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Zealotry
I had thought of mentioning her as well, but aside from watching a PBS documentary on her I know little about it. I understand, though, that the church she founded can now boast of some eight million plus souls. That’s the church’s claim, at any rate, and I have seen no reason to doubt it.- tonyb
- Post #42
- Forum: The Observation Bar
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Zealotry
Last night I watched “Bully, Coward, Victim,” the HBO documentary on Roy Cohn. It occurred to me, as it often does when I see or hear or read of such a character, that he might have truly benefitted from a good thumping or two (yes, physical violence) in his early years. But then, maybe he...- tonyb
- Post #39
- Forum: The Observation Bar
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Zealotry
Unconscionable people easily rationalize unconscionable deeds. An adeptness at that is necessary to ongoing success in the sleazy enterprise. I believe such swindlers rely on more honorable people to grow so tired of saying “you really don’t expect me to believe that, do you?” that they just...- tonyb
- Post #35
- Forum: The Observation Bar
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Zealotry
Yeah, it’s hard for the personally weak to resist. I was raised by such a weakling, and there’s little doubt it rubbed off on me. I’ve been unlearning my upbringing my entire adult life. This unfortunate fellow always yearned to be a big-shot, the guy in charge, the man others looked up to...- tonyb
- Post #28
- Forum: The Observation Bar
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Zealotry
Couldn’t agree more. I still hear people bright enough to know better say things like “These kids have to be made to respect” parents or teachers or cops or whoever it is who has authority over them. It’s entirely illogical. A person can’t be made to respect another person any more than he or...- tonyb
- Post #27
- Forum: The Observation Bar
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Zealotry
“Leadership” has largely been reduced to a buzzword. It seems every youth program, every educational institution, every workplace seminar, has as its mission “leadership development,” or at least that’s part of its stated mission. With so many leaders, where you gonna get the followers? It’s...- tonyb
- Post #23
- Forum: The Observation Bar
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Terms Which Have Disappeared
I don’t know if “square” refers to one item from each of the four food groups (that model has fallen out of favor) or if it means square as in “proper.” Whatever the etymology, though, your observation is on the money. Our daily comings and goings don’t lend themselves to three proper sit-down...- tonyb
- Post #6,211
- Forum: The Golden Era
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Terms Which Have Disappeared
Which reminds me ... “Three squares” was a phrase I heard with some frequency up until maybe 25 years ago and hardly ever since, so it seems it died out with that generation born on the first couple decades of the 20th century. “If push comes to shove, I can scratch out three squares a day...- tonyb
- Post #6,209
- Forum: The Golden Era
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Terms Which Have Disappeared
Cursory research bears that out. I can see how it might have been used euphemistically — “Uncle Jimmy’s gettin’ his three hots and a cot, on account of that car he borrowed.”- tonyb
- Post #6,208
- Forum: The Golden Era
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Terms Which Have Disappeared
“Three hots and a cot.” The phrase predates me, but I knew what it meant when I heard it, seeing how the folks a generation and two ahead of me might have well been enticed in their early years by a job that promised three square meals a day and a warm place to sleep.- tonyb
- Post #6,204
- Forum: The Golden Era
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Zealotry
Whatever fantasies of celebrity I may have ever harbored were kept in check by, 1.) the knowledge it wasn’t at all likely to ever occur anyway, leastwise not for anything which I believe people ought to be famous, rather than the reasons they often are, and, 2.) an appreciation for relative...- tonyb
- Post #15
- Forum: The Observation Bar
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Clean Jokes
A monk enters the monastery, where he takes a vow of silence, the only exception to which is the two words, and only two words, he is allowed with the abbot once every decade. So 10 years pass and during his audience with the abbot he says “food cold.” After another decade, after the monk had...- tonyb
- Post #2,071
- Forum: The Observation Bar
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Zealotry
It seemed that “paintings” of JFK on velvet sprung up like mushrooms after a rainfall in late 1963 and for a few years thereafter. He was joined in such gaudiness by MLK and RFK in ’68. At a carnival c.1966 I witnessed a woman who had just won at a ring toss game and had her choice of prizes...- tonyb
- Post #10
- Forum: The Observation Bar
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Zealotry
^^^^ Coincidentally, today is the 92nd anniversary of Ernesto’s birth. If not for the quarantine restrictions still in place, I’d suggest to the owners of a downtown hipster bar that they mark the occasion with a Che-themed happy hour or drink special or something.- tonyb
- Post #8
- Forum: The Observation Bar
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Zealotry
^^^^^ I’m usually more amused than offended by such appropriation. Among my favorite cartoons is a one-panel showing Che Guevara in a Bart Simpson T-shirt. I once had a bathroom decorated in Christian kitsch, procured on the cheap at garage sales and thrift stores and such. The stuff is...- tonyb
- Post #7
- Forum: The Observation Bar
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Zealotry
I recommend Lawrence Wright’s “Remembering Satan.” The events recounted therein occurred near where I lived, so it was of particular interest when it first appeared in two lengthy installments in The New Yorker. It was later published in book form. What the story is, in a nutshell, is an...- tonyb
- Post #5
- Forum: The Observation Bar
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Zealotry
Would it be inaccurate to say that mainstream religions originated as what we might these days call “cults”? I’m not suggesting that founders of religions are uniformly flimflam men, but rather that anything with a supernatural element is ripe for flimflammery. I admire Harry Houdini because...- tonyb
- Post #4
- Forum: The Observation Bar
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Zealotry
Attributed to Frank Zappa ... “The only difference between a cult and a religion is the amount of real estate they own.” I don’t necessarily agree, but I don’t necessarily disagree, either.- tonyb
- Post #2
- Forum: The Observation Bar
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Zealotry
Just yesterday I refreshed my memory of the Love Israel Family, a “cult” of some local fame/infamy in Seattle. The Family numbered roughly 300 (some estimates say as many as 500) at its height, in the early 1970s. Remnants of it exist still, mostly in the northeastern part of Washington state...- tonyb
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- Replies: 63
- Forum: The Observation Bar
