Job Discussion Forums

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bf/Osman_Hamdi_Bey_001.jpg

Sheikh N Bake · Joined: 26 Apr 2007 Posts: 1307 Location: Dis ting of ours

The scary part is, the image almost makes sense to me.

Never Ceased To Be Amazed · Posted: Tue Oct 12, 2010 6:49 pm Post subject:

Almost?!? It's obvious that he's taking them from the classroom to the library...

NCTBA

007 · Posted: Tue Oct 12, 2010 7:13 pm Post subject: Re: Scot47 At Work - The Truth

Dedicated · Joined: 18 May 2007 Posts: 972 Location: UK

Scot47,

I'm not sure why you chose this picture of the Tortoise Trainer, which 007 pointed out was sold for $3.5 million in 2004, and is now in the Pera Museum.

Osman Hamdi Bey was an Ottoman statesman, intellectual, art expert and prominent Turkish painter, who founded the Istanbul Archaeological Museum. It was a sarcastic innuendo on the painter's own view of his style of work.

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

The skills required in training tortoises could be useful in my line of work.

Never Ceased To Be Amazed · Posted: Wed Oct 13, 2010 4:06 am Post subject:

I likened my charges to having the skill of herding cats...on Quaaludes...

NCTBA

Zaytoon · Joined: 30 Aug 2010 Posts: 12

Does anyone know what it says above the door?

Also is he really supposed to be a Sufi dervish? I thought they had white robes.

Grendal · Posted: Wed Oct 13, 2010 9:20 am Post subject:

If your going Turkish on us Mr. Scot, then you should familiarize yourself with Nasretin Hoca. This may be a closer lıkeness of you. Very Happy

Nasreddin Hodja had students from out of town. During the day he instructed them at the medrese and at night he and his wife accommodated them in their own home. One evening, the Hodja and his young students were returning back from a long day's study at the medrese. On their way home, they saw a couple of thieves in front of a shop. One of the men was filing the lock on the door with a rasp and the other one was watching him. The students, not realizing that the two men were intending to rob the store, asked the Hodja what they were doing. Nasreddin Hodja was in no mood to get involved with two burly robbers, but at the same time, he didn't want his students to think that he was witnessing a crime without doing anything about it. So, he decided to lie about what was going on.

`One of them is playing the saz and the other is listening to the music.' he explained evasively.

`But Hodja Effendi, what kind of music is this?' the boys protested, `There is no sound.'

`Oh, there will be sound,' the Hodja reassured them, `this is a special saz, its music will be heard tomorrow morning when the shop owner returns.'

http://www.readliterature.com/hodjastories.htm

Regards,

Grendal

ps. this is an English translation. it's funnier in Turkish.
you may like this pıc of him better http://3d.img.v4.skyrock.net/3d6/domates-patlican/pics/1628625040_small.jpg

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

Thirty-five years ago, as a teacher in rural Zambia, I used to read my secondary-school pupils the Nasreddin Hoja stories. They were rationed to one a day. The Zambian students liked them. I read them in English. My Turkish is limited and at my advanced age, it is unlikely that I will acquire any more languages.

I am often quite nostalgic about my time in Zambia - before the AIDS epidemic.

Sheikh N Bake · Joined: 26 Apr 2007 Posts: 1307 Location: Dis ting of ours

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

I speak of the days before television. Can you imagine that - life without the idiot-box ?

Secondary school students were more easily entertained then.