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Pollyanna Found Flattened Beneath Crushing Weight of Fact

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localyokel

localyokel

Allergic to Kool-Aid
OK, I'm sure there is a nearly unanimous loathing among BP regulars for the long-running comic strip Cathy. I get it. No problem. But, a line from one of them has stuck in my head for literally decades and resurfaces periodically, usually while confronting some personal unpleasantness.

In this particular strip, Cathy devoted most of it to making a spectacular salad, throwing every manner of delectable and exotic ingredient into it. Then, she doused it with a jug of salad dressing. Only after the dressing had oozed down over every last leaf and veggie did she notice the label. "Best if used by February, 19XX". The date given was about six years prior to the then-current year. The last line of the strip was "Nothing complicates life like the truth."

So, today, facing some annoying difficulty, I sought to cheer myself up by invoking a popular positive-thinking axiom: "Remember, the Chinese character for 'Crisis' is composed of symbols for both 'Danger' and 'Opportunity'." Strive onward, brave grasshopper, strive onward.

Then, I foolishly decided to online search it. Danger and Opportunity? Turns out, not so much.

The explication of the Chinese word for crisis as made up of two components signifying danger and opportunity is due partly to wishful thinking, but mainly to a fundamental misunderstanding about how terms are formed in Mandarin and other Sinitic languages...
The jī of wēijī, in fact, means something like "incipient moment; crucial point (when something begins or changes)." Thus, a wēijī is indeed a genuine crisis, a dangerous moment, a time when things start to go awry. A wēijī indicates a perilous situation when one should be especially wary. It is not a juncture when one goes looking for advantages and benefits. In a crisis, one wants above all to save one's skin and neck! Any would-be guru who advocates opportunism in the face of crisis should be run out of town on a rail, for his/her advice will only compound the danger of the crisis.
Click to expand...

http://www.pinyin.info/chinese/crisis.html

Back to the old drawing board for axiomatic encouragement, I guess. :sad2:
 
Everything Is Best


[FONT=verdana,arial,helvetica]When Banzan was walking through a market he overheard a conversation between a butcher and his customer. [/FONT]
[FONT=verdana,arial,helvetica]"Give me the best piece of meat you have," said the customer. [/FONT]
[FONT=verdana,arial,helvetica]"Everything in my shop is the best," replied the butcher. "You cannot find here any piece of meat that is not the best." [/FONT]
[FONT=verdana,arial,helvetica]At these words Banzan became enlightened. [/FONT]
 
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Taosman;2143759; said:
Everything Is Best


[FONT=verdana,arial,helvetica]When Banzan was walking through a market he overheard a conversation between a butcher and his customer. [/FONT]
[FONT=verdana,arial,helvetica]"Give me the best piece of meat you have," said the customer. [/FONT]
[FONT=verdana,arial,helvetica]"Everything in my shop is the best," replied the butcher. "You cannot find here any piece of meat that is not the best." [/FONT]
[FONT=verdana,arial,helvetica]At these words Banzan became enlightened. [/FONT]
Click to expand...

Link? Or did you write that yourself?
 
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localyokel;2143570; said:
OK, I'm sure there is a nearly unanimous loathing among BP regulars for the long-running comic strip Cathy. I get it. No problem. But, a line from one of them has stuck in my head for literally decades and resurfaces periodically, usually while confronting some personal unpleasantness.

In this particular strip, Cathy devoted most of it to making a spectacular salad, throwing every manner of delectable and exotic ingredient into it. Then, she doused it with a jug of salad dressing. Only after the dressing had oozed down over every last leaf and veggie did she notice the label. "Best if used by February, 19XX". The date given was about six years prior to the then-current year. The last line of the strip was "Nothing complicates life like the truth."

So, today, facing some annoying difficulty, I sought to cheer myself up by invoking a popular positive-thinking axiom: "Remember, the Chinese character for 'Crisis' is composed of symbols for both 'Danger' and 'Opportunity'." Strive onward, brave grasshopper, strive onward.

Then, I foolishly decided to online search it. Danger and Opportunity? Turns out, not so much.



http://www.pinyin.info/chinese/crisis.html

Back to the old drawing board for axiomatic encouragement, I guess. :sad2:
Click to expand...

I don't understand a word that just came out of your mouth.
 
Upvote 0
knapplc;2144064; said:
I'm glad you said that. I was reading a post about Cathy and suddenly we're talking about Chinese tats. I kept waiting for the RickRoll link but it never came.
Click to expand...

I was waiting for the symbol to mean "What would David Carradine do?" after the grasshopper part.
 
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