terribly

Dorothy Parker: Symptom Recital

 Poems  Tagged with: ,
Jun 142016
 

I do not like my state of mind;
I’m bitter, querulous, unkind.
I hate my legs, I hate my hands,
I do not yearn for lovelier lands.
I dread the dawn’s recurrent light;
I hate to go to bed at night.
I snoot at simple, earnest folk.
I cannot take the gentlest joke.
I find no peace in paint or type.
My world is but a lot of tripe.
I’m disillusioned, empty-breasted.
For what I think, I’d be arrested.
I am not sick, I am not well.
My quondam dreams are shot to hell.
My soul is crushed, my spirit sore;
I do not like me any more.
I cavil, quarrel, grumble, grouse.
I ponder on the narrow house.
I shudder at the thought of men….
I’m due to fall in love again.

Osip Mandelstam: 37 from the ‘Voronezh Notebooks’

 Poems
May 142016
 

When the goldfinch, in his airy confection,
Suddenly gets angry, begins to quake,
His spite sets off his scholar’s robes,
Shows to advantage his cute black cap.

And he slanders the hundred bars,
Curses the sticks and perches of his prison—
And the world’s turned completely inside out,
And surely there’s a forest Salamanca
For birds so smart, so disobedient.

—trans. Andrew Davis

Martial: Here are the essentials of a happy life…

 Poems
May 122016
 

Here are the essentials of a happy life,
my dear friend: money not worked for,
but inherited; some land not unproductive;
a hearth fire always going; law suits never;
the toga rarely worn; a calm mind;
a gentleman’s strong and healthy body;
circumspect candor, friends who are your equals;
relaxed dinner parties, a simple table,
nights not drunken, but free from anxieties;
a marriage bed not prudish, and yet modest;
plenty of sleep to make the dark hours short. Wish
to be what you are, and prefer nothing more.
Don’t fear your last day, or hope for it either.

Vitam quae faciant beatiorem,
Iucundissime Martialis, haec sunt:
Res non parta labore, sed relicta;
Non ingratus ager, focus perennis;
Lis numquam, toga rara, mens quieta;
Vires ingenuae, salubre corpus;
Prudens simplicitas, pares amici;
Convictus facilis, sine arte mensa;
Nox non ebria, sed soluta curis;
Non tristis torus, et tamen pudicus;
Somnus, qui faciat breves tenebras:
Quod sis, esse velis nihilque malis;
Summum nec metuas diem nec optes.

Campbell’s Law

 Orts
May 112016
 

The more any quantitative social indicator (or even some qualitative indicator) is used for social decision-making, the more subject it will be to corruption pressures and the more apt it will be to distort and corrupt the social processes it is intended to monitor.

This adage is an example of unintended consequences, or the Cobra Effect, when an attempted solution to a problem actually makes the problem worse.

 

Parkinson’s Law of Triviality (also known as bikeshedding)

 Orts
May 072016
 

Cyril Northcote Parkinson, a historian and author, formulated this observation about the human tendency to devote a great deal of time to unimportant details while crucial matters go unattended.

Parkinson observed a citizen committee organized to approve plans for a nuclear power plant. He noted the group tendency to be silent when focused on technical matters such as the design of the nuclear plant, but when it came to the design of the bike shed, everyone had an opinion. Because people are often ill-equipped to consider complicated subjects, they tend to focus on trivial matters.

 

Thus the act of wasting time on trivial details while important matters are inadequately attended is known as bikeshedding.

Parkinson is also known for formulating another principle known as Parkinson’s law  – that work expands to use up the amount of time allocated for it