Some Thoughts on Health...

The best six doctors anywhere

And no one can deny it

Are sunshine, water, rest, and air

Exercise and diet.

These six will gladly you attend

If only you are willing

Your mind they'll ease

Your will they'll mend

And charge you not a shilling.

~Nursery rhyme quoted by Wayne Fields, What the River Knows, 1990

Mens sana in corpore sano.

(Your prayer must be for a sound mind in a sound body.)

~Juvenal (First or second century AD)

Just because you're not sick doesn't mean you're healthy.

~Author Unknown

The patient should be made to understand that he or she must take charge of his own life. Don't take your body to the doctor as if he were a repair shop.

- Quentin Regestein (Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard)

 

More Great Moments in Letter Writing: James N Bailey

Previous great moments in letter writing have included the famous Pullman bedbug letter:

http://bytesdaily.blogspot.com/2010/05/pullman-bedbug-letter.html

and the Sir Archibald Clark Kerr “It takes a Turk to do that” letter:

http://bytesdaily.blogspot.com/2010/09/sir-archibald-clark-kerr.html

This time, let me bring to your attention another great moment dating from 1974. That was the year that one Dale O Cox, a principal of the Akron law firm Roetzel & Andress, sent a letter on his firm’s letterhead to the Cleveland Browns at Cleveland Stadium. Cox, a Browns supporter, was disturbed by the practice of fans turning their programmes into paper aeroplanes and sailing them downwards, much as happens at the Sydney Entertainment Centre

(Click on the images to enlarge).

A few days later Mr Cox received a letter from James N Bailey, General Counsel for the Browns:

Quotes: Winston Churchill

On 29 October, 1941, Winston Churchill paid a visit to his former school, Harrow, a time when England was at war with Germany. The US entry into the war would not happen until the attack on Pearl Harbour on 7 December 1941.

The following is an extract from his speech to the school:

"You cannot tell from appearances how things will go. Sometimes imagination makes things out far worse than they are; yet without imagination not much can be done. Those people who are imaginative see many more dangers than perhaps exist; certainly many more than will happen; but then they must also pray to be given that extra courage to carry this far-reaching imagination.

But for everyone, surely, what we have gone through in this period … this is the lesson: never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never - in nothing, great or small, large or petty - never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy."

Hear the last paragraph above as spoken by Churchill at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzh-xq65rMs&feature=related

An extract from Life with Gough by Barry Cohen, a collection of anecdotes concerning Gough Whitlam:

GULLIVER

No one was ever able to fathom Gough’s aversion to small men. We were never sure whether he really disliked them or whether it was just coincidence that he always seemed to be clashing with the diminutive men in Caucus.

One of the lesser giants, Dr Richie Gun (Member for Kingston, SA, from 1969-1975), always seemed to be at odds with our glorious leader. Appearing with him at a rally in his electorate during the 1975 election campaign, Gough was idly thumbing through Richie’s election pamphlet and noticed the following reference to both of them: ‘The Prime Minister has often stated his admiration for Dr Gun’s wide general knowledge.’

Gough did a doubletake and whispered to the local MP, ‘Gun, what’s all this about. I’ve said no such thing’.

‘Yes you did, Prime Minister,’ replied Richie, ‘you often called me a “fucking little know-all”.’

Quote: Isaac Asimov

“ The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.”

- Isaac Asimov (1920 – 1992), American author and professor of biochemistry

Reader Comment

From Byter Charles:

I have heard another version of the last line in your Adam and Eve story ....."the mutiple orgasm"!

Ask Otto: Shoe Throwing

Another word from Byter Steve:

Reading about Draco*  has sent me down a path that I always wondered about, Otto.  What is behind the throwing of shoes with some nationalities (the George Bush incident comes to mind)? Obviously it is to register some dissatisfaction or whatever, but how did it all come about?

*  The chap who died when buried under thrown cloaks and hats.

The response follows, Steve, but I can’t resist an opening quote from a favourite flick:

Man in crowd III: He has given us a sign!

Man in crowd V: He has given us...his shoe!

Man in crowd III: The shoe is the sign! Let us follow his example!

Man in crowd IV: What?

Man in crowd III: Let us like him, hold up one shoe and let the other one be upon our foot, for this is his sign that all who follow him shall do likewise!

Man in crowd II: No, no, no, the shoe is a sign that we must gather shoes together in abundance!

- Life of Brian

Although Steve has specifically raised shoe throwing in the manner of hostility or an insult, let’s look at some other forms of shoe throwing first:

On Pissing on Walls

(The earlier post that relates to the above hotograph can be found at:

http://bytesdaily.blogspot.com/2010/11/p-o-sculpture-sydney.html)

During some research recently on a Bytes item, I was surprised to come across a Bible reference to “pisseth against a wall”:

And it came to pass, when he began to reign, as soon as he sat on his throne, [that] he slew all the house of Baasha: he left him not one that pisseth against a wall, neither of his kinsfolks, nor of his friends.

1 Kings 16:11

It was in the King James Version, which is the version we grew up with as kids, long before plain English versions.

Intrigued that the Bible used such language, I looked up other similar references and came up with the following, again all in the King James Version:

1 Samuel 25:22

So and more also do God unto the enemies of David, if I leave of all that [pertain] to him by the morning light any that pisseth against the wall.

1 Kings 21:21

Behold, I will bring evil upon thee, and will take away thy posterity, and will cut off from Ahab him that pisseth against the wall, and him that is shut up and left in Israel,

Quote: Harry S. Truman

“It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.”

- Harry S. Truman (1884 – 1972), US President 1945-1953

As a point of interest, the S in Truman’s name is not a shortening of a middle name, it is complete as S.

Truman wrote in his autobiography that his first name, Harry, is after an uncle, Harrison Young, and  that as regards the S:

"…so that I could have two initials in my given name, the letter S was added. My Grandfather Truman's name was Anderson Shippe Truman and my Grandfather Young's name was Solomon Young, so I received the S for both of them."

Although he once joked that the S was a name, not an initial, so that it should not have a period after it, official documents do use a period. There are also numerous examples of Truman signing his name with a period after the S. In the 1960’s Truman himself said that he had no preference. It has been common to use a period since then. 

As a further point of interest, the above photograph is an iconic image of Truman after his presidential win. The win was so unexpected that the Chicago Tribune had already printed its newspapers ready for distribution with the headline “Dewey defeats Truman”.

Byters will note that we are back on track.  Yesterday's announcement that I was unwell was posted by my daughter.

The item which would have appeared on Australia Day, had I not been indisposed, appears below.

By way of explanation, last Friday night I developed a fever and thought I was coming down with flu.  By Sunday morning my temp hit 40 and I was feeling lousy (expletive deleted).  I sent a text message to my GP, who is also a friend, who told me to get myself to RPA.  I did so and was diagnosed as having septicemia, a blood infection that had its origin from some cellulitis on my leg.  I was put on intravenoous antibiotics and various other things, until I was able to come home on Wednesday.

For those who have contacted me by email, I have a lot of emails to catch up on but will respond to you.  Thanks to those who called me or sent messages to get well.

The Eureka Stockade and Its Flag

The Eureka Stockade and Its Flag

Australia Day inevitably raises the issue of what the Australian flag should be. My own feeling on the matter is that we should simply drop the Union Jack and keep what remains, based on the principle that our flag should not contain the flag of another country:

It is sometimes suggested that the flag of the Eureka Stockade be adopted as our national flag and we couldn’t do better.

Irrespective of the issue of any change to Australia’s national flag, the story of the Eureka Stockade and its flag is a fascinating and moving one.

Bytes posts

Hello Byters,

Service temporarily suspended whilst I am unwell.

Will resume Byting soon, until then please feel free to read through the archives if in need of a bytes fix.

Otto

Quote: Stephen Levine

“If you were going to die soon and had only one phone call you could make, who would you call and what would you say? And why are you waiting?”

- Stephen Levine (1937 - ), American poet, author and teacher

Symbols: The Portcullis

I recently used the above image in connection with a story about the British Parliament.  That image is the offical symbol for that parliament.

Some interesting trivia about the image:

• The image and thereby the emblem is of a portcullis, from the French "porte coulissante" or gliding door. Those who recall Errol Flynn or Kevin Costner as Robin Hood, or Kirk Douglas as Einar in The Vikings, or a myriad other movies of English castles being attacked, will recognise that a portcullis is the metal gate that is raised upwards by metal chains. In such movies the rope or chain holding up the portcullis is usually cut by the hero, trapping the villains and enabling the hero to make his getaway.

How Projects Really Work

  

(Click on the images to enlarge).

The above image  dates from the late 1960’s, in the days before faxes and emails. Photocopies were distributed by hand and the message was simple: interact with the customer, find out what the customer wants and resist adding unnecessary features, unworkable variations and complex implementations. Apply the KISS principle, ensure adequate oversight and have the various persons and departments involved work with each other.

Since then the image has been updated to reflect more advanced times and greater technology, which in turn have allowed even greater opportunities for foul ups and an end product quite different from what was sought.  The following is an updated image, but the message remains the same:

Strange Deaths: Draco

The word “draconian” means severe, unusually cruel or harsh, as in rules, punishments and governments, and comes from the name of Draco. Not Draco Malfoyle, the mongrel blonde kid in the Harry Potter books and movies. Not Draco the last dragon, voiced by Sean Connery in Dragonheart. Not the big Russian that Rocky Balboa fights in Rocky IV. Oops, sorry, that last one is Drago.

No, this Draco is Draco the Lawgiver, as he is commonly rfeferred to, a politician who lived in Athens in the 7th century. In 621 BC Draco was given the task of codifying and organising the laws of Athens, the first time that the laws had been written down. Once codified, they were displayed publicly on "steles", three-sided pyramids which could be pivoted for reading. The laws were impartial but incredibly harsh, with death being the punishment for most offences, even such trivial ones such as idleness. Hence the origin of “draconian”.

The point of this post, however, is not Draco's life but his death.

Hidden Images in Logos

So far as I know and my researches have indicated, there is no organisation known as Yoga Australia. Nonetheless, a graphic designer by the name of Roy Smith, from Norwich in the UK, has designed a logo for Yoga Australia that is hard to forget once you’ve seen it. His website mentions that it is design as a personal project.

For those who have not yet noticed, the space bounded by the leg, arm, back and buttocks of the woman in the above pic forms a map of Australia (sans Tasmania), a wonderful hidden image in a logo. It’s one of the best that I have seen.

I am always reminded of this pic whenever I see someone doing this yoga pose on the TV. It never fails that I look intently as to whether the bounded space forms a map of Oz. I have no doubt that you will now be doing likewise.

One final note.

Although this post has discussed the female form and has also mentioned the map of Tasmania, I have so far avoided any Les Patterson comments in that context. I will, however, quote from a 2009 biographical article about Errol Flynn by Mark McGinness in Quadrant Online, the context of the following paragraph being that his executor had to determine where Flynn was domiciled at the date of his death:

It is difficult to imagine that the restless Flynn was ever domiciled. The restlessness may have been preordained. His given name apparently means wanderer. He was born in Hobart on June 20, 1909. It has been suggested he put Tasmania on the map. (Sir Les Patterson would maintain that Flynn would be forever fascinated by the map of Tasmania.)

http://www.quadrant.org.au/magazine/issue/2009/6/the-swashbuckler-from-hobart

 

Strangers

• A person present in parliament who is neither a member of Parliament or a parliamentary official is known as a “stranger”.

• It used to be the case in the British Parliament that if MPs wanted to have a secret session, one of them would point to the gallery from which the public watch (known as the “Strangers Gallery”) and call "I spy strangers!", whereupon the House voted "that the strangers do withdraw."

• The procedure has now been modernised, with the “I spy strangers” having been dropped in 1998.

• In 2004 the Modernisation Committee of the British Parliament recommended that visitors to the House of Commons should no longer be referred to as “Strangers”, instead being referred to either as “member of the public” or “the public”.

In support of the above, the Leader of the House said:

“I believe that our visitors, voters and citizens are entitled to view our debates, and that they should not be shunted into a pigeonhole labelled 'Strangers'.

As the Modernisation Committee said, ‘this is the last impression we should be wanting to give to people who exercise their democratic right to visit us.’

The earliest reference to a ‘stranger’ in the Commons Journal appears to be on 13 February 1575. Let us make 26 October 2004 the last.”

The motion was carried on division 242 votes to 167.

• The NSW Parliament still contains a Strangers Function Room and a Strangers Lounge, available for booking by members of the public.

Shoelaces

The inventor of the modern shoelace is supposedly Harvey Kennedy, who is often referenced as having come up with the invention in 1790.

Early civilisations used sandals as footwear, although shoes were worn in Mesopotamia as long ago as 1600BC. From there footwear moved to moccasins and shoes with buckles or buttons. An American company developed plimsolls (sandshoes) in the late 1800s. From 1917 they were marketed as "sneakers" because they were silent , enabling one to sneak around.

Lacing in connection with footwear dates back thousands of years. Laces were used to keep many types of sandals on the feet of Greeks and Romans, as depicted in pictures from the time. Native Americans used leather thongs and laces to secure animal hide moccasins and winter leggings to their feet and legs.

What Harvey Kennedy did was to:

• thread a lace through an eyehole, instead of threading it against an external fastener;

• place a binder on the end of the lace to prevent it fraying (known as an aglet);

• then take out a patent on the whole deal.

This made Harvey a very rich man. Although his name may have been lost to history, his legacy lives on.

Australia is:

• the only nation that governs a whole continent;
• the sixth-largest country in the world;
• the largest island on earth;
• the smallest, flattest continent;
• the driest continent after Antartica, which makes it the driest inhabited continent on earth;
• the world's most urbanised country. 70% of the population live in the 10 largest cities.

Queensland

Aficionados of Rugby League will be aware that there is a statue outside Queensland’s Suncorp Stadium of former Australian and Queensland captain, Wally Lewis:

The inscription refers to him as The Emperor of Lang Park and he is also commonly known as The King, but such honorifics do not stop people good naturedly taking the piss out of the statue, especially at State of Origin time:

In 1927 an employee of the Southland Ice Company of Dallas, Texas, one Joe Thompson, began selling convenience items – milk, eggs and bread – from the company’s ice dock.  This became popular in that the items could be preserved by the ice and consumers avoided having to travel longer distances to grocery stores.  Thompson eventually bought the company and started an operation of convenience stores.  The company's first convenience outlets were known as Tote'm stores since customers "toted" away their purchases, and some even sported genuine Alaskan totem poles in front.  In 1946 the name was changed to 7-Eleven, representing the new opening hours of 7.00am to 11.00pm seven days a week, unprecedented at the time.    Today the name remains, notwithstanding that most outlets are open 24 hours.

Toto: Africa

"I don't believe there's an atom of meaning in it."

- Alice, Alice in Wonderland

“Let the fuckers work that one out.”

- John Lennon, on finishing I Am The Walrus, having deliberately written nonsense lyrics after hearing that the English master at his old school was making his class analyse Beatles’ lyrics.

"So when people ask me what American Pie means, I tell them it means I don't ever have to work again if I don't want to."

- Don McLean

Toto’s Africa is their greatest hit and a perennial on radio stations. It always gets feet tapping and no doubt is a popular selection at karaoke… “I bless the rains down in Africa…”

Hear it and see it in a live performance at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37ZaSINRDGM

See and hear the original recording and video clip at:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xslup_toto-africa_fun

'Or a superb acappella version by Perpetuum Jazzile at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGqEvQH86MM

Just one thing: wtf do the lyrics mean?

Sydney in the Past

I am fascinated by old photographs, especially of well known locations as they looked a hundred or so years ago. It’s a bonus if there are people in those pics.

Edward Albee’s play Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? was turned into a superb movie with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, Have a look if you get the opportunity, the performances of Burton and Taylore are the performances of  both their careers. In the play/movie Burton plays George, a middle aged. jaded professor of history who at one point says to Nick, a lecturer in biology: “When people can't abide things as they are, when they can't abide the present, they do one of two things ... either they ... either they turn to a contemplation of the past ... or they set about to ... alter the future.”

I disagree that a contemplation of the past is indicative of unhappiness with the present, I am quite happy in the present,  but, as readers will know, I have a greater interest in history than in altering the future.

Here are some pics of interest:

The Doomsday Vault

Remember how in Waterworld Kevin Costner was growing a scrawny tomato plant in a post-apocalyptic world? Or how the good guys in Mad Max 2 were trying to grow some sad vegies in the desert, whilst being terrorised by bikers?

One government has taken steps to ensure that it won’t be like that.

Quick, what is Norway famous for?

Frida from Abba comes from there. So did the Vikings. And the Nazis went there. Also Edvard Munch, painter of The Scream, is Norwegian. And they have a lot of fjords, but they don't have Holdens (my little joke).

Which makes it all the more surprising that of all countries, Norway has established the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, commonly known as the Doomsday Vault.

Reader Comment: Pier One

A friend of mine, Linda, whose late husband Domenico was a professional fisherman, sent me a response to the Pier One item posted yesterday.  Linda's son Diego carries on the family fishing tradition, which goes back many generations.

Hi Otto

I just checked out your information on Pier One and here is a bit more trivia for you. We were one of those Italian families who moored our fishing trawler at Pier One in the 80’s. Domenico used to come to Sydney to work, from May to September every year, for the Gemfish season. We had some interesting times at Pier One. A significant memory was in 1985 Domenico coming round the corner with the Kirrawa with a definite lean on the boat, the deck was just above the waterline. On Pier One was the longest semi-trailer I have ever seen waiting for him. He caught over 21,000 Kilos + of Gemfish as well as 5,000 kilos of other fish like Mirror Dory and Hairtail. In total he caught between the hours of 2 am to 4 pm that day just on 27 tonne or 27,000 kilos of fish. We worked all of us through the night, men and women (wives) side by side sorting, stacking, icing and loading the semi-trailer. It took more than one semi for the transport of a 1000 boxes of fish. One hell of a day. In those days Domenico made for the 21 tonnes of Gemfish only $27,000. Not bad for a day’s work.

Warm regards

Linda

Quote: Lao Tzu

“Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small.  A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.”

- Lao Tzu (c 600 BCE)

(The saying that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step was later adopted by Mao Tse Tung. It has also been attributed to Confucius.)

Ask Otto: Pier One

Byter Steve has raised another question.  He advises that he and Diane spent the new year break playing tourist in the city, staying in a hotel overlooking the harbour.  He also advises:

Diane said to me “Why is there no Pier 1?”  I immediately had a look myself, and she was right, the piers start at number 2 and go up to number 6.  Of course, I haven’t a clue why there is no Pier 1, but I said to Diane “Leave it to Otto, he’ll find out for us!”  Over to you, oh oracle!

Easy peasy, Stevie.

Humour

Good morning Byters.

A bit of humour from the days when George Dubbya was the US Pres, to start off the week...

After numerous rounds of "We don't even know if Osama is still alive", Osama himself decided to send George Bush a letter to let him know he was still in the game.

He opened the letter and it appeared to contain a coded message: "S370HSSV-0773H"

Bush was baffled, so he emailed it to Dick Cheney. Cheney and his advisors had no clue either, so they sent it to the Republican National Committee. They likewise couldn’t understand it.

Bush sent his to the CIA, which couldn't figure it out either.

Eventually they asked Britain's MI6 for help. MI6 cabled back:

"Tell the President that they are looking at the message upside down."

Quote: Erasmus

"In the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king."

-  Desiderius Erasmus (1469 - 1536)