Carl Wells Books

We are ready for the one after the last one. That brings us to number 52.

52/”Live not by lies.”

This is the title of an essay Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wrote in 1974. He was writing especially for his Russian people (and other Soviet citizens) suffering under the rule of the Soviet Union. But the exhortation holds good for everyone everywhere for all time. Surely that must be especially true in times when lying is the accepted way of proceeding for most people. So S. told his fellows, don’t go along with the lies. We in the United States have a choice. We can go along with the routine lies that almost everyone agrees on. Or we can refuse to live by lies. It will probably take courage to refuse to live by lies. But if we keep on agreeing that the emperor is wonderfully and tastefully attired, we will lose the hope of having an honest country. We will lose our self-respect. A few people already have refused to go along with the lies. We can imitate them.

53/”He’s the universal soldier, and he really is to blame.”

This is a line from Buffy Sainte-Marie’s song “Universal Soldier.” Her next lines go on to say, “But his orders come from far away no more, they come from him and you and me.” I think she has nailed our carcass to the wall. Yes, the filthy scumbags who run our country are murdering, lying, warmongering monsters. But the deeper truth is that we ordinary people are really the ones to blame. We have acquiesced in all these preemptive wars. We have wallowed in idolatry of the U.S. military and of the U.S. as a nation. When I say we, that includes Christians–truly converted Christians!–and conservatives. We need to repent and change our behavior. We’re the universal soldiers, and we really are to blame. Here is Buffy Sainte-Marie with “Universal Soldier,” a song she wrote many decades ago.

54/”Libby the Kid is Billy the Kid spelled sideways–sort of.”

Libby the Kid was the cartoon mascot for Libbyland Dinners, TV dinners for kids. The dinners have been gone for a long time, and so has Libby the Kid. But at the time I thought the phrase above was clever and entertaining. I have remembered it all these long decades. I don’t think I ever had a Libbyland Dinner, but I still remember at least this part of their advertising.

55/”What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger.”

Yes, this can be overdone. Something that does not kill us might cripple us so profoundly as to ruin our lives. But there is also a great deal of truth in the phrase. Sometimes bad things happen to us which seem unfair and overwhelming. But if we weather the storm, we become stronger people, more able to stand on principle and to face the future with the determination to do right. What seemed only a hardship, turns out in the long run to be a blessing in disguise–something that toughened us up for future challenges. Hebrews says something similar, in reminding us that God disciplines us as a loving father disciplines his children, for our good (Hebrews 12:3-11).

56/”You’re inimitable, Lewis.”

This is a phrase from one of C. S. Lewis’ books in his Space Trilogy. The books are fiction, but C. S. Lewis is one of the characters. What happened was, Lewis had said something which was so characteristic of his usual way of thinking, that his friend told him, “You’re inimitable, Lewis.” I used this phrase often when dealing with my Aged Parent. She would say something very consistent with her usual idiosyncratic way of thinking. She was completely herself–for better or for worse. So I would tell her, “You’re inimitable, Lewis.”

57/”You go broke gradually, then all at once.”

This seems to me to apply not just to individuals, but also to countries. The Soviet Union went broke gradually–then all at once. I think the U.S. is doing the same thing. We are still in the “gradually” phase, but the “all at once” phase may show up soon. (We are already bankrupt; we just don’t know it yet.) I think this phrase can apply to more than just finances. I think we have been going broke gradually in terms of our morality. Now suddenly our morality is almost completely gone–we are broke morally all at once. Our moral impoverishment happened gradually, but “all at once” we are almost complete idiots on any topic you can name.

58/”The more things change, the more they stay the same.”

Here is just one example. The Donald Trump presidency was supposedly going to stop and even reverse illegal immigration, was going to start to reduce our foreign footprint significantly, was going to start the process of dismantling the Deep State. Donald Trump represented incredible change, according to our elites, who got their panties in a wad (see #10) about how horribly Mr. Trump would change things. Well, after four years of Donald Trump as president, we could all readily say, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” It seems to be a principle of life, that true change comes rarely, and then only after fierce determination and commitment to high principle. Don’t hold your breath that change for the better is going to happen.

59/”There’s no there there.”

This was spoken by Gertrude Stein about Oakland. The idea being that Oakland was just sort of a spot on the map, but not really a city with a distinct personality. My guess is that some people who love Oakland could point out, then and now, how that was unfair! Still, we kind of know what she means. There are things that seem to lack personality. I would say, for example, of American Christianity, that “There’s no there there.” Is that unfair? Maybe, but maybe not. American Christianity is so compromised in its principles and behavior, that we can say, with only slight exaggeration, that “There’s no there there.” Biblical Christianity would look far different. Can we change? Only if we decide to “live not by lies.” That may be “a bridge too far.”

60/”Things hang together.”

This is from Chapter 40 of George Eliot’s Middlemarch. It is spoken by Caleb Garth. I have only read the book once, and don’t feel inclined to read it again, but as soon as I saw that line (many decades ago) I underlined it and wrote in the margin yes. I have never forgotten it, and I think the truth of the statement is constantly enforced upon us. Caleb Garth is telling us, morality fits together in a practical, common sense kind of way. The virtues reinforce each other. So do the vices. If we are willing to steal from our neighbor in how we vote, we probably have other vices we are willing to indulge, because “Things hang together.”

61/”Trees don’t grow to the sky.”

Possibly Aristotle was the first one to notice this. Everything has its natural limit. The reality God has given us has boundaries. We have to learn to recognize the boundaries and work within them. If this seems not worth taking the time to state, consider children being born in the United States these days. Some of them are being lied to egregiously, and their lives are being ruined, because irresponsible adults refuse to recognize boundaries God has set. Boys are boys, and girls are girls. We need to work within those boundaries, or we cause lots of misery for people. Trees don’t grow to the sky, boys don’t become girls, and girls don’t become boys.

62/”Overreaching don’t pay.”

This is a line from Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Huck says it, or writes it. When we overreach, we put ourselves in position to get a smackdown. It is better not to be in a hurry to do too much. Jesus Christ says something similar, in telling us not to try to take the place of honor at the first table, because the one who gave the invitation may say we don’t belong there, and we would then have to move to the last place. Better, he says, to take a lowly position to start with. Then we can be moved forward by the man who issued the invitations in the first place, if necessary. (Luke 14:8-11) Our human instinct is often to overreach, but Huck is trying to warn us that it can be counterproductive.

I hope to continue with part VIII next week.

We are ready for our forty-fourth phrase that somehow has a special meaning for me.

44/”A bridge too far.”

This phrase has had considerable fame since at least 1974, after the publication of Cornelius Ryan’s book by that title. He wrote about a World War II military situation in which the advancing Allies got extended too far forward, with bad consequences. They had gone a bridge too far. My own use of the phrase is often in communicating with politicians who are really much better than the usual run of politicians. I try to encourage such men. I also try to encourage them to understand that public education is a disaster for our country. I tell them that I know that it is “a bridge too far” for them to begin to oppose public education, but I do ask them to think about the situation. What is currently “a bridge too far” may be a more accepted position sometime in the future. Anyway, I try to put a bug in their ear, so that they are pondering, consciously or subconsciously, how we can begin to defund public education–or at least begin to think about defunding it–to the vast benefit of us all. People who have shown some willingness to stand for limited government, are people who may have the potential to do even better in the future. I repeat: what is a bridge too far now, could become a realistic goal in the future.

45/”I don’t mind dyin’, but I hate to leave my children cryin’.”

I got this phrase from a song by Canadian American Indian singer and songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie. She sings it in the song “Fixin’ to Die.” There are of course other versions of the song, but I find her version moving. In it, a woman senses her death approaching. She doesn’t mind dying, but she does mind that her children will be left crying. I understand the feeling, I think. I don’t have children, so when I pass I won’t leave any children crying. But I have published 16 books (with hopefully at least two more to go), and I am very conscious that when I go, from that point on my “children,” my books, will be orphans. Most likely, there will be no one to care for and help those children. It makes me sad. Like Ms. Sainte-Marie, I don’t mind dying–although I am willing to put it off for quite a while. But I really really hate to leave my children crying. Here is the gifted Buffy Sainte-Marie:

46/”For he on honeydew hath fed,/And drunk the milk of Paradise.”

This is from the poem “Kubla Khan” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. It is a short poem, and I think its dramatic phrasing makes it accessible to people like me who aren’t very poetry-oriented. Kubla Khan has been blessed in his life. Oddly–or perhaps not oddly at all–this line makes me think of writers who sense that they have written something good. I have felt that way myself now and then, whether correctly or incorrectly only God knows for sure. Any writer who really rings the bell and wins the cigar or coconut (as P. G. Wodehouse would say), or perhaps at least thinks that he has done so, is greatly blessed, like Kubla Khan. Such a writer has fed on honeydew, and has drunk the milk of Paradise. We writers may have consolations, whether we should have them or not.

47/”Pride grows in the human heart like lard on a pig.”

This a line from Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. I think it comes from the first volume of The Gulag Archipelago. What he says is so true. Solzhenitsyn gives an example from his own life, looking back on behavior for which he subsequently became ashamed. We have to face the fact about ourselves, that self-absorbed pride is automatic to us. For most of us, pride is the abiding sin. For a few people other sins may be first, but I think for most of us it is pride which is number one. Forewarned is forearmed.

48/”Does a bear sleep in the woods?”

This phrase can be a fitting response when we are asked some questions. “Would you like another piece of pizza?” The answer should be obvious. Rather than just, “Yes, please,” “Does a bear sleep in the woods?” is more expressive and more accurate. We probably all get plenty of questions for which the above phrase is the perfect response.

49/”I’d like to see the Penguin hit one like he really can.”

I have a very fond memory of the only time I heard this phrase used. Tommy Lasorda was coaching third base for the Los Angeles Dodgers. He was wired for sound that day, to my eternal gratitude. I think this was before he became the Dodger manager; he was just coach at the time. Ron Cey was at bat. Ron Cey’s nickname was the Penguin. It was the most appropriate nickname one could imagine. Anyone who saw Ron Cey as he played third base could easily see that he moved around like a penguin. Tommy Lasorda, from his position coaching third base, kept up a steady stream of encouraging comments to Ron Cey. “Come on Pengy, come on Pengy” was among them. More than once he said, “I’d like to see the Penguin hit one like he really can.” The point being, that Ron Cey, at his best, really could hit the ball powerfully well. Which was completely true: Ron Cey had a fine career as a hitter. It was vastly entertaining to hear Tommy Lasorda keep up his encouraging comments. I have no memory at all as to how that particular at bat turned out for Ron Cey and the Dodgers! But I will never forget some of Tommy Lasorda’s patter. I have tried to find a videotape of that episode on the Internet, but so far have not succeeded.

50/”Born to lose.”

I encountered this phrase a couple decades ago when with a beloved friend, X. X went into some kind of shop, and I went in with him. I don’t remember the details. Something to do with car parts, perhaps. Anyway, while X was conducting his business, I waited and watched. There were one or two other people in the shop, besides the man waiting on X. One man standing there had a tattoo on his arm. His tattoo read, “Born to lose.” That immediately struck my fancy. When we exited the shop, I told X about the man with the “Born to lose” tattoo. Neither of us has ever forgotten, and we often sign off our emails to one another as Born to lose. “Born to lose” is a self-pitying phrase, but of course we all enjoy a spate of self-pity, and sometimes more than just a brief spate. If we are not going to pity ourselves, who will step up to the plate and do it for us? Nobody, the slackers. When we are thinking clearly, we avoid self-pity, but we are not always thinking clearly. Anyway, I am eternally grateful to that man and his tattoo. He has given me great entertainment over the years. Maybe that is what he was born for–to bring some happiness into my life. Here is Ray Charles singing “Born to Lose,” a 1962 minor hit which reached the top 100 for nine weeks, and peaked at #41. Not bad for someone born to lose.

51/”Ninety percent of life is showing up.”

This is often attributed to Woody Allen. I don’t know if he was the first to come up with it or not. And the percentage named can vary. But this phrase has caught on, and I think it will endure. Because there is so much that is true about it. If we are willing to drag ourselves out of bed, and show up, we really have a chance to succeed. I occasionally hear of people who are hired to work, but they don’t show up on the day they are scheduled to start work. If they had just shown up, they would have been 90% of the way home to having a good life. They would have earned money, they would have earned–really earned–self-respect, they would have earned the respect of others. And even if the job was low paying–a supposed “dead end job”–it was the start of something which might have led to something better. It really does seem to be true that 90% of life is showing up.

I hope to continue this series with part VII next week.

Here are a few more phrases, short and long, humorous and serious, which have entertained me, and have often instructed me, over the years. We are ready for the number just after 34.

35/”The beatings will continue until morale improves.”

A neighbor flew a flag flying which said that; it may have been my first introduction to the phrase. What makes this so funny is, of course, that morale is not likely to improve as long as the beatings go on. It sometimes seems to me that our beloved scumbag “elite” has exactly this attitude toward us peons: “The beatings will continue until morale improves.” We just can’t seem to get our attitudes right enough for them to feel able in good conscience to discontinue the beatings. So the beatings are going to continue for a while. We need to learn to deal with it. When morale improves, maybe they will let up on us. Although I doubt it.

36/”A thing worth doing is a thing worth overdoing.”

This is one of the mottoes of the Bagthorpe family created by author Helen Cresswell. They were dysfunctional but active. Probably most of us get in this mode now and then (and in some cases often). Something might be worth doing, but we insist on overdoing. Working for the proper balance is not something that comes easily to us, as a race. The phrase has a sort of jaunty recklessness which appeals to me.

37/”A million here, a million there; pretty soon you’re into real money.”

Everett Dirksen, a senator from Illinois, is often credited with saying this–although there is controversy on whether he really did say it. If he said it, it would have happened sometime in the 1950s or 1960s. For the sake of argument, assume he said it. The point was that government spenders can rack up spending very quickly. Much less than a million dollars is already into “real money” for most of us, but government officials spending Other People’s Money (the only kind they are good at spending) recklessly spend money very quickly. I am old enough to remember that this phrase definitely had the word million in it, originally. Nowadays the value of our money has been so debased by the printing of money not backed by gold or silver, that some people think the phrase is “A billion here, a billion there; pretty soon you’re into real money.” Nope. The original was definitely million.

38/”The way to do a thing is to do it.”

This was a phrase written by the great evangelistic English Anglican bishop, J. C. Ryle. I borrowed the phrase for the title of one of my books of essays (dedicated to Ryle). I think it says so much that is sensible about how the world is put together. If we want to do something, the way to do it is to do it. Our tendency is to form three committees, and to come up with majority and minority reports to be studied for at least six years. I am not recommending that we neglect to plan the right way to do something. But I also think we tend to let ourselves get sidetracked. The way to become godly is to become godly. The way to save money is to save money. The way to encourage another person is to encourage another person. And on and on. We learn by doing. We may not do the thing we want to do as well as we could, right at the start, but by doing we begin to get the thing done. Okay, one more example. Two parents realize that it is wise to homeschool their children. The way to do it is to do it. Yes, they will make mistakes. But by doing it, they begin to learn. If they think about it until they have the perfect plan, three more years will have passed and their children are still in the humanist seminaries being brainwashed.

39/”Jesus sought me when a stranger, wandering from the fold of God.”

This is a line from the hymn, “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing,” written at the age of 22 by Robert Robinson, in England, in the year 1758. Words and music are a perfect blend. The phrase above says a great deal that is true about how we become Christians. We were wandering from God, and He sought us. It is all grace. Yes, of course we have human responsibility. But it turns out that nobody is wise enough or good enough to choose God. Do all Christians agree with this, or understand it? Of course not. How do we put together human responsibility with God being the one who moves us to salvation? None of us understand it, but it remains true. And, as eternity unfolds, no matter how exalted our characters become, we are all going to understand every day that it was the grace of God that brought us to heaven, not our own merit. We will all be humbled, and humility will be a wise feeling and a wise atmosphere in which to live. We ain’t there yet, but I think we will be. In this song a 22-year old young sprout nailed an eternal truth, and did it most tunefully. This is one of many countless versions of the song, here sung by All Sons & Daughters.

40/”Every now and then the old blind sow finds an acorn.”

I first remember hearing this from my father. It is a good phrase to use when we finally do something right, something unexpectedly successful. Such events may not happen often, but we should always remember the old blind sow and emulate her persistence in still trying.

41/”Everything was just generally real good.”

This can still bring a chuckle in our family. My father originated this phrase. I don’t remember the details exactly, but here is an approximation of what happened. We were all supposed to give a highlight of the past year. My father, when his turn came, was unable to come up with something specific, so he said, “Everything was just generally real good.” This was typical of his tendency to avoid specifics. We had the same trouble in getting him to pick a favorite food. Finally, after some hemming and hawing, he picked shrimp as his favorite food. It took a lot to get it out of him.

42/”I just put my thumb on zero and let ‘er rip.”

My Aged Parent, my mother, coined this one at the ripe old age of 101. What happened was that the electricity was out for quite a few hours. One day stretched into another, the weather was hot, the lack of lighting inconvenient, and all of us had a chance to recognize how dependent we are on electricity for leading normal enjoyable lives. My mother began to become frustrated with how long it was taking the electric company to get power restored. So she called them. Amazingly, she got through, and actually talked to someone. When I heard that she had successfully reached the power company, I was surprised, and asked her how she was able to get through to talk to someone. In a truculent tone she replied, “I just put my thumb on zero and let ‘er rip.” It worked. Somehow she got through and made her case. We weren’t without electricity much longer after her call. I doubt if the electric company will let this problem happen again.

43/”This is not going to end well.”

I love the restrained, calm way, that this phrase foresees disaster. In our current era, the phrase often fits the circumstances when our elite chooses some policy which can be seen to be leading inevitably to disaster. Printing money out of thin air? “This is not going to end well.” But examples can be multiplied by the dozen. At the worst, we have the entertainment of seeing what is coming, and calmly saying that we understand that this is not going to end well.

I hope to continue with part VI next week.

We are ready for number 26, in a series of phrases that I have found entertaining over the years.

26/”An action would lie.”

This is a roundabout way of saying, “We can sue you, make it stick, and earn some serious money from you.” I love the way the word sue is not mentioned. It is an action. If a lawyer ever tells you, in warning you about something you’ve done, that “An action would lie,” you may soon be entering a world of misery. Abandon hope.

27/”You can stand me up at the gates of hell, but I won’t back down.”

This is from a song by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, “I Won’t Back Down,” which came out in 1989. It was and is a very popular song. The last time I looked, it had 32 million plus viewings on YouTube. I think this phrase captures the kind of attitude we are going to need if we hope to defend and extend Christian civilization. (Did I just type “extend Christian civilization”? Sorry, I forgot to take my meds this morning.) The cancel culture which hates God and hates truth and hates responsibility, wants anyone who tells the truth to shut up and go away. Sadly, that seems to be mostly what we do: apologize, shut up, and go away. Leaving the field to the barbarians. I think we need to develop the willingness to fight for the truth, no matter what it costs us. Believe it or not, I think that when we stand for the truth and accept the consequences, we will start to win. Quite possibly we are in the very early church; lots of good things may be coming. A backbone, if we can develop one, will help us bring those good things into existence. Here is a link to the song.

Sadly, Tom Petty died in 2017 from an accidental overdose of drugs. It is a reminder that we need to pick our battles. He would have done well to back down from the drugs.

28/”Hindsight is 20/20.”

This is usually intended as a sophisticated criticism of hindsight. “Yes,” the critics are saying, “hindsight understands everything now, with the benefit of being able to look back and see how everything unfolded. But it’s too late now.” However, my own take on hindsight is completely different. I admire hindsight. I think hindsight is wonderful. The thing is, we don’t take advantage of hindsight. We don’t learn from our mistakes. Here is one example. After World War I and the idiotic U.S. involvement in that war, hindsight told us, “That was very foolish.” And it was. We should have known better than to do what we did, but we didn’t know better. But we didn’t listen to hindsight. We didn’t learn from our error. We repeated the same error the next time. We keep on trying to run the world, when we can’t even run our own country with biblical wisdom. Hindsight is not trying to be a jerk and make fun of us, he is just trying to help us learn so that the next time we can do better. Hindsight is 20/20. Hurray for hindsight!

29/”I’m a millionaire.”

The origin of this phrase goes back a couple of decades. My mother had a handyman working for her. His name was, well, just call him X. One time when my name was mentioned, X said something like, “Oh that Carl. He’s a millionaire.” This story was of course soon reported to me by my family. What makes this so entertaining is that Carl is not close to being a millionaire. Neither then nor in the decades that have ensued, have I come close to being a millionaire. A thousandaire, sure. A millionaire? Not close. So ever since when I have encountered an expense of any sort more than expected or more than ideal, I just tell my family, “Oh, don’t worry about it; I’m a millionaire. I can afford it.”

30/”I try to be cynical, but it’s impossible to keep up.”

I suppose there will be alternate explanations of where this phrase comes from, but I heard of it as having been said by Lily Tomlin. It does seem to be impossible to keep up, these days. Something more ridiculous than previously offered to us, seems always to come around. For just one example, who could have guessed that the Center for Disease Control would be telling renters nationwide that they need not pay their rent? Wait, what? It’s impossible to keep up.

31/”I’m gonna drink my whiskey till it trickles down my chin.”

I think, without being sure, that this phrase originates somewhere on the album “Penrod” performed by Tim Dawe. The book Penrod by Booth Tarkington has always been a favorite of mine, so when I saw the Tim Dawe album featuring that title and featuring pictures from the book, I had to have it. Or possibly someone bought it for me, knowing my love of the book. I can’t remember. Somewhere on that album–I think–Tim Dawe sings that, “I’m gonna drink my whiskey till it trickles down my chin.” Somehow that phrase has always stuck in my mind. It gives us a picture of someone who has given up. I’m not advocating giving up, or saying that I plan to give up. But I can understand someone giving up, and drinking his whiskey till it trickles down his chin. I hope it doesn’t happen to me, but I understand that it might. And it occurs to me suddenly that the phrase would make a great book title.

32/”You don’t suffer fools gladly.”

This was told to me by someone who didn’t like me very much. But I immediately recognized the truth of the statement. That was decades ago. I haven’t changed much. If I am slightly more mellow, it is only slightly. I still don’t have a high opinion of fools, or much patience with them.

33/”Why pray when you can worry?”

I strongly doubt if he would claim to have originated this phrase, but I remember hearing it from the great Christian thinker R. J. Rushdoony. He was speaking sarcastically about our tendency to allow ourselves to keep worrying, when we could turn things over to God in prayer. I think the phrase not only entertains me, it also pricks my conscience when I am tempted to keep on worrying. It is a practical way of reminding me to pray. Saying that “God is in control” can be an excuse for not thinking and not acting, but it need not be. We can say “God is in control,” pray, and think and act as biblical wisdom indicates we should. That should help limit our amount of worry.

34/”We pretend to work and they pretend to pay us.”

This is a phrase which originated either in the Soviet Union or in one of its satellites. The pretending was going on both ways. The workers didn’t work very well, but pretended to work. The rulers in turn paid the workers very poorly–but of course with the pretense that the workers were better off than in the capitalist hell holes. It seems to me this phrase can be revised slightly and used in a lot of situations in our modern life. For example, when it comes to education, we might hear it said that “We pretend to learn and they pretend to teach us.” Woke sensibility has nothing to do with really learning anything. The students are pretending to learn and the teachers are pretending to teach. Admittedly, often the students don’t know they are pretending to learn, and the teachers don’t know they are pretending to teach. Which means the self-deception is going deeper than in Soviet times, when both sides knew, at least after some decades, that they were pretending.

Hopefully there will be a part V next week.

Some of these phrases are just a few words, others complete sentences. We are ready for #16.

16/”Happy as a clam.”

Why clams should be happier than the rest of us is not quite clear. But it is encouraging to know that one species is having a good time. I am happy for them–as happy as a clam.

17/”If you’re taking flak, that means you’re over the target.”

I suspect this is a phrase we will hear a lot in succeeding days. The reason is that the cancel culture has become so virulent. Anyone who speaks up defending Christian civilization is in danger of being called all kinds of names, in some cases fired from his job. Of course those delivering the flak will contend that the flak is well-deserved, because the people over the target are so evil in their morality. Each person will have to decide which side is closer to being correct. Of course it is easiest to keep silent, and not get flak. But is that honorable?

18/”It’s a good day to die.”

This bespeaks a willingness to meet one’s fate bravely. It’s origin may be among Native American people, but there is controversy on that point. Many times there are bad consequences for our actions–whether those actions were wise or the reverse. To meet the consequences without whining seems to me to be something admirable.

19/”Cruel but fair.”

Decades ago, I first heard this in connection with a Monty Python skit concerning the Piranha brothers, Doug and Dinsdale. Of Dinsdale, it was said that “he was a cruel man, but fair.” That immediately struck me as very funny, because someone who is fair would not be cruel. So I have borrowed the above variation of the phrase for my own use ever since.

20/”Throw nature out the door, and it will come back in through the window.”

We all have a human nature. We can pretend that we don’t–which is the throwing nature out the door part–but that is not the end of the story. The human nature will find a way back in, even if it is through the window rather than the door.

21/”Deeply shallow.”

What makes this funny is that shallow by definition cannot be deep. But at the same time people can be so profoundly shallow that calling them deeply shallow makes perfect sense–as well as being a humorous way to indicate their shallowness. We all know people that seem to think entirely in cliches. On the national scene, people like George W. Bush and Barack Obama come to mind. And, not to discriminate against the females, Hillary Clinton. Such people are indeed deeply shallow. Countless others may come to your mind, as they do to mine, but three examples are enough. Ordinary everyday people can be deeply shallow, also–which is why we keep elevating people like George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton to lead us. They speak for us, and represent us very well.

22/”Truth is a stern master.”

Truth is a stern master, because truth does not permit mixing in lies. We often prefer a little truth, mixed with comfortable lies. But truth won’t let us off. No lies permitted. Truth is stern, uncompromising. Here is an example of how stern truth always is. The truth is that the U.S. intervention in Afghanistan was a foolish and wicked thing. Americans who died there, died for nothing good. This is a very stern truth, too painful for most Americans to accept. Try to picture your emotions if a loved one has fought and died in Afghanistan. The stern truth is too much. It is vastly easier to persuade oneself that the dying in Afghanistan was for a good cause, and not in vain. That is a lie. Truth is a stern master, and won’t permit the lie to stand. We actually know the origin of this phrase. It was created on the morning of July 26, 2021, by me, while I was on a morning run/walk. So far it has not caught on, world wide, but whether it catches on or not I think it makes good common sense.

23/”I can’t be wrong all the time, Steve.”

This is a line from the play “A Day in the Park.” I saw the play decades ago, because my younger sister was one of the performers. The person who spoke that line said it several times, to Steve. The person speaking was not prospering, was a bit flaky, and his ideas were nutty. Two or three times he told his friend Steve of his various theories, and of course he was wrong every time. But as I remember how things turned out, near the end of the play the flake proposed a final idea to Steve–and this time, to the surprise of the audience and probably to Steve, this idea was really sound. It was a nice switch. To me it also seems encouraging. We can be mostly nutty and mostly wrong. But every now and then we can be right. We should not give up. Maybe we too cannot be wrong all the time.

24/”Better the devil that you know than the devil you don’t know.”

This seems to me to be very wise. If we have to fight devils, let them be devils we know and sort of understand and sort of know how to fight, rather than devils we don’t know and don’t understand. For me the most obvious application of this truth is our situation in regard to these two devils: liberal humanism, and Islam. Liberal humanism is the devil I know. We are all living under its horrific rule, and have been for many years. I hate liberal humanism. But better liberal humanism ruling us than Islam ruling us. Islam is the devil we don’t know. One need only do a little reading to understand how evil is Islam. I know I will be much better off with the devil I know, liberal humanism, than the devil I don’t know, Islam. I understand liberal humanism at least to some extent and have some idea how to fight against it without being killed immediately. I don’t feel that same confidence in regard to facing Islam.

25/”A one-trick pony.”

A one-trick pony is a pony which can do only one trick. If the pony can count to three with his hooves, great. That’s his one trick. That’s all he can do. Don’t ask him to lie down, beg, or recite poetry. Just be glad he can do the one trick. This phrase vastly entertains me because I know myself to be a one-trick pony. I do only one thing. I write books. I don’t have any other tricks. I have no marketable skills, I don’t have a wife or children, I am not attractive physically, I don’t earn much money, I’m not a good businessman, I am not a good athlete, I am not respected or admired or loved by other people, I am not a leader. While it is true that the dictionary says to be called a one-trick pony can be an insult, I don’t really mind being a one-trick pony. I am just glad that I have the one trick! I was over 60 years old before I learned that trick well enough to publish books at my own expense! So I sympathize completely with any pony that is able to learn only one trick. It is also true that people don’t appreciate my one trick. A pony that can count to three? Wonderful. A person who writes books that nobody reads? Not so wonderful. If people even know about my one trick, it does not impress them. That is fine with me, although of course it disappoints me to some extent. I wish they appreciated my trick, and that they would read–or at least buy–a few of my books. But it really is fine with me that they don’t. I am just really glad that I learned that one trick! It took me a lifetime to learn, so I am grateful to have learned it at all.

I hope to continue with part IV next week.