Fraternity-Testvériség, 1960 (38. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1960-03-01 / 3. szám
2 FRATERNITY and make us lose our effectiveness in our pursuit of a life with fuller meaning. These are the ills that keep us from doing our best: THE DELUSION that individual advancement is made by crushing others. THE TENDENCY to worry about things which cannot be changed. INSISTING a thing is impossible to change because we cannot accomplish it. NEGLECTING refinement and development of the mind, and not acquiring the habit of reading and studying. ATTEMPTING to compel others to believe and live as we do. Believe it or not, this list was drawn up by Cicero in the First Century BEFORE CHRIST!!! CAPITOL HILL The “long meeting” begun by United States Senators on February 29th recalls several filibusters that have taken place on Capitol Hill in the past. Probably, the most dramatic one had the most unexpected ending. In 1908, three Senators decided to block a currency bill by a strategy of continuous speech-making in which they would yield the floor only one to another. The energetic Senator LaFolette led off at one p. m. and held the floor for eighteen hours (an unheard of record!) and thus focused the nation’s attention on what promised to be a long struggle. At seven a. m. LaFolette yielded to Senator Stone, who talked till 1:30 p. m., at which time he yielded to Senator Gore. After two hours Gore yielded back to Stone, but Stone wasn’t there. Commotion broke loose; the opposition pushed the bill to a vote. The unfortunate Senator Gore was handicapped by total blindness! ★ ★ ★ FUN WITH PHRASES I believe anyone familiar with more than one language is unusually interested in words and phrases out of the ordinary. Translations, para- phrasings, puns, etc., provide a wonderful and joyful mental vocation and avocation. For example, proverbs are superb yet simple expressions of experiences adroitly transposed into a minimum of meaningful words. Have you ever tried reversing the procedure by putting simple proverbs into “big words”? Here are five egg-head rephrasings of every-day proverbs Can you put them back into their original words? (1) A mass of concentrated earthly material perenially rotating on its axis will not accumulate an accretion of bryophytic vegetation. (2) A superabundance of talent skilled in the preparation of gas- stronic concoctions will impair the quality of a certain potable solution made by immersing a gallinaceous bird in ebullient Adam’s ale. (3) Individuals who perforce are constrained to be domiciled in vitreous structures of patent frangibility should on no account employ petrous formations as projectiles. (4) The prudent avis which matutinally deserts the coziness of its abode will ensnare a vermiculate creature.
