Comments for Bitch on the Blog

Comment on Operator by Chuck McConvey

Chuck McConvey — Tue, 21 May 2013 10:21:16 +0000

Choice paralysis disappears in direct proportion to the quantity of alcohol consumed. No guarantees on the quality of choice however.

Comment on Operator by Lorna's Voice

Lorna's Voice — Fri, 17 May 2013 13:59:04 +0000

Choice paralysis–apt phrase. I was watching some documentaries on what makes people happy (they made me kind of happy, not not real happy). One of them talked of a study that found that people who had fewer choices were happier with what they had than with people who had multiple choices. I suppose one with many options tends to fret over whether they made the “best” choice. Those with only one choice have no such conundrum.

So your current entrapment due to a sluggish bureaucracy may be a blessing–forced happiness with where you are.

Comment on Operator by rummuser

rummuser — Thu, 16 May 2013 12:47:09 +0000

May be you should go and case out your betrothed.

Comment on Right? Wrong! by bronxboy55

bronxboy55 — Thu, 16 May 2013 12:11:22 +0000

Did you win the bet because you knew the correct year, or because your father got it wrong?

People knew more things thirty years ago. These days, you’d have to soften the challenge a lot — maybe bet on which continent Goethe was from.

Comment on Operator by bitchontheblog

bitchontheblog — Tue, 14 May 2013 16:53:29 +0000

My dear John, money being the last taboo in our world I’ll let you into a secret I would be well advised to keep to myself:: I can’t afford anything – at the moment. My last luxury being toilet paper. The moment I run out of toilet paper or Tabasco sauce is the moment I know I am really poor. You know what: It’s why I detest people who tell us “to live in the moment”. Hell, no. I rather remember the good times and hope for a fortuitous future. So, please don’t send chocolate – an egg will do.

Affectionately,
U

Comment on Operator by finlaygrayJohn

finlaygrayJohn — Tue, 14 May 2013 16:23:28 +0000

At least you can afford to go…if you so wished

Comment on Right? Wrong! by bikehikebabe66

bikehikebabe66 — Tue, 14 May 2013 14:33:17 +0000

So much fun to read that. I LOVE YOU.

Comment on Right? Wrong! by bitchontheblog

bitchontheblog — Tue, 14 May 2013 06:42:25 +0000

You ask whether it’s the only time I got the better of my father. I am not competitive. I really couldn’t care less how much more people know than I do. What I do care about (and that is most certainly what my parents instilled in me) is what you DO with your brain cells. How you rub them together.

My father is phenomenally well educated. His memory for the most obscure facts legendary. However, and he’d be the first to say so, it’s not WHAT we know (though it helps) but how we put our knowledge together. Snippets of knowledge (as in facts) being just building blogs. A sort of foundation on which to build your castle. His foundation is sound. Mine is more airy fairy. Up in the clouds. I make up ‘facts’ as I go along. And painstaking detail has never interested me.

As an aside: I despaired with my son’s history lessons. I was INCREDULOUS. I had to bite on one my three beautiful pieces of driftwood to stifle my screams at him wasting three months on the wives of Henry VIII, yet not being taught a timeline, not knowing the significance of, say, 1066. To spare myself I do not go there. I do NOT wish to know what my son doesn’t know about history. That his schooling didn’t even give him the option learning Latin I shall overlook. With pain. But then that’s Britain for you. Which reminds me: In yesterday’s conversation with my father I said: Pane et circenses. I believe it was Cicero (though it wasn’t) who advised that to keep a people happy you give them bread and games. Not necessarily lions and gladiators but you get my drift. Nowadays we outsource our wars to countries far far away.

Naturally, my father, and rightly so, corrected me: It’s not pane. It’s panem. Pane being Italian today, not Latin of yesterday. What I enjoy about conversation with my father (and another friend of mine who is so sharp I don’t even notice when I have just cut myself, bleeding) is the constant battle of intellect. It’s like fencing. An elegant dance with blades. Sharpening our tools. Relentlessly. Needless to say that we sometimes talk over each other. That way neither of us knows what the other has just said. And that’s ok too. I swear by the concept of osmosis.

Comment on Right? Wrong! by reneejohnsonwrites

reneejohnsonwrites — Mon, 13 May 2013 22:47:42 +0000

Is that the only time you got the best of old dad? It reminded me of the American tv show – ‘Are you smarter than a fifth Grader?’ I never watch it. I explain this as having nothing to gain. If you don’t get the right answers then you have lost intellectually to a fifth grader. If you win, you’re only smarter than a fifth grader. It’s a no-win situation – nothing to feel good about. Once we know more than our parents, something magical is lost.

Comment on Right? Wrong! by bitchontheblog

bitchontheblog — Mon, 13 May 2013 18:39:15 +0000

Please don’t tie me into knots, Lorna. If my father had died a year after Goethe, more would be the pity, I’d be mummified by now. And ‘bonkers’. Miss Havisham, a woman of grace and one I admire, not least because she took lace to aesthetic heights, comes to mind.

Wrong? No, no; RIGHT!