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RABBITS --- RACE --- RACISM
RADIO --- RAGE
RAIN

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RABBITS

see "ANIMALS" for related links


Once upon a time there were four little Rabbits, and
their names were — Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail, and
Peter.
--Beatrix Potter (1866—1943)
English author of children's books.
_The Tale of Peter Rabbit_ [1902]

-

It was hissing menacingly, its teeth flashing and
nostrils flared and making straight for the president.
--Press account of rabbit attack on Jimmy Carter [20 April 1979]
(according to http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4_019.html )

--

This morning I opened the refrigerator door and found
a rabbit inside. Imagine my shock! After regaining my
composure, I asked the rabbit what he was doing
there.

He said, "This is a Westinghouse isn't it? Well, I'm a
wabbit and I'm westing."




RACE

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.

see "THE HUMAN RACE" for related links


Even if you win the rat race, you're still a rat.
--William Sloane Coffin, Jr. (1924—2006)
American clergyman and peace activist.

Irish Americans are about as Irish as
black Americans are African.
--Bob Geldof (1954— )
Irish rock musician.
In "Observer" [22 June 1986].

When I look out at this convention, I see the faces
of America, red, yellow, brown, black, and white.
We are all precious in God's sight — the real
rainbow coalition.
--Jesse Jackson (1941— )
American Democratic politician and clergyman.
Speech at Democratic National Convention,
Atlanta [19 July 1988].

There are no 'white' or 'colored' signs on the
foxholes or graveyards of battle.
--John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917—1963)
American Democratic statesman, President of the U.S. [1961—1963].
President of the U.S. [1961-1963],
Message to Congress on proposed Civil
Rights Bill [19 June 1963].

-

[When building the transcontinental railroad] the ends of the two
tracks neared each other, the race took on a ludicrous quality.
Each company [Central Pacific & Union Pacific] adopted the
questionable theory that it could claim a sort of squatter's rights
to lay track as far as it had prepared roadbed — without regard
to where the other company's railhead was. Each dispatched
teams of road graders far in advance of its track laying crews.
As a result, the rival crews overlapped each other for almost
200 miles in Utah and Nevada, often working side by side.
The death rate from accidents skyrocketed as workers set
off blasting powder charges without warning their rivals.
--_The Wild West_ Time-Life Books [1993] p. 84




Click picture to ZOOM
RACISM

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.


see: "ANTI-SEMITISM"
see: "BIGOTRY"
see: "CIVIL RIGHTS"
see: "EQUALITY"
see: "INTOLERANCE"
see: "NARROW-MINDEDNESS"
see: "PREJUDICE"
see "THE HUMAN RACE" for other related links


All their [Hindus'] fanaticism is directed against those who do not
belong to them — against all foreigners. They call them mlechha,
i.e., impure, and forbid having any connection with them, be it by
intermarriage or any other kind of relationship, or by sitting, eating
and drinking with them, because thereby, they think, they would be
polluted ... By the bye, we must confess, in order to be just, that a
similar depreciation of foreigners not only prevails among us and
the Hindus, but is common to all nations towards each other.
--Alberuni (973—1048)
_Kitab-al-Hind_ (Book on India) [1030]. [1030; 2002 edn.],
in M.J. Cohan and John Major {eds.} _History in Quotations_ [2004].

-

It is a safe bet that few New Yorkers who work in Midtown or lower Manhattan realize that in July 1863 the streets they now walk every day were the scene of savage riots that left hundreds dead, countless buildings in smoldering ruin and the city in the grip of mobs demanding the overthrow of Abraham Lincoln. No set of events in New York's history was more terrifying or more aggressively forgotten.

The riots were sparked by the introduction of a military draft to fill the depleted ranks of the Union army. The poor were particularly angry at a provision that allowed any conscript to buy his way out of the draft for $300, a year's wages for many workingmen. Behind the riots lay a combustible mix of racism, poverty and class resentment that was fanned into violence by pro-Southern Democratic politicians and journalistic demagogues. Not all the rioters were Irish, but enough were to give the mobs a Hibernian cast, nearly erasing the reputation for patriotic sacrifice that Irish volunteers had earned on the battlefields of the Civil War.

[ . . . ]

Order was finally restored by the arrival of seasoned troops rushed north from the Gettysburg battlefield. In all, at least 500 men, women and children died that week, including about 175 African-Americans. Five thousand blacks — roughly 40% of the city's black population — may have been made homeless, many fleeing to Long Island and New Jersey.

--Fergus M. Bordewich
reviewing Barnet Schecter's _The Devil's Own Work_
in _Wall Street Journal_ [18 January 2006].

-

We consider the underlying fallacy of the plaintiff's
argument to consist in the assumption that the
enforced separation of the two races stamps
the colored race with a badge of inferiority. If this
be so, it is not by reason of anything found in the
act, but solely because the colored race chooses
to put that construction upon it.
--Supreme Court Justice Henry Brown, stating the majority
opinion in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson [1896];
in M.J. Cohan and John Major {eds.}
_History in Quotations_ [2004] p. 642.
Cohan & Major explain:
The court pronounced on the constitutionality of an 1890
act by the Louisiana state legislature providing for 'equal
but separate' railway carriages for whites and non-whites.
The facilities in question were certainly separate but by
no means equal, yet the judgement prevailed for nearly
60 years.

What I never understood to this day, to this very day,
was how white people could have black people cook for
them, make their meals, but wouldn't let them sit at
the table with them. How can you dislike someone so
much and have them cook for you? Shoot, if I don't
like someone you ain't cooking nothing for me, ever.
--Ray Charles (1930—2004)
American pianist and soul singer.

The Statue of Liberty hung her head;
Columbia dropped in a swoon,
The American eagle drooped and died,
When Teddy dined with the coon.
--Popular children's verse, after Roosevelt invited
Booker T. Washington to the White House in 1901;
in Peter Jennings and Todd Brewster _The Century_ [1998] p. 33.

Being a star has made it possible for me to get insulted
in places where the average Negro could never *hope*
to go and get insulted.
--Sammy Davis Jr. (1925—1990)
American entertainer.
_Yes I Can_ [1965]

Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where
ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to
feel that society is in an organized conspiracy to oppress,
rob, and degrade them, neither persons nor property will
be safe.
--Frederick Douglass [Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey]
(c.1818—1895)
American abolitionist, reformer, and writer.
In an address on the twenty-fourth anniversary of Emacipation
in Washington, D.C. [April 1886].

^^

Position in society, economic opportunities, social mobility-all depended
on race. Race was a southern obsession; somewhat less so (and less
legally mandated) in the North. Race was also a key issue with regard to
immigration and naturalization: these benefits were for white people only.
The segregation laws were in full force in the first half of the century.
Georgia law, for example, required separate schools for "white and
colored races," and separation on railroads and street railways. An
Arkansas law of 1903 required "separate apartments ... for white and
negro prisoners" in all prisons and jails; and separate "bunks, beds,
bedding ... dining tables." It was against the law to handcuff or chain any
white man to a "negro prisoner." The law also required separate voting
and tax rolls. In North Carolina factory owners were required to provide
"separate and distinct toilet rooms" for workers, "said toilets to be
lettered and marked in a distinct manner, so as to separate the white and
colored males and females"— four toilets in all. Moreover, these toilets had
to be "separated by substantial walls of brick or timber." In North Carolina,
as in the rest of the South, schools were, of course, segregated; but in this
state, even books had to obey the segregation laws-books were "not ...
interchangeable between the white and colored schools"; they were
confined to the use of the "race first using same."

All this was only the tip of the iceberg, of course. The school and railroad
laws solemnly promised that the facilities, though separate, would be
"equal" for the races; but no southern state took this promise seriously.
In fact, equality had to be avoided at all costs. The system was a caste
system; and any situation in which blacks and whites could be or would
be treated as equal members of society, or in which, God forbid, a black
could come out on top, was a violation of the code. Hence the prohibition
against intermarriage — aimed especially at black men who might want to take
a white wife. Hence the 1915 ordinance of Fort Worth, Texas, that made it
"unlawful for any white person and any negro to have sexual intercourse
with each other, within the corporate limits of Fort Worth." Hence the Texas
law of 1933 which prohibited any "fistic combat match, boxing, sparring or
wrestling contest between any person of the Caucasian or 'White' race and
one of the African or 'Negro' race." Elsewhere, of course, blacks and whites
did fight in the ring; and Jack Johnson, a black man, had been heavyweight
champion. When Johnson knocked out the "Great White Hope," Jim Jeffries,
in 1910, a fight that generated enormous excitement, riots broke out all over
the country; blacks in major cities North and South paid with broken bones
for their "victory"; seven people died in the ensuing uproar.

Parks and all public amenities were also strictly segregated in the southern
states; whites had the best or only facilities; blacks were thrown a bone, or
had nothing at all. The federal courts showed no sympathy for the black
cause in the first decade of the century — no signs of backing away from
Plessy v. Ferguson; or of interfering with segregation in any way. A case
in point was Berea College v. Kentucky (1908). Kentucky made it a crime
to run a school or college "where persons of the white and negro races
are both received as pupils for instruction." Berea College was interracial;
it was fined for violating the statute. The Supreme Court saw nothing wrong
with the law or the fine. In Chiles v. Chesapeake and Ohio Railway Company
(1910), a black man bought a first-class railway ticket from Washington, D.C.,
to Lexington, Kentucky. In Kentucky, where Chiles changed trains, he was
forced into the colored section of the train, which he protested, claiming his
rights as an interstate passenger. The Supreme Court cited Plessy and
called the Kentucky rules "reasonable"; they reflected "the general
sentiment of the community." What they meant of course, was the white
community.

Any avenues to political change in the South were effectively blocked. Blacks
simply lacked political power. No blacks held state or county offices in the
states of the old Confederacy. Very few blacks voted — though not from
apathy or choice. In the late nineteenth century, the southern states started
the process of getting rid of black voters; they finished off the job in the
twentieth. The states used every trick and stratagem in the books, and
some outside the books, to keep blacks out of voting booths. Anyone who
wanted to vote had to go through an obstacle course. In South Carolina
voters had to pay a poll tax, own three hundred dollars' worth of property,
and "both read and write any section" of the South Carolina Constitution.
In Mississippi prospective voters had to be able to read sections of the
federal and state constitutions, and also give a "reasonable" interpretation
of what they had read. No blacks ever seemed to be able to pass these
tests; whites sailed through routinely (or were not even asked).
Troublesome or persistent blacks were given rougher treatment. As an
Alabama official put it: "At first, we used to kill them to keep them from
voting; when we got sick of doing that we began to steal their ballots; and
when stealing their ballots got to troubling our consciences we decided to
handle the matter legally, fixing it so they couldn't vote."

--Lawrence M. Friedman (1930— )
_American Law in the 20th Century_ [2002]
Ch. 5 "Race Relations and Civil Liberties" pp. 112-114

^^

Last time I was down South I walked into this restaurant
and this white waitress came up to me and said, We don't
serve colored people here. I said, That's all right. I
don't eat colored people. Bring me a whole fried chicken.
--Dick Gregory (1932— )
American comedian and social activist.

-

You've got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
Or people whose skin is a different shade.
You've got to be carefully taught.

You've got to be taught before it's too late,
Before you are six or seven or eight
To hate all the people your relatives hate.
You've got to be carefully taught.
You've got to be carefully taught.

--Oscar Hammerstein II (1895—1960)
American songwriter.
"You've Got to be Carefully Taught" [1949 song]

-

Do you really think that I will allow myself to be
photographed shaking hands with a negro?
--Adolf Hitler (1889—1945)
German dictator.
[summer 1936]
(The Fuhrer was responding to a proposal by Hitler Youth
leader Baldur von Schirach that he be photographed with
Jesse Owens, the black American sprinter and winner of
four gold medals at the Berlin Olympic Games.)
In M.J. Cohan and John Major (eds.)
_History in Quotations_ [2004] p. 819.

What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore — and then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over – like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
--Langston Hughes (1902—1967)
American writer and poet.
_Harlem_ [1951]

When they call you articulate, that's another way
of saying, 'He talks good for a black guy'.
--Ice-T (1958— )
American rap musician.
In "Independent" [30 December 1995].

There is nothing more painful for me at this stage in my
life than to walk down the street and hear footsteps and
start to think about robbery, and then look around and
see it's somebody white and feel relieved. How
humiliating.
--Jesse Jackson (1941— )
American Democratic politician and clergyman.
Speech at Operation PUSH Headquarters [27 November 1993].

I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of
bringing about in any way the social and political equality of
the white and black races — that I am not, nor ever have
been, in favor of making voters or jurors of Negroes, nor of
qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white
people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical
difference between the white and black races which I believe
will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of
social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so
live, while they do remain together there must be the position
of superior and inferior, and I, as much as any other man am
in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white
race.
--Abraham Lincoln (1809—1865)
American Republican statesman, President [1861—1865].
Lincoln-Douglas debate, Charleston, Illinois [18 September 1858].

Southern trees bear a strange fruit
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root
Black body swinging in the southern breeze
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees
Pastoral scene of the gallant south
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth
Scent of magnolia sweet and fresh
And the sudden smell of burning flesh!
Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck
For the sun to rot, for a tree to drop
Here is a strange and bitter crop.
--"Strange Fruit" [1939 song] sung by Billie Holliday,
music and lyrics by Abel Meeropol (pen name Lewis Allan)

Palermo is the chief town of Sicily, and contains
about 850 Jewish families, all living in one street,
which is situated in the best part of the town. They
are artisans, such as copper-smiths and iron-smiths,
porters and peasants, and are despised by the
Christians because they wear tattered garments. As a
mark of distinction they are obliged to wear a piece
of red cloth, about the size of a gold coin, fastened
on the breast. The royal tax falls heavily on them, for
they are obliged to work for the king at any employment
that is given them; they have to draw ships to
the shore, to construct dykes and so on. They are
also employed in administering corporal punishment
and in carrying out the sentence of death.
--Obadiah of Bertinoro (c.I450—c.1516)
Italian rabbi.
_Letters_ [1487-90]

Today, racism is regarded as a crime if practiced by a majority — but
as an inalienable right if practiced by a minority. The notion that
one's culture is superior to all others solely because it represents the
traditions of one's ancestors, is regarded as chauvinism if claimed by
a majority — but as 'ethnic' pride if claimed by a minority. Resistance
to change and progress is regarded as reactionary if demonstrated by
a majority — but retrogression to a Balkan village, to an Indian teepee
or to the jungle is hailed if demonstrated by a minority.
--Ayn Rand (1905—1982)
Russian-born American writer.
"The Age of Envy"
(First published in _The Objectivist_ July-August 1971.)

Now as to the Negroes! I entirely agree with you that as a race
and in the main they are altogether inferior to the whites.
--Theodore Roosevelt (1858—1919)
American Republican statesman and President [1901—1909].
Letter to Owen Wister [27 April 1906].

First for a few blocks the Irish kids threw rocks at me.
Then the German kids threw rocks at me. Then the
Eye-talian, then the colored, then the Mohawk kids
. . . hell, even the Jew kids threw rocks at me, while
they was runnin' away from the kids throwin' rocks
at them.
--Philip Roth (1933— )
American novelist.
_The Great American Novel_ [1973]

The only good Indian is a dead Indian.
(at Fort Cobb, January 1869.)
--attributed to Philip H. Sheridan (1831—1888)
American army general.

-

I lived then in a small brick house in Manhattan, and,
being for the moment solvent, employed a Negro.
Across the street and on the corner there was a bar
and a restaurant. One winter dusk when the sidewalks
were iced I stood in my window looking out and saw
a tipsy woman come out of the bar, slip on the ice,
and fall flat. She tried to struggle up but slipped and
fell again and lay there screaming maudlinly. At that
moment the Negro who worked for me came around
the corner, saw the woman, and instantly crossed the
street, keeping as far from her as possible.

When he came in I said, 'I saw you duck. Why didn't
you give that woman a hand?'

'Well sir, she's drunk and I'm Negro. If I touched her
she could easily scream rape, and then it's a crowd,
and who believes me?'

'It took quick thinking to duck that fast.'

'Oh, no sir!' he said. 'I've been practicing to be a
Negro for a long time.'

--John Ernst Steinbeck (1902—1968)
American novelist.
_Travels With Charley_ [1962], pt. 4

-

If ever America undergoes great revolutions, they will be
brought about by the presence of the black race on the soil
of the United States; that is to say, they will owe their origin,
not to the equality, but to the inequality of condition.
--Alexis de Tocqueville (1805—1859)
French historian and politician.
_Democracy in America_ [1840]

Segregation now! Segregation tomorrow!
Segregation forever!
--George Wallace (1919—1998)
American Democratic politician.
Inaugural speech as Governor of Alabama [14 January 1963].

Segregation is not humiliating but a benefit, and
ought to be so regarded by you gentlemen.
--Woodrow Wilson (1856—1924)
American Democratic statesman and President [1913—1921].
Speech before a group of Negro leaders,
Washington D.C. [November 1913].

-

Racist: (n) Someone who wins an
argument with a liberal.
--neocon proverbial




Click picture to ZOOM
RADIO

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.

see "ENTERTAINMENT, HOBBIES, & LEISURE ACTIVITIES" for related links


You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat.
You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in
Los Angeles. Do you understand this? And radio operates
exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive
them there. The only difference is that there is no cat.
--Albert Einstein (1879—1955)
German-American physicist who developed the
special and general theories of relativity.

^^

The FCC did regulate, eventually: on issues like dirty words. At first, the
broadcast industry tried to police itself. In 1935, for example, CBS made
public a set of "program policies" to govern advertising: no "unpleasant
discussion of bodily functions," no advertising of "laxatives, depilatories
and ... deodorants," nothing "slanderous, obscene, or profane." The
National Association of Broadcasters had a code of ethical broadcasting
from 1929 on. It was frequently revised. In 1946 the broadcasters' code
included these older restrictions, and many others: no advertisements for
liquor, or for "fortune-telling" and astrology; no advertisements for
matrimonial agencies, or from "professional people" (doctors, dentists,
lawyers). In 1948 Congress in its wisdom made it a crime to utter "any
obscene, indecent, or profane language by means of radio
communication." The terms were not defined.

The standards of the FCC have been fairly Victorian. A disc jockey, Charlie
Walker, who worked on station WDKD in Kingstree, South Carolina, ran afoul
of the authorities for his bawdy rustic humor, and for using expressions like
"let it all hang out." The FCC refused to renew his station's license in 1961.
Radio, in the commission's opinion, was not like books or pictures: it is "available
at the flick of a switch to young and old alike, to the sensitive and the indifferent,
to the sophisticated and the credulous." This, presumably, meant that it had to
be squeaky clean. Congress obviously agreed. In the 1990s Howard Stern,
the "shock jock" of morning radio, got into serious trouble with the FCC —
trouble that resulted in hefty fines. When Stern described on the air how a
guest at a party played the piano with his penis, the FCC uttered dark threats
about loss of license.The permissive society, apparently, stops short at the
gates of the airwaves.

The commission intervened on this subject for a simple reason: it was one
issue likely to send some part of the public into a lather. The commission could
suspend licenses of stations that broadcast "communications containing profane
or obscene words or language"; and these communications, as we have seen,
were also a crime. Regulations, statutes, and court cases vacillated considerably
on this delicate subject. There was, after all, a free-speech issue. At one time,
the FCC promulgated "safe harbor" regulations: dirty words were permissible
so long as they were spoken in the middle of the night, when presumably no
children were awake. In 1988 Congress ordered the FCC to extend the ban
to a "24 hour per day basis," though this was later repealed: The issue, on the
whole, remains a live one.

--Lawrence M. Friedman (1930— )
_American Law in the 20th Century_ [2002]
Ch. 18 "Getting Around and Spreading the Word" p. 561

^^

That's the news from Lake Wobegon, where all the
women are strong, the men are good-looking, and
all the children are above average.
--Garrison Keillor (1942— )
American writer and radio host.
"A Prairie Home Companion" [1974-1987], signature line

Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound! Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's Superman!
--George Lother, program intro for Superman radio show, first broadcast [12 February 1940] [Superman was created in 1934 by Jerry Siegel, a graduate of Glenville HS in Cleveland who had little luck with the girls. The fantasy character was also luckless — but only as Clark Kent. Siegel's partner was Joe Shuster, who improved the character with tights, a cape, and a handsome face. They moved to NYC, faced hard times there, so they sold the character to DC Comics for $130. In June, the first Superman comic appeared and the popularity of it was so high that both men realized what a disastrous mistake they had made. Neither of them ever gained a share of Superman's earnings. Siegel, a clerk-typist, died in 1996. Shuster, a messenger, died in 1992.]

Remember please, for the next day or so, the terrible lesson
you learned tonight: That grinning, glowing, globular invader
of your living room is an inhabitant of the Pumpkin Patch, and
if your doorbell rings and nobody's there, that was no Martian
— it's Halloween.
--Orson Welles (1915—1985)
American motion-picture actor, director, producer, and writer.
Concluding remarks on the "Mercury Theater of the Air"
radio production of _The War of the Worlds_ [30 October 1938].

Good evening, Mr. and Mrs. North America and
all the ships at sea. Let's go to press! Flash!
--Walter Winchell (1897—1972)
American journalist.
(Habitual introduction to network radio spot, 1931—1956.)

-

Duffy's Tavern was a place on Third Avenue and 23rd St. in New York City, where the "elite meet to eat, Duffy ain't here, Archie the Manager speakin'" Anyone who loved old time radio probably knows that phone patter by heart! Ed Gardner played Archie, the manager of Duffy's Tavern, and he was as "real" sounding as any character on radio, as he had grown up in the Big Apple. His use and abuse of language was "exempulary" — the same type of local "parlese" that made The Damon Runyan Theater a favorite with New Yorkers everywhere. Gardner was a theatrical veteran, whose wife, Shirley Booth, well-known stage and screen actress, began on the show with him.





RAGE

.
.

see "EMOTIONS & FEELINGS" for related links


Heav'n has no Rage like Love to Hatred turn'd,
Nor Hell a Fury, like a Woman scorn'd.
--William Congreve (1670—1729)
English dramatist.
"The Mourning Bride" [1697]





RAIN

.
.

see "NATURE" for related links


I walked around for a few hours. Around one-thirty
it started raining lightly. Almost immediately the
umbrella sellers turned up on the streetcorners.
You'd have thought they had existed previously
in spore form, springing miraculously to life when
a drop of water touched them.
--Lawrence Block (1938— )
American crime writer.
_Out on the Cutting Edge_

The rain it raineth on the just
And also on the unjust fella;
But chiefly on the just, because
The unjust steals the just's umbrella.
--Lord Bowen (1835—1894)
English judge.
In Walter Sichel _Sands of Time_ [1923].

I do pity unlearned gentlemen on a rainy day.
--Lucius Cary, 2nd Viscount of Falkland (1610—1643)
English politician, soldier and author.

Though April showers may come your way,
They bring the flowers that bloom in May,
So if it's raining, have no regrets,
Because it isn't raining rain you know,
It's raining violets.
--B.G. DeSylva (1895—1950)
American songwriter.
"April Showers" in the 1921 musical _Bomba_.

Somewhere over the rainbow
Way up high,
There's a land that I heard of
Once in a lullaby.
--E.Y. "Yip" Harburg (1896—1981)
American songwriter.
"Over the Rainbow,"
song in the 1939 film _The Wizard of Oz_.

Into each life some rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary.
--Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807—1882)
American poet.
"The Rainy Day" [1842], st. 3

-

kap goes back to his roots in a
1999 post to USENET:

A few years back, Margaret & I went to Mesquite for the weekend -
that's about 80 miles north of Las Vegas. Anyway, I had been gambling
too much at the time, so Margaret told me I couldn't gamble on the first
day unless it rained. Well, it was a regular Nevada day - about 100
degrees with not a cloud in the sky. I am part Mohawk Indian - I don't
know if I told you - my father's mother was 100% Mohawk. So kidding
around, I went out on the terrace and proceeded to make a fool of
myself doing a rain dance. And guess what? About 3 hours later it
poured, and do I mean poured! So I gambled that day & won about
$400. Trouble is, I've tried to do the same dance many times since,
but it doesn't work anymore.

-

It rained hard enough to fill a wire basket.
--Mike Royko (1932—1997)
American journalist.

^

Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve (1804—1869)
French critic and literary historian:

Although himself unpugacious, Sainte-Beuve was
once compelled to fight a duel with pistols. At
the critical moment, just as the order to fire
was about to be given, it started to rain. Sainte-
Beuve called for a pause in the proceedings while
he went to his carriage and fetched and opened a
large umbrella. He then faced his opponent with
the umbrella held in his left hand and the pistol
in his right. The opponent protested at the
derogation of the dignity of the occasion. "I
don't mind being killed," Sainte-Beuve responded,
"but I do mind getting wet."

--_Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes_
edited by Clifton Fadiman and Andrι Bernard

^

Sir John will go, though he were sure
it would rain cats and dogs.
--Jonathan Swift (1667—1745)
Anglo-Irish poet and satirist.
_A Complete Collection of Polite and Ingenious Conversation_ [1738]

Sweet April showers
Do spring May flowers.
--Thomas Tusser (c.1524—1580)
English agricultural writer and poet.
_A Hundred Good Points of Husbandry_
[1557] "April's Husbandry"


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| RABBITS - RAIN | RAP - READING | REAGAN (RONALD) - RECOGNITION | RED HEADS - RELIEF | RELIGION - PAGE 1 (A-M) | RELIGION - PAGE 2 (N-Z) | REMEMBERING - REPORTERS | REPUTATION - RESPONSIBILITY | REST - REWARD | RICH (THE) - RIGHTEOUS | RIGHTS - ROLLER COASTERS | ROMANCE - RUSSIA |
| R | S | T | U - END |
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