Job Discussion Forums

kimo · Joined: 16 Feb 2003 Posts: 668

I don't mean to be SARScastic either.

Can you imagine what it is like here in this country right now? A certain stress is swelling in the air. You can't see it, but it is there. Breathing is hard and heads hurt with little to do but pound keyboards. People are holed up in their cages with too much time to think and too much anxiety to figure out how to alleviate. I speak not merely of English teachers but of 1.3 billion other people as well.

This is not a normal time. Spank the boisterous ones if you must. But remember they are our comrades in this struggle. They share this perilous time and place with us.

MartinK · Joined: 01 Mar 2003 Posts: 344

chinasyndrome · Posted: Thu May 08, 2003 8:44 am Post subject:

Ditto.

Everything got weirder than usual, even - or maybe especially - us, but the threads are calming down and we're generally having some harmless fun. Please just don't be over-sensitive.

Arioch 36 and I are off-forum friends (at least, he boasts to all and sundry that we are) Wink

and we've kind of goofed around in a fun way today, but then I worried for at least 0.0000000001 of a second that I might be the next one to hear 'Walkies!' and the sound of a bullet being chambered. ( I was about to say a gun being c***ed but if I use cock, even in a correct manner, it will become another disk in the skeet shooting competition we wage against the software.)

Dave and moderators, thanks for tolerating us but can we please go back to DefCon 2?

J.D. · Guest

ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - mobey dick - ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - dick tracey - ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - tricky dicky - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -ditto - ditto - ditto - ditto -

chinasyndrome · Posted: Thu May 08, 2003 8:54 am Post subject:

J.D. you've got waaaaaaaaaaaay too much time on your hands! Confused

J.D. · Guest

Chinasyndrome:

Would you please complain to my BOSS that they are paying me way too much and working me way too little? Please? Please? Pretty Please?

Hamish · Joined: 20 Mar 2003 Posts: 333 Location: PRC

J.D. · Guest

Only the nose --knows! (Should be only the shadow knows)
But this is a clue to answer the prior post from my octogenarian brother.

Hamish · Joined: 20 Mar 2003 Posts: 333 Location: PRC

RVN · Joined: 05 May 2003 Posts: 62 Location: China

"May you live in interesting times", is meant to be an old Chinese curse. They must have really annoyed somebody - even before SARS.

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

There were supposedly three curses :

May you live in interesting times.
May you come to the attention of those in high places.

And I can't remember the third !!!! help !

Anne-Marie Gregory · Posted: Thu May 08, 2003 11:04 am Post subject:

Can anyone please tell me the derivation of that saying. I read it in a novel before coming out here.

J.D. · Guest

"May You Live in Interesting Times"
In a speech in Cape Town, South Africa, on June 7, 1966, Robert F. Kennedy said, "There is a Chinese curse which says, "May he live in interesting times." Like it or not, we live in interesting times..." Journalists picked up the phrase and it has become a commonplace.
However, the popularity of this "Chinese curse" puzzles Chinese scholars, who have only heard it from Americans. If it is of Chinese origin, it has somehow escaped the literature, although it may be a paraphrase of a liberal translation from a Chinese source, and therefore unrecognizable when translated back to Chinese. It might be related to the Chinese proverb, "It's better to be a dog in a peaceful time that be a man in a chaotic period."

Stephen DeLong, who has been researching this quotation for several years and details his quest on his own website, has traced the quotation back to a 1950 science fiction story: "U-Turn" by Duncan H. Munro, a pseudonym for Eric Frank Russell.

Quoted from the web.

R · Joined: 07 May 2003 Posts: 277 Location: United Kingdom

From Phrase Finder (http://phrases.shu.ac.uk/meanings/245000.html):

"While widely reported as being an ancient Chinese curse, this phrase is likely to be of recent and western origin. It seems to be intended to at least sound Chinese in the 'Confucious he say' mould.

In some investigations in 1996 and later by Stephen DeLong the earliest reference he was able to find was 'U-Turn', a sci-fi short story by Duncan Munro (Eric Frank Russell),1950. It may be that Russell coined the phrase himself or he may have heard it elsewhere."

Rob.

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

Origin of what saying ?