Captain Lawrence (Titus) Oates17 March 1880 – 16 March 1912Photographic Archive, Alexander Turnbull Library On January 18, 1912, Titus Oates* and his 4 companions reached the South Pole only to find a short note in an abandoned tent with a bamboo pole flying the Norwegian flag. Roald Amundsen’s team had beat them to the pole by 35 days. Born to a wealthy family in London, Lawrence Edward Grace (“Titus”) Oates enjoyed all the benefits of his family’s nobility and influence….
Vee geyts? The other night I attended a medical lecture given by an Israeli friend who now lives in LA. While we were chatting before the meeting, he asked me if I knew any Hebrew. I said “No, but I do know a few Yiddish words, like k’vetch.” His reply was “that’s a very good word to know.” It’s proof positive that my post’s are relevant . . . and valuable! I feel validated. It seems to be no small coincidence that…
kvetch – /k(ə)veCH/ (from Yiddish) Noun A person who complains a great deal Verb Complain Oy vey! My last post has me on a serious tangent thinking about the persona and stereotypical portrayal of the chronic kvetch. It’s a cool word given that it’s both a verb and a noun. Some have argued that it is also an art form (here for a funny video; here for the whole symposium). At the very least, it is learned behavior. The determinants that create a kvetch are complex and include societal, cultural…
Oy Vey! I recently read a great article by Guy Winch, PhD on how to deal with chronic complainers (here). It is a worthy read, given the prevalence of this challenging personality type in the work-a-day world. Though we all have days when we are pessimists, Dr. Winch reminds us that there’s a big difference between a pessimist and a chronic complainer: Optimists see: A glass half full. Pessimists see: A glass half empty. Chronic complainers see: A glass that is slightly chipped holding water that…
BTBTB (been too busy to blog) . . . c’est la vie . . . I wish I was more confident that things will be changing on this front. But I did manage to capture a few thoughts today. In April 1829, a revelation to Oliver Cowdery was given through Joseph Smith, Jr at Harmony, Pennsylvania. (One month later, the exact same words were given as revelations to Hyrum Smith and Joseph Knight, Sr). Therefore, if you will ask of…
Rudyard Kipling Joseph Smith, Jr. (1865-1936) (1805-1844) Rudyard Kipling is the youngest Nobel laureate for literature (1907). Though born to an aristocratic family in Bombay, he was exposed to hardship early. When he was only 5, he was sent to boarding school back in England. For six years his life was a combination of cruelty and neglect at the hands of people that should have nurtured and loved him. Of this period in his life, he later said: “I…
The Christian Martyrs’ Last Prayer, 1863by Jean-Léon GérômeWalter Art Museum, Baltimore, MD The story of Alypius’ addiction to gladiatorial games in the waning years of the Roman Empire has me thinking about human susceptibility to addiction in general (here for part 1 of this story).When I lived in Boston, I was the Home Teacher of a man that became addicted to crack cocaine. Eddie was not the kind of guy you think of when you say ‘crackhead’. He was smart, sophisticated…
Pollice Verso (Thumbs Down), 1872 by Jean-Léon Gérôme (Phoenix Art Museum) Alypius* was a life-long friend of Augustine of Hippo, one of the greatest Christian thinkers of all time. Both were born in the 4th century in Numidia (current Algeria) which was part of Roman North Africa. They were converted to Christianity together while studying in Milan. Though revered as a Saint of the Catholic Church, there was a time in his life when Alypius seemed hopelessly enslaved to an addiction of…
The other day, Tate was looking at treasures in my den and came upon this rare find. The beautiful patina indicates it comes from a bygone era; it’s safe to say there are only a handful in existence. Recognizing a genuine antiquity when he saw it, he immediately asked the golden question: “Can I have this when you die?” Now that kind of question could easily precipitate a full-blown panic attack in any other middle-aged Mormon male. The quiet little voice inside…
Denisovich – by Leanne Rutter I’ve been reading The Second World War (Antony Beaver) and been astounded at the magnitude of the suffering and hardship of the people that were caught up the the conflict. I had never known how unspeakably evil the likes of Hitler, Stalin and the leaders of the Imperial Army of Japan were until reading the details of their atrocities. It kind of shakes my faith in human decency to realize that these evil few were able to perpetrate…