On June 8, 2013, ‘Congo’ — Season 1, Episode 7 of Parts Unknown was aired on CNN.
“It is the most relentlessly fucked-over nation in the world, yet it has long been my dream to see Congo. And for my sins, I got my wish.” Bourdain starts the episode off on a dramatic note as he tries to recreate his favorite book, Heart of Darkness.
On June 8, 2018, he committed suicide while on location in France for Parts Unknown. The suicide appeared to be an “impulsive act“.
Beneath her immaculate red fingernails, fur coats and love for gin and tonic, Ms Wake was a courageous and ruthless warrior. General Dwight Eisenhower once said Wake alone was worth five army divisions. “I have only one thing to say: I killed a lot of Germans, and I am only sorry I didn’t kill more,” Ms Wake famously said of her wartime exploits.
With a roar that makes both her name and nickname seem quaintly ironic this is Nancy at 89: “Somebody once asked me, ‘Have you ever been afraid?’ … Hah! I’ve never been afraid in my life.”
Nancy Grace Augusta Wake, Crafter Artisan, (30 August 1912 – 7 August 2011) served as a British agent during the later part of World War II. She became a leading figure in the maquis groups of the French Resistance and was one of the Allies’ most decorated servicewomen of the war. After the fall of France in 1940, she became a courier for the French Resistance and later joined the escape network of Captain Ian Garrow. By 1943, Wake was the Gestapo’s most wanted person, with a 5 million-franc price on her head.
After reaching Britain, Wake joined the Special Operations Executive. On the night of 29–30 April 1944, Wake was parachuted into the Auvergne, becoming a liaison between London and the local maquis group headed by Captain Henri Tardivat in the Forest of Tronçais. From April 1944 until the liberation of France, her 7,000+ maquisards fought 22,000 SS soldiers, causing 1,400 casualties, while taking only 100 themselves. [Wikipedia,revised]
“Then, what the hell is the presidency for!” “I have the power, now, and I intend to use it.”
— Lyndon Baines Johnson
Politics is War.
HBO premiered the movie “All the Way” on May 21. It is great film where Four Temperaments are clearly shown in action.
“November 22, 1963: John F. Kennedy was dead in Dallas, killed by an assassin. Jacqueline Kennedy, her clothes still spattered with her husband’s blood, stood beside Vice-President Lyndon Baines Johnson as Johnson took the presidential oath of office. Camelot was suddenly and shockingly gone. In the passage of a few jolting hours, King Arthur had been replaced by the crude, graceless, but equally energetic Lyndon Johnson, a professional politician from Texas.” [Presidential Temperament]
“I never gave up and I never let anyone or anything get in my way.”
“It was very difficult when we came to New York because I spoke no English. We moved to a neighborhood with many other German and Jewish immigrants but I mostly befriended Americans since that was the easiest and quickest way to learn the culture, language, and customs of my new homeland.”
“She seems to be able of growing enormous by sheer force of will,”
1. “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.”
2. “You can observe a lot by just watching.”
3. “It gets late early out here.”
4. “It’s like déjà vu all over again.”
Lawrence Peter “Yogi” Berra, Performer Artisan, (May 12, 1925 – September 22, 2015) was an American professional baseball catcher, manager, and coach who played 19 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) (1946–63, 1965), all but the last for the New York Yankees. An 18-time All-Star and 10-time World Series champion as a player, Berra had a career batting average of .285, while compiling 358 home runs and 1,430 runs batted in. He is one of only five players to win the American League Most Valuable Player Award three times. Widely regarded as one of the greatest catchers in baseball history, he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1972.
5. “No one goes there nowadays, it’s too crowded.”
6. “Baseball is 90% mental and the other half is physical.”
7. “A nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore.”
Berra was also well known for his pithy comments, malapropisms, and witticisms, known as Yogi-isms. Yogi-isms very often take the form of either an apparently obvious tautology or a paradoxical contradiction.
8. “Always go to other people’s funerals, otherwise they won’t come to yours.”
9. “We made too many wrong mistakes.”
10. “Congratulations. I knew the record would stand until it was broken.”
Much of everyday Artisan speech is far more lively, more filled with vivid, unorthodox terms, though not much more abstract. Artisans like to use colorful phrases and current slang in their speech, and they pick up hip phrases quickly (“I’m outta here,” “no way,” “ya know what I’m saying?”). When they reach for images, they tend to use quick, sensory adjectives (“slick,” “cool,” “sharp”), or they say what things are like, using rather striking similes, “drunk as a skunk,” “like taking candy from a baby,” “goes like a bunny.”
Performers are smooth, talkative, and witty; they always seem to know the latest jokes and stories, and are quick with wisecracks and wordplay-nothing is so serious or sacred that it can’t be made fun of. [Please Understand Me II]
11. “You better cut the pizza in four pieces because I’m not hungry enough to eat six.”
12. “You wouldn’t have won if we’d beaten you.”
13. “I usually take a two-hour nap from one to four.”
14. “Never answer an anonymous letter.”
15. “Slump? I ain’t in no slump… I just ain’t hitting.”
16. “How can you think and hit at the same time?”
17. “The future ain’t what it used to be.”
18. “I tell the kids, somebody’s gotta win, somebody’s gotta lose. Just don’t fight about it. Just try to get better.”
19. “If the people don’t want to come out to the ballpark, nobody’s going to stop them.”
20. “We have deep depth.”
21. “Pair up in threes.”
22. “Why buy good luggage, you only use it when you travel.”
23. “You’ve got to be very careful if you don’t know where you are going, because you might not get there.”
Ma Yunapplied to study at Harvard 10 times and was rejected each time.
Yun had to deal with rejection many times in his life: born during Mao’s Cultural Revolution when schools and businesses were being destroyed, such that formal education and trade was at a low in China during Yun‘s youth.
He failed the entry exams for colleges in China several times and was also rejected for many jobs in China, including one at Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Despite this, at an early age, Yun had developed a desire to learn English, so he rode his bike for 45 minutes each morning in order to go to a nearby hotel and converse with foreigners. He would guide them around the city for free in order to practice and improve his English. Later in his youth, although he failed the entrance exam twice, he attended Hangzhou Teacher’s Institute and graduated in 1988 with a bachelor’s degree in English.
Yun — his English name, Jack — Jack Ma started an e-commerce company in his apartment in 1999….
How to renovate homes and to use nearly every tool in her toolbelt.
‘A self-taught home rehabber and designer, Nicole Curtis is also a mom, a master of salvage picking and a spirited advocate for saving old houses and rebuilding communities. Resourceful, creative and always in motion, Nicole is hands-on with all of her projects and wouldn’t have it any other way. Her work reflects her passion for repurposing and creating amazing budget-minded designs. In Rehab Addict, her series that airs on DIY Network and HGTV, Nicole harnesses her experience with interior design, contracting and real estate to rebuild neighborhoods one house at a time in Detroit and Minneapolis.’
“I had to play. I had to find the heart of the game.”
“She was a very good baseball player,” — Hank
Toni was a pro and “smooth,” — Ernie
Hank Aaron, some people have argued, is the best baseball player ever. So Hank knew what he was talking about.
Mister Cub, Ernie Banks, one of the top baseball players in the 50’s, no doubt.
But she knew she was good, good enough to play with the best: including Satchel.
‘He was so good that he’d ask batters where they wanted it, just so they’d have a chance. He’d ask, “You want it high? You want it low? You want it right in the middle? Just say.” People still couldn’t get a hit against him. So I get up there and he says, “Hey T., how do you like it?” And I said, “It doesn’t matter, just don’t hurt me.” When he wound up — he had these big old feet — all you could see was his shoe. I stood there shaking, but I got a hit. Right out over second base. Happiest moment in my life.’ — Toni Stone.
“I hate housework! You make the beds, you do the dishes and six months later you have to start all over again.”
“People say that money is not the key to happiness, but I always figured if you have enough money, you can have a key made.”
“I’ve had so much plastic surgery, when I die they will donate my body to Tupperware.”
And her friend Barbara Walters accused her of “Frankly, she did almost anything for a laugh” — but Joan would definitely disagree, for she said of herself “I will do Anything for a laugh.”
In Memoriam
Joan Rivers
[June 8, 1933 – September 4, 2014]
The Blog of David Mark Keirsey 