Four-letter word debates

"Debate" is 

a 4-letter word?
Why are we afraid of

 having open debates?

consider the following ideas to stimulate healthy debate:

• Offer praise every time someone raises a dissenting opinion. 

• Not every one of your ideas are going to be gems. 

• You need to be able to hear criticism

• dissension is important.

• not a synonym for discuss. 

Can it get confrontational? Yes.
Can it get heated and passionate? I hope so.

  step1) Now focus on task. Be ready for
             our 4-letter word data:

         Write yr  real personal fav  4-letter word.
          __ __ __ __

fool, gods, real, calm,  

cool, full, best, dudetime, 

play, help, chill,  

game, tale, lies, joke

   step2)  From these two quotations on LIFE, 

        How close are they to your views? Elaborate.

1- “….it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.”
              - Macbeth  (William S.)

2- "They lived und laughed ant loved end left." 

     -  Finnegans's wake  (James Joyce)

  step3) What is at once  ....

• more amorphous than art, 
• more single-minded than science, and 
• more philosophical than philosophy itself?  

    a)  Remorse,   b)  Forgetfulness,        c) Love       d)  Freedom

 Brainpickings  by Maria Popova

Made yr Valentine?  Not yet!


 "For happiness I pine, 

  so come and be my Valent...ine"

What Is Love? 

Stendhal in his fantastic 1822 treatise on love:

Love is like a fever which comes and goes quite independently of the will. … there are no age limits for love.

Ambrose Bierce, with the characteristic wryness of The Devil’s Dictionary:

Love, n. A temporary insanity curable by marriage.

Katharine Hepburn in Me : Stories of My Life:

Love has nothing to do with what you are expecting to get — only with what you are expecting to give — which is everything.

Mathematician Bertrand Russell, in The Conquest of Happiness:

Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky puts it even more forcefully in The Brothers Karamazov:

What is hell? I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love.

SPIES NARRATIVES - 3 TO FOLLOW 1940-2010

THREE  spies 1940-2010

READ and PICK UP THE BEST FOR YOU

1. Humam al-Balawi
2. Kim Philby
3  3. Chapman

Do it from The Top Ten, 

        Ah, SURPRISE for Alaric, the numero uno.
                                                            read BBC report at the end

Alaric and  ENIGMA

                                  

• https://www.toptenz.net/10-brilliant-double-agent-spies-history.php 

1. Humam al-Balawi

The triple agent who conducted the deadliest attack on the CIA in Afghanistan.

Not everyone who claims to be your friend is actually your friend,and the CIA learned this lesson, the hard way! Humam al-Balawiwas studying medicine in Istanbul, Turkey, when a localintelligence agency found him leaning towards extremists. He wascaptured and the CIA took over his case. They offered him tobecome a double agent for them, and he agreed. However, justbeing a double agent was not enough for him, he wanted to bea triple-agent!The CIA had been running programs to make double agents.Humam al-Balawi seemed like an ideal candidate to be a doubleagent. He was an educated man, a medical doctor. He was likelyto adapt modern moderate school of thought. Al-Balawi was sentto Afghanistan and assigned to report Al-Qaida’s activities. He didreport enough to win 100% of the CIA’s confidence. When heachieved that, he did what he always meant to do.One day, he announced that he had a very important bit aboutAyman al-Zawahiri, the current No.1 of Al-Qaida. He said that heneeded to convey the information only to superior officers, so hewas called in to the CIA command office. Since he was late andsenior CIA officials were anxiously waiting for him, nobodybothered to check him for security precautions. He went straightin. Once inside the office, he blew himself up, killing seven CIAofficers and two military officers. This was the deadliest strike onthe CIA in more than 25 years.

2. Kim Philby

•  The most brilliant Soviet spy of Cold War era. 
•  Receiver of the Order of the British Empire.

Kim Philby is to MI6 what Aldrich Ames is to the CIA. The onlydifference is that the Kim Philby phenomenon is much bigger.Philby was the biggest mole in the West by the communist bloc.He was the pivotal figure of the famous Cambridge Five (ring ofSoviet spies). 

Cambridge Five was a group of (you guessed it) five spies whobecame communists during their student years at CambridgeUniversity. All five members worked in the British Secret Services.Four of those members have been located, while the fifth one isstill a mystery. 

However, one thing is certain, which is that Philby was the centralfigure of everything.Philby was hired for the secret service by none other than GuyBurgess, a Soviet double agent himself and a member of theCambridge Five. Unlike Aldrich Ames, Philby was a huge success.He was working wholeheartedly and he was doing a brilliant jobfor the British, but all this time he was also transferring informationand messages to Soviets, during WWII and during his missions inAustria, Spain, Turkey, USA, Lebanon, and of course, the UK.

For his sublime services, the government awarded him with thehighest merit, The Order of the British Empire! It took eight yearsof investigation to realize that Philby was indeed a double agent,yet still he could not be captured. He was serving on a mission inLebanon, from where he fled to Moscow and resided there as anational hero for the rest of his life. 

He did not do all this for money, women or anything such. In fact,his first wife, the love of his life left him because she thought hewas sympathetic to ‘tyrant bloodsucking capitalists,’ little knowinghow loyal he was to the hammer and sickle. He did all this forsomething he believed in, communism. Perhaps it is a good thingthat he died a year before the demise of his beloved socioeconomicsystem. Otherwise, it would have broken his heart, itwould have made him feel that all his sacrifices were in vain.

  3. Chapman

• A criminal, turned German agent, turned British double agent.
• Only Englishman to receive Iron Cross.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/legacy/tv/2011/11/double-agent-theeddie-chapman.shtml 

Edward A. Chapman, codename “Zigzag,” was an explosivesexpert. Yet, unlike some others in this list, he wasn’t using histalent for anything good. He was robbing jewelry shops. He wasalso a master of breaking locks.

In 1939, he was caught red handed trying to rob a nightclub.Jersey police imprisoned him in Channel Islands. He wassupposed to serve only two years in Channel Islands, but policewere making a case against him to serve another 14 years on themainland prison. However, fate had decided something else.In 1940, the Nazi army occupied Channel Islands. They did notrelease prisoners but started researching for anybody useful. Ofcourse, Chapman shined out. By the time his two yearsentence was completed, he had become a German agent. Theytook him to Paris and further trained him in explosives, radiocommunication and parachute jumping. Germans assigned himthe task to blow up de Havilland aircraft factory in Hatfield. AGerman bomber jet carried him over England and he jumped.MI5 was aware of the German plans. They were decryptingGerman coded messages, so they knew where and whenChapman would land. Soon after he landed on the ground, he washunted. During interrogation, he showed his intent to become adouble agent. MI5 believed him and decided to help him.The British authorities designed one of the most brilliant deceptionoperations of WWII – a faked sabotage of de Havilland factory. Itworked! In fact, it worked so well that even some of the workersthought their factory had been destroyed.

When Chapman returned, Germans considered him a hero, agreat hero who deserved Iron Cross, the highest civil militaryaward of German army. Chapman remains the only British personto have received it. 

BONUS TRACK. -Alaric

It was an audacious double-cross that fooled the Nazis and shortened World War II. Now a document, here published for the first time, reveals the crucial role played by Britain's code-breaking experts in the 1944 invasion of France.

• Related to Iberian peninsula  somehow..,

• Alaric (484-507) va promulgar la Lex Romana Wisigothorum

• PS1; interessant que un francès (franco-provençal Jaume D'Alaric,)  va ser enviat  que va viure a la cort del Gran Khan mongol al 1267!! .. o no.

 PS: Leed malditos en el post, lecturatodolocura. 

Pedid y se os darà....

risen from modest means to become one of history’s ghostest writers?

1. Ja va dir algú que Shaksper no va escriure poemes ni teatre,....

1. algun altre que Marco polo no va anar allà ..

1. la identitat de Columbus -aka Cristoffa Corombo  ...

poetry and poems - st jordis day_2

  

  

L O N E L I N E S S  

meaning number 1 in the poem   --    

At livingpoetry blog_

if you read everything between the parenthesis,

 you read "a leaf falls." 

The rest spells "oneliness."

 If you add the beginning "l" to the "oneliness

--that is,

 everything not in parenthesis--

you get "loneliness." 

This poem is heartbreaking. 

Upon first reading, I thought, how clever. 

 But the more I read it, the more it got to me. 

The form illustrates falling, motion, 

slimness, even termination. 

The lines are long--not just the poem as a whole, 

but the letters in the poem--so many l's and f's. 

Long, even fluid lines,

 all leading down. 

AND   my selected  POEM:   

For those of us who say to ourselves:We don't get   forgetfulness  

   text

Forgetfulness          

 by Billy Collins                      

The name of the author is the first to go followed obediently by the title, the plot, the heartbreaking conclusion, the entire novel which suddenly becomes one you have never read, never even heard of, 

as if, one by one, the memories you used to harbor decided to retire to the southern hemisphere of the brain, to a little fishing village where there are no phones. 

Long ago you kissed the names of the nine Muses goodbye and watched the quadratic equation pack its bag, and even now as you memorize the order of the planets,
something else is slipping away, a state flower perhaps, the address of an uncle, the capital of Paraguay. 

Whatever it is you are struggling to remember, it is not poised on the tip of your tongue, not even lurking in some obscure corner of your spleen. 

It has floated away down a dark mythological river whose name begins with an L as far as you can recall,
well on your own way to oblivion where you will join those
who have even forgotten how to swim and how to ride a bicycle.

No wonder you rise in the middle of the night
to look up the date of a famous battle in a book on war.
No wonder the moon in the window seems to have drifted
out of a love poem that you used to know by heart. 

well on your own way to oblivion where you will join those who have even forgotten how to swim and how to ride a bicycle.
No wonder you rise in the middle of the night to look up the date of a famous battle in a book on war. 

No wonder the moon in the window seems to have drifted out of a love poem that you used to know by heart.

Desire to considerate desideratum -St Jordis poetry -1

Desiderata – Max Ehrman

Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others,
even to the dull and ignorant; they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter,
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.

Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs,
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals,
and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.
Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be.
And whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace with your soul.
With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

- Max Ehrman (1926)

poetry on number one, luck and lonliness -no dragons sorry

Those were the days 

 in the 2011, 

we lived in the analogic times ...

• nowalmost noontime 

 we look back at that day

11/1/11 official day to do it on your own -song

• This one’s for the number geeks. It’s 11/1/11 today, and an auspicious date, according to numerologists. 

“Numero Uno symbolises success. 

Primarily, the Number One deals with strong will, positivity abd pure energy,” says a Delhi-based numbers expert. 

“It reflects new beginnings, and purity. 

The symbolic meaning of Number One is further clarified when we understand One represents both kinds of action: physical and mental,” he says, adding that it’s the sort of date that can make dreams come true. 

• “Make a wish today,” he says. “One encourages us our action will be rewarded in kind.” 
• Perhaps. But for many others, it’s just another day. 

“Ones are the loneliest numbers. 11/1/11 11:11,” 

          said a Tweet by a user called AshSimmonds.

TASK. Compose a visual poems with the letters so that you joing both, convey the feeling with the meaning.

First which one succceded best, 

the red on the right or the blue on the left? 

• POEM:  loneliness   

             lon e          

          l  i n  es    s

l o n 

 e
l i n
n e s

 s

2. the classic by e. e. cummings 

with its oneliness

(a leaf falls on loneliness)




1(a
leaffall
s)onel
iness

section  Ω .   


Time to say good bye, with...

 a book for the autumn of your earthling moments...


Live your life and include 

                  your best suitable soundtrack at your last Orders!


which is the soundtrack for an appropiate gathering / friends funeral?

proverbial life in the tribulations of a baffled citizen

PART1.   
    ___   _     Interludi with PROVERBS ___   

When society laws make 

personal choices go on the wrong direction 

to the public interest, 

someone has to address the mistake!...

4>3>2

So, minister.... we are:

• firing into the wrong flock /
• 
  
• shooting one's own grandmother
• 
  
• Measure your guilt, then stretch your legs.

• see proverbs  link:       

 a) pulling your leg ....three times

b) They must be strong legs that can support prosperous days. 

c) He that has good legs, has often bad boots.

d) If his legs fail her, he fights on her knees.

Read more: How to Learn English Proverbs




PART2.   language Follow-up 

Click on ... SMART-Words

Communication: Synonyms for words related to speech -

This collection of synonyms and antonyms also explains the meaning of synonyms to learn how to use them in in spoken words or writing. The meaning of synonyms is highly important in writing essays, papers, abstracts, etc.