn now and then”

Krishna
Somerville, MA

1. Rhubarb & patience: Rhubarb stems are a mild laxative, but the leaves contain much toxic oxalic acid, which will make an antiseptic poultice for wounds.

2. “Slimy shore & canoe”: Forget the L.L.Bean illustration! You’re barefoot & have to launch & retrieve a 500 lb. dugout canoe daily.

Got it yet? Would you prefer to do it over the pretty rocks & sand or over unpleasantly slimy, yucky ankle deep mud? Goes along with: “Don’t look at the height of the waves, just keep paddling.”

Interesting how this show was not political, yet many people focused their proverbs around political topics. Kind of shows how concerned americans are about the state of things, as well as how any tidbit of wisdom is so yearned for in the midst of such stupidity in the political arena.

Pearls passed on by my grandfather:

“Yeah, and if your aunt had balls she’d be your uncle.”

The cream rises to the top, while the bottom gets burned

He who smelt it, dealt it.

Posted on the Frig: Today is the first day of the rest of your life. ( I added and challenge you all with this)
What will you do today, to make tomorrow better.

Appropriate to these tough economic times?

Read it and weep.

Or, on a plaque in my garden:

Weed it and reap.