Overheard at Table 4: Two Cryptoquotes

 

 

 

"Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we're here we should dance."

— Unattributed

 

 

"All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsions, habit, reason, passion, desire. "

— Aristotle

Overheard at Booth 4: Cryptoquotes - Least and Most by Terry Pratchett

 "When the least they could do to you was everything, then the most they could do to you suddenly held no terror."
— Terry Pratchett


universalmom
March 10, 2012, 1:14 pm
He's an amazing author.
MmeScherzo
August 20, 2013, 1:38 pm
Sounds like a quote from Solzhenitsyn.
ronasid
September 4, 2015, 1:40 pm
You are missed
xenia
September 17, 2018, 10:46 pm
This reminds m a quote from Solzhenitsyn found on this site: "You only have power over people so long as you don't take everything away from them. But when you've robbed a man of everything he's no longer in your power - he's free again." (from The First Circle)
Majka
October 22, 2019, 10:25 pm
Don't know who said it but "A person is dangerous when they have nothing to lose or everything to lose."
mohamm1
February 17, 2020, 9:28 pm
And now it seems that everything has been said.
gracefulghost
November 24, 2021, 8:47 pm
I'm terrified that they're not through yet....

Overheard at Booth 1: Cryptoquotes - Some Luck by Garrison Keillor

 "Some luck lies in not getting what you thought you wanted but getting what you have, which once you have got it you may be smart enough to see is what you would have wanted, had you known."
— Garrison Keillor

killdozer
March 23, 2015, 7:56 am
I like this one.
insomniac
April 17, 2015, 11:26 pm
So I really wanted this flu? I must be a masochist.
marnita
June 3, 2016, 12:28 pm
He said "some luck," not all luck. This rings true for me. In my own life, a few total disasters eventually led to some of the best things that ever happened to me.
darkyr
June 16, 2016, 10:11 am
Like having to stand in what looks like a longer line only to find out it's moving much more quickly.
letfreedomring
May 11, 2018, 9:51 am
A nice spin on moving on after not getting what ever we didn't get. I'm thinking of a job that, had I got it, I'd have been excessed within a few years. Instead I had a full career with that same agency.
YorkiesRule
December 16, 2018, 5:26 am
You can't always get what you want But if you try sometimes you might find You get what you need
Synonymous
March 6, 2021, 8:02 pm
letfreedomring similar situation, very early in my career I wanted to work at a company so bad but I took a job across the street from the company because they did not hire me. Looking out my window one day, I saw TV crews, camera trucks and a big commotion. The company I wanted so desperately to work for had gone bankrupt. I was glad I had NOT gotten that job over there.

Overheard at Table 3: Arboles de Fuego

2023-0615

La Playa de Bahia Dorada

The edge of each final wave that laps the shore;
A row of tiny white horses galloping up the strand.


2023-0615

Refrán

El Arbol de la Quina

Esta siempre a tu lado,
Porqué esquina.


2023-0616

Al Puro Surf, El Zonte, La Libertad

The crooked limbs of the Suessian tree
framing the picture-perfect ocean waves
upon which a happy surfer rides
the crest, until the board and
rider part ways,
each of them flung into the air.

And the waves marches
joyfully toward
the shore.

Overheard at Table 3: The Games We Play

My wife and I like to play this little game, where she says, "You should initiate sex more often" and I say, "Well how about tonight?" and she says, "No."

Overheard at Table 2: In the United Lounge with Americans

In the United Lounge
waiting for our flight to El Salvador - 

all the Americans 
on their laptops
updating their spreadsheets,

or speaking loudly on their phones
about sales meetings
about shipments
about how Robert really 
dropped the ball with
this customer or
that customer,

or their conversations over the chair armrests
about how they run their team:
"I take them out for fun, sure,
but they gotta hit their numbers first.
I mean, you gotta do the work
that pays for the fun, right?"



MR
2023-0608

Overheard at Table 1: Idea for Series - The Imagined History of Floridaman

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20230528-the-overseas-highway-the-us-floating-highway?utm_source=pocket-newtab

Since this railroad cum highway brought poor islands to the mainland and forever changed Florida, it would be interesting to have some sort of multigenerational series on "The Evolution of Floridaman"

He didn't necessarily come out of the swamps ... he was hanging out in the Keys.

Until the day that the gaps between the islands were bridged, and Floridaman came to the peninsula!

Do you think I can sell the idea to Carl Hiaasen?

 

 

 

 

 

Overheard at Table 2: Cryptoquotes - All Enterprises by Tacitus

 "All enterprises that are entered into with indiscreet zeal may be pursued with great vigor at first, but are sure to collapse in the end. "
— Publius Cornelius Tacitus

hopetheturtle
September 19, 2011, 3:35 pm
I disagree, some people see things through and don't lose their original zest for the project.
fredsevent
September 29, 2012, 3:20 pm
Is this a weird quote or what?
chopstix
December 6, 2012, 7:30 pm
All I know is that putting in "can", not "may" slowed me down quite a bit.
wvwoman
January 22, 2014, 10:20 am
me, too, chopstix--took me a while to find my error!
Highpoint
July 9, 2014, 1:59 pm
Meaning what? What is indiscreet zeal?
wvwoman
July 13, 2014, 11:49 am
good question, highpoint--who wants to take this one?!
kb83
September 9, 2014, 7:39 am
If you have to ask what indiscreet zeal is, it may just be hopeless.
montyb
December 23, 2014, 1:24 am
My end collapsed years ago.
LLapp
January 5, 2015, 4:51 pm
I think he means zeal that is untempered by due diligence -- that you need both zeal and prudence to bring a big pursuit to fruition. Does that help?
abracadebra
March 24, 2015, 2:37 pm
I think it means that the enterprises secrets are overly enthusiastic, that some things are just better unsaid.
killdozer
May 20, 2015, 2:53 pm
By "indiscrete zeal," he means recklessness, Enthusiasm without planning.
Andy451
October 11, 2015, 10:50 am
Is this why infidelity gets such a bad rap, in other words? Or marriage too, for that matter? Or even remaining celibate for that matter? What's a Roman to do then Tacitus? So Caesar should have written, "I came; I saw; I was conquered"? No wonder the Roman Empire crumbled in to dust. No wonder all empires that came before or after it, met the same fate. As the noble Roman Katie Couric would say, "Oh, now I get it!"
pegxpeg
July 20, 2016, 3:04 pm
Good explanation, killdozer.
CarpeLanam
November 7, 2016, 2:41 am
I spent some time trying to trace this quote... it may be from Annals XV, where there is a description of a conspiracy to assassinate Nero that fell apart and resulted in a bloodbath of the conspirators and their associates.
LLapp
November 28, 2016, 2:31 pm
Killdozer's explanation and CarpeLanam's context are so helpful. Thank you both!
blueladyblue
April 4, 2018, 8:26 am
This quote has been pursued with vigor by some of the comments here. Other comments were typed hurriedly with indiscreet zeal.
mohamm1
January 24, 2022, 7:09 pm
Therefore, use discrete zeal, or rent cars from National or Thrifty instead of Enterprise. ==================================== You solved this cryptogram in 83 seconds. That's worth 286 points!

https://cryptograms.puzzlebaron.com/

Overheard at Booth 3: Cryptoquotes - One by Einstein

 "Where the world ceases to be the scene of our personal hopes and wishes, where we face it as free beings admiring, asking and observing, there we enter the realm of Art and Science."
— Albert Einstein

maradnu
March 3, 2015, 4:04 pm
Too many only want to live in a scene of hopes and wishes
vintage38
December 30, 2017, 1:50 am
54 seconds
Capy
April 23, 2019, 9:21 am
To question all the time. My hero AE
pickleball
November 25, 2020, 1:01 pm
and what a world it is !!
hrossa
March 14, 2021, 5:51 pm
Art and science are one realm. Lovely thought, thanks AE.
Fudi
July 11, 2022, 10:50 pm
I was trying to fake it as a free being ... as usual.




https://cryptograms.puzzlebaron.com/

Overheard at Table 4: Cryptoquotes - Upon Books by Henry C Rogers

 "Upon books the collective education of the race depends; they are the sole instruments of registering, perpetuating and transmitting thought."
— Henry C. Rogers

puzzleme
September 26, 2013, 2:33 pm
True no longer.
wordfairy
March 28, 2015, 9:07 pm
Not sure this was ever true.
kb83
May 26, 2016, 2:52 am
Well, tweets do not transmit thought.
LLapp
July 10, 2016, 7:17 am
Astute comment, kb83, and stated in well under 140 characters!
MamaB
May 29, 2017, 2:45 am
So kb83 could have just tweeted it!
SippyGurl
August 13, 2017, 5:36 pm
tweets only transmit thoughts if the tweeterer has any
munchlet
August 14, 2017, 3:16 pm
Does that last thought apply to our Tweeterer-in-Chief?
miawallace
June 11, 2018, 11:32 pm
I pride myself in not knowing before now that tweeting has to be under 140 characters. Never tweeted and probably never will.
abra
June 29, 2018, 6:05 pm
I do not tweet eithrr.
mmfs83
September 29, 2018, 7:35 am
Nor I
eholland
November 2, 2018, 6:45 am
The failing @maiwallace claims 140 character limit for tweets! Character limit was changed to 280 in 09/2017. FAKE NEWS! SAD!
LLapp
January 5, 2019, 9:14 pm
eholland for prez in 2020!
badbob
September 23, 2019, 2:45 am
another never tweeter never facebooked don't intend to do either ever. i did however pass notes in studyhall
LLapp
June 22, 2020, 2:48 am
When we passed notes in junior high, they were at least a full page long, with drawings and jokes, and actually we wrote them during class and then exchanged them between classes, in the hallways. It was probably my favorite part of school, and I still have a big bagful of friends' long notes in my memory box.
montyb
August 31, 2020, 8:26 am
^ Oooh, I see potential for a lucrative career in extortion!

from https://cryptograms.puzzlebaron.com/

Overheard at Table 3: Therapy

Husband: My therapist says you're a bully.

Wife: You go back and tell her that's wrong!

Husband: I don't think therapy works like that.

Wife: Well, then I need to have a few words with her.

Husband: Maybe you should have your own sessions with her.

Wife: What?  And what am I gonna do?  Talk about the problems I'm having with you?  That's why I told you to GO to therapy!  So you could get fixed!

Husband: I might need to bump this up to two sessions per week.

Overheard at Booth 3: Rochefoucauld and Wilde Talk about the Sun and Death

In Booth 3, Francois de la Rochefoucauld opines, "Neither the sun nor death can be looked at with a steady eye."

Oscar Wilde retorts, "Watching the flight of Icarus, thus, must be doubly vertiginous."

Overheard at Booth 3: Sunglasses Make You Go Blind

... my wife keeps sending me all these Instagram reels with this one Australian woman talking about natural health and how everything is bad for you, and this last reel the woman was saying that root canal will give you cancer because microbes will get into the dead root and multiply.

So then I tried to find her name and I couldn't, but I was going through all the clips of her and in one she was talking about the dangers of sunglasses for everyone who isn't skiing, that the lenses don't let your eyes "learn how to adjust to the light" which will make your eyes, over time, go blind.

Didn't really catch it, but I think her point was that eyes need the sunlight to stay healthy.