Not very zen of her.................

Zen and the perfection of "As it is-ness" here.

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Yes I do.............................

thanks Kurt

As the old coach said......................

.....................it is all about blocking and tackling - the basics.  Friend Spengler believes we have lost our way, and the Chinese have found it.  Full post here.  A few interesting bits here:

China is succeeding despite many problems (including authoritarian administration) because the Chinese are working very hard ... And they have an army of millions of highly competent people coming into the labor market. That’s what we should worry about ... The Chinese work much, much harder than we do and learn more math and science (not to mention classical music: an estimate 50 million Chinese kids learn instruments).

We no longer have a tech sector: we have consumer electronics monopolies run by patent trolls whose job is to crush innovation. 

 Don’t get me wrong: I think America is best in the world at what we do, when do we it, that is, which we aren’t doing now. 

Records.........................................

More than a bit of truth from Linus.  As a younger salesman, I made many a pilgrimage to Threshold Records.  Thumbing through their bins of albums was a proven tonic to a disappointing day.  Nowadays, I just eat ice cream.

top cartoon via
bottom cartoon via

Actually it could be....................

via

When was the last time this was taught?

                        ARTICULATION

                 ______________________

                 ELEMENTARY SOUNDS

Articulation is the utterance of the elementary sounds of a language, and of their combinations.

     An Elementary Sound is a simple, distinct sound made by the organs of speech.
     The Elementary Sounds of the English language are divided into Vocals, Subvocals, and Aspirates.

     Vocals are those sounds which consist of pure tone only.  They are the most prominant elements of speech.  A diphthong is a union of two vocals, commencing with one and ending with the other.

     Subvocals are those sounds in which the vocalized breath is more or less obstructed.

     Aspirates consist of breath only, modified by the vocal organs.


So opens the McGuffy's Fourth Eclectic Reader, originally published in 1866.  The version sitting on my Sweetie's bookshelf  is considerably newer, referencing a 1920 copyright.  Still, I profess to not remembering any of this stuff.  My bad.  We will have to delve into this classic more deeply in the future.