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VACATION
VALENTINES DAY --- VALUE
VALUES -- VANDALISM -- VANITY -- VARIETY
VEGETABLES / VEGETARIANS --- VENGENCE

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VACATION

see "TRAVEL" for related links


-

Let's take a boat to Bermuda —
Let's take a plane to Saint Paul —
Let's take a kayak
To Quincy or Nyack,
Let's get away from it all.
Let's take a trip in a trailer —
No need to come back at all —
Let's take a powder
To Boston for chowder,
Let's get away from it all.
We'll travel 'round from town to town,
We'll visit ev'ry state.
I'll repeat "I love you, Sweet!"
In all the forty-eight.
Let's go again to Niag'ra,
This time we'll look at the Fall.
Let's leave our hut, Dear,
Get out of our rut, Dear,
Let's get away from it all.

--Tom Adair (1913—1988)
American lyricist.
"Let's Get Away From It All" [1940 song]
(Music by Matt Dennis.)

-

The evolution of a tourist into a permanent resident consists
of a struggle to harmonize misconceptions and preconceptions
of Florida with reality. An initial diversion is to mail northward
snapshots of himself reclining under a coconut palm or a beach
umbrella, with the hope that they will be delivered in the midst
of a blizzard. At the same time, the tourist checks weather
reports from the North, and if his home community is having
a mild winter he feels that his Florida trip has been in part a
swindle. Nothing short of ten-foot snowdrifts and burst water-
pipes at home can make his stay in the southland happy and
complete.
--Federal Writers' Project
_Florida, A Guide to the Southernmost State_ [1939]

I was going to stay on the three million miles
of bent and narrow rural American two-lane,
the roads to Podunk and Toonerville. Into
the sticks, the boondocks, the burgs,
backwaters, jerkwaters, wide-spots-in-the-
road, the don't-blink-or-you'll-miss-it-towns.
Into those places where you say, 'My God!
What if you lived here!'
--William Least Heat Moon [Bill Trogdon] (1939— )
American author.

-

This ain't the Waldorf; if it was you
wouldn't be here.
--Notice found in U.S. country hotels [c. 1900].

-----

hegira [he-JAY-ruh], noun:
1. A journey to a more desirable or congenial place.
2. The flight of Muhammad from Mecca to Medina to
escape persecution a.d. 622: regarded as the
beginning of the Muslim Era.

sojourn (intransitive verb)
To live for a short time in a place;
stay temporarily. Related: live,
dwell, lodge, reside, abide.



VALENTINES DAY

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.

see: "LOVE"
see "TIME" for related links


MAFIA VALENTINES

My love for you,
it came and went.
So now your feet are
in wet cement.

--

I picked up this card
from a slim selection.
But that's all they offer
in witness protection.
Love, J. Doe

--

Violets are blue, roses are red.
I blew up your car — so why ain't you dead?

--

Lust is fleeting,
True love lingers.
Be mine always,
And you'll keep your fingers.

-----

These are entries to a competition asking for a
rhyme with the most romantic first line but least
romantic second line:

Love may be beautiful, love may be bliss
but I only slept with you, cause I was pissed.

Roses are red, violets are blue, sugar is sweet, and so are you.
But the roses are wilting, the violets are dead, the sugar bowl's empty and so is your head.

Kind, intelligent, loving and hot
This describes everything you are not.

I want to feel your sweet embrace
But don't take that paper bag off of your face.

I love your smile, your face, and your eyes —
Damn, I'm good at telling lies!

Every time I see your face
I wish I were in outer space.

My darling, my lover, my beautiful wife,
Marrying you screwed up my life.

I see your face when I am dreaming
That's why I always wake up screaming.

My feelings for you no words can tell
Except for maybe "go to hell."

What inspired this amorous rhyme?
Two parts vodka, one part lime.

---


Trivia: The Italian city of Verona, where Shakespeare's
lovers Romeo and Juliet lived, receives about 1,000
letters addressed to Juliet every Valentine's Day.



VALUE

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.

see "MONEY" for related links


Nothing that costs only a dollar
is worth having.
--Elizabeth Arden [Florence Nightingale Graham] (1876—1966)
Canadian-born American businesswoman.
Attributed, in "Fortune" [October 1973].

Men do not weigh the stalk for what it was,
When once they find her flower, her glory, pass.
--Samuel Daniel (1562—1619)
English poet and dramatist.
"Delia" [1592] sonnet 32

It has long been an axiom of mine that the little
things are infinitely the most important.
--Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859—1930)
Scottish-born writer of detective fiction.
_Adventures of Sherlock Holmes_ [1892]

[The] great part of the miseries of mankind are brought
upon them by the false estimates they have made of the
value of things, and by their *giving too much for their
whistles.*
--Benjamin Franklin (1706—1790)
American politician, inventor, and scientist.
(Referring to the time when at age 7 he was charmed by
another boy's whistle which he bought with all the money
he had , letter to Madame Brillion [10 November 1779] - Q.)

Thirty spokes share the wheel's hub;
It is the center hole that makes it useful.
Shape clay into a vessel;
It is the space within that makes it useful.
Cut doors and windows for a room;
It is the holes which make it useful.
Therefore profit comes from what is there;
Usefulness from what is not there.
--Lao-tzu (c. 6th cent. B.C.)
The first philosopher of Chinese Taoism and alleged author of
the _Tao-te Ching_ (Chinese: Classic of the Way of Power).

An acre in Middlesex is better than
a principality in Utopia.
--Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800—1859)
English politician and historian.
_Essays Contributed to the Edinburgh Review_ [1843] "Lord Bacon"

I cannot help it that my pictures do not sell.
Nevertheless the time will come when people
will see that they are worth more than the
price of the paint.
--Vincent van Gogh (1853—1890)
Dutch painter.
Letter to his brother Theo [20 October 1888].

A cynic, a man who knows the price of
everything and the value of nothing.
--Oscar Wilde (1854—1900)
Anglo-Irish dramatist and poet.
_Lady Windermere's Fan_ [1892], act III



Click picture to ZOOM
VALUES

.
.

see "CHARACTER" for related links


You must know when, how, and to whom you must
say "no." This involves considerable difficulty at times.
You must not hurt people, or want to hurt them, yet
you must not placate them at the price of infidelity to
higher and more essential values.
--Thomas Merton (1915—1968)
American Trappist monk and author.
_Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander_ [1966]

The strong individual loves the earth so much he lusts
for recurrence. He can smile in the face of the most
terrible thought: meaningless, aimless existence recurring
eternally. The second characteristic of such a man is that
he has the strength to recognise — and to live with the
recognition — that the world is valueless in itself and
that all values are human ones. He creates himself by
fashoning his own values; he has the pride to live by
the values he wills.
--Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844—1900)
German classical scholar, philosopher, and critic of culture.

The greatest gifts my parents gave to me. . . were
their unconditional love and a set of values. Values
that they lived and didn't just lecture about. Values
that included an understanding of the simple difference
between right and wrong, a belief in God, the importance
of hard work and education, self-respect and a belief
in America.
--Colin L. Powell (1937— )
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff [1989—1993]
and Secretary of State [2001—2005].

-----

anomie or anomy (noun) ['ζ-nκ-mee]
1: A breakdown or lack of values, norms,
or structure in a society.
2: The alienated feeling of an individual or
class resulting from such a breakdown.
3: A personal feeling of not being part
of, or responsible to, society.
Derived: anomic, adj.
The adjective form is used to describe the lack of regulation
in social structures such as laissez-faire capitalism.




VANDALISM

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.
.

For cutting the shoots of trees in city parks that bear
flowers or fruit or yield shade the fine shall be six
pannas [copper or silver coins], for cutting small
branches twelve pannas, for cutting stout branches
twenty-four pannas, for destroying trunks the lowest
fine for violence, for uprooting the tree the middle
fine.
--Kautilya {also called Canakya, or Visnugupta}
(c.350—c.275 BC) Hindu statesman and philosopher.
_Arthasastra_ (Book of Statecraft), bk 3, ch. 19



VANITY

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.

see: "THE BODY"
see: "BRAGGING"
see: "PRETENTIONS"
see "EMOTIONS & FEELINGS" for other related links


To say that a man is vain means merely that he is pleased with the
effect he produces on other people. A conceited man is satisfied
with the effect he produces on himself.
--Sir Max Beerbohm (1872—1956)
English satirist and caricaturist.
_And Even Now_ [1920] "Quia Imperfectum"

^^

Once when Noλl Coward was crossing from Britain to the United States
by ocean liner, the company in the cocktail lounge included a rather
pompous English gentleman who was complaining bitterly of a recent
occasion on which he had not been treated with the respect he clearly
felt he deserved. "They didn't seem to know who I was!' he protested.

'And who *were* you?' enquired Coward politely.

_The Folio Book of Humorous Anecdotes_
Introduced by Edward Leeson [2005], "Actors and the Theatre"

^^

He was like a cock who thought the sun
had risen to hear him crow.
--George Eliot [Mary Ann Evans] (1819—1880)
English novelist.
_Adam Bede_ [1859]

Man may content himself with the applause of
the world and the homage paid to his intellect;
but woman's heart has holier idols.
--Augusta Jane Evans (1835—1909)
American novelist.
_Beulah_ [1860]

Affectation proceeds from one of these two causes,— vanity or
hypocrisy; for as vanity puts us on affecting false characters, in
order to purchase applause; so hypocrisy sets us on an endeavor
to avoid censure, by concealing our vices under an appearance
of their opposite virtues.
--Henry Fielding (1707—1754)
English novelist and dramatist.
_The Adventures of Joseph Andrews_ [1742] "Author's Preface"

-

He that displays too often his wife and his wallet
is in danger of having both of them borrowed.
--Benjamin Franklin (1706—1790)
American politician, inventor, and scientist.


A Man must have a good deal of Vanity who believes,
and a good deal of Boldness who affirms, that all the
Doctrines he holds are true, and all he rejects, are false.
--Benjamin Franklin (1706—1790)
American politician, inventor, and scientist.
Letter to his Father & Mother [13 April 1738].

-

You will find rest from vain fancies if you perform
every act in life as though it were your last.
--Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121—180)
Roman emperor [161—180] and Stoic philosopher.
_Meditations_, Book II, Number 5

It may easily come to pass that a vain man
may become proud and imagine himself
pleasing to all when he is in reality a
universal nuisance.
--Benedict de Spinoza (1632—1677)
Dutch-Jewish philosopher, the foremost exponent of 17th century Rationalism.
_Ethics_ [1677] pt. III

^

John Wayne [Marion Michael Morrison] (1907—1979)
American motion-picture actor.

Wayne went to Harvard College to receive the famous,
and famously satirical, Hasty Pudding Award. At the
ensuing press conference he was asked, 'Do you look
at yourself as an American legend?' Replied Wayne,
'Well, not being a Harvard man, I don't look at
myself any more than necessary.'

--_Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes_
edited by Clifton Fadiman and Andrι Bernard [2000 ed.]

^

-----

coxcomb [KOKS-kohm], noun:
1 A fool.
4. A vain, showy fellow; a conceited, silly man, fond of display;
a superficial pretender to knowledge or accomplishments.

fop (noun) [fahp]
A foolish, conceited male obsessed with
outward appearance, a vain man who showily
overdresses; a dandy; a coxcomb.

popinjay [POP-in-jay], noun:
A vain and talkative person.
Ex.: A writer who appreciates the seriousness of writing
so little that he is anxious to make people see he is formally
educated, cultured or well-bred is merely a popinjay.
--Ernest Hemingway (1889-1961)
"Death in the Afternoon"



VARIETY

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.

see "LIVING"


Variety's the very spice of life,
That gives it all its flavor.
--William Cowper (1731—1800)
English poet and hymnodist.
"The Task" [1785]

-----

gallimaufry [gal-uh-MAW-free], noun:
A medley; a hodgepodge.
Syn.: jumble, olla podrida, olio, salmagundi, potpourri.
Ex.: Today bilingual programs are conducted in a gallimaufry
of around 80 tongues, ranging from Spanish to Lithuanian to
Micronesian Yapese.
--Ezra Bowen, "For Learning or Ethnic Pride?"
_Time_ [8 July 1985]

multifarious [muhl-tuh-FAIR-ee-uhs], adjective:
Having great diversity or variety; of various kinds;
diversified.
Ex.: She is good at constructing a long, multifarious
narrative, weaving many minor stories into one, so
that you are left with a sense of the fluidity and
ambiguity of historical interpretation.
--Jason Cowley,
"It's bright, clever... but the result is academic,"
_The Observer_, [27 May 2001]

protean [PRO-tee-un; pro-TEE-un], adjective:
1. Displaying considerable variety or diversity.
2. Readily assuming different shapes or forms.
Ex. 1 : "The [Broadway] musical was ceaselessly protean in these years,
usually conventional but always developing convention, twisting it, replacing
it."
--Ethan Mordden, "Coming Up Roses"
Ex. 2 : "He was a protean character who constantly adapted to his
environment."
--David Maraniss,
"The Clinton Enigma"
Protean is derived from Proteus, an ancient Greek god who had the
ability to change his shape at will.



Click picture to ZOOM
VEGETABLES / VEGETARIANS

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.

see "FOOD & DRINK" for related links


Tell me one thing, Shaw, have you eaten
that or are you going to?
--Sir James Matthew Barrie (1860—1937)
Scottish writer and dramatist.
Asked of George Bernard Shaw, a vegetarian, who
had before him a plate consisting of some greens
and a mixture of salad oils.

'What's up, Doc?' was incomplete without the sound
of the rabbit nibbling on the carrot, which presented
problems. First of all, I don't especially like carrots,
at least not raw. And second, I found it impossible
to chew, swallow, and be ready to say my next line.
We tried substituting other vegetables, including
apples and celery, but with unsatisfactory results.
The solution was to stop recording so that I could
spit out the carrot into the waste-basket and then
proceed with the script. In the course of a recording
session I usually went through enough carrots to fill
several wastebaskets. Bugs Bunny did for carrots
what Popeye the Sailor did for spinach. How many
... children were coerced into eating their carrots
by mothers cooing ... "'But Bugs Bunny eats _his_
carrots.' If only they had known.
--Mel Blanc (1908—1989)
American voice actor for cartoons.
_That's Not All, Folks!: My Life in the Golden Age of Cartoons & Radio_ [1988]

I do not like broccoli. And I haven't liked it since I
was a little kid and my mother made me eat it. And I'm
President of the United States, and I'm not going to eat
any more broccoli.
--George H. W. Bush (1924— )
American Republican statesman and President [1989—1993].
Quoted in "N.Y. Times" [23 March 1990].

Most vigitaryans I iver see looked enough like
their food to be classed as cannybals.
--Finley Peter Dunne (1867—1936)
American journalist and humorist.
_Mr Dooley's Philosophy_ "Casual Observations" [1900]

You have just dined, and however scrupulously the slaughterhouse
is concealed in the graceful distance of miles, there is complicity.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803—1882)
American philosopher and poet.
_The Conduct of Life_ [1860] "Fate"

How to eat spinach like a child. Divide into piles. Rearrange
again into piles. After five or six manoeuvres, sit back and
say you are full.
--Delia Ephron
Screenwriter and author.

The greater red Beet or Roman Beet, boyled and eaten with oyle, vinegar
and pepper, is a most excellent and delicate sallad: but what might be
made of the red and beautifull root (which is to be preferred before the
leaves, as well in beauty as in goodnesse) I refer unto the curious and
cunning cooke, who no doubt when he hath had the view thereof, and is
assured that it is both good and wholesome, will make thereof many and
divers dishes, both faire and good.
--John Gerard (1545—c.1615)
English botanist.
_Herball or General Historie of Plantes_[1597]

Vegetarianism is harmless enough,
though it is apt to fill a man with
wind and self-righteousness.
--Sir Robert Hutchison (1871—1960),
President of the Royal College of Physicians.

Cucumber should be well sliced, and dressed with
pepper and vinegar, and then thrown out, as good
for nothing.
--Samuel Johnson (1709—1784)
English poet, critic, and lexicographer.
[5 October 1773], in James Boswell
_The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides_ [1786].

I am thinking of the onion again. . . . Not self-righteous like
the proletarian potato, nor a siren like the apple. No show-
off like the banana. But a modest, self-effacing vegetable,
questioning, introspective, peeling itself away, or merely
radiating halos like ripples.
--Erica Jong (1942— )
American novelist.

-

I'm Popeye the sailor man
I'm Popeye the sailor man
I'm strong to the finach
"Cause I eats me spinach
I'm Popeye the sailor man.
I'm one tough Gazookus
Which hates all Palookas
Wot ain't on the up and square
I biffs 'em and buffs 'em
An' always out-roughs 'em
An' none of 'em gits no-where.
If anyone dasses to risk
My Fisk it's Boff an'
It's Wham un'erstan?
So keep Good Behavor
That's your one lifesaver
With Popeye the Sailor Man.
--Sammy Lerner (1903—1989)
Romanian-born American songwriter.

-

I'm not a vegetarian, but I eat animals who are.
--Groucho [Julius Henry] Marx (1895—1977)
American film comedian.

Vegetarians have wicked, shifty eyes, and laugh in a
cold and calculating manner. They pinch little children,
steal stamps, drink water, favor beards...wheeze,
squeak, drawl and maunder.
--J.B. Morton [Beachcomber] (1893—1979)
English humorous writer.
_By the Way_

Parsley
Is gharsley.
--Ogden Nash (1902—1971)
American writer of humorous poetry.
_Good Intentions_ [1942] "Further Reflection on Parsley"

Let us be brothers with all that lives. We must destroy
something to live. We must walk on the grass. We need
not eat animals, but we have to eat some plants. We
have to pull carrots. We have to eat potatos. We have
to bite into beautiful apples. But we can be aware and
apologize — I do when I eat a radish; I do when I sniff
a rose or eat a lettuce leaf. We should know that all
forms of life have their rights and their purposes. We
should have respect for life, for nature and for beingness.
Every atom in life has its own intrinsic value. We have
endless opportunities: every hour, every minute we
can be aware to help and to make the world a better
place for our having lived in it.
--Helen Knothe Nearing (1904—1995)
American musician and writer.
Speech to the World Vegetarian Congress, The Hague [1994].

God invented vegetables to let women
get even with their children.
--P.J. O'Rourke (1947— )
American political satirist.

Meat and potatoes, that's what I like best!
Veg'tables are so hard to digest.
Give me meat and potatoes, morning, noon and night —
That kind of menu makes me feel all right.
--Franz Peter Schubert (1797—1828)
Austrian composer.
Intermezzo from _Rosamunde_

What did the carrot say to the wheat?
Lettuce rest, I'm feeling beet.
--Shel Silverstein (1930—1999)
Ameican poet and songwriter.

^

William Howard Taft (1857—1930)
27th President of the United States [1909—1913]
and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court [1921—1930]

During a political speech a listener threw a cabbage
at Taft, who then paused, examined the cabbage,
and said, 'I see that one of my opponents has lost
its head.'

--_Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes_
edited by Clifton Fadiman and Andrι Bernard [2000 ed.]

^

I have no doubt that it is a part of the destiny of the human race,
in its gradual improvement, to leave off eating animals, as surely
as the savage tribes have left off eating each other when they
came in contact with the more civilized.
--Henry David Thoreau (1817—1862)
American essayist, poet, and practical philosopher.
_Walden_ [1854] "Higher Laws"

Training is everything. The peach was once a bitter
almond; cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a
college education.
--Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835—1910)
American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot.
_Pudd'nhead Wilson_ [1894]
ch. 5 epigraph: "Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar"

Mother: It's broccoli, dear.
Daughter: I say it's spinach, and I say the hell with it.
--E.B. [Elwyn Brooks] White (1899—1985)
American essayist and literary stylist.
Cartoon caption, "New Yorker" [8 December 1928]

-

Rhubarb: As soon as the young shoots begin to appear
cover them up with flower-pots, drain-pipes, or anything
else that has a hyphen to let the air in. After a week
or two, when they are starting to put forth leaves, drench
them with quick-lime and replace the covers with the
airholes bunged up. If this treatment is not successful,
try stamping on them with hob-nailed boots or use the
light roller. Very stubborn cases should be uprooted
and burnt.
--anon.

-

Vegetarians eat vegetables — I am a humanitarian.
--anon.

Vegetarian is an old Indian word meaning "bad hunter."
--unknown


TOPICAL

More Americans are eating their vegetables. But the
healthy trend comes with a risk: Illnesses traced to
fresh produce are on the rise.

Fruits and vegetables are now responsible for more
large-scale outbreaks of food-borne illnesses than
meat, poultry or eggs. Overall, produce accounts
for 12% of food-borne illnesses and 6% of the
outbreaks, up from 1% of the illnesses and 0.7% of
outbreaks in the 1970s, according to data from the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Meanwhile, meat-related E. coli infections have been
on the decline.

Several factors are responsible: the centralization of
produce distribution, a rise in produce imports, as well
as the growing popularity of pre-chopped
fruits and vegetables. Both the government and the
industry have identified five products that are
particularly problematic: tomatoes, melons (especially
cantaloupes), lettuce, sprouts and green onions. [. . . ]

--Jane Zhang,
"When Eating Your Vegetables Makes You Sick"
_The Wall Street Journal_ [30 November 2005]

-----

herbivore (noun) ['hκr-bκ-vor]
Any creature that eats only plants and vegetables.

jardiniere (noun) [zhar-dn-'eer or jar-dn-'eer]
1/ A decorative container for plants or flowers;
2/ a stand or box for plants or flowers, such as a window box;
3/ diced fresh vegetables served as an accompaniment to meat,
as a jardiniere soup.



VENGENCE

.
.

see "EMOTIONS & FEELINGS" for related links


Never frighten a little man. He'll kill you.
--Lazarus Long (fictional character in Robert A. Heinlein novels.)


end page



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