Overheard at Booth 3: Sharing is Caring

Otis Redwing: Sharing is Caring!

Lucky Moran: Except when it's VD.

Otis: Well, yeah ... true.

Overheard at Booth 2: Have Humans Been Cloned

 

https://www.businessinsider.com/ethics-of-human-cloning-scientific-progress-2020-7

 

Overhead at Table 3: Cryptogram and Responses

"There are authors who write to communicate, and there are authors who write to impress themselves."
— Mark S. Hertzog

Comments on this Puzzle:
nevadasmith68
June 20, 2013, 10:21 pm
Hemingway would be one of those who wrote to impress themselves.
Allen
July 31, 2014, 5:49 am
That's why we've never heard of him, I guess.
QuexUl
October 9, 2014, 2:45 am
What about the authors who write to communicate that they want to impress themselves?
LLapp
August 1, 2016, 5:59 pm
When I read Hemingway, it's like I can hear a deep clean gong of truth inside his prose. His writing is exquisite.
maradnu
October 2, 2017, 6:15 am
Hemingway only won the Nobel Prize for literature and a Pulitzer Prize for fiction - clearly not much of a writer.
writeon
January 30, 2018, 4:14 pm
Awards like that don't necessarily mean the author appeals to the masses, but to academia. I love to read quality literature but quickly grow weary of run-on sentences.
badbob
August 30, 2018, 2:13 am
anyone caring to waste an afternoon should go to the Bulwer Lytton web site. really great bad opening lines. lots of laughs
LLapp
January 31, 2021, 4:56 am
My favorite passage from "The Old Man and the Sea": Imagine if each day a man must try to kill the moon, he thought. The moon runs away. But imagine if a man each day should have to try to kill the sun? We were born lucky, he thought. // Then he was sorry for the great fish that had nothing to eat and his determination to kill him never relaxed in his sorrow for him. How many people will he feed, he thought. But are they worthy to eat him? No, of course not. There is no one worthy of eating him from the manner of his behavior and his great dignity. // I do not understand these things, he thought. But it is good that we do not have to try to kill the sun or the moon or the stars. It is enough to live on the sea and kill our true brothers.
Elephino
April 24, 2021, 10:43 pm
^ wow.
Persephone59
September 16, 2021, 3:04 am
Hey, writeon, what do you have against Charles Dickens? And LLapp, I am glad you like Hemingway; so do I. I admire your comparison of his prose to a gong. He got me through a good stretch of my hospital stay last year, as it was the only literature they had; they could have done far worse! I read "For Whom the Bell Tolls". Too bad you don't like DH Lawrence. Oh well.
abra
May 4, 2022, 2:13 am
The only Hemingway I've ever read was The Old Man and the Sea. I really did like that one.

Overheard at Table 3: Our Perfect Mate

... we spend so much time describing our perfect mate: what they will be like, what they like and dislike, what they look like, what their personality traits are, even what they do for a living or what kind of family they come from, yet

we never seem to spend much time thinking about what we will bring to the relationship.  What we have that will be a perfect mate for someone else.  What are we like?  Our likes and dislikes?  What we look like.  Have we examined our personality traits?  In short, what are we doing to make sure that WE are someone else's perfect mate?

Overheard at Booth 1: Lock and Key

BLUES SONG

I was listening to Early Texas Blues song and heard one called "Lock and Key Blues"

Couldn't hear the lyrics all that well, but this came to mind as a Blues song.  The misogyny is on full display here, and beyond the obvious satire of the typical Blues song, there is a seriousness, in that men do indeed murder their spouses for reasons such as are described in these lyrics

Lock and Key

I got a woman
keep her under lock and key
I said I got a woman
keep her under lock and key
That’s the only way I know 
she won’t run around on me

I got a woman
keep her chained to the floor
Oh yeah I got a woman
And I keep chained to the floor
That way she won’t
be crawlin’ ‘round some other man’s door

Well you know I got a woman
She six feet underground.
I said, I got a woman
She be six feet under da ground
That’s the only way I know 
She won’t be runnin’ ‘round.

That’s the only way I be sure
she won’t be runnin’ all over town.

MR

2023-0223

Overheard at Booth 3: Sweet Virginia

This was inspired by the news story of a 1st grader who took his mother's gun to school and shot his teacher.  While she did not die, she could have.

Interesting note: the parents knew their child was violent, and usually were present with him at school.  They were not that day.

This raises the question of: if they KNEW their child was unable to be unattended or else would turn violent, then a) WHY did they leave him unattended, b) WHY did they have a deadly weapon accessible to him and c) WHY did they have him around other vulnerable children?

Sweet Virginia

hey hey what you say
little johnny blew teacher away
hey ho what choo know
he sent her way down below
hey hey what you say
school out early today
hey hey so much fun
come to school with mommy’s gun
La la la de dah
blood splash in the first grade hall
blah blah blah blah blah
another day in americah
another day in americah
another day in americah

MR

2023-0222

 

 

D G A D

 

Overheard at Booth 3: The Luck of the Maintenance Guy

 ... we hired a new maintenance guy.  Had to relocate him from Lubbock.  HR says that they nearly rescinded the offer because it took him so long to get the drug screen.  He kept saying that he kept going to the place to take the test and they were always closed.

But finally he got it in, and we promised to pay him back for his hotel while he was relocating.  At first we we thought we got a deal because he got a place for $200 ... a WEEK!  Hadn't heard of that in years.  We were joking that he obviously got a hotel with an hourly rate.

Then it turns out he says his debit card got ripped off, so he needed cash to pay the place.  We figured that was the price you pay for staying in a place like that, but we got a receipt from the hotel and paid him back.  

Now today, he didn't show up all day.  Says that he was on his way to work and his suspension gave out, so his truck was in the shop all day.   He was able to stop by and pick up his check, though.

Seems to be some really bad luck.  I just don't know if the bad luck is on him ... or on us for hiring him!