Monday, November 1, 2010

Minims

I recently came across a copy of an old book from the early 80s that had, in its day, been one of my favorites. Titled Minims, by Tom Weller, it gives the reader a few dozen little bits of truth that don't quite rise to the level of being called 'maxims'. Quite to the contrary, in fact; as the title of the book might imply. If I had found it a couple weeks ago, it might have been included in my last book post, down with Dave Barry's Book of Bad Songs. So, because I like you all so much, I offer you a small selection of my favorite Minims (which is probably as close as I'm likely to get to a meme post). . .

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Two heads are more numerous than one. . .

The way to a man's stomach is through his esophagus. . .

The bigger they are, the harder they hit. . .

You have to take off your shoes
Before you take off your stockings. . .

You can fool all of the people some of the time;
You can fool some of the people all of the time;
And that should be sufficient for most purposes. . .

Equality is the great leveler. . .

You'll catch more flies with honey than you care to. . .

An apple a day makes 365 apples a year. . .

No one achieves immortality in his own lifetime. . .

Twelve is as good as a dozen. . .

Time heals all non-fatal wounds. . .

Almost any misfortune is preferable to a worse one. . .

The road to Hell is paved
By the same contractors as all the other roads. . .

Fortune favors the lucky. . .

There are more things in Heaven and Earth
Than anyplace else. . .

and my own personal favorite (which, when you think about it, is actually decently pithy, fer realz) -

He who would achieve great things must first be born. . .

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Alas, my Spartans suffered their first defeat of the season this weekend. But it's still a pretty amazing season, the likes of which we have not been accustomed to around these parts, when a second loss would be a disappointment. . .

But I still got a decent bike ride in, even though the wind (23 mph, and gusting higher) made it more, um, arduous than I might have preferred. I'm now at 1452 miles for the year, which is a new high for me, since my weight loss. And I've basically got the month of November (weather permitting) to push my total above 1500, and beyond. . .

6 comments:

  1. Your personal fave is mine as well.

    The wind has been brutal here for a good number of days. I'm ready for summer :)

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  2. Those are all wonderful. I personally like the one about not achieving immortality in your own lifetime.

    Sorry about the Spartans going down. BC went down six weeks ago, and another four times since...

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  3. My Hawkeye loving son made sure to come up and tell me constantly what the score to the game was. I love my Hawkeyes, too (though not to the same degree as my sons), but even I have to admit I wasn't expecting such a large-scale dominance!

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  4. Cocotte - You're in a bad way, if you're waitin' for summer, and it's early November. . . ;)

    Suldog - Yeah, that one sorta makes you go. . . huh?

    Honestly, before the season started, us Sparty-types were thinking that 9-3 would be a pretty darned good year, and progress for the future, and all that. And all of a sudden, we're hopin' for 11-1, and 10-2 would be kinda disappointing. . .

    faDKoG - We knew all along that the game in Iowa City would probably be our toughest of the year. And we really didn't expect to go undefeated. And you know, as they say, Sometimes you get the bear, and sometimes the bear (or the Hawk, as the case may be) gets you. . .

    >:P

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  5. i gotta say i'm partial to the one about catching more flies than you care too since my retort has been....but i don't WANT flies.

    oh and word veri...grooked...just seems one superfluous "o" there ;)

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  6. Lime - See, I thought this would fit with your, uh, unique sense of humor. . . ;)

    Are you thinking of Robert Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land? 'Cuz if you are, I totally grok it. . .

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