True Humility

God loves us, not because of who WE are, but because of who HE is. ---Marie Byars

  

For Mother's Day: Martin Luther on Children

Children are the most delightful pledges of a loving marriage. They are the best wool on the sheep. ---Martin Luther

It is well known that children, according to the ordinary course of things, bear not only the physical appearance of their parents, but also their moral and mental characteristics. ---Martin Luther

In all simplicity and without any argument, children believe that God is gracious and that there is an eternal life. ----Martin Luther

Try Something New

Here's a novel thought: how about putting more people with a sociology or cultural anthropology background into the State Department??? ---Marie Byars

Fleet-Footed

"I could dance with you till the cows come home. On second thought, I'd rather dance with the cows till you came home!" --Groucho Marx in Duck Soup (Paramount Pictures, 1933)

    Groucho said this as the leader of Freedonia, His Excellency Rufus T. Firely.  As usual, he was making sport of someone kind of "stuffy." In this case, he was flirting with a pretty young woman while pursing the widow, Mrs. Teasdale, played by the stoic Margaret Dumont, for her money.  Mrs. Teasdale was the widow of the past leader and got Firefly the position.

      Dumont is sometimes referred to as the "Fifth Marx Brother" for her ability and willingness to play stuffy straight woman alongside the zany Marx Brothers.  (Zeppo Marx, who appeared in several of the early movies, was the lesser-known fourth.  There technically was a fifth brother, Gummo, who left the act to sere in WW1 and never returned.)

     The Marx Brothers movies, though settings change, generally follow a template. Chico and Harpo are friends who engage in a lot of slapstick comedy.  Harpo, of course, doesn't speak and mimes everything.  Chico usually gets in a piano solo, and Harpo usually gets in a harp solo (although that didn't happen in Duck Soup).  

     Groucho usually plays someone with an outlandish name who has "failed upward."  He gets into some sort of position with a little bit of authority thfough some misunderstanding of his actual abilities. Comedy ensues.  

    I like Groucho's work best of the three in the movies. However, you couldn't have three of the same, or it wouldn't work.  But Groucho is always reeling off one-liners like this, and you (or at least I did the first few times) have to listen hard for the multiple meanings of what he's saying.

     At the bottom of another post, I covered some of the pathos that Groucho's life actually encapsulated.

    Here, though, I shall move on to look at (literally) Margaret Dumont.  She was born as Juliette Baker.  For all the jabs Groucho took at her about her looks, she was a real beauty when she was younger.

Margaret Dumont, photo in public domain

Margaret Dumont & Groucho Marx in The Cocoanuts (1929); public domain

This Blog: Info about Freedonia and Duck Soup