A Square Deal

"We must treat each man on his worth and merits as a man. We must see that each is given a square deal, because he is entitled to no more and should receive no less." ---Teddy Roosevelt; 1904 campaign [good words for this political season]

   

The Square Deal Speech: American Literature Website

This Blog: Popes, Labor, the Gilded Age and Theodore Roosevelt

You Musta Been a Beautiful Baby

"There's only one pretty child in the world, and every mother has it." ---Chinese Proverb

Blog Author's First Mother's Day

Not an Addition

"Every time he opens his mouth, he subtracts from the sum total of human wisdom" ---Teddy Roosevelt; regarding a Civil Service Commission flunky

Theodore Roosevelt bus at Oyster Bay, NY, train station

I think we all want to say something like this at some point.  Unfortunately, we usually lack the "wit", "nerve" or "status" that would allow us to say it openly.  Plus, with my Christian values, I'd only have to repent later!

Friendship

As for myself, I judge the loss of all one's possessions easier to bear than the loss of a faithful friend. ---Martin Luther

Throughout life, a faithful friend is a very great blessing. . .he can offer help in ordinary dangerous difficulties, but also regarding spiritual temptations. For even though your heart is totally confirmed in the Holy Spirit, there is still a great advantage in having a friend with whom you can talk about religion and from whom you may hear words of comfort. ---Martin Luther

He that has many friends has no friends. ---AEsop

Why a Duck? (From the Marx Brothers)

[In the Marx Bros. movie Cocoanuts, Groucho is Mr. Hammer, a swindler conducting a Florida land auction. Chico is an idiot savant he hires to make false bids to drive up land prices. (Universal Studios most recently owned the rights to this movie, which entered the public domain.  The rights were sold and resold over time.)  This whole thing is silly spoof with double meanings, as is my comment about the naming of this blog at the end.]

HAMMER: Do you know what a lot is?
CHICO: Yeah, itsa too much.
HAMMER: I don't mean a whole lot. Just a little lot with nothing on it.
CHICO: Any time you gotta too much, you gotta whole lot. . .
HAMMER: Come here, Rand McNally and I'll explain this thing to you. Now look, this is a map and diagram of the whole Cocoanut section. . .Here's Cocoanut Manor. Here's Cocoanut Heights. That's a swamp; right over there where the road forks, that's Cocoanut Junction.
CHICO: Where have you got Cocoanut Custard?
HAMMER: Why, that's on the forks. You probably eat with your knife, so you wouldn't have to worry about that. . .Now, here's a little peninsula, and here is a viaduct leading over to the mainland.
CHICO: Why a duck?
HAMMER: . . .I say, here is a little peninsula, and here's a viaduct leading over to the mainland.
CHICO: All right. Why a duck?
HAMMER: I'm not playing Ask-Me-Another. I say, that's a viaduct.
CHICO: All right. Why a duck? Why a--why a duck? Why-a-no-chicken?
HAMMER: I don't know why-a-no-chicken. I'm a stranger here myself. All I know is that it's a viaduct. You try to cross over there a chicken, and you'll find out why a duck. It's deep water, that's viaduct.
CHICO: That's why a duck?
HAMMER: Look! Suppose you were out horseback riding and you came to that stream and wanted to ford over there. You couldn't make it. Too deep.
CHICO: But what do you want with a Ford when you gotta horse?
HAMMER: I'm sorry the matter ever came up. All I know is that it's a viaduct.
CHICO: Now look. . .all righta. . .I catcha on to why-a-horse, why-a-chicken, why-a-this, why-a-that. I no catch on to why-a-duck.
HAMMER: I was only fooling. They're going to build a tunnel in the morning. Now, is that clear to you?
CHICO: Yes, everything---except why-a-duck. . .
HAMMER: And then, there's a little clearing there, a little clearing around it. You see that wire fence there?
CHICO: All right. Why-a-fence?
HAMMER: Oh no. We're not going to go all through that again!

BTW: The URL of this blog---that's "why a duck" ["yaduck"]!!!

Happy St. Pat's!

    

     "I cannot keep silent. . .so many favors and graces has the Lord deigned to bestow on me in the land of my captivity [Ireland, the first time around]. For after chastisement from God. . .our way is to exalt Him and confess His wonders before every nation under heaven. . .I am imperfect in many things; nevertheless, I want my brethren and kinsfolk to know my nature so that they may perceive my soul's desire." ---The Confessions of St. Patrick (died March 17, A.D. 461)

   St. Patrick was born in the Roman province of Britain between AD 385-390.  His birthname was probably Maewyn Succat.  He was born into a wealthy Christian family.  While tending the family sheep in his " tweens" or teens, he was kidnapped and taken to Ireland as a slave.

     Patrick felt he had never taken his faith seriously before his kidnapping, and he experienced a spiritual awakening while enslaved.  He eventually escaped slavery, got theological training, and went back to Ireland as a missionary. 

    

Educational T.V.

"I find television very educating. Every time someone turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book!" ---Groucho Marx; in variant wordings throughout the 1950s

 

This Blog: More Groucho Quotes and a Short Bio

This blog, in its current updating, has been on a mission to track down sources of quotes more exactly.  This was as exact of a source as I could find for this quote.  

This blog has undergone a facelift to bring it into the more modern era of blogging expectations, especially as outlined by our dominant search engine.  Things have certainly changed in the years since Blogspot blogs started up, as noted by an update to my oldest surviving post on this blog.